Coding: The Future is Creative

"Computer science is the future." That's what they keep telling us,

but what does the future look like?

Learning to code gives us the power to get creative with

programming and digital technology

and the possibilities are endless.

You can make your own apps,

programmes, systems, networks, everything.

Rather than just using computers and software,

we can programme them to work for us

and mould them to do exactly what we want.

It's really a means of creative expression in itself

cos you get to, sort of, say, "This is how I think the world works."

I'm Chloe Watts. I'm a coder

and a fashion technologist.

We are living in an exciting time. Digital industries are booming

and the next generation of coders are needed.

Technology, now more than ever, equals power!

And I'm off to go see some pretty powerful coders.

CHEERING

DANCE MUSIC

My first stop is to meet a musician who's merging

the worlds of music and technology, with some interesting results.

I'm at The Arches in Glasgow. It's a music gig with a difference.

Apparently, we'll be dancing to code!

HE BEATBOXES

Beardyman is as big as it gets in the world of beatboxing.

From Proms performances...

..to appearances on tracks

with the legendary Fatboy Slim.

MUSIC: "Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat" by Fatboy Slim & Riva Starr

And with over 40,000 Twitter followers and 12 million hits

on his viral videos, he's a big hit on social media too.

So I started as a beatboxer and I won a couple of UK championships.

I wasn't satisfied with that cos I thought,

"That's beatboxing, that's good, but it's been done,

"and it's been done really well. I want to do something different."

So I wanted to manipulate my voice and turn it into anything

I could imagine and build up hugely layered

and complex pieces that sound exactly like dance music.

And that's where the code comes in. Beardyman has masterminded

and developed a music system which manipulates his voice

however he wants and in real time.

I have invented a thing.

It's a system that allows you to make music

as fast as you can think of it. Or almost as fast.

It's the fastest music creation system that there is.

It's called the Beardytron 5000 Mark II S.

It enables me to make live dance music, just using my voice.

To try and meet the challenge of being able to make music live

on the spot just from my mouth,

and to have all these complicated things happen to it

that turn it into live dance music,

that's not easy.

So how does the Beardytron work?

The sounds from his voice are input through a microphone,

captured as audio samples

and stored as binary numbers, thousands of numbers per second.

He then uses tablets, MIDI keyboards and bespoke software to process

these samples, turning them into any sound he wants.

This one is a kind of...

Ooh!

AUTOMATED BEEPING

It's pretty crazy, isn't it?

-SHE LAUGHS

-It's one of them.

'Beardyman can then use the Beardytron to build up

'layers of samples to create complex dance music at incredible speed.'

-So, can I have a go?

-Yes, you may.

-Amazing.

-So, if you shout something like,

"My name is Chloe and I am alive," really loud. Really loud.

-SHE SHOUTS:

-My name is Chloe and I am alive!

I like that, it was positive.

-Thank you.

-HE PLAYS RECORDING

I can't imagine my voice sounding like that.

HE MANIPULATES THE RECORDING

HE ADDS A BEAT

Wow! I can't believe it's transformed like that.

It's all code.

FAST DANCE REMIX

It's just pure maths.

It's so complicated.

'Rather than wait for others to come up with the software

'to make the music he wants,

'Beardyman's computing knowledge has allowed him to create

'a bespoke system that works for him.'

I did Computing A-level, so I've got just enough coding knowledge

to be able to understand the structure of the programme.

I've worked with about five or six

of the most incredibly intelligent coding geniuses that there are,

and they've built this thing for me.

And it's been really fun,

because there's been a lot of challenges,

but we've surmounted them all.

There's no bugs in it at the moment, it's just rock solid,

and it does what I want it to do.

HE MANIPULATES HIS OWN VOICE

Well, the Beardytron seems to be behaving here in Glasgow.

The crowd are going wild for Beardyman's vocal beats.

CROWD CHEER

I think what coders do is incredible

because it's so vital to the way we live nowadays.

Everything is code now. There's no products any more.

There's just smartphones, and tablets, and computers.

And all of the products we use

are just functions of these existing devices.

Everyone has to learn how to code,

and you can make your own apps, programmes, systems,

networks, everything. We can create the world now.

The gaming industry is big business and, if games development

is your passion, then the UK is the place to be.

We have the biggest developer base in Europe,

with 48 of the world's top 100 development studios.

One in three of us describe ourselves as gamers.

That's a lot of people to design games for

and a huge amount of code to write!

I'm on my way to BAFTA, where they promote

and develop moving art forms.

I'm about to meet a games developer who they've got their eye on.

Mitu Khandaker has created her first computer game.

Named as one of BAFTA's Breakthrough Brits for 2013,

Mitu is certainly one to watch.

I first got into coding, actually,

when I was about 10 or 11 years old.

I decided I wanted to make my own websites for my favourite TV shows

so I basically just went about

teaching myself HTML coding,

completely from scratch. So I opened up a text editor,

typed some code and, obviously, saw it turn into this website.

And I just got hooked on the magic of that, of typing code

into a computer and have it turn into this thing

that people can interact with.

It was around that same time that I realised there were people

who made video games as a living.

Like, I'd been a fan of video games since I was really tiny.

Together with realising that coding was a thing that I could do,

it all sort of came together for me,

and I knew that what I really wanted to do was be a game developer.

'Welcome to the future.'

Mitu's first game was launched in November 2013.

Redshirt is not just any old game.

It's a comedy sci-fi social media simulation game, I think!

So, these guys are playing your game. Talk us through it.

So, it's set on this future sci-fi space station and you create

a character, so there's someone creating a character just here.

You get to customise them however you like.

There's lots of different personality attributes

that characters can have.

They can be sociable, they can be charismatic.

There's 12 different attributes in total.

So, as you can imagine, a combination of those different ones

can result in these very different seeming characters.

And then you start your job as a total nobody on this space station,

where everybody uses this thing called Spacebook.

It's really a game based around the social interactions

that you, the player, have with these computer-driven characters.

So, for example, if you send a friend request to somebody,

that character, effectively, will think for themselves.

So, they'll have their own decision-making process.

An algorithm, as it were, as to whether or not

they want to accept your friend request.

Mitu's programme is made up of lots of algorithms.

An algorithm is a precise set of instructions

that tells the computer exactly how to carry out a task.

Code is the language we use to create an algorithm.

The recipe to follow to get the job done.

The really cool thing about algorisms is that

because you're breaking an abstract concept down into different steps,

there's a lot of potential for really expressing

how you think a particular thing works.

So, for example, in this game, I've given a particular version

of how somebody accepting a friend request might work,

but that may not be one that you agree with. So, basically,

the way you express yourself through an algorithm

can say a lot about how you think.

Or even, it might be an idea that you don't necessarily agree with.

It's really a means of creative expression in itself

cos you get to sort of say, "This is how I think the world works."

It's great to meet someone who sees coding as an art form

and a means of expression. She's inspired me to keep creating.

I think it's really valuable for people to really understand

how code works and what value it can have in their lives.

In the same way that people should have access to

learning how to write poems or books,

and take photographs and draw pictures,

you should be able to learn to code as well,

so you can express yourself in that way.

'You, too, will experience high levels of satisfaction.'

Computer science is everywhere.

From the hardware in our pockets to our desktop computers.

In the games we play, the art we see,

the music we hear,

and even the clothes we wear.

Imagine you have an app where you just literally press two buttons,

and the GPS finds your location.

I'm at Startup Hackathon, where fashion technologists like me

are coming up with amazing ideas to shape our industry.

I'm really excited to be here.

From coders to designers,

professionals from all areas of the fashion industry are here.

Tonight's theme is Wearable Tech.

APPLAUSE

The industry creatives are discussing ideas from fashion apps

and software to GPS clothing to help locate your friends.

It's a chance to let their imaginations run wild

and inspire each other to create the wearable tech of the future.

The way we make, market,

and consume clothing is changing. The lines have blurred between

traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers

and shopping on the web.

Over the summer of 2013,

more than £347 million was invested in fashion tech start-ups!

Wearable tech is big business, with consumers buying items

from intelligent watches

to 3D printed garments,

and even tweeting dresses!

I'm off to see one of the industry's rising stars

at his digital fashion studio.

Or fashion laboratory,

as they call it here at Studio XO in North London.

Behind these walls are top-secret designs

for some of the most ground-breaking clothing creations.

I wonder if anything will fit me?

Benjamin Males fuses

computer programming

with fashion design.

He develops technology to create wearable applications

or digital clothes.

So what do we have here?

These are trainers that we built

-for a boyband, JLS. You might have heard of them.

-Wow, amazing!

-Yep, I've heard of them.

-There's a lot of green and white LEDs -

light-emitting diodes.

We built these as part of a tour that the boys did

- "the boys," as we call them -

did last year. We also built some light-up suits of armour as well.

They really wanted us to make them kind of glow

and to animate with the music, to really become part of the stage.

So they're dancing, but their clothes are dancing and animating as well.

So how was it actually made?

The circuit boards in the trainers are actually flexible,

so if you're going to wear it, you can't have anything too rigid.

The electronics themselves are...

they're not intelligent.

You see here, this is an integrated circuit chip,

and this is the micro controller, so this is like the brain.

And that brain is told how to do certain things,

so it gives it a personality. You tell the LEDs to flash or to go dark,

and they wanted the trainers to light up

-and synchronise with the music.

-It synchronises with the music?

-It synchronises with the music.

-Wow, amazing.

So clearly, this isn't just any old fashion house.

Technology and computing are at the heart of everything they create.

We have all kinds of people working with us.

We have fashion designers and fabricators and tailors,

working alongside coders and engineers.

We have electronic engineers and mechanical engineers,

and also scientists as well.

One of the things that fashion technology and wearable technology

can do is create surprise.

With the JLS trainers, when they come on, it's a moment of wow factor.

I think with everything we build, we use technology to create that.

In 2013, Studio XO were commissioned to create a dress

for none other than Lady Gaga.

Thank you so much for coming here tonight.

I wanted to, for the first time ever, introduce you to...

Volantis.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

We worked with the world's best technicians, or engineers,

in that field, and working with our hybrid team of designers

and engineers here in Studio XO, we were able to turn

some of their technology into something that was wearable.

Do you have any questions, or do you want to see her fly?

AUDIENCE: Fly!

Known for her quirky style,

Lady Gaga has certainly embraced fashion technology.

And this project enabled Studio XO to take their vision

of wearable electronics to the next level.

Benjamin and his technical team worked closely with drone experts.

They used state-of-the-art technology to create Volantis,

a garment which sits somewhere between a dress

and a flying machine.

So what's the future for wearable tech?

I think the future for wearable tech is quite an exciting future.

Just in the last two years, we've gone from building

light-up sneakers to building flying dresses.

What we're doing at Studio XO is, we're paving the way

for a future where, who knows, maybe we wake up in the morning

we put our intelligent T-shirt on, and we're coding our T-shirt

to choose which design we want.

And that's the future that we imagine.

The games industry has evolved in recent years.

There's more of an emphasis on creating and sharing games content

than ever before.

Coders, designers, and gamers of all levels can now work together online.

The line between a player and a game designer has blurred.

There's now even more opportunities to work in games design,

and I'm about to meet someone who's doing just that.

John Beech hasn't always

worked in the industry.

In fact, five years ago, he was a builder. Gaming was just a hobby.

Hammering nails through the day and keyboards by night,

John spent long hours building virtual worlds,

and his hard work eventually paid off.

Never in my wildest dreams, ever, honestly,

did I ever imagine I'd end up here, and every day, I pinch myself.

John landed his dream job in international gaming company

Media Molecule.

Their game, Little Big Planet, allows users to create content

and share it online.

Can you explain to me how the game actually works?

Yeah, sure. Basically, it's a game where, not only can you play it,

you can make other games in it.

It's a creation suite, as well as being a game.

That's awesome, that means it's endless.

It's endless, yeah. At last count,

-there was eight million levels that people had published online.

-Whoa.

Online games are radically changing the gaming industry,

with social networking

and user-generated content leading the way.

This is good news for those interested in games design,

as it's easier than ever to create

and share your content with an online community.

And it was publishing this level that got John noticed.

So this is the level you designed to get your job here.

Yeah, the guys here, the other designers, the other coders,

everyone had seen it and thought, "Wow, I don't know how he did

"some of the things he did in our own game,"

cos I was kind of bending the rules.

-Sweet! I really want to play it. Can I?

-Of course you can.

-We'll load it up.

-OK.

-Here's your character.

-Awesome.

We've got to go this way

and we've got to try and infiltrate the enemy base.

OK.

'More and more games incorporate mechanics

'for creating content these days.'

And...jump! Oh, no!

-No, I died!

-That's OK, you come back in a second.

'This is done using programming scripts and game logic.'

It's kind of like a simplified version of code,

where you can get certain things to happen.

So, say you press a switch,

a door opens. So, in this case here, we've got a barricade

and I've set up a simple bit of logic onto it - a script,

if you will - and when I shoot it, it's designed to explode all of this.

-Kablammo!

-Can you show me some of the scripting?

We'll just load it up. Here we go.

So I've made a small,

mini bit of a level. You can imagine, in a game,

this would be a door we had to get through.

'These mechanics allow you to edit the game using visual graphics,

'rather than writing lines of code.'

Each line of code, or multiple lines of code,

are represented by these individual little icons here.

So we've got this button

and, as you can see,

when I jump on the button,

the door opens,

and if I jump on the button again,

the door shuts.

That's quite a lot going on for just one door opening.

Ah, yes, it is, but if you think that

each one of these components

would actually be a couple of hundred lines of code,

but the coders have simplified it down, so I can combine them.

Scripting is all about making fun games,

as opposed to staring at a TV screen for ages.

And once you've got your head around this, this teaches you

how basic logic works, how "if" and "and" statements work.

Once you've learnt this, the step up to coding is far easier than

if you've had no experience at all.

So it's a really big team effort, then?

Yeah, it's a huge team effort.

Without the coders, the designers couldn't make a game,

and without the designers, the coders wouldn't be able

to make the game themselves, either.

So you combine forces and you make a really good game,

at the end of the day.

-Oh!

-Oh, no! We've died!

'John's design success has inspired him to learn to code.'

I've actually decided to start teaching myself real code,

base-level code, because that will take me to the next level

of game design, cos I will no longer be dependent on other people.

I can make my own games from start to finish

and do it exactly how I want,

-which is super-important to me.

-Have you been enjoying it?

I've been really enjoying it, yeah. It's a lot more fun than you think

cos, initially, you think, "Oh, no, it's kind of typing, and maths,"

but once you get into it and you start realising the possibilities,

it's more like having tonnes of Lego in front of you and thinking,

"What can I build out of this?" And you put all the components together

and you've got some kind of amazing rocket ship

or giant dragon with wings. Whatever you want to make, you can do.

Coders like me can spend long hours

in front of the computer screen.

But coding's not all about being stuck indoors.

I just wanted to bring it bigger, you know.

Bigger and outside.

Seb Lee-Delisle is a coder and visual artist.

He merges both of these worlds by bringing coding outdoors

and creating huge art installations

for the public to interact with.

I'm in Huddersfield, at the Festival of Light,

to check out Seb's digital interactive firework display.

So what's going on here today?

Well, this is PixelPyros.

We're using massive projectors

and a really big laser

connected to computers

to create this fireworks display.

And every firework is triggered using a motion-detection system

by members of the audience, that's what triggers the fireworks.

The motion-detection system

is made up of 30 infrared lights and a camera.

When one of the lights is blocked, motion is detected.

The information it gathers is input into the PixelPyros programme

on Seb's laptop, manipulated using code,

and projected onto a huge 80-metre screen, with spectacular results.

It's really exciting to be able to teach the computer

how to make these patterns and fireworks.

Hundreds of people all here,

interacting with computer code, with this technical system.

So how does it work?

There's a lot stuff here that we're doing. We're manipulating

camera images, we're trying to read bits of the camera image

to see where there's motion.

That's all quite complicated stuff. It's all written in C++,

which is... Well, I work in lots of different languages

and C++ is probably the hardest.

Seb has decided to share his code on an open-source platform.

Open-source communities are formed

when coders come together to share their work online.

It's something that's really important to me.

All of my projects are open source.

If you wanted to, you could download this PixelPyros app for yourself.

-Amazing.

-In reality, I'm not sure if anyone could

take it and make their own PixelPyros,

but they could at least learn from it and see how I've done some of it.

Yeah, it's a really important part of what I do

because when you're a coder, or an artist, or both, like me,

the tendency is, when you make something, when you work on it

and invest time in it, is to sort of keep it closed to yourself.

To me, in a way, it's better to just give it away

and say, "Here it is."

Making your code open source means that anyone can access it

and pick up where you left off.

This collaborative approach means programmers can adapt

and improve existing code, and share their changes within the community.

Seb's works proves that there's more to what coders do

than just writing computer commands. Both his creativity

and his coding skills are going down a storm here tonight.

Certainly for me, as a creative person, it's really important

that more creative people learn to programme,

rather than just the engineers and the mathematicians because

there's so much creative potential with this technology,

and the new technology that's coming out all the time

that it's just going to be really exciting.

The kids that are learning now

are going to be the ones that do stuff 20 times better than this

in 20 years' time, you know?

Seb's brought code to the people.

It just shows what we can achieve. This is spectacular!

Learning to code is just the beginning.

Gaining an understanding of how computers work

means we'll be able to invent our own programmes

and programming languages in the future

to create things we can't even imagine yet.

Whether your passion is gaming or music, art, fashion or design,

you can take your expertise in any direction you want.

The possibilities are endless.