Slowness, Politics, and Joy: Values That Guide Technology Choices in Creative Coding Classrooms

There are many tools and technologies for making art with code, each embodying distinct values and affordances. Within this landscape, creative coding educators must evaluate how different tools map onto their own principles and examine the potential impacts of those choices on students’ learning and artistic development. Understanding the values guiding these decisions is critical, as they reflect insights about these contexts, communities, and pedagogies. We explore these values through semi-structured interviews with (N=12) creative coding educators and toolbuilders. We identify three major themes: slowness (how friction can make room for reflection), politics (including the lasting effects of particular technologies), and joy (or the capacity for playful engagement). The lessons and priorities voiced by our participants offer valuable, transferable perspectives—like preferring community building (such as through documentation) over techno-solutionism. We demonstrate application of these critical lenses to two tool design areas (accessibility and AI assistance).