// Node Based Tool Design
I spent an evening this week back in Max/MSP, patching boxes together on a canvas, watching numbers and audio move from one to the next in something close to real time.
A look at node based tool design: what it actually is, where you’ve probably already met it, the patterns that keep showing up wherever someone builds one of these, and why the same shape might be the best way to work with AI itself.
Also: modular synths, Mark Fell on why he builds his own tools inside Max/MSP, and why a shader node in Blender is doing the same basic trick as a mixing desk.
// Rocket Boots for Terrible Ideas
Creativity is powered by friction.
Third of five, following on from My Reconditioned iPod. About what happens to creative work when the friction gets designed out of it. Design systems, Figma agents, and the difference between producing output and having something to say.
Also: a frozen risotto, a component library nobody had to think about, and why the operating was never the differentiator.
// Default Mode
I was called a daydreamer at school. It wasn’t a compliment.
I think it’s the most important skill I have. And I feel it has atrophied.
// Dreaming Aloud
My brain started fizzing again. I hadn’t felt that in years.
An old post, brought in from Medium. About noticing the same energy that was around from 2010 to 2014, before the NDAs closed in, and what a Turner Prize-nominated artwork in Eastbourne had to do with getting it back.
Also: a Tumblr notebook, Discordia, and a clock that started all of this.
// Break It Till You Make It
I used to break gear on purpose.
From 2015, brought in from Medium. Pushing music equipment past what it’s meant to do, and a habit I’ve let go slack since.
Also: an Amiga loading image files as audio, and the accidents that turned out brilliant.
I'd love to tell you more. Let's work together.