yaxu

Comments

• Thanks @acstanfield that is so lucid and clarifies so much for me. I agree that the concept of debugging comes with particular limited conception of how we interact with a computer and that there are alternatives where we embrace error.

  in Week 2: Code Critique - SkyKnit Comment by yaxu February 2022
• Sorry to come to this so late but this thread has been super inspiring for me. I've been working towards making alternative interfaces for creative coding and this has stopped me in my tracks. Making weirdo visual interfaces somehow feels wrong when…

  in Week 3: Code Critique - describeElement() Comment by yaxu February 2022
• @sarahghp Yes these are really great points! It's too easy to focus on the ways in which coding is like sewing, knitting and weaving, but in a way that's disrespectful to all these practices unless we also explore how they're different.. What their …

  in Week 2: Of Textiles and Technology - Discussion Starter Comment by yaxu February 2022
• I'm just trying to imagine what would happen if SkyKnit patterns were made by an equivalent human rather than a computer. This assumes that the human has never knitted, or has any experience with knots, or even seen or touched a textile - although t…

  in Week 2: Code Critique - SkyKnit Comment by yaxu January 2022
• Sorry to double post but I just wanted to share Amy Twigger-Holroyd's reknitting project: https://reknitrevolution.org/reknit/ There's something about Amy using mathematics to interface between hand and machine knitting gauges to repurpose an…

  in Week 2: Of Textiles and Technology - Discussion Starter Comment by yaxu January 2022
• Yes it's a very nice passage @annatito and that a nice point about the musical insights being a stronger connection to textile art @Zach_Mann. I think there is a general problem with focussing on 'firsts' which focusses on naming particular autho…

  in Week 2: Of Textiles and Technology - Discussion Starter Comment by yaxu January 2022
• @onebigear Yes I think we're talking past each other a bit (I'd assumed you were responding directly to my point) but can see that Lovelace isn't a good role model. It's maybe interesting that the reason she was steered towards mathematics was to st…

  in Week 2: Of Textiles and Technology - Discussion Starter Comment by yaxu January 2022
• @annetropy Yes on reflection I took that statement out of context and was ranting, sorry. @onebigear I wouldn't call Lovelace the first programmer for two reasons - firstly as Maggie Boden says, it's a bit silly to claim that Babbage wasn't also …

  in Week 2: Of Textiles and Technology - Discussion Starter Comment by yaxu January 2022
• @annetropy Yes that's a nice thought. With weaving there have been cases where I have expected a fabric to not hold together, went ahead anyway and it was fine. If I created a 'split' doubleweave without expecting it that would certainly be a valuab…

  in Week 2: Code Critique - SkyKnit Comment by yaxu January 2022
• @joanne that's a really important point. Franklin's "real world of technology" talks about similar processes where technologies of craftwork, like the sewing machine, apparently invented to save women time, are very quickly twisted into technologies…

  in Week 1: Decolonizing Code -- Discussion Starter Comment by yaxu January 2022
• @nannadeboisbuhl This is great thanks for sharing! I've not used a shaft loom, can you say something about how it feels to change rhythm? Do some rhythms 'feel' better than others? Also when you mutate patterns, do you then have problems with floats…

  in Week 2: Code Critique - SkyKnit Comment by yaxu January 2022
• "patterns are sequential instructions that have specialized syntax which also include variables, loops, conditionals, algorithms, etc. While the vocabulary may be different between textile crafters and programmers, the concepts are the same," I'd…

  in Week 2: Of Textiles and Technology - Discussion Starter Comment by yaxu January 2022
• @zach_mann As you say, weaving and knitting are different, but I think this difference can only be understated. Structurally speaking, weaving, knitting and say, javascript are equidistant from each other. The Jacquard mechanism always comes up, but…

  in Week 2: Code Critique - SkyKnit Comment by yaxu January 2022
• I didn't manage to find out whether the 'master' name was really a big issue or not (although thinking about it, it's already starting to feel .. antiquated), but on the other hand renaming a branch from master to main takes a couple of minutes, it'…

  in Week 1: Roundtable: Anti-Racist Critical Code Studies Reading Group Comment by yaxu January 2022
• Thanks for the link to the Data Feminism book @KatieA which I really need to read properly. These Polynesian stick charts are interesting in comparison to the Bailey-Derek grammar: http://thenonist.com/index.php/thenonist/permalink/stick_charts/…

  in Week 1: Decolonizing Code -- Discussion Starter Comment by yaxu January 2022
• I think Vernelle Noel's work on "Situated computations" is excellent, and relevant here. Giving the example of a shape grammar for wire-bending craft for Trinidad and Tobago carnival, she argues that computational design tools should: * Be buil…

  in Week 1: Decolonizing Code -- Discussion Starter Comment by yaxu January 2022
• Hello all, I'm Alex McLean, based in Sheffield UK. I'm just starting a research fellowship at the non-profit open access lab Then Try This exploring "Algorithmic Patterns", developing patterning technologies (including work on my TidalCycles live…

  in Introduce Yourself 2022 Comment by yaxu January 2022