Since its creation in 2000, Flight 404 has been a gallery for showcasing digital experiments. The initial versions of Flight 404 highlighted simple Flash Actionscript doodles which were usually the end result of trying to learn a little more about the code being used. By the time Flight 404 reached version 5, it had morphed a bit into a gallery of multimedia art and an ongoing story about the fictional disappearance of a commercial jet plane whose plot and content were partially created through the aid of anonymous emails from people who had visited the site and wanted to become a part of the story-line.

The current version of Flight 404 showcases some of the more personally rewarding projects I have created with Processing. Many of the projects are influenced by my interests in theoretical physics, mathematics and patterns found in nature. Each project generally begins as an attempt to answer a simple question through example. Once I come up with an answer (whether it is correct or not tends to be secondary), I then try to find a way to reach that same answer with fewer lines of code. This helps me to learn a cleaner coding style without having to bury my nose in a textbook.

Additionally, this approach to coding can result in many unexpected surprises where a poorly structured function or an incorrect mathematical equation can lead to an entirely unexpected outcome. These happy mistakes then give me a new direction to explore, one that I might not otherwise have found.



Links: http://www.flight404.com

Robert Hodgin (USA) earned a bachelor's of fine arts degree in sculpture at Rhode Island School of Design. He is a commercial designer and artist from Boston, Massachusetts, and the co-founder and Creative Director at the Barbarian Group, where his groundbeaking Flash work for Volkswagen has recieved numerous major awards. Flight 404.com is Robert's creative outlet.