TODEPOND TIMES: That's Why I Like Print

Welcome back... to another weekly edition... of the

🐸 TODEPOND TIMES 🐸

What's new this week?

Future of Code

Hey there's a new Future of Code episode out! Without spoiling anything, I highly recommend listening to the whole thing if you enjoy my videos.

I'll say more about it in next week's TODEPOND TIMES! (to give you time to listen).

Talking

Last week, I recorded the voice-over for the upcoming video - and I edited it into place.

This week, I've been listening through it again. And I've decided to change a few things.

One of the harder things to figure out is: What tone should I take when I 'talk' to the characters.

For example, I talked to tode once - in the 🚨 Crime video. I talk to berd more often, like in ✨ New Cellular Automata and ⚡ Spellular Automata.

The next video is a 'berd episode', so it involves quite a bit of talking to berd.

I usually take a slightly bossy tone with berd. I sometimes tell them off! - or criticise their work. And it's been tricky to find a good balance for this.

Too bossy, and the tone of the video becomes too negative. Too light-hearted, and the humour of the bossiness is lost.

For the upcoming video, I've tweaked the script and pacing to try to get the balance right. I'll re-record a few bits and pieces soon!

Bend

I'm currently making a visual-programming-node-based-fractal-cellular automata-time-travel-music-making engine called Arroost.

In Arroost, you can make arrows. For reasons that I mentioned last week, these arrows need to be curvy. You need to be able to make arrows that aren't just straight. You need to be able to put a bend in them.

This week, I've been figuring out how.

Ok, side-note - I work at a company called tldraw, which is world-renowned for its very good arrows. I haven't done much work on the arrows there, but it works like this:

Every arrow has a handle in its middle. And you control an arrow's bend by dragging this handle sideways. When you move either end of the arrow, it'll keep the handle in the right place.

This is perfect for making diagrams! You can control exactly how your arrow looks.

But in Arroost, you don't care about that. You don't want that kind of fine-grained control. You just want to connect things together. "This goes to this, and that goes to that." And if you happen to connect them in a bendy way, so be it!

As you drag the tip of the arrow, you might move your hand-or-finger in a slightly bendy manner. You'll curve it without thinking. And I want the arrows of Arroost to respect that.

I think I've done it! For now...

There are some more complicated arrows still left to do. I'll do those next.

I'm frantically getting an Arroost demo ready for the upcoming Future of Coding meetup in London. I might do a lightning talk, or I might just show people at a table. Either way, I want it to be ready! If you're in London, come along!

Print

My application to talk at Strange Loop was rejected.

However, the process of devising my talk... was highly rewarding. It helped me to understand the goals of my creative projects more clearly. And it led me to discover new areas to explore.

In the talk entitled 🎵 The Long Way, I wanted to explore some different artforms - with the goal of comparing them to creative coding, and our approach to making creative tools.

In particular, I wanted to look at printmaking.

As I understand it, printmaking is the process of making artwork by 'printing things' (in a whole variety of ways).

I think that the appeal of printmaking directly contrasts with how we (in the tech industry) make creative tools. It highlights a massive blind-spot in how we think about creativity.

So this week, I spoke to an artist friend of mine, called Sarah Vines. She's currently finishing a Masters in print here in London. And I asked her a question or two about why she likes printmaking.

I was completely blown away by her answers. It was inspirational!

It confirmed some things that I had hunched about, and it opened my eyes to many more.

Thank god I recorded her answers!

I only recorded her answers for my future reference. But they're so good, and they feel so impactful to me... that I want to do something bigger with them.

I might use them in a future video - or at some other point.

And one thing's for sure. I want to speak to more artists about their work. Real artists, who do it as a living, or hobby, or whatever.

I now realise - In these neverending discussions about AI, that the tech world seems to be stuck in... We're missing the voice of artists who have been creating things for decades. I want to hear more of them!

Hey you! Thank you so much for being here, and for supporting me with these projects. I wouldn't be able to do them without you. And I hope you enjoy following along! Wherever you are in this wide old world... I hope you have a great week!

Days since tode fell asleep: 147
Days since bot went missing: 112