22 Jan 2019

Cairo Creative Coding Meetup shows the potential transformation of The “Creative Coding” practice on arts & advertising

If you could secure time over a weekend in Cairo, your life could get more exciting by attending one of these industry meetups in an area of interest.

Cairo is increasingly hosting local meetups as part of global specialist networks that help build & nurture collaborative communities of likeminded specialists, professionals and practitioners sharing the best of their experience and spreading knowledge, resources and case studies in emerging practices.

These kinds of meetups are extermely valuable to nurture the emerging innovation, entrepreneurship and startup movement in Egypt with globally exposed practitioners and workforce that’s able to compete globally.

Last week, we knew about Product Guys meetup, this weekend, Mohamed Hossam brought together another edition of “Cairo Creative Coding Meetup” at the FabLab Egypt rooftop in Maadi.

Just like me, you are probably trying to make sense of what Creative Coding might be. Creative Coding is the practice of using code as a canvas for art, using creative coding you could be able to produce visual and audiovisual performances that compliments static works of art, opening up a new dimension for the arts and advertising industries.

Here is an example for you to ponder.

The meetup featured a conference call with Omar El Kammar, a Creative Coder and audiovisual artist all the way from Berlin.

Omar started being known to Musicians in Egypt as the guy who do weird (innovative) things with computers, after four year of learning the tools and working on projects, Omar is now confidently executing top-notch Creative Coding projects as part of an agency in Berlin. You can follow Omar on Instagram here to see some of the recent projects he had been involved in.

Omar highlighted the importance of storytelling and aesthetics for Creative Coding projects to avoid being dragged into challenges with the tools you use, but rather using them to get the concept done.

Omar has been massively generous with resources that he shared a full resource pool with attendees to get inspired and use it for their projects.

Mohamed Hossam, the ambassador of Creative Coding Meetups in Egypt highlighted that getting a residence as a “Creative Coding” professional could be the start of the way to have access to the intriguing challenges of big projects, but you can always start experimenting on your own to develop the skillset.

We had a brief discussion on the potential of commercializing “Creative Coding” in Egypt and agreeing that spreading awareness about the practice and how it can be used in advertising project would be necessary for more applications to be brought to the surface.

If you are excited to know more about Creative Coding, join the next meetup, makes sure to follow Mohamed Hossam on Facebook and join the Cairo Creative Coding Group.