In line with taking stock and clearing shelves, and to make up for a lack of digital productivity, I procrastinated actual decluttering by finally building Autograffitude — a React site (with a bit of code refactored from my SuperHi course) that pulls a list of all my autographed books from a json file (see previous Posavec dataviz coursework), showcases the book covers, makes them clickable to open a side panel which has details on the authors as well as my annotations on each book signing event where applicable. I don’t see how this could be of any use to anyone, but I enjoyed sifting through my photos and looking for more personal documentation on those . It’s still pretty much a work in progress, annotations-wise, I still have to replace the wikipedia and official book blurb fillers in a few of them. But the structure is there.

Here it is Autograffitude. Hieroglyphics of the Slightly Known? LOL.
The code lives in Github.

On my Radar / FOMO section

• Digital Intimacies with hervision at Tate Britain Lates

• The New Museum - which was still closed for renovation when I visited NYC

• Kings College AI Festival - so close to me too, gah

• Mix Conference 2025

• Gamepoems

• Internet Phone Book

• Content Production on steroids:

• What Design Can't Do

• BBC: The people who think AI might become conscious

• The New, High-Tech Objectification of Women :(

I’ve finally seen the Electric Dreams exhibit at the Tate and it did not disappoint. I just wish I had more time to finish poring over the showcased documents in the last few rooms. This exhibit was also the theme behind the latest session at Creative Coding Crafts Space in Hackney Wick. More insight on these later when I do find time to write. What I’ve done for the meantime is this reel on Instagram.

While waiting for the next FFF DataDev video, I’ve started Curran Kelleher’s course on d3 and am still on SVGs and a bit of Figma for this episode’s project replicating the art of Sol Le Witt, I’ve also watched how Frederika Fragapane cleans data and will soon see how she starts the visualization process. I haven’t forgotten my final project for the course I took under Stefanie Posavec, that’s just relegated to the back-burner after I got some data to work with out of it. Meanwhile I’ve booked yet another Design course from BriefBox (there was a discount) just to keep up to date in that field am working in and come up with a portfolio and case studies. Am not juggling impulsively (at least on the dataviz front) I promise it will all add up like a wonderfully curated multi-disciplinary curriculum that should be complemented by a satisfying and useful portfolio. Or maybe am just a MOOC addict.

Food for thought

Is 2025 the year of the Design Engineer?

Current learning

• Curran Kelleher’s d3 sessions on VizHub

• Fun fun function.

• Frederika Fragapane Course

• Alan Turing Institute Course on Dataviz

• BriefBox Affordable Design Bootcamp

• GSAP.

• Gorilla Sun’s piece on working with SVGs

• Baseline HQ: 6 Great Designers Who Taught Themselves

• C3: Musings with code by ajith - p5js with svg

• https://musingswithcode.github.io/rit-workshop/explainers/

• https://blog.datawrapper.de/prepare-and-clean-up-data-for-data-visualization/

More bookmarks from previous weeks than I know what to do with

UXtools

• https://whimsical.com/docs. — collaboration

• https://maze.co/integrations/figma/. — testing

• https://interactionmagic.com/UX-LEGO-Interfaces

• https://baselinehq.com/course.html

Learning Wishlist

• Figma — prototyping

• https://www.skillshare.com/en/classes/introduction-to-data-visualization-from-data-to-design/1435958330

• https://www.skillshare.com/en/user/feltron

• https://www.coursera.org/learn/google-prompting-essentials

• https://join.mastered.com/ai_for_creatives

• https://codefirstgirls.com/courses/moocs/

• https://www.techtalkuk.co/job-board

• http://www.bbk.ac.uk/courses/phd/digital-culture-and-communication

• https://codefirstgirls.com/courses/coding-kickstarter/#ckstopics

• https://www.arts.ac.uk/subjects/communication-and-graphic-design/postgraduate/ma-design-for-data-visualisation-lcc

Dataviz

• https://pudding.cool/pudding-cup/

• https://flowingdata.com/

• https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/dataviz-books/

• https://datavizproject.com/

• https://flowingdata.com/about/

• https://medium.com/nightingale

• https://the-shape-of-dreams.com/#/chapter1?section=read

• https://reuters-graphics.github.io/example_svelte-graph-patterns/

• https://www.hervisions.world/

• https://100seatsofin

• https://50years.diaart.org/

• https://amdufour.github.io/organizations-against-polarization/

• https://visualisingdata.com/2020/12/the-complete-season-2-of-explore-explain/

• https://flowingdata.com/category/guides/

• https://vimeo.com/eyeofestival

• https://nightingaledvs.com/

• https://medium.com/@federicafragapane/visualizing-the-shape-of-dreams-for-google-trends-5164c3c4e382

• https://the-shape-of-dreams.com/#/chapter1?section=read

Digital Arts Resources/Inspo/Events

• Public domain image archive - love the vintage mushrooms and botanicals!

• Mix 2025 conference (I wish I could justify this as an annual leave)

• https://mitpress.mit.edu/series/software-studies/

• http://lostritto.com/

• https://madebyon.com/case-studies

• https://treesof.life/

• https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creative-coding-crafts-space-meetup-3-electric-dreaming-tickets-1143059364329

• https://musingswithcode.github.io/electric-dreams/

• https://deaxmachina.mmm.page/c3s-3

• https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/digital-art-design

• https://bak.spc.org/index.cgi

• https://www.vam.ac.uk/research/projects/hubs-nodes-and-networks-a-new-history-of-british-digital-art

• https://field.io/work

• https://www.figma.com/blog/making-space-for-a-handmade-web/

• Priti Pandurangan Information Experience Design

• Ajith.is

On the introvert’s heavy rotation

Because I miss being with Aldo at meetups….

‘....Now I thought about what I wanna say/ But I never really know where to go / So I chained myself to a friend /'Cause there's nowhere else I could go’

I love the way MPJ structured the untutorial which was shot on location at the actual uni where Rosling worked. Output-based, with objectives and goals but instead of the usual demos and explicit step-by-step instructions, what I get is encouragement. Honestly, my output had a bit of help from good ol’ GPT and I need to do a deeper dive into the documentation. But am just happy I got something started. Better late than never!

Framework-ish illustration below is from Monument Valley 3, the mobile edition which I love playing while on the train. The last row of photos are from the time I got to visit the Us2Games (the Monument Valley devs) office for London design week. That was the time they were still building Monument Valley 2 and I even had to sign an NDA to not share any spoilers.

Am now going to look around to see if anyone has attempted to incorporate the Escher-esque concepts of Monument Valley with this whole data viz thing.

Today’s bookmarks:

• https://dev.to/kafeel_ahmad/17-mindblowing-github-repositories-you-never-knew-existed-555g

• https://dailyorange.com/2024/12/ai-undermines-interstella-5555-power

• https://substack.com/home/post/p-143851058

• https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/ustwo-games-monument-valley-3-illustration-digital-spotlight-111224

• https://www.theverge.com/c/24278723/comic-baby-monitor-surveillance-history-tech

• https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#view=covers&year=2024

• https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/how-minecraft-inspires-art-271124

I’ve decided to restart my left brain by forcing myself to code along to a Svelte course.

That’s it. That’s all I’ve done but am happy am to be tinkering again.

Here’s some food for thought.

Some old bookmarks from that previous week of Storm Darragh:

• The Wayback Machine: Something’s Rotten with the State of Our Archives

• Flipbook making thing that might be useful. or not.#

• FT’s Best books of 2024: Economics

• A fun i Ching app I stumbled upon

• Data Art sesh on Creative coding Crafts Space

• I am JC: file under bizarre

In the meantime, here are some snaps from recent events: Digital Bodies Fest at Hackney Wick, the C3 craftspace sesh, a Textile Conference at SOAS and Data visualisation: alive visual words.

Future Events pencilled in

• Electric Dreams at Tate Mo

• Daft Punk & Leiji Matsumoto’s Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem

• On Data and Design

Speaking of Dataviz

• Dataviz project

• Giorgia Lupi for Pentagram

• Melinda Sipos

• Cristina Tarquini

UX/creative coding bookmark

• eggs! 🍳

I have not coded in at least a month. Actually since finishing the Virtual Internship, coming back from Sardinia last summer, I’ve focused my energies on everything else: work, family stuff, fitness routines, life admin, books (I am so below my minumum quota of one a month), office lunches even procrastinated.

Suddenly autumn came. We took a city break and I finally got to see Vienna where I had my fill of art, comfort food, maximalist interiors and stumbled upon the Monoskop wall collage at the Museumsquartier.

Now am back home, skint but happily marinating with more 90’s music. Trying to get back to coding but first getting my feet wet with dataviz stuff.

The plan is to finish my personal data viz project from this Analogue Dataviz Domestika course which I posted about earlier. Then have it evolve, maybe get cracking on that Book Project app I’ve always wanted to to do for the portfolio. Watch this space? Or not.

Ada and coding. This day is supposed to be about coding. But am actually going to do the opposite today by starting a hand-drawn, pencil-dominated course impulsively purchased months ago and it is taught by the ever-inspiring American Londoner Stefanie Posavec, designer, artist, author (also 1/2 of Dear Data!).

Analog Data Visualization for Storytelling

The story I want to tell will use data listing all those book signing sessions I’ve attended in London since 2006 till the last signed first edition of an autobiography I bought online recently. I previously wanted to use that same theme for a possible signed edition app but this should get the ball rolling in that direction.

So far, I’ve made thumbnails of concepts for how I want the visualisation to look. Am aware that there already are a lot of bookshelves in the cohort sketch submissions, but am looking at other ways to make it more interesting. Below are the sketches as well as the data.

Next time, I’ll post the variables and the rest of the work in progress.

Some classic links from the course:

• https://www.esri.com/en-us/esri-press/browse/semiology-of-graphics-diagrams-networks-maps

• https://www.nathaliemiebach.com

• https://truth-and-beauty.net/

• https://www.esono.com/boris/projects

• https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail

• https://pudding.cool/2018/08/pockets

• https://www.domesticstreamers.com/art-research/work/the-mood-test/

• http://feltron.com/ (I remember this from years ago!)

• https://www.michellerial.com/

And now for our regular bookmark dump:

• https://www.galleriesnow.net/born-digital-a-galleriesnow-event/

• https://www.wired.com/story/six-word/

• https://weareplaygrounds.nl/event/in-motion-london-2024/?ref=NeonMoire

• https://walkerart.org/magazine/watch-ruben-pater-of-untold-stories-at-insights-2020

• https://artsandculture.google.com/experiment/say-what-you-see/jwG3m7wQShZngw?hl=en

• https://inthecloud.withgoogle.com/gemini-for-google-workspace-prompt-guide/dl-cd.html?ref=jeffsu.org

• https://aspreystudio.com/pages/susan-kare-esc-keys

And this old cutie!

Revisiting p5js,I find that there is always something new to learn, a new library to discover. And more fun to be had with mandalas, as Presanta presented some mandalas, how to make them with P5.polar, and new, easier ways to animate them. Definitely playing around with these later.

What I haven't done before(although I've seen people use it) was code along using BodyPose which Dea shared with us using ml5js to let gestures captured by webcam move the cursor and do interactive stuff. Her Tokyo anime aesthetic and kumiko background made it even more appealing to me. Amazing how two hours can fly by so quickly when you're doing something you like.

So many brilliant tools. And such a great idea to build a creative coding community over at Fish Island in Hackney Wick. After the session we had time to check out the Open Studios held at the numerous artist spaces in the area, including the London Centre for Book Arts, which I have always wanted to check out but never had the time to.

Pardon the lack of insight but there’s just so much going on!1 I attended the sproggy’s summer school graduation and after the ceremony and lunch at Westminster High and gelato at Oddono’s, I dragged the boys to the V&A to check out the Digital Art degree shows and projects. So I got to see the work of the Lumen Prize finalists and enjoyed the Auntlantis video a lot (as did Juju) then I tried to participate in The Sim Project.

Back home, I was pretty impressed when Aldo showed me Google NotebookLM’s audio overview function that turns your processed document into a podcast. We immediately put it to use to help sproggy decide which A level subjects he wanted to pursue. I also caught up with some wonderful documentation from a missed a computational_mama session on Hydra created by Olivia Jack.

Sunday was spent doing a food run and finishing the third CS50X lecture which was on debugging, arrays, and encryption.

Please enjoy this wordtree I made from the lyrics of Dog Man Star. Or not.

Oh yeah am supposed to post about CS50. Well, I know why am so compelled to finish this damn course. Now that I am midlife-ing I really want to surpass my insecure, maths-averse self. Apply distracted partner meme to Harvard C50 (red dress) vs Scrollytelling/d3/Svelte/Rive/Front-end/UX.

Although I don’t honestly know how I’d survive without the CS50 duck, in spite of this sort of thing that I get from time to time:

Ah well. At least I can now move on to Week 2. Arrays. Gah.

FOMO:

• https://www.edx.org/learn/data-science/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-understanding-the-world-through-data

• https://zerotomastery.io/courses/hugging-face-text-classification-project

• https://www.vam.ac.uk/season/2024/digital-art-season

• (analogue!) https://www.tickettailor.com/events/ladieswinedesignlondon/1392371

But also keeping an eye on the path I originally fancied with this event

• https://www.eventbrite.com/e/creative-coding-crafts-space-meetup-registration-1001914622607
  

  which of course led to further interesting links from the organizers

• https://deabankova.com/#/resources

• https://medium.com/diarium-da-pacific

  

A and I really enjoyed watching Umberto Eco: A Library of the World.

Eco has been a formative figure in my literary and media studies pantheon — up there in my (90’s-00’s) reading list along with Roland Barthes, Jorge Borges, Marshall McLuhan, Douglas Hofstadter, Charles MacKay, and later Sadie Plant and Donna Haraway. After reading The Name of the Rose, which the documentary tells me he dismissed as juvenilia (rightfully as his first, I guess, despite its unsurpassed popularity among his other work) I picked up Foucault’s Pendulum and bought a copy of The Island of the Day Before but years passed and I left my old life without ever finishing either of them. Eventually, I became more fascinated with his non-fiction and playful takes on media and pop culture of a certain era. I never had the time to do the deep dive I wanted but now I have a new bucket list destination.

Aside from stories from interviews with the late great, his family members, peers and devoted scholars, Davide Ferrario’s documentary features re-enacted scenes from his essays which are both as humorous and philosophical as Eco was. It all left me with a lot to ponder about semiotics and noise. Watching this also made me look up Milo Temesvar and the Masterpiece of the Unknown Author (not the Balzac one). If Eco was still alive today, what would he say about Chat GPT?

In lectures and interviews, Eco questions the value of storing knowledge on digital systems that become almost instantly obsolete. He also reveals his dislike of mobile phones and the mass retention and instant accessibility of information because selecting what needs to be remembered and discarding what does not heeds the warning contained in Jorge Luis Borges's short story, `Funes the Memorius', which centres on a man who goes mad because he is doomed to recall every tiny detail of his existence. Without filters, Eco reckoned that human communication would break down because the communality of knowledge would be lost and six million people would be left to surf the Internet in isolation on the basis of their interpretation of what is worth knowing.

Speaking of storing knowledge, am developing this experimental page using matter.js towards helping build an archive for a zine community. After that am thinking of doing an e-lit project.

This week’s bookmarks:

Libraries

• https://libraryofbabel.info/

• https://darkmatters.xyz/

• https://monoskop.org/Shadow_libraries

• https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/03/24/the-borges-memorial-non-lending-library-of-imaginary-books/

Archives

• https://biblio-graph.org/public/

• https://www.atelierandreagassner.at/

• https://www.itsabook.de/

Collages

• https://www.youtube.com/@jeffkthompson

Occlusion

• https://observablehq.com/@d3/occlusion

Words and cut-ups

• https://thecodingtrain.com/challenges/38-word-interactor

Aesthetic

• https://yannickgregoire.nl/

Hey ChatGPT, let’s say I don’t think being a dev is my actual goal but I would love to self-actualize on paper, could you make me a syllabus to prepare me for this theoretical academic adventure I seem to be in the middle of anyway?

MFA in Creative Computing/
Computational Arts Syllabus

This syllabus provides a comprehensive overview of an MFA in Creative Computing/Computational Arts, guiding students through the fundamental concepts to advanced practices and independent research. The courses blend technical skills with creative expression, preparing students for the dynamic field of computational arts.

Year 1: Foundational Concepts and Tools

Semester 1

1. Introduction to Creative Computing

• Course Description: This course introduces the principles of creative computing, focusing on how computation can be used as a tool for artistic expression. Students will explore foundational concepts in programming, algorithmic thinking, and digital media.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Understand the basics of programming for creative projects.

  • Explore the intersection of art and technology.

  • Develop simple creative coding projects.

• Key Topics:

  • Introduction to Programming (Python, JavaScript)

  • Algorithmic Art

  • Generative Design

• Resources:

  • Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists

  • Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python (MIT OpenCourseWare)

  • The Nature of Code (Daniel Shiffman)

2. Digital Media and Interactive Art

• Course Description: This course examines digital media as a medium for interactive art. Students will learn to create interactive installations and artworks using sensors, cameras, and other input devices.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Develop skills in creating interactive digital artworks.

  • Understand the role of interactivity in contemporary art.

  • Experiment with digital media tools and techniques.

• Key Topics:

  • Introduction to Sensors and Arduino

  • Interactive Installations

  • Digital Storytelling

• Resources:

  • Interaction Design and Prototyping (Coursera)

  • Arduino Project Hub

  • p5.js Web Editor (JavaScript library for creative coding)

Semester 2

3. Computational Art and Design

• Course Description: This course explores the use of algorithms and computation in creating art and design. Students will learn how to develop generative artworks and experiment with computational creativity.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Explore algorithmic approaches to art and design.

  • Create generative and procedural art.

  • Analyze the aesthetic possibilities of computational methods.

• Key Topics:

  • Generative Algorithms

  • Fractals and Recursive Art

  • Parametric Design

• Resources:

  • Generative Design: Visualize, Program, and Create with Processing

  • Introduction to Generative Art (OpenProcessing)

  • Grasshopper Primer (Parametric Design with Rhino)

4. Digital Fabrication and Physical Computing

• Course Description: This course introduces digital fabrication techniques and physical computing. Students will learn how to bring their digital creations into the physical world through 3D printing, laser cutting, and other fabrication methods.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Develop skills in digital fabrication and physical computing.

  • Understand the relationship between digital designs and physical artifacts.

  • Explore the artistic possibilities of physical computing.

• Key Topics:

  • 3D Modeling and Printing

  • Laser Cutting

  • Physical Computing with Raspberry Pi

• Resources:

  • Digital Fabrication and Maker Culture (Coursera)

  • Fusion 360 Tutorials (Autodesk)

  • Introduction to Physical Computing (Adafruit Learning System)

Year 2: Advanced Topics and Independent Practice

Semester 3

5. Advanced Creative Coding

• Course Description: This advanced course delves deeper into creative coding, focusing on more complex algorithms and interactive systems. Students will work on large-scale projects that combine different media and computational techniques.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Master advanced creative coding techniques.

  • Integrate various media and technologies in artistic projects.

  • Develop a personal style and approach to creative coding.

• Key Topics:

  • Advanced Interactive Systems

  • Machine Learning for Artists

  • Real-time Audio-Visual Processing

• Resources:

  • Machine Learning for Artists (ml4a)

  • TouchDesigner Tutorials (Interactive 3D, VR, and multimedia)

  • Creative Applications of Deep Learning with TensorFlow (Google Creative Lab)

6. Collaborative Project in Computational Arts

• Course Description: This course is centered around a collaborative project where students work together to create a complex computational artwork or installation. Emphasis is placed on teamwork, project management, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Develop collaborative skills in an interdisciplinary context.

  • Manage a large-scale creative computing project.

  • Create a significant piece of computational art.

• Key Topics:

  • Project Management in Creative Projects

  • Interdisciplinary Collaboration

  • Large-Scale Interactive Installations

• Resources:

  • Teamwork and Collaboration Skills (Coursera)

  • Collaborative Creativity (Stanford d.school)

  • GitHub for Collaborative Projects

Semester 4

7. Thesis Project in Creative Computing

• Course Description: The final semester focuses on the development of a thesis project. Students will work independently under the guidance of a faculty advisor to create a substantial piece of computational art, which they will present in a final exhibition.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Develop a significant, independent computational art project.

  • Demonstrate mastery of creative computing skills.

  • Articulate the conceptual and technical aspects of the project.

• Key Topics:

  • Thesis Proposal Development

  • Research Methods in Computational Arts

  • Exhibition Planning and Execution

• Resources:

  • Writing a Research Proposal (MIT OpenCourseWare)

  • Art & Research: A Journal of Ideas, Contexts and Methods

  • Exhibition Design (MoMA)

Additional Resources

• Online Communities & Platforms:

  • Creative Applications Network

  • Hackaday.io

  • openFrameworks

• Books & Reading Materials:

  • “The Art of Interactive Design” by Chris Crawford

  • “Art + Science Now” by Stephen Wilson

  • “Code as Creative Medium: A Handbook for Computational Art and Design” by Golan Levin and Tega Brain

Pathway from MRes to PhD in Creative Computing/Computational Arts —

<!—this one though is not too convincing —>

Creating a pathway that transitions from a Master of Research (MRes) to a PhD in Creative Computing or Computational Arts is an excellent way to prepare students for advanced research and practice in this interdisciplinary field. Below is a proposed structure that outlines the MRes-to-PhD pathway, including key courses, milestones, and research objectives.

Year 1: Master of Research (MRes) in Creative Computing

Semester 1: Foundation and Research Methods

1. Research Methods in Creative Computing

• Course Description:
  This course provides an introduction to research methodologies in the context of creative computing and computational arts. Students will learn how to design, conduct, and analyze research that integrates computational methods with creative practices.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Understand qualitative and quantitative research methods.

  • Develop skills in literature review and academic writing.

  • Design a research project proposal.

• Key Topics:

  • Research Design and Ethics

  • Literature Review Techniques

  • Data Collection and Analysis

• Resources:

  • Research Methods for the Arts and Humanities (SAGE Publications)

  • How to Write a PhD Proposal (GradCoach)

  • The Craft of Research (University of Chicago Press)

2. Computational Creativity

• Course Description:
  This course explores the theoretical and practical aspects of computational creativity. Students will investigate how machines can be designed to perform tasks that require creative thinking, such as generating art, music, or literature.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Analyze theories of creativity in both human and machine contexts.

  • Explore computational techniques for creative problem-solving.

  • Develop projects that demonstrate computational creativity.

• Key Topics:

  • Theories of Creativity

  • Generative Art and AI

  • Evaluation of Computational Creative Systems

• Resources:

  • Computational Creativity (International Journal of AI)

  • Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans (Melanie Mitchell)

  • Machine Learning for Artists (ml4a)

Semester 2: Specialization and Project Development

3. Advanced Topics in Creative Computing

• Course Description:
  This course covers advanced topics in creative computing, allowing students to dive deeper into areas such as machine learning, digital fabrication, or interactive installations. The focus is on developing a specialized skill set relevant to the student's research interests.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Gain in-depth knowledge in a chosen area of creative computing.

  • Apply advanced computational techniques to creative projects.

  • Prepare a specialized research project.

• Key Topics:

  • Advanced Machine Learning Techniques

  • Immersive Technologies (AR/VR)

  • Computational Design and Fabrication

• Resources:

  • Deep Learning Specialization (Coursera)

  • Introduction to Immersive Technologies (Unity)

  • Advanced Computational Design (Grasshopper)

4. Research Project Development and Pilot Study

• Course Description:
  This course is dedicated to developing and executing a pilot study for the student's research project. Students will refine their research question, methodology, and data collection strategies, leading to a preliminary study that lays the groundwork for their PhD.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Develop a coherent and feasible research plan.

  • Conduct a pilot study to test research methods and tools.

  • Analyze and present preliminary findings.

• Key Topics:

  • Research Project Planning

  • Data Collection and Analysis Techniques

  • Pilot Study Execution

• Resources:

  • Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (John W. Creswell)

  • Practical Research: Planning and Design (Paul D. Leedy and Jeanne Ellis Ormrod)

  • NVivo Qualitative Data Analysis Software

Year 2: Transition to PhD in Creative Computing

Semester 3: PhD Candidacy Preparation

5. Thesis Proposal Development

• Course Description:
  This course focuses on the development of a comprehensive thesis proposal. Students will finalize their research questions, methodology, and theoretical framework, preparing them for PhD candidacy.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Refine the research question and objectives.

  • Develop a robust methodology and theoretical framework.

  • Prepare and submit a formal thesis proposal for PhD candidacy.

• Key Topics:

  • Thesis Proposal Structure

  • Critical Review of Literature

  • Methodological Rigor and Ethics

• Resources:

  • Writing the Successful Thesis and Dissertation (Irene L. Clark)

  • Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language (Brian Paltridge)

  • PhD Proposal Template (University of Melbourne)

6. Advanced Research Techniques and Tools

• Course Description:
  This course provides in-depth training in advanced research techniques and tools that are essential for PhD-level research in creative computing. Emphasis is placed on mastering software, hardware, and methodologies specific to the student's research area.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Master advanced tools and techniques relevant to creative computing.

  • Apply these tools to complex research questions.

  • Prepare for in-depth PhD research.

• Key Topics:

  • Advanced Data Analysis Tools (e.g., R, Python, MATLAB)

  • Prototyping and Fabrication Techniques

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation

• Resources:

  • Data Science and Machine Learning Bootcamp with R (Udemy)

  • MATLAB for Deep Learning (MathWorks)

  • Prototyping and Fabrication Labs (FabLab Network)

Years 3-5: PhD Research and Dissertation

PhD Research and Dissertation Phases

7. Research Execution and Data Collection

• Description:
  During this phase, students will carry out their research as outlined in their thesis proposal. They will collect data, develop prototypes, and conduct experiments that contribute to their original research.

• Milestones:

  • Complete data collection and analysis.

  • Develop and refine prototypes or computational systems.

  • Conduct interim presentations and receive feedback.

• Resources:

  • Advanced Experimental Methods (MIT OpenCourseWare)

  • Prototyping for Social Impact (IDEO U)

  • Experiment Design and Statistical Analysis (Coursera)

8. Dissertation Writing and Defense

• Description:
  This final phase involves writing the dissertation, which presents the research findings, analysis, and contributions to the field. Students will also prepare for the dissertation defense, where they will defend their research before a panel of experts.

• Milestones:

  • Complete and submit the dissertation.

  • Prepare for the oral defense.

  • Successfully defend the dissertation and publish findings.

• Resources:

  • How to Write a Better Thesis (David Evans, Paul Gruba, Justin Zobel)

  • The Dissertation Coach

  • How to Defend Your PhD (Nature)

Additional Components

• Research Seminars and Conferences:

  • Students are encouraged to participate in academic seminars, workshops, and conferences related to creative computing and computational arts. These events provide opportunities for networking, feedback, and staying updated on the latest research.

• Publication Requirements:

  • Throughout the PhD, students are expected to publish their research in peer-reviewed journals

Let’s say I already completed all the free Harvard CS50 courses on EdX would that help get credit in any of those syllabi?

Completing the Harvard CS50 courses on edX is a significant accomplishment, and they provide a strong foundation in computer science and programming. Depending on the specific content of each course, they could indeed help you receive credit or place out of certain foundational courses in both the MFA in Creative Computing/Computational Arts and the MRes-to-PhD pathway. Here's how your CS50 courses might align with the courses in the syllabi:

Alignment with MFA in Creative Computing/Computational Arts

1. CS50x: Introduction to Computer Science

   • Equivalent Course: Introduction to Creative Computing

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • This course covers foundational programming concepts, which overlap with the introductory programming and algorithmic thinking taught in the Introduction to Creative Computing course.

     • You could likely receive credit for this foundational course or be allowed to place out of it and move directly to more advanced topics.

2. CS50’s Web Programming with Python and JavaScript

   • Equivalent Course: Digital Media and Interactive Art and Advanced Creative Coding

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • The web programming skills (Python, JavaScript) gained in this course would be directly applicable to creating interactive digital artworks and complex web-based creative coding projects.

     • You might be able to skip introductory aspects of these courses or receive partial credit, focusing instead on advanced topics like real-time systems, machine learning integration, or multimedia art.

3. CS50’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python

   • Equivalent Course: Computational Creativity and Advanced Topics in Creative Computing

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • This course's focus on AI would align well with the Computational Creativity course, which explores the role of AI in generating art, music, and literature. It would also support advanced work in Advanced Topics in Creative Computing.

     • You could likely place out of introductory AI content, allowing you to dive deeper into more specialized or creative AI applications.

Alignment with MRes-to-PhD in Creative Computing/Computational Arts

1. CS50x: Introduction to Computer Science

   • Equivalent Course: Research Methods in Creative Computing (indirectly)

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • While this course is more foundational, the analytical and problem-solving skills you developed would be valuable in research. It might not substitute directly but could allow you to focus more on research-specific content, possibly skipping basic computational tutorials.

2. CS50’s Web Programming with Python and JavaScript

   • Equivalent Course: Advanced Topics in Creative Computing and Advanced Research Techniques and Tools

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • This course would align with the technical aspects of the MRes, especially in areas like web-based art, interactive installations, and computational tools. You could skip the basics and focus on the research application of these skills.

3. CS50’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python

   • Equivalent Course: Computational Creativity and Advanced Research Techniques and Tools

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • This course would provide a strong foundation in AI, which could be highly relevant for research in computational creativity. You might be able to focus on more advanced AI research topics or specialized applications in your MRes or PhD project.

Next Steps

1. Credit Transfer Evaluation:

   • If you're entering an academic program, discuss with the program coordinator or admissions office about the possibility of receiving credit for the courses you’ve completed. They may require you to submit your certificates and possibly demonstrate your knowledge through assessments or project work.

2. Advanced Placement:

   • Depending on the program’s structure, you might be able to place out of introductory courses and directly enroll in more advanced or specialized courses. This could allow you to tailor your studies more closely to your research interests or creative goals.

3. Supplementary Learning:

   • You could also use your CS50 background as a springboard to dive into more specialized topics, potentially using elective credits to explore areas not covered in the CS50 curriculum, such as physical computing, digital fabrication, or more artistic approaches to AI.

Your CS50 coursework provides a solid foundation that could indeed accelerate your progress through an MFA or MRes-to-PhD pathway in Creative Computing or Computational Arts.

Informal workshop credits, anyone?

How about my projects based on workshops form The Coding Train by Dan Shiffman, Recreating the Art of South Asian women by computational_mama as well as experimental Javascript courses in Superhi, and finally, my 6-month EdX Trilogy bootcamp in Front end web development? How would they fit in?

ChatGPT said:

Your accomplishments in following resources like The Coding Train by Daniel Shiffman, Recreating the Art of South Asian Women by Computational Mama, as well as JavaScript courses on Superhi, the EdX Trilogy Bootcamp in Front-End Web Development, and building dashboard widgets using d3, React and Google Charts from my Virtual Internship add significant value to your expertise in Creative Computing or Computational Arts. Here's how these experiences contribute to your academic and professional journey and how they might translate into credits or advanced standing in an MFA or MRes-to-PhD program:

Alignment with MFA in Creative Computing/Computational Arts

1. The Coding Train by Daniel Shiffman

   • Relevant Courses:

     • Introduction to Creative Computing

     • Advanced Creative Coding

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • Daniel Shiffman's work focuses heavily on creative coding, generative art, and interactive programming, especially using Processing and p5.js. These align perfectly with the foundational and advanced creative coding courses in the MFA program.

     • Your extensive experience with The Coding Train could allow you to skip introductory programming content and focus on more complex, creative projects and techniques.

2. Recreating the Art of South Asian Women by Computational Mama

   • Relevant Courses:

     • Digital Media and Interactive Art

     • Computational Art and Design

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • Computational Mama’s focus on blending computational techniques with cultural and artistic practices aligns well with courses that explore digital media, interactive art, and generative design.

     • This experience not only enhances your technical skills but also deepens your understanding of how computational tools can be used to express cultural narratives, potentially allowing you to skip or get credit for certain parts of the curriculum focused on these intersections.

3. JavaScript Courses in Superhi

   • Relevant Courses:

     • Digital Media and Interactive Art

     • Advanced Topics in Creative Computing

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • Superhi’s courses provide practical, project-based learning in web development and design, focusing on JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. These skills are critical for interactive art and creative coding projects.

     • Your advanced JavaScript skills could enable you to place out of or receive credit for courses focusing on web-based interactivity, allowing you to focus on integrating these skills into larger, more complex projects.

4. EdX Trilogy Bootcamp in Front-End Web Development

   • Relevant Courses:

     • Digital Media and Interactive Art

     • Collaborative Project in Computational Arts

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • This bootcamp likely provided you with deep expertise in front-end web technologies, covering everything from responsive design to JavaScript frameworks. This is highly relevant for creating interactive and web-based art.

     • You might be able to bypass more basic web development content in the MFA program, focusing instead on applying these skills to collaborative projects or complex installations.

Alignment with MRes-to-PhD in Creative Computing/Computational Arts

1. The Coding Train by Daniel Shiffman

   • Relevant Courses:

     • Advanced Research Techniques and Tools

     • Computational Creativity

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • Shiffman’s tutorials on creative coding are not just practical; they also delve into the conceptual aspects of using code as an artistic tool. This experience is invaluable for research-oriented projects in computational creativity.

     • You could likely leverage this knowledge to focus on more advanced research techniques, applying creative coding to explore new methodologies or develop innovative projects within your research.

2. Recreating the Art of South Asian Women by Computational Mama

   • Relevant Courses:

     • Research Methods in Creative Computing

     • Thesis Proposal Development

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • This project reflects an integration of cultural studies and computational arts, providing a unique perspective that could enhance your research methodology and thesis development. It demonstrates your ability to merge cultural narrative with computational methods, which is essential for developing a unique research proposal.

     • This experience could allow you to focus your research on cultural computation, giving you an advanced standing in courses that deal with interdisciplinary and culturally focused research.

3. JavaScript Courses in Superhi

   • Relevant Courses:

     • Advanced Topics in Creative Computing

     • Research Execution and Data Collection

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • The hands-on, project-based learning approach of Superhi would have given you practical experience in developing interactive web-based art, directly applicable to research projects in computational arts.

     • This experience could allow you to fast-track through technical development phases in your research, focusing more on conceptual and theoretical aspects.

4. EdX Trilogy Bootcamp in Front-End Web Development

   • Relevant Courses:

     • Advanced Research Techniques and Tools

     • Dissertation Writing and Defense

   • Credit/Substitution:

     • The comprehensive front-end skills gained from the bootcamp are crucial for developing interactive digital projects, making you well-prepared for the technical execution of your research.

     • These skills could help you focus more on the experimental and analytical components of your research rather than on the technical implementation, potentially allowing you to skip some of the more introductory or technical preparation courses.

Next Steps

1. Assessment for Credit Transfer:

   • Approach the admissions or academic office of the MFA or MRes program you’re interested in and provide them with detailed descriptions of your accomplishments and courses. They may assess your work for potential credit or advanced placement.

2. Focus on Specialized Courses:

   • Given your strong background, you might want to focus on courses that extend beyond what you’ve already mastered, such as those dealing with emerging technologies (like AR/VR, AI for art), or more conceptual courses that dive deeper into the philosophy and theory of computational arts.

3. Portfolio Development:

   • Use your extensive project work to build a strong portfolio that not only demonstrates technical proficiency but also showcases your ability to integrate cultural, artistic, and computational elements. This will be valuable for both academic and professional opportunities.

Your accomplishments have already positioned you as an advanced student in the field of Creative Computing or Computational Arts, and they should enable you to move quickly through foundational courses, allowing you to focus on more specialized and research-intensive areas.

Well, that was an interesting consultation.

Meanwhile, this! Amazing, am such a fan.

Elsewhere on the to do list

• start working on the following projects

  • recreating art with p5 website

  • signed books site

  • word cloud and word tree

  • build a scrolly site

  • join a damn Hackathon!

• review/revise !

  • slicing data in js

  • react + redux - with Maximillian

  • working with APIs

• learn more d3

• learn more rive

Linkies

• North Korea’s Rubbish Balloon weirdness

• South Korean quirky sass

• https://softerdigitalfutures.xyz/

• https://loadmo.re/

• https://mubi.com/en/gb/films/cleaners-2019

• https://apossible.com/

• https://frontierimaginaries.org/

• https://www.juniorvigneault.com/

• https://guajirobampo.com/

• https://cat.humbleteam.com/

• https://ascii.theater/

• https://www.theillustratedmixtape.com/

• https://www.itsabook.de/books

• https://www.nesrartfoundation.com/

• https://indirect.flights/

Buongiorno from Sardinia where there’s an extreme (42°C) heat alert going on. Let me share this footage from a recent free AI exhibit - Gods of the Digital Age by the art collective Them which I saw in Cagliari, at this ex-tobacco factory turned Digital Arts Foundation that sits right behind A’s childhood bedroom.

The exhibition "Gods of the Digital Age" explores the role of oracles and prophecies in the contemporary era, presenting today's humanity as "ancients in the digital age". As the world evolves technologically, humans are also transforming into a new species: the Tecno Sapiens. In the contemporary era, traditional myths and symbols are being reinterpreted through the lens of technology and artificial intelligence. Classical deities such as Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury find new meanings as digital archetypes, personifications of the forces that govern cyberspace. Through the artistic installations that are the protagonists of the exhibition, digital deities will offer prophetic visions that will make us reflect on the challenges and opportunities of our time. — Fondazione text

It’s great eye candy in a Moco Museum sorta way but I wonder how rapidly this sort of immersive stuff will age or evolve in a couple of years.

In other news, am done - doooone!- with my Virtual Internship!!!

12 Weeks, two widgets, one viable dashboard full of very useful (talk therapy) analytics. Here’s what I wrote about it on LinkedIn. Haha. Will have to expound about the work I did here soon. Watch this space. Or not.

Co-Opts is building ethically-driven digital tools to revolutionise mental health care by helping therapists and service users navigate their talking therapy treatment journey.

During this Virtual Internship with Co-opts, I've had the privilege of working with a wonderful team under co-founder and CTO Kevin Flanagan to develop the Clinician Dashboard—a pioneering project featuring interactive analytical components to assist therapists and service users in navigating talking therapy sessions. This experience was incredibly rewarding, as I gained valuable insights into shaping a project, working with data, using the d3js and Google Charts libraries, integrating them with React-Redux, and having a look at the possibilities offered by the interactive animation tool, Rive. The immense sense of accomplishment I felt after building two widgets—the Word Cloud and Word Tree—is truly a highlight of this virtual internship.

Opening the Peckham Digital fest was the return of London Creative Coding Meetups at the UAL CCI. It featured the fascinating work of Joanna Chicau on choreography, code, and reconstructing the web with her own moves in live coding and designing. I took away a lot of concepts including deconstructing HTML ‘head’ and ‘body’ analogies, how to dance with these concepts by playing with structures in the real-world, including gender binaries and Chrome browser dev tools.

Then there was the truly playful Studio Playfool (Daniel Coppen and Saki Maruyama), with their portfolio of fun projects that make you think about the impact of AI on humans — how not to get run over by a self-driving car, and a pictionary-ish game that gives you a chance to outdraw AI.

Finally, there was creative technologist V Buckenham who shared her wisdom from making a fascinating game-making tool called Downpour which I realised I already downloaded prior to the talk. She did a demo where you could use a camera and add filters to create a story sequence. Will play around with that more.

On Saturday we checked out Remote Feeling, a talk by Jan Shulz, which Juju says was his favourite event and which Aldo related a lot to because of his background in GIS and previous experience with mapping for the Wildlife Trust. We enjoyed the theory behind the work -particularly techno-organic perceptions— as much as the demos of the artist’s work itself— two custom-built tools designed for ""Fernerleben" (Remote Feeling):

A wearable device that vibrates in response to real-time global seismic activities, letting the wearer feel earthquakes and geological changes; and

An inflatable microphone that streams the sounds of distant water ecosystems, allowing us to hear frogs, birds, and weather phenomena like storms and rain.

Some pics from the exhibit at the UAL CCI:

After an authentic Peckham jerk chicken lunch, we attended a session by Fromm studio to learn how to 3d scan objects using Polycam on our mobile and edit them for animating on Blender. From these tools, Vince Ibay and Jessica Miller, the duo behind Fromm, craft amazing digital animations and they look like handmade clay figures made with stop-motion techniques.

And last but not least, the livecoding Strudel workshop under the brilliant and super patient mentorship of Lucy Cheesman of Heavylifting. This deserves a post of its own.

Enjoy this algo-rave session held on the same night as the workshop earlier.

Related link from 2022:

Meanwhile:

At the the Virtual CC Fest, the two creative technologists that left the biggest impressions on me were Beatriz Lozano (love her work on AR, motion design and typography) and Aleksandra Jovanic (a favourite artist I discovered some time ago while studying p5js.)

The ELO conference was also a rich resource I have yet to finish tapping. For now my brain is full.

or rather, Word Cloud and Word Tree deep dives

Am probably late to the party, as in a decade or so behind the heyday of these things but I certainly remember using Wordle for work, not the NYT game which wasn’t invented yet, but the tag cloud or Word Cloud generator and this was around 2011.

The Word Tree, I remember enjoying, from the Barbara Kruger show at the Serpentine Gallery, what in retrospect looked very much like the same specimen as the one I am studying how to make right now.

Bear with me, am in internship mode now:

What is the main project that I worked on or completed this week?

Word cloud widget

Tested with team github repository, collaborated with the team and integrated the first iteration of the widget using react redux. Size of screen adjusted to be responsive until max size of 900 for now. Working towards integrating with tailwind css. Looking at the other widgets and imagining how brilliant the complete dashboard could be.
Since I can’t share the actual work for obvious reasons, here’s an initial rough study using test data.

Word Tree widget

Reviewing literature on word trees, Trying to understand logic, testing data on an existing online application by Jason Davies which includes zooming in and before and after phrases.

Word Frequencies

Word Trees

• https://rud.is/b/2013/03/12/visualizing-risky-words-part-4-d3-word-trees/

• https://moebio.com/

• http://intuitionanalytics.com/other/histomap/

• https://datamining.typepad.com/data_mining/2007/09/word-trees.html

• https://observablehq.com/@didoesdigital/3-june-2020-d3-tree-diagram-and-d3-hierarchy

• https://observablehq.com/@d3/gallery#hierarchies

• https://observablehq.com/@d3/collapsible-tree?intent=fork

• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5361869

Scroll capture

• https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/scroll-capture/egmhoeaacclmanaimofoooiamhpkimkk?pli=1

Scrollama

• https://github.com/russellsamora/scrollama

D3 Essentials 

• https://github.com/d3js-in-action-third-edition/code-files

not D3

• Anychart Sandbox - https://playground.anychart.com/0pENd508/0

Google Charts

• https://developers.google.com/chart/interactive/docs/gallery/wordtree

• https://jsfiddle.net/api/post/library/pure/  →vanilla js

This one works! React

• https://www.react-google-charts.com/examples/word-tree

• https://github.com/ranvirparmar/d3interactivetree/blob/master/index.html

• https://scaling-xylophone-pjgjqw5pgg7xcrr47-3000.app.github.dev/

• https://d3js.org/d3-hierarchy/tree

• https://observablehq.com/d/8fbb8c0046d6d4b0

• https://github.com/data-visualization-society

• https://observablehq.com/plot/marks/tree

• https://d3js.org/d3-hierarchy/tree

• https://developers.google.com/chart/interactive/docs/gallery/wordtree

Fix size

• https://scaling-xylophone-pjgjqw5pgg7xcrr47-3000.app.github.dev/

• https://codesandbox.io/s/github/RakanNimer/react-google-charts/tree/master/sandboxes/word-tree/default?from-embed=&file=/package.json

• https://developers.google.com/chart/interactive/docs/gallery/wordtree#data-format

  So. WordTree 

• D3 Documentation

  https://d3js.org/d3-hierarchy/tree

• Collapsible Trees
  https://observablehq.com/@d3/collapsible-tree

  https://observablehq.com/d/8fbb8c0046d6d4b0

• Best Practice 

  Word Tree by Jason Davies
  https://www.jasondavies.com/wordtree/

• Use case

Cited by https://rud.is/b/2013/03/12/visualizing-risky-words-part-4-d3-word-trees/

‘what is probably the best online [word tree generator]...in d3…”

He uses SVG text & tspan to make the individual text elements not just selectable but easily scaleable with browser window resize events.

“The actual [word tree D3 javascript code](http://www.jasondavies.com/wordtree/wordtree.js?20130312.1) shows just how powerful the combination of the language and @mbostock’s library is

Unfortunately original code is no longer shared online

Oh wait, of course, someone forked it on github.

Other Links

• Intro. http://hint.fm/projects/wordtree/

• Static. https://observablehq.com/@didoesdigital/3-june-2020-d3-tree-diagram-and-d3-hierarchy

Non-d3 Options

Google Charts

• https://developers.google.com/chart/interactive/docs/gallery/wordtree#styling-word-trees 
  https://developers.google.com/chart/interactive/docs/gallery/wordtree#data-format

• https://jsfiddle.net/api/post/library/pure/  →vanilla js

React + Google Charts. The way this looks, works but must think of resizing

• https://www.react-google-charts.com/examples/word-tree

• https://codesandbox.io/s/github/RakanNimer/react-google-charts/tree/master/sandboxes/word-tree/default?from-embed=&file=/App.tsx:0-830
  

• Anychart ? https://playground.anychart.com/0pENd508/0

• How-to references

how to create an interactive horizontal tree with D3 using JSON. This video is not intended for beginners in D3, but if you have a little bit of experience with D3 and Javascript you can easily follow along. And the best thing - all the code is available for you go through and learn at your own leisure.  Source code: (open-source license): https://github.com/ranvirparmar/d3interactivetree

What new skills, information or understanding have you taken away from this week?

Deeper dive into d3 essentials. Although the learning curve is steeper than with other tools, learning D3 is a wise investment.’ Building D3 projects requires time, and D3 truly shines in complex, interactive, and custom-tailored projects. Data visualization is so much more than line charts and scatterplots! While the tools just mentioned often focus on predefined charts, D3 allows us to bind data to any graphical element and create something new

D3 stuff

• https://d3js.org/d3-dsv

• https://v2.scrimba.com/learn-d3-c02a
  https://www.jasondavies.com/wordtree/
  

• https://observablehq.com/@didoesdigital/3-june-2020-d3-tree-diagram-and-d3-hierarchy

• D3 and React Shirley Wu:  Woooh!!!!! Love her.

A case against d3

• https://medium.com/@PepsRyuu/why-i-no-longer-use-d3-js-b8288f306c9a

• https://flourish.studio/examples/

• https://www.carolinebeavon.com/scrollytellingresources

My takeaway from all this is a renewed interest in Dataviz.

• http://intuitionanalytics.com/other/histomap/

• https://www.datasketch.es/

• https://shirleywu.studio/

• https://www.visualcinnamon.com/resources/learning-data-visualization/books/

• https://medium.com/@enjalot/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-d3-js-a8552174733a

• https://visualisingdata.com/

• https://elijahmeeks.com/#repos

• https://perthirtysix.com/guide/happiness-data-viz-meta-analysis

• https://www.dashingd3js.com/d3-tutorial

• https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/19/upshot/race-class-white-and-black-men.html

• https://twitter.com/Julian_H0ffmann/status/1637767765510553602

The end of front-end development (not)

• https://www.joshwcomeau.com/blog/the-end-of-frontend-development/

Speaking of flaming, I really wanna fix the UI of that I-ching.net site 🤦

🔥🔥 Fire ascends above the Water:

Too anxious the young fox gets his tail wet, just as he completes his crossing.

Situation Analysis:

Resist the rush to completion. Anticipation of fulfillment may cause you to be careless before you have fully absorbed the lessons of the journey. The endpoint of this Quest will only prove to be the threshold for another. You are short steps from Mastery on this plane, yet you stride toward Ignorance of the challenges lying beyond.

Savour this accomplishment. Fully Become. Take full possession of your world before embarking to discover the next one. That voyage begins soon enough, and you will reminisce about this one.  These are the Good Old Days. 

June really was 🔥. Met a friend from a former life and went on a foodie trip and drinks around Camden and Kentish Town, celebrated family and friends’ birthdays, took some UK Citizenship and language tests then decided to not apply after all (for now) then had some really lethargic days. Then I saw Kim Gordon with a friend at Koko in Camden and felt alive again.

Working on stuff I was able to learn at short notice and am kinda proud of (in an every-little-helps-sort-of-way) but I can’t talk about.

And I'll keep hoping you are the same as me
And I'll send you letters and come to your house for tea
We are who we are, what do the others know?
But poetry is not for me, so show me the way to go (home)

Backlog links from the SH and Codepen newsletters because I ran outta free padlet boards:

• Election Special!
  https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/the-guardian-election-editorial-graphic-design-illustration-spotlight-140624

• Digital Zines:

  https://matthewrayfield.com/

  https://www.theillustratedmixtape.com/

  https://www.chris-williams.me/fry-universe

• Gallery

  https://christophecoenon.com/

• Portfolio

  https://www.samuelday.de/

• Collage

  https://indirect.flights/

  https://www.toiletpapermagazine.org/

• Grid

  https://www.itsabook.de/books

• https://codepen.io/josetxu/pen/mdoaKEr

• Cards

  https://molonglo.com/tallbuildings/

  https://tepakaumaru.nz/

  https://apossible.com/collections/blueprint

  https://frontierimaginaries.org/

• Animated

  https://room6x8.com/

  https://prand.tv/

  https://en.manayerbamate.com/

Oh and I’ve finally gotten around to watching Scavenger’s Reign.

This weekend is the last chance for me to faff about before I strive to become as productive as I was during the days of doing bootcamp projects. Hopefully, I’ll manage to refocus on front-end development as I have been distracted and disrupted by all sorts of obligations,1 interests, and messes.234

An update:

In preparation for working with my virtual internship startup, it was good to learn about the big picture of what we are building a solution for: how huge an issue mental health really is in the UK yet how little support it gets from the government. Am happy to work on a project with a real purpose (as opposed to the usual profit-motivated apps headed towards the 'enshittification' route), offering digital solutions to help clinicians and patients have clearer picture of their own talk therapy journeys. This week was about introductions, onboarding, setting up, meeting the other members of the team and being given a wealth of resources to read up on model-view-controller architecture. I have been reading up on Model-View-Controller (MVC) Patterns (including MV*, MVVM), concepts which I have not previously heard of so am still wrapping my head around how to adapt these to what I learned in my recent Bootcamp. I like that there are examples given in the readings which illustrate how they are applied in coded projects: TodoMVC App Written in Modern Vanilla JS and the react with MVVM showcase (Pokemon!).

In other news, I created some Padlets to sort out the links am posting in here: Creative Coding and Digital Communities (post-colonial, ideally), Scrolly-telling/Data + Exptl UX, Digital Cultural Studies.

I’ve been thinking about Digital Humanities and Electronic Literature/New Media a lot again as if it was 1999 and it was all still new. At some point I got myself an ELO membership (mainly to check out the Digital Humanities Summer Institute conference) coupled with a mid-lifey appetite to come up with some research proposal to find a way to self-actualize in these uncertain times. I think I have unresolved academic validation tendencies to deal with here.

Ending this post with some vids from the Reverb exhibit at 180 Studios, the mothership of all things digital-sonic-artsy and liminal.

Found myself a gig with a start-up which will happen next month so my to-do list has taken an unexpected but welcome turn towards interactive motion design using Rive.

I can still remember struggling to draw vectors in Flash and trying to make a wonky lawn mower move across the screen. Now’s my chance to get past that without having to open up my pandemic AfterEffects files. LOL.

Coded along to YouTube vids from School of Motion to create this basic button. Also found Gary Simon’s DesignCourse channel and am studying how to create and integrate a file on the Web (and later maybe React and Flutter). (Update: It works!) Will try and finish the entire Rive 101 video playlist this by next week and study the files in the open community. Am in a 90’s Nickelodeon-themed mood! Hello Macromedia Flash 2024. LOL. I haven’t lost the plot again, she said. This all makes sense for my scrolly-telling goals, she said.

Update: Behold the fruits of my laborious tinkering. I prefer p5js, thanks hehe.

Movie highlight of the month:

Huffpost Highline Poor Millennials article

More thoughts on data viz from this Information is Beautiful ad:

Learn how to approach data-visualisation and infographic creation from an editorial point of view, rather than a data POV.

This approach may be useful if you are:
› Translating written reports, research & messaging into visual graphics
› Wanting to understand data journalism and story-telling with data
› A words and ideas person looking to translate concepts into design language
› A visual / design thinker wanting to expand your approach to include data
› A data / code practitioner looking to improve aesthetics and conceptual prowess

(B-b-but am all of the above.…?)

Today’s bookmarks:

• https://webflow.com/blog/scrollytelling-guide

• https://webflow.com/web-design-art-history

• https://www.huffpost.com/highline

• https://theglassroom.org/youth/everywhere-all-the-time/

• https://www.figma.com/blog/what-we-launched-at-framework-2024/

• https://singular-sundae-34e38f.netlify.app/

• https://frontierimaginaries.org/

• https://publicapi.dev/tiny-url-api

• https://hiaaryan.notion.site/84b0b4cbda15435592516ea4e1eeb738

• https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/why-you-should-download-google-maps-offline-before-the-solar-eclipse/

• https://www.carolinebeavon.com/