MozFest 2021: Painting with code

Rachel Perry, Library Services Coordinator with Coventry Libraries, tells us how MozFest 2021 taught her to paint in code and use Google Earth as a storytelling device.

Painting with Code led by Aren Davey

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Painting with Code session, as I haven’t done any coding, outside of a few Code Club sessions since my undergraduate degree.

It was fantastic.

The session leader, Aren Davey, talked so enthusiastically and knowledgeably it left me on a real high. The session was great fun, as I tried to code along with the instructions. When I couldn’t quite keep up though, it was great knowing I had a link to go back to explore the software later at my own pace. Aren covered so much and explained what happened when things didn’t go to plan (only once or twice, but a great reminder that coding needs to be precise!) This was a great to boost my own confidence when I worked out a mistake in my own code. The software website is great and we were shown how to use the ‘reference’ page which gives example code, explaining how and where to use it too, which is extremely helpful when explaining the session and the software to colleagues.

Software website: https://editor.p5js.org

Reference page: https://p5js.org/reference

My own creation: https://editor.p5js.org/aahdee/sketches/ET0UP9qmb

Google Earth Storytelling led by Natasha Mijares

This was a session that I could not miss, as a Geography graduate, and member of library staff for many years. As well as being shown an example project, ‘Chaos comes Naturally’, we got to add our own stories to a new Google Earth project especially for MozFest!

It was great hearing about and discussing how to start a piece of writing, using sentence starters and word associations. This led to us creating a piece of our own writing about a place we felt we belonged. As the group included people from all over the world these locations were vast and varied.

Discussing this session with a colleague afterwards I have been really inspired to use this Google Earth ‘project’ tool to record experiences at events and tell stories about my experiences.