prim·i·tive

adjective

being the first or earliest of the kind or in existence, especially in an early age of the world: primitive forms of life.

In programming languages primitives are the simplest of data types available to a programmer.

When I started to learn coding I gave myself a constraint, to use only “primitive” shapes. The language that I used, Processing, has the point, line, arc, quadrilateral, rectangle, and ellipse as two dimensional primitives. I decided to use the ellipse as the sole building block for a series of programs. The goal of using this constraint is to not become distracted by all the tools and features available to me. Any visual complexity would come from the the logic underlying the code.

The Primitive series is an ongoing project. Some of the programs are interactive; click, drag, and poke around to get the full experience.