Part 1: What the Hell is Vibe Coding, and Why Should You Care?
There’s always some shiny new tool getting hyped in the art-tech world. Usually, it’s wrapped up in buzzwords, promises of a “new creative era,” and enough jargon to make your eyes glaze over.
This isn’t that.
This is about artists—real artists—finally having a way to cut through the noise and use code without needing to become a programmer. It’s called vibe coding. Weird name, but hear me out.
Vibe coding is simple at its core: You describe what you want to make. You give instructions the same way you’d tell a friend what you’re envisioning. And AI handles the mess of writing the actual code. No syntax. No endless tutorials. No learning curve that kills your creative flow.
The term was coined by Andrej Karpathy (yes, the AI guy), who basically summed it up as “giving in to the vibes.” Meaning, instead of sweating over every detail, you sketch the broad strokes and let the AI fill in the blanks. You tell it what kind of thing you’re after, it spits out something functional, and you tweak as needed.
This flips the usual process on its head. Traditionally, if you wanted to create interactive visuals, digital installations, or evolving animations, you either had to:
- Spend years learning to code,
- Hire a programmer, or
- Settle for basic templates and tools that didn’t let you really customize anything.
Now? You can guide the process without needing to dive into the weeds. The AI acts like an assistant—one that doesn’t get tired, doesn’t need constant instructions, and doesn’t care if you change your mind halfway through.
Here’s what makes vibe coding actually useful:
- Plain language instructions. Talk to the AI like you talk to a collaborator, no code fluency required.
- Rapid feedback loops. Test, refine, adjust. Keep throwing ideas at the AI and fine-tuning until it feels right.
- Focus on the art. Let the AI deal with syntax and structure while you stay focused on making something interesting.
- Trust, but don’t overthink. A lot of early vibe coders talk about just accepting what the AI spits out at first—get something on the canvas, then shape it later.
This approach isn’t about handing over control to machines. It’s about giving yourself more room to experiment without being slowed down by technical gatekeeping.
And yeah, developers originally used vibe coding to speed up software projects—but artists are the ones taking it somewhere fresh. You’re no longer boxed in by what you know how to code; now it’s all about what you can imagine, and letting AI fill in the gaps.