Neat! I'm currently interested in the formal systems that chug away behind my art. Lots of it evolves out of mistakes and bumbles, but they would be nice to codify into shape grammars and such for a computer.
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I'm sure there is still much to be explored on the interactive front though.
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I guess there is a question though, can a formal understanding be useful from the start, or is it important to experiment to find novel things, then shore things up after the fact? 🤷♂️
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Useful? Yes. Critical? No. How many kids have you met who say, "I love math"? Start first with the wonder & creativity & empowerment. I was hooked the first time I plotted pixels on a green CRT in the '80s to make games — not by the vector math I didn't know I was learning.
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I'm talking now more as a practicioner, not a learner.
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Also think our teaching of math could be far better, one of the reasons why kids are conditioned to hate it. See “A Mathematician's Lament” by Paul Lockhart. Alas we have to work with what we have.
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It probably could be, and if it's at all possible, certainly should be. That said, I view math as a means, not an end. I certainly respect it — I sure didn't get my compsci degree by ignoring the math! — but it's a tool, a very powerful tool, but only one of many in my toolbelt.
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Yeah, see to me it's as valuable an end just as much as any artwork. Perhaps one that can eventually live on somebody's toolbelt, but it's no worse if not! 🙂
It's funny to say, but if I had to list the top three skills that have most benefited me in industry over the last twenty years, they'd be:
1. Learning to touch-type.
2. Reading & writing lots of short stories.
3. Being able to "compile code in my head" when I read it.
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What's interesting is that "Knowing a lot of compsci math" probably isn't even in the top ten. It's useful, to be sure — and one reason I get paid well — but it comes in well below the arts and humanities for how much overall value it's provided over the years.