The Processing Foundation is currently accepting applications for the 2023 Fellowship Program.
Apply here: https://processing.formstack.com/forms/processing_fellowship_2023
The Processing Foundation Fellowship program supports artists, designers, activists, educators, engineers, researchers, coders, and collectives — and many combinations of these — in projects that conceive new directions for our softwares, our community, and open source software for artists. Fellowships are an essential element of our foundation’s work in developing tools of community power, connection, stewardship and in nurturing the aims/needs of the people and communities who use our software.
Fellowships are self-initiated projects proposed by members of our community, which we support with mentorship, infrastructural, technical, and practical resources as well as community connections. Fellowship projects can range from development of the existing Processing software projects and related Processing projects (Processing, p5.js, Processing.py, Processing for Android, ml5.js), to creative and exploratory research for new iterations. We are interested in supporting work by fellows that connect groups — be they students and educators, creators, artists, activists and organizers.
We are open to applicants from all backgrounds and skill levels, and support proposals that center investigations, experiments, and learning. We are attentive to proposals that demonstrate enthusiasm and the evolution of a fellow’s practice rather than their pre-existing technical skills.
Read more at Open Call: Processing Foundation Fellowship Program | by Processing Foundation | Mar, 2023 | Medium
What’s up Saber! It’s Jesús here.
This looks like the place to ask questions about the fellowships, but let me know if we should address them elsewhere!
Specifically, I come here asking for advice and details on joint proposals. We know there’ve been joint proposals in previous years, and would love to know more about how they work and the organization thinks about them.
@HigherMathNotes and I are planning on making a joint fellowship together, building a mathematical and simulation engine for users to easily develop quick animations about algorithms and simulations that can be extensible, easy to use and fun. Think like Manim in python, a library made by Grant Sanderson, creator of the channel 3blue1brown.
There’s actually another library developed: p5.teach that fulfils this goal partially.
Being a joint fellowship, we have some questions that concern the scope of the project, and these may be useful for other aspiring contributors! I’ll list them over here:
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Being a joint proposal, that is, more than one people, should there be only one applicant in behalf of the two, or should each member apply independently? I am guessing one single applicant would make things easier, but maybe there’s reasons to do it otherwise.
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Would the stipend have to be split for each applicant or does each one get the full stipend? We are a bit unfomfortable asking this but I believe it’s important to leave this clear so everyone knows what to expect! We agree on whatever you decide it’s best but we’d love to leave this topic as clear as possible.
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Being about simulations and mathematical animation in particular, we are not entirely sure of what area this topic should go under. The project will aim to craft a p5.js based tool that aids in the making of complex mathematical animations and simulations. In that sense, “accessibility” seems like the best category, since ideally, even newcomers to code but familiar with conceptual/theoretical topics like mathematics and physics would be able to build a working simulation of their problem at hand in no time. On the other hand, there’s p5.teach which is already developed, so working on top of that would also make this fit into the “Continuing support” category. What do you think?
I may add more questions to this post in order to keep it updated, as @HigherMathNotes and I continue to communicate and develop this idea further.
Thanks so much beforehand and have a lovely day!
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Hi Saber!
I’m following up on Jesús’s post to clarify our questions. Any feedback would be amazing!
Proposal
Many learners already know the benefits of watching mathematical animations on YouTube; we want to show them the joy and usefulness of programming their own! Especially interactive ones. An example sketch is below, from an interactive simulation I made.
Starting from graphical primitives means that basic mathematical visualizations can require an intimidating amount of programming. In Python, Manim has become a popular solution, and for good reason. But, there are still unmet needs, all of which the p5.js community prioritizes highly:
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Accessibility: It must be easy for total beginners to use in the browser, with no setup.
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Interactivity: It must be easy to include interactivity! Interacting > watching.
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Expressiveness: It must be easy to customize for different aesthetics.
In short, we want to create a library as capable as Manim, but beginner friendly, and built for the web. Based on the response to this proposal on Twitter, there’s a lot of interest already!
QUESTIONS
Applying: In the Medium post that you shared, we noticed that “For a collective body of work/project, only one person (a lead applicant) should apply.” Would it be okay for us to describe both of our respective backgrounds in the application, while indicating which one of us is the lead applicant?
Funding: Since we’d each like to commit 100 hours during the fellowship period, would it be possible for each of us to receive a full stipend? If this is not possible, we can look into securing matching funds, but we don’t have any leads on that yet.
Prioritizing:
As Jesús noted, our project aligns with two priority areas. Do you have any feedback regarding which area makes the most sense for us to focus on? Further details are below.
- Our top motivation is accessibility for beginner coders in the math and science community. This includes beginners who don’t have access to a machine on which they can install custom software like Manim.
- We also want to build on existing work whenever possible, so we’ve been talking with the creators of p5.teach.[1] [2] [3] [4] That library had similar goals, but it’s looking like we may need to create a separate library. However, we will certainly build on existing work in less direct ways. I’d be happy to provide more details if that would be helpful.
Thank you so much!!
Greg
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