BALL STATE UNIVERSITY
Fall 2019 CS 120: Computer Science 1
Thirteenth Semi-annual All-section Art Show
Sponsored by the Department of Computer Science

Held in the AJ Atrium on Friday, November 1, 2019 from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM

The collages shown below were created by students in the CS 120 course, and judged by their peers to be the best in each section of the course. Although these could have been created using an image-editing program, these students have written the code themselves to create these collages programmatically by manipulating individual pixels.

This page displays the entries from this semester. You may view entries from all other semesters. All student work included in this and other shows, as well as many other CS 120 students' work is provided in an online digital media repository maintained by the BSU University Libraries.

"Space Magic" by Lucas Harris Freshman; Computer Science major Artist's statement: "The design of the collage was mainly based on the design of the image itself. When I made the background, I set it up to give space for the edits without covering much of the normal image. The most challenging part of the collage for me was creating a function that added the signature in a central point on the canvas. The most rewarding part was the end result. Seeing the final image come onto my screen once I ran the program was extremely satisfying, because I had successfully done what I set out to do with this project."	"Gameboy COLORS" by Joshua Neumann Freshman; Computer Science major, Marketing minor Artist's statement: "The reason I created my collage design was because I wanted to add my own twist on a handheld console that was manufactured in different colors. I felt like using grayscale and color manipulation would be the best way to add this twist to my collage and yet, make something completely different. In my opinion, adding my signature was possibly the most difficult of the entire collage. I didn't know how to shrink my signature without changing the size of the picture. Getting all pictures to be in their respective positions without causing an error was by far the most rewarding part of this entire collage as the rest came easy. I was worried that I would lose track of which image would go in which position, however everything seemed to work out perfectly."
"Shades of a Strange-looking Man" by Nate Slagter Freshman; Computer Science major, Business Administration for Computer Technology minor Artist's statement: "My friend wanted me to try and get his face in the art show, so I used him as my subject. It took a lot of time to get right, and trying to come up with a layout for the final product was challenging. Getting it into the art show was rewarding."	"Up the Dispersed Alley" by Lex Thomas Sophomore; Biology major, Computer Science minor Artist's statement: "I wanted my collage to be dynamic in its edit while having a static image. The most challenging aspect was lightening the side images perfectly so it would align with the parallel image. The most rewarding aspect of my creation was simply bringing it all together."
"Big Boolin" by Zach Trimble Sophomore; Computer Information Systems major, Computer Security, and Biology minors Artist's statement: "I chose this design for my collage because I like making memes, however it's a niche meme that not everybody will understand. The most challenging part of creating this collage was the fact that my Mac auto-updated the weekend before the project was due, and then Jython was no longer compatible with my laptop. The most rewarding part of the collage creation was seeing people get a smile or a laugh out of it. The fact that people enjoyed my collage and found humor in it makes the entire process and all the hurdles worth it."	"Altered Reflections" by Caleb Van Lue Freshman; Computer Science major, Mathematical Sciences minor Artist's statement: "I took this picture in a mirror maze in Chicago. Since it had a lot of symmetry and geometric formations, I felt that the use of functions to reflect and rotate would create both an aesthetically and conceptually pleasing image. The most challenging part of this collage was deciding on which alterations I wanted to make to the image. I knew I wanted to mirror and flip certain parts, but I didn't know in which order to do them and what would look good. Trial and error was my best friend. The most rewarding part of the collage creation was sitting through the 72-second run time for the final time and viewing what was my finalized piece of art. I spent many hours on it, and once it was completed, I felt very rewarded and proud."

"The Dimensions of Dragonfly" by David Brown Freshman; Computer Science major, Mathematical Sciences minor Artist's statement: "I chose this design because, during the first submission for the project, I used mirroring and reflections on the image, and saw I could split these and have them fit on different parts of the collage. I want people to know that making something like this isn't difficult, as long as you have the right resources at your disposal, and even then, those resources aren't hard to get. The most difficult part was the initial thought process of what I wanted to do. The most rewarding part was knowing I now have a better understanding of how to manipulate code to get my desired result."	"A Friendly Reminder" by Robert Duncan Freshman; Computer Science major, Digital Video Production minor Artist's statement: "I chose the design of the collage because I wanted to have a centered photo with my own spin on it. The inspiration for the message was my phone reminding me to go to a math study session. The most challenging part was getting the weird signature code to work, and not crying. The most rewarding part was when it finally came together."
"Event Horizon" by Samuel Ferguson Junior; Computer Technology major, Business Administration, Computer Security, and French minors Artist's statement: "I knew I wanted to do something with space, but didn't know what exactly I wanted to do with space. I started playing around with different ideas and eventually landed on the ‘setting eclipse’ effect. I decided to stick with it because I thought it looked quite interesting and, when combined with the flipped space image, made some pretty cool effects with regards to perspective. Managing all the variables involved in the code and ordering all my functions properly was very challenging. The most rewarding was getting all the effects to work. I had to modify the functions they were based off a bit, so it was great to see them working properly."	"Mirrored Flowers in Web" by Valerie Geiver Junior; Computer Technology major, Business minor Artist's statement: "I chose this design because I really liked the nine square copy image layout, and I thought the flowers and spider would work decent together. I thought it looked pretty interesting. The most challenging part of the whole collage was when code wasn't working and took forever to figure out what and where was going wrong. I also could not figure out the whole rotating and flipping for images in different parts of the canvas, so I ended up not doing that at all. The most rewarding part of the collage creation was just that satisfaction of it actually coming together and working to create a lovely looking piece. I'm kind of proud of it, to be honest."
"Self Portrait" by Riley Walker Junior; Ceramics major Artist's statement: "Initially I ran a drawing through the chromaSig program and found it amusing. So, I just kept going with it and playing with different colors. No belugas were harmed in the making of this collage. The trickiest part was taking the selfie underwater with my mammalian fins. It would have been easier if Apple hadn't gotten rid of the button on the new iPhone. I also got frustrated getting the for loops to work with the spacing of the borders. The most rewarding part was sitting back and realizing that this is the greatest artwork of my life and that everything has been building up to this moment."	Thanks for visiting!

"Monster Mash" by Jared Brown Freshman; Computer Science major Artist's statement: "I chose the design because it is nearing Halloween, so I wanted to have something spooky for the collage. I knew from the start I wanted a background of a forest, so as I was looking for stock images of objects to match that I found the Sasquatch stock photo I used. The most challenging thing was either the scanline effect or the blend effect I used for the fake transparency. For the scanline effect, I couldn't get the thickness value to work properly. Eventually I figured out that I needed to use the step part of the range function. For the blend function, it was mostly just aligning the pixels for the source image and the background. After time I got both working the way I intended. The most rewarding part was simply accomplishing my goal, which was to make a collage that created a scene rather than just display five images next to one another. I really like the aesthetic I made with the collage, so both seeing complex effects like the scanlines and knowing that I made it by myself makes me proud. Being selected for the art show is just a bonus."	"Teddy" by Chandler Clevenger Freshman; Computer Science, and Mathematical Sciences majors Artist's statement: "The design is Halloween influenced. I want others to just get the spooky vibe of October from it. Not really something I want people to know about it, but instead get something out of. The enjoyment of the second-best holiday and month, Halloween/October. The most challenging part about creating this collage was making sense of the functions. The most rewarding part of process was working through the puzzles of making the functions and how I wanted to manipulate the picture."
"Spaceman" by Joah De Vries Freshman; Computer Science major Artist's statement: "I included the randomized changes because I wanted to make it interesting and exciting. Deciding how I wanted to implement the different images was challenging. Running it multiple times and seeing the randomized parts create a different result every time was quite rewarding."	"Confused Jelly" by Nicole Gerber Sophomore; Computer Science major, Criminal Justice and Criminology, and Digital Forensics minors Artist's statement: "I chose the sliced jellyfish design in order to be unique and for the aesthetic. The blue jellyfish is the background of the collage and the varying colors are the modified slices of the blue jellyfish. The part that I found most challenging about this project was making the original picture the background and adding the different modifications to the four slices. The most rewarding part of this collage creation was when I finally figured out the correct coding for what I wanted my collage to look like."
"Moose Mirror" by James Zielinski Sophomore; Computer Science major Artist's statement: "I chose this design because I love my dog ‘Moose’. After playing around with a mirror function, I found myself working on a checkered pattern. It’s all about having fun and finding something that looks cool to you. The spacing of the images was tricky but also capturing the vision of what you want to create and being able to translate that into code is a challenge. The reward is just the happy feeling after the code loads to see the picture you imagined."	Thanks for visiting!

"Astronaut 6" by Avery Dobkowski Sophomore ; Pre-Engineering major Artist's statement: "For this project, I wanted to try some specific functions from textbook. I decided that to display all the functions evenly, while showing the canvas, I would use a checkered pattern. Initially, my understanding of the canvas set-up was limited. Setting up the canvas was the most daunting task of this assignment. On the other hand, once I got help and understood the pattern of the code, successfully executing a checkered pattern was the most rewarding task. Understanding complete code is a fulfilling process."	"Box-er" by Hunter Durbin Freshman; Computer Science and Mathematical Sciences majors Artist's statement: "My collage is simple and uses a good amount of different functions for the pictures. Keeping code organized helped a lot when going back to make edits, but that was the most challenging part. Getting every line working was very rewarding."
"A Slice of Night" by Michael Heckman Freshman; Computer Science major Artist's statement: "I chose the moon in my collage because space is truly beautiful to me. My choice in splitting the moon came from me wanting to challenge myself in this project. The most challenging part of the collage was trying to cut the picture up in general. I figured out how to easily cut the moon vertically, but adding horizontal slices caused me hours of trouble. Then, I realized I needed a separate for loop similar to the for loop for the x values. The most rewarding part of the collage came after I'd finished figuring out how to slice it vertically. I was able to squeeze in some variables that let whoever had the program put in their own picture and still have the program work correctly. Adding customization like that was fun for me."	"Lunar Despair" by Kielle Mockensturm Sophomore; Computer Science major Artist's statement: "This design wasn't the one I had in mind at first. My original design was similar, except there were going to be two silhouettes in front that would tell a story of a man going off to war, perishing, and leaving his wife and child on their own. However, the images weren't working out so I took the idea of war and death and instead made it four Horseman of the Apocalypse themed, but made it so you could only fully tell upon looking at the code. The part that challenged me the most, was getting the ‘filters’ of each of the moons, specifically the one representing war until a happy accident came along while I was trying to set the dark red for death, and instead got the creepy yellow for war. The most rewarding part was definitely when I got it finished, it wasn't what I first wanted to do, but it turned out really well nonetheless, and I like the dark creepy four with the serene moon in the center."
"Jellyfish" by Joel Reiners Junior; Computer Information Systems major, Computer Science minor Artist's statement: "I chose the idea for the layout of my collage because I thought it would look cool to have each image mirror itself with different effects on each picture to have an interesting, yet symmetrical collage. The most challenging part of the collage was being able to visualize where my pictures were going to go on my canvas and adjusting them accordingly. The most rewarding part of the collage creation was gaining more development knowledge as well as seeing all of the code come together to create a visually appealing collage."	Thanks for visiting!

"A Rich Wood" by Joshua Clary Junior; Computer Technology major Artist's statement: "To save time, my original idea was to create a randomized wilderness landscape. Alas, homework's siren call interrupted that idea. Putting aside ambitious ideas to focus on other classes that required attention was a challenge. The reward was that my collage was much more visually appealing than expected."	"Spooky SZN" by DeAngello Davis Freshman; Computer Science major Artist's statement: "In honor of the Halloween season, I wanted something that screams spooky. I don't wish to scare you but make you laugh with the memes I chose in honor of 'SPOOKY SZN'. The hardest part was just getting my canvas to fit the idea I had in my head. The most rewarding part of the collage was the finished product. For someone with low creativity to make something so 'spooky' made it worth the work."
"Mindfulness" by Micah Harker Freshman; Computer Science major Artist's statement: "I chose the design of my collage because it represents something important to me, which is why I titled it ‘mindfulness.’ I am someone who has been dealing with mental illness for a while and mindfulness is important to me. The imagery also has certain ideas associated with it and I want people to enjoy the design and think about it at the same time. I think the most challenging part of this collage was translating visual ideas to code. I knew what I wanted to do, but I had to mess with functions and values many times to understand how to tackle it. Each time I got to a new section I had to learn how to modify my code to do what I wanted it to. The most rewarding part was that the final product of my work held up to the vision I had for it. Regardless of making it to the art show, I was very proud that I could take an idea like that and bring it to life."	"A Trip to the Beach" by Scott McCaffery Freshman; Computer Technology major, Computer Science minor Artist's statement: "I chose this design because I liked the way the patterns in the pictures are almost continuous and then I chose the beach picture because it looked the best blended in the back. The thing I found most challenging about this project was trying to figure out how to blend one big picture with many smaller ones. The most rewarding part of creating this collage was finally getting to see an image you had in your mind created by code you wrote to create it."
"Everlasting Bond" by Jaren Provost Freshman; Computer Science major Artist's statement: "When creating my collage, I had used my own pictures and chose the design of my collage to make its overall creation more meaningful. Other than the few errors I came across when coding my collage, figuring out what I was wanting to do with my collage was probably the most challenging. Seeing the result of my hard work was the most rewarding part in the creation of my collage."	Thanks for visiting!

Copyright © 2019 by the collage creators identified above each image.
Fall 2019 CS 120 All-section Art Show organized by David Largent with significant support from Paul Buis, Kim Bechdolt, and Karl Mesarosh.