In this email newsletter,

1. latest work on L5 creative coding library
2. ZK/U residency wrap-up.
3. permacomputing nyc meetup sep 8

scroll to the end for a meme involving theremins and the nintendo game boy

L5 creative coding developments - new beginner-friendly resources and integrations with editors

First workshop teaching with the new L5lua coding extension - July 2026

L5 is the creative coding library I initiated just over a year ago and released the first public alpha in December 2025. It's desktop-oriented, demands low resource usage, works on older computers, and responds to principles of permacomputing.

This summer, Sam Heckle received support as a GSOC Contributor, thanks to a collaboration with Processing Foundation, and Sam did so much great development work. They developed a brand new L5lua VS Code / VSCodium extension, which makes it even easier to get started coding with L5. Students in the Design for Passion program in University of Washington's Human Centered Design and Engineering program are conducting a usability study to help us improve the extension and our tooling for beginner-friendliness.

We are looking for folks interested in coding with L5 and the new L5lua extension to particpate in a short usability test with UW. You can fill out this survey if you're interested in participating. (Ignore the August 16 deadline. They will be continuing surveying folks over the next week, so the sooner you can get in touch, the better :)

You can read more about L5 developments on the L5lua extension on our new L5 development blog (devlog). Our most recent L5 0.2.0 release fixed a bunch of small bugs and added full code annotations to support autocomplete, error checking, syntax highlighting in all code editors with language server support (tested on Vim, Neovim, VSCode and VSCodium so far).

A HUGE HUGE THANK YOU to Sam! They've been an incredible collaborator, and we are so thankful for all of the work they've put into L5. They've also improved the website, tutorials and big and small things that have helped improve L5. Thank you! Thanks as well to everyone that has been using the library, integrating it into their own art practices, teaching workshops with it, and posting their work online. We'll be running a L5 creative coding jam September 24 - October 2. I'll send info about that next month.

ZK/U residency round 2

I loved being a resident at ZK/U in Berlin again this summer. I've written a wrap-up report on my blog.

ZK/U spielpark at sunset (9:30pm!)

Permacomputing NYC - Sep 8

On September 8, 2026 at 6pm Allison Parrish will present Gameboy Hacking at our Permacomputing NYC meetup at Ridgewood Commons in Ridgewood, Queens, NYC. You can also visit that link to learn more about Permacomputing NYC and sign up for our low-flow email list about upcoming meetings.

Computational poet, programmer, and educator Allison Parrish will present her projects built for the Nintendo Gameboy platform, including designing “bootleg” game boy carts from scratch, restoring and case modding vintage Gameboy systems, and prototyping new music performance hardware for the gameboy (an optical theremin). Topics that may come up: modding, "craft", PCB design, emulation, restoring computers and circuit boards, relation to retrocomputing, "nostalgia", "bedrock" platforms, low-level programming, how cartridges work, copyleft culture, custom stack languages, Leon Theremin….

Alt text: Rest in Peace Leon Theremin. You would have loved Allison Parrish's Game Boy Light-Controlled Optical Theremin.

Coming up

• I post semi-daily code/art/musings/L5 development to my log (and there's an RSS feed).
• I'll be performing in-person at Rutgers in November with collaborator Sue Huang on her Bodies of Flora project, last presented at the New Jersey Art Book Fair at Mana Contemporary in May
• several albums of modular synth and no-input mixing music and field recordings currently in development
• I'd love to do live scores with more choreographers/dance, performance art, maybe even video/film - get in touch
• I start teaching again Monday! I'm chairing Math and Computer Science! I'm working on updating syllabi. Previous iterations of my courses here: Programming Games (intro class), Drawing, Moving and Seeing with Code (upper level new media course)

Cheers, Lee

Lee and Janek's synths at Echo Coordinate