Expedition 2
Coding to Create
Students learn programming basics as they write code to create abstract digital artwork.
In Coding to Create, students build on the pixel-based abstraction they explored in Expedition 1 by discovering a new way artists simplify the world through geometric abstraction. Rather than representing images with grids of pixels, students explore how artists such as Josef Albers and Wassily Kandinsky use simple shapes, colors, and repeated forms to communicate ideas and create meaning.
As students recreate and design artwork inspired by these artists, they learn that both artists and computer scientists rely on algorithms — clear, step-by-step processes — to transform ideas into finished creations. Beginning with hands-on analog activities and extending into digital coding challenges in Fractal Studio, students investigate how changing, repeating, and refining steps affects the final outcome.
Throughout the expedition, students deepen their understanding that abstraction is a powerful creative strategy and that algorithms, repetition, and iteration are fundamental practices shared by art, mathematics, and computer science.
The lessons
Lesson 1 · 45 minutes
Albers Squares
Students explore geometric abstract art through Albers and Kandinsky, then create a layered Homage to the Square–inspired composition while documenting their steps like an algorithm.
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Lesson 2 · 45 minutes
Coding Kandinsky
Students learn that an algorithm is a sequence of steps, then code Kandinsky- and Albers-inspired digital artwork with a partner in Fractal Studio's Algorithmic Art tool.
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Lesson 3 · 45 minutes
Coding Abstraction
Students apply computational thinking — abstraction, debugging, pattern recognition — to a deck of coding challenges in the Algorithmic Art tool, tracking progress in their Coder Handbook.
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Lesson 4 · 90 minutes (2 days)
Art with Shapes
Over two days, partners transform a famous portrait or landscape into a geometric artwork, document their algorithm, write an artist statement, and curate a class gallery.
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