PCD @ Bursa 2026
Processing Community Day @ Bursa 2026
On November 7, 2026, Processing Community Day came to Bursa, Türkiye, bringing together art, technology, and creative coding for an afternoon of experimentation and learning.
Organized independently at Nilüfer Innovation Center, PCD Bursa 2026 was an opportunity to introduce creative coding to a local audience and explore the connections between digital art, algorithms, and physical creation.
This year was particularly meaningful as Processing celebrated its 25th anniversary. The event was part of a global celebration bringing together creative coding communities around the world.
Processing Community Day is a global initiative of the Processing Foundation, bringing together artists, designers, technologists, educators, and open-source communities through locally organized events.
Creative Coding Workshop
The main activity was a hands-on creative coding workshop using p5.js. Designed for participants with no prior programming experience, the workshop introduced fundamental concepts such as shapes, coordinates, color, repetition, and randomness.
Rather than approaching programming as a purely technical subject, the workshop focused on learning through visual experimentation. Participants gradually transformed simple instructions into generative compositions, discovering how code could become a material for artistic expression.
As the workshop progressed, everyone developed their own visual experiments. These individual works were later brought together in a shared digital gallery, creating a collective record of the creative process.
A Shared Digital Gallery
One of the outcomes of the workshop was a collaborative digital gallery featuring the generative artworks created by participants.
Although everyone started with similar concepts and tools, each participant developed a different visual language through their own choices and experiments. Bringing these works together highlighted the diversity of outcomes that can emerge from a shared creative process.
The gallery became a collective snapshot of the ideas, experiments, and visual discoveries made throughout the workshop.
As a memento of the day, all participants also received a certificate of participation specially prepared for PCD Bursa 2026.
Human, Machine, Algorithm
The connection between digital and physical creation was demonstrated through examples created during the workshop. Selected p5.js sketches were exported as SVG files and separated into multiple layers. These layers were then plotted onto paper using a drawing robot equipped with my Automatic Tool Changer (ATC) system.
This demonstration showed how generative compositions can be translated into layered physical drawings through computational instructions and automated drawing processes.
Following this, participants had the opportunity to control the drawing robot using a PlayStation 5 DualSense controller, directing its movements in real time.
This interactive demonstration introduced another dimension of human-machine interaction, bringing together human input, algorithms, and mechanical movement. It offered participants a chance to experience how a machine could become an extension of human expression through direct interaction.
Resources and Documentation
The workshop presentation and learning materials were prepared in Turkish to make creative coding more accessible to the local community.
To support the learning process, printed resources were also prepared and distributed to all participants. These included a Turkish translation of the p5.js Cheat Sheet, which I translated and made available in print for the workshop.
Participants also received a practical workshop zine, designed as an accompanying activity booklet. It included four example code exercises to help them experiment further with the concepts introduced during the session.
The resources are available below for anyone interested in revisiting the workshop or experimenting with p5.js.
Reflections
Organizing PCD Bursa independently was both a rewarding and challenging experience. Bringing together creative coding, generative art, and physical computing in a single event required balancing technical preparation with an accessible and welcoming learning environment.
One of the most rewarding aspects was seeing participants approach code as a creative material rather than simply a technical tool. Their individual experiments demonstrated how different visual outcomes can emerge from the same basic principles.
The transition from digital compositions to physical drawings also offered a tangible way to understand the relationship between code and artistic production. Seeing participants interact directly with the drawing robot added another dimension to the experience.
PCD Bursa 2026 was a small contribution to the wider Processing community and an opportunity to bring creative coding into a local context in Bursa.
Thank you to everyone who participated and to Nilüfer Innovation Center for providing the venue.
Happy Processing!
Processing Community Day @ Bursa 2026 · November 7, 2026 · Bursa, Türkiye