Even after transcending the uncanny valley and with all the computational power we may be able to accumulate, setting aside utopian simulated reality theories, we won’t be able to simulate the full extent of our reality. But that doesn’t mean that what happens in virtual worlds does not leak into our flesh-and-bone reality. Our conduct…
Author: nicolaspe
MIDI logic, arpeggios and interaction hell
For the past few months I have been a bit obsessed with making small MIDI devices for different particular needs. I see it as an experimentation on fabrication, modularity, sound and functionality. So, it is only natural for me to do these exercises in a way that can ported easily to MIDI format easily, and…
Crawling through an uncanny and weird valley
Even though the technology has taken ginormous steps to transcend the limits of the uncanny valley, my own tech skills got me crawling on its floor.
Thinking about sex
The title should be more thinking about gender, but society has misused these terms so much that it is what we learn. Even worse, we just learn about the binary male-female or man/woman, when in reality spectrums exist across sex, gender, orientation, identity and more! It is really creepy how so many developers try to…
Education and building foundations for building a castle
I don’t think of #CSforAll as an economical construct, I think of it as a diversity experiment. I think of it as expanding the use of technology to uses no one would have ever thought, because they would not be profitable, because they would not make clear sense, but only because they are art or…
Dance-Steps for Computers
web-based partying I really like the design of the Groove Pizza example. It plays really well with the cyclical aspect of rhythm and loops, and the option of adding certain shapes for the patterns is very helpful and brings out interesting ideas. But I’m not fully “convinced” by it. It does not let you manipulate…
New (starter) universes: stages and characters
Creating new worlds is always challenging. It tells a story, functions as a plot device, allows or restricts movement and evokes feelings on the user. And the characters that live in that world have to make sense as well, as goombas and koopas have no place on the roads of Gran Turismo. And that’s before…
Look ma! I’m on the internet!!!
From sepia monochromatic old pictures (that required everyone to stay still for minutes, making everyone too serious on each photograph) to the present (although some say we already live in the future sans flying cars), the technology has advanced more than “quite a bit”. We are able to build extremely complex artificial “intelligence” networks that…
Are we humans or are we coders? (humans, we’re humans)
Following my blog post from last week, I have been thinking a lot of Open Source, community building and how to maintain a nurturing environment. I realized I am not alone in my lack of participation and that many other developers, artists and overall coders feel like they would love to contribute,… but they don’t….
Jumping Sampler
For this sampling assignment, I decided I wanted to create something playful and relaxing. I drew inspiration from some indie games and decided to create a simple platformer where a small character would jump on different blocks to trigger some samples, while listening to a background base loop.