Making and inspiration in progress
Stewart Brand in his shipping container Working on the digital tabletop got me thinking back to Stewart Brand talking about how he constructed _How Buildings Learn_: > ...the most important tool for organizing projects is lots of horizontal space and immediate-to-hand storage…
by Lawrence Weschler Cristóbal recommended this when I was working on my image sampler project. I read and loved the chapters on Hockney's camera works and then at some point set it down. In the meantime I read Weschler's Robert Irwin book and have never really stopped thinking about it. I got a paper copy and went through the whole thing. Hockney's photo collages
I like Andy Matuschak's use of the word "physics" to describe a set of rules in software tn his talk on the possibilities LLMs open up for programming. Two examples: > CodeMirror defines a rough physics of the medium: basic models for text, state, and selection, with transactional updates. > So, by way of generalizing from CodeMirror: could we define a physics of reading environments—one which…
David Hockney talking about the difference between photography and painting: > ...the reason you can’t look at a photograph for a long time is because there’s virtually no time in it - the imbalance between the two experiences, the first and second lookings, is too extreme. I think you could poke holes in this, but I like the model:
Trying out canvas-based paragraph reordering pared with a live document preview.
Watch on youtube
Watch on youtube
New on Constraint Systems: Branch - a collaborative collage of tree and branch photos. Take a photo and trace the flow to add to a branch. Exploring a few things, including:
by N.K. Jemisin I moved a little slower through this one, mostly because I found a lot of the Nassun chapters tough (not in a bad way, just in an "I'm nervous for her" way). There was a lot of lore to get through and resolve since it's the conclusion. Sometimes it felt like it was speeding through things, but by the end I was really happy with the full picture. Most of my questions were answered.…
Today I started in on blog revamp. Partly because I wanted to experiment with Matt Pocock's LLM skill workflow in a relatively conventional app (not a weird Constraint Systems experiment). Also because I've been feeling the edges of my current setup. Overall I'm thinking about how I want my software and computer to work in a world where LLMs make adding features/cheap. ## Surface area In the wave…
Experimenting with mini-browsers limited to specific urls or domains. Clicking on external links saves them to a list (that possibly you then feed into a different mini browser?). Recorded some thoughts on youtube. Thinking about making a browser feel more like a place (thinking of Interface Studies' video). Also thinking of the satisfaction and clarity of plugging a cartridge/disk into a system.
Put together a prototype writerdeck with the modos dev kit. Direct sunlight does work. It's a bit bulky and I should probably use one of my minimal low-profile keyboards, but I do love typing on the kinesis the most. In some other world I'd cut up and mod the kinesis body directly. The currrent prototype. The pieces laid out.
Experimenting with putting the embedded texts from Cosine into UMAP and then fitting to a grid. Not as glanceable as images would be but I think there's probably some interesting moves to make here.
by Durrell Bishop via Matt Webb's Filtered for that which motivates form. Described as the seed for the tangible user interface movement. I'd love to make some stuff like this.
Wikimedia concepts embedded and then mapped to a sphere with UMAP. Trying out topic clusters as continents. Not sure where it's all going.
More sphere work
by N.K. Jemisin I'm trying to spread out the series I read so it is a testament to how good The Fifth Season is that I jumped into this immediately. The dedication is "For those who have no choice but to prepare their children for the battlefield" and you feel that all the way through the book. The relationship between Essun and Nassun is so well developed on both sides. Clear-eyed in the pain…
Putting together a personal RSS reader that shows the original articles. With vim-style navigation.
I saw the bowls (clinamen v.11 by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot). A perfect generative piece because you can immediately understand how it operates but the results are no less magical. It feels very like something from nature in that way. It was nice to be around a bunch of other people who decided it was something worth making the effort to see.
by N.K. Jemisin The first time I read this I hadn't read much fantasy. Having read and enjoyed a bunch now this still stands out. I also hadn't read _The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas_. Having that context - that the conversation about "who are you willing to sacrifice" has this history of being explored through sci-fi - added another layer. The standout things for me are the world-building and…
Experimenting more with tiling at different levels-of-detail on a sphere. Trying to make a little world.
Testing
Trying out the small Modos Paper Monitor dev kit on an overcast day at the park. The high refresh rate is impressive and seems great for writing and coding. Screen is glossy though. I've held off on writerdeck builds for a while but it's really tempting to try and put something together with this. Very cool it was plug and play with usb-c and no setup. Their new monitor crowdfund is also very…
Working on a branch concept
Thinking about how our computers can support intentional work Watch on Youtube
by Jordan Ellenberg I always feel mixed about reading popular surveys of a topic. They're never as exciting as reading something more targeted and idiosyncratic. It's a lot like listening to a greatest hits album - you sort of miss the rhythm and groundedness of living with an album or targeted investigation. But it does give you a big picture that can help orient and bridge future reading. This…
Video preview Watch on Youtube
My computer - featuring gruvbox light theme - in the rock garden.
Slanted Magazine put together a great collection of digital tools including several of my Constraint Systems projects. It's really fun to see these in print! Collapse, Push, Stamp, and Tri. Stamp remains one of my favorites. CSS Paint
From https://solander38.com/stories/solander-38 I thought this, on why they didn't retrofit their old boat, was an interesting point about design: > It’s also worth saying that the Albin 25 is a jewel of a design, for the strengths and limitations of a small diesel engine. Like anything well-designed, when you change one of the fundamental constraints, it becomes something much less.
A couple of my Constraint Systems tools (Mosaic and Pal) are featured along with a bunch of other open source design tools on mod.lab.
by becky chambers After feeling like Light was too mean I went back to the second book in this series which gets called (and is) cozy sci-fi. For most of the book, I thought it was pleasant if not gripping, then I got pretty drawn in and emotional toward the end. I still like chambers' Monk and Robot series better, but I'm definitely going to return to the other books in this series. I liked the…
> The pathology of generative AI is that it too easily allows substantial form without discernible intent. That mistake is harder to make when creating by hand. Well put by caleb gross, and: > A human can show up to a task with an unclear mental model of what they mean to accomplish, and an AI can generate something anyway. “Write a letter of resignation for me to send to my boss.” “Hmm…I guess…
"the lazy brown fox jumps over the quick dog." glitching the embedding values and recovering vector mix
Hermit WIP Another pass Now with active window
by M. John Harrison I had to push to get through this, mostly because the present-day story felt mean to me without purpose. It opened up towards the end, as I was hoping it would, and maybe it will continue to open up as I sit with it, but I don't think it will ever morph into a favorite. It touched a bunch of themes I was hoping it would: making decisions through randomness (dice rolls) and how…
New on Constraint Systems: Sphere Paint. Multi-player painting without edge. A sphere surface is interesting because all points are continuous on all sides. You can respond, extend, or connect in any direction. I'm interested to see if certain drawings might become landmarks or growing territories over time. The dynamic where you can only draw zoomed in is a play on the fact that we can only act…
Read on site
Trying out EVōC (https://evoc.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) to hierarchically cluster all my embedded blog posts. A lot of my posts are over roughly similar looking material - it's cool how much nuance it can split out of them. Another view of it as a radial tree form d3.
I have different plans for drawing on this sphere but the effect of rotating (with arrow keys) while drawing is fun. Spherical etch-a-sketch.
From Wikipedia via André's agent coordination project: > Stigmergy is a form of self-organization. It produces complex, seemingly intelligent structures, without need for any planning, control, or even direct communication between the agents. [...] By offloading memory to the environment (as stigmergic traces), and computation to interaction between agents and traces, complex distributed cognition…
by Peter Watts This was my second time reading _Blindsight_, the first was as an audiobook. I'm not sure what drew me back - I think I saw someone mention the vampire-thing online, which I remembered. And I remembered it being somehow about consciousness in general, but I couldn't remember the specifics. I've been enjoying rereading fiction I read a long time ago lately so I picked it up. I…
Early experiments with a couple of prototypes trying to bring agents and space together thoughtfully.
I've got a new small, single-purpose screen section in my office area and wanted to document what's running, practical lessons learned, and some questions still unanswered. Custom clock (not a screen), time-block visualizer, and camera-linked photo slideshow. ### Camera and slideshow
A few months ago I built a large bookcase for the guest room + office. Then I decided that the lower half would be better utilized as a dresser. The final (for now) I partially disassembled the dresser and then replaced the front and the knob. This saved me from needing to make and fit drawer boxes. The old sides are still visible (that's how the dimensions happened to work out).
- AI-native research environments with and for scientists. A continuation of a lot of the visualization and system work I've done but with closer collaboration with the people who would use those systems. - New primitives the foundations of customizable software (and even operating systems). I want to use the flexibility but find ways to provide continuity and stability for the user. Mental models…
Embedding search now active on this very blog: - Home woodworking DIY - Embeddings
I wanted my dock laptop to feel more like furniture - maybe nostalgia for the 'family room computer' from when I was a kid. The box It did feel different! But not too long after I went a pretty different direction for the room (less screen) and moved it down into the basement.
I wanted to document some of the work I've been doing at our house. I put up a bench seat + shelves + a sort-of sideboard in the living room in December. And I finally got our artwork up in a gallery wall a little after that. Bench with custom dog cubbies and bookshelves. It's since gotten a cushion The sideboard somewhat organized.