#SupportP5 Artist: Saskia Freeke
#SupportP5 campaign was launched on #GivingTuesday 2019 as an effort to raise funding for Processing Foundation’s software development, accessibility initiatives, educational programming, and annual Fellowship program. This campaign is our most ambitious campaign to date. The artists featured in the #SupportP5 campaign series have generously donated their artwork. We hope you take time to learn more about them, their practice, and consider contributing to keep our work going into 2020 and beyond! To support Kate’s work and contribute to the #SupportP5 campaign, click here.
#SupportP5 campaign was launched on #GivingTuesday 2019 as an effort to raise funding for software development, accessibility initiatives, educational programming, and the annual fellowship program. This campaign is the most ambitious campaign to date. The artists featured in the #SupportP5 campaign series have generously donated their artwork. We hope you take time to learn more about them, their practice, and consider contributing to keep our work going into 2020 and beyond! To support Saskia’s work and contribute to the #SupportP5 campaign, click here.
Though the end of the year inspires us to reflect on the year as a whole, it’s also a time to start thinking about the habits we want to work on in the new year. Dedication, practice, and discipline cannot be underestimated. Within the Processing community, there is an artist and designer that embodies a creative and consistent practice-Saskia Freeke. She has been making art with creative code — EVERY DAY — since 2015 (click her to view her gallery of artwork). By the time you read this, she will have created even more artwork!
Saskia defines her work as generative design and animation through creative code. The most endearing quality of this amalgamation of work is the time it takes to load her gallery; it can take a while, due to the sheer amount of work she has produced. We are inspired by the fact that she has opened up her creative practice for all to see. About this particular aspect of her everyday life, she gives useful advice when it comes to learning code:
“Best thing is to try stuff out, copy stuff, change stuff, play with it, destroy things. Not much can go wrong, you won’t break the program. Have fun exploring new things.”
In 2017, Saskia was a Processing Foundation Fellow, mentored by Advisory Board member, Phoenix Perry, and advised by Director of Advocacy, Johanna Hedva. As a part of her fellowship, she developed, organized, and created a series of workshops to teach p5.js in person to women, non-binary, and femme-identifying people in London and Europe, in collaboration with Code Liberation. Saskia’s work included developing workshops for beginning coders at festivals such as Now Play This (London) and A MAZE (Berlin). She has also led a free workshop series at the Victoria & Albert Museum of Art and Design (London).
Saskia shared with us what the Processing and p5.js community have meant to her:
Processing has introduced me to sketching and creating artworks with code in general. The last few years, Processing has been my main tool to sketch every day. I have learned so much, both from Processing itself, as well from other technologies and tools. Not only has the tool itself become a significant part of my artistic practice, but the community around Processing and Creative Coding has proven to be very important. I have met great friends and many like-minded creatives in the past few years. It’s amazing to see how open and inclusive the communities are, and how the concepts of sharing and learning from each other prevail. And perhaps most profound value of all: having fun together using code and technology to create art.
With education and generosity embedded in Saskia’s practice, and with her impactful and inspirational work, we’re thrilled she is a part of the Processing community. The Processing Foundation is fortunate to have her work as a part of our #SupportP5 campaign, and we are grateful for her continued work and contributions to the community.
