ExplorerCanvas

A slightly paraphrased account of the creation of a 20% project at Google, and an illustration of why I love working there:

Dan: I want you to write a wrapper for VML, SVG and Canvas
Glen: Let me handle this, 99
Dan: Sorry, Max
Glen: As I was saying, I want to write a wrapper for VML and Canvas
Erik: Good thinking, Max
...
Glen: How about *this*?
Erik: Just make it emulate the Canvas API in IE - all the other browsers support it anyway.
...
Glen: How about *this messy hodgepodge that sort of works*?
Erik: You young whippersnapper! I'll show you how it's done!
...
Erik: How about *this*?
Glen: Ooooohh!
...
Glen: Now I made it do images, hooray for me!
Erik: Except they don't work
Glen: Berrrrrrr
...
Emil: Hey world, look what I've been working on! Canvas for IE!
Erik and Glen: !! Join our secret project !!
Emil: Tally ho!
...
Erik: Look, I made it better!
Emil: Look, I made it even better!
Erik: Look, I made it even more better!
Emil: Look, I made it even more super better!
Glen: ... I broke it
...
Glen: Dearest engineering director Linus, look, we made bright shiny things!
Linus: K-Rad, doodz. Tell DiBona
Glen: Chris, look, we made bright shiny things!
DiBona: Open source!
...
Erik, Emil, Glen: Hello World, please enjoy ExplorerCanvas, we hope you find extra tasty uses for a what is now a cross-browser (Firefox, Safari, Opera 9, IE) drawing API.

To start you off, bodytag is hosting one of the included demos.

[Updated because I forgot about Dan]

Ranting On Statements

37signals has an interesting post on art statements, things that once caused me much grief and anguish, as the 'art' I produce is never pre-planned or thought about until its done. In the art shows I've done, I've usually been asked to write a statement, and once I've gotten over the fact that I have to write something when there's nothing to write about, the agony disappears and I begin to view the statement as a piece in itself; it is not a description, but rather a few short words to encapsulate the state of mind I'm in when I'm looking at the work. A poem, if you will.

It's still awfully corny, and can be even more painful when you're told to write an artist's statement - something about you and your work as a whole. The statement is often displayed next to those from arty artists, whose 'art language'-filled paragraphs make as much sense to me as the papers my girlfriend writes, so it is at once intimidating and preposterous.

I have currently settled on the still-pretty-corny "I like to computationally connect wonder and reality"; it is a fancy way of saying "Glen tries to make things that instill a sense of wonder". I miss the feeling that came with being a child and discovering new things, and so I spend all my time trying to find it again. I believe this is what drives me - for the most part, I do not start projects thinking 'oh, this is going to be art' or 'this is going to be a nerdy VR thing' - they all begin with 'I wonder what it would be like if ...'.

This is why I find it amusing (although sometimes flattering) when I am called an 'artist' or a 'programmer', it is why I find it terrifying when I am asked "what does it mean" at art shows, why I only care about 'getting it done' and not process or technique - I'm really just making things because I am fascinated by "what isn't, but could be".

P.S. Some people have been asking if, since going to Google, I have abandoned the art world in favour of nerdism. I haven't, of course; I've just been terrifically busy. Besides, it's all the same, right?

SXSW Panel

I'm on the 'how to make the most of maps' panel at SXSW on Sunday. I'm there because of MeHere.