# Variables

**Track:** Foundations — Creative Coding — the existing 50
**Framework / surface:** p5.js
**Level:** Beginner
**Prerequisites:** The Coordinate System

**In one line:** Name a value once, reuse it; change one number and the whole sketch follows.

## Theory, aesthetics & inspiration

A variable is a name held against a value, and naming is the first act of abstraction. Bind a number once and the sketch reads from that single source; change it, and every dependent mark follows in concert. This is the parametric stance Karl Gerstner described in "Designing Programmes" — the designer authors not a fixed result but the system that yields a family of results. John Maeda's "Design By Numbers" taught the same economy: the smallest possible vocabulary, used with rigor. A well-chosen variable turns a static drawing into an instrument, where one dial governs a whole, and the work becomes a space of possibilities rather than a single fixed image.