Guten tag.
I'm in my second month in Berlin and my first month at ZK/U Center for Art and Urbanistics, in Moabit, Berlin, Germany.
Compost.party
Solar panel on a box on the roof, dithered
This past week and a half I've been taking care of the Compost.party server up on the roof of the ZK/U residency. It was delivered a week and a half ago by bike and we selected a place for it to maximize sunshine. Once a day I climb up to the roof, unplug the cable to the panel, then reset it. In addition, I've had to do some debugging and ops remotely with Arne, who is currently away with other co-founder Paula bikepacking in The Netherlands.
You can visit it right now at the link Compost.party (unless there wasn't enough sun today)
What is it?
compost.party is a repurposed smartphone running on solar power. It's a web server pieced together from scraps, humming in the attic of an apartment building.
Plants, seating and event space on roof of ZK/U, dithered
The server hosts mini-sites by a dozen folks under various pseudonyms. I've been updating the maintenance logs while its under my care.
I Act Comfortably with Others - in LOVE.exe
I Act Comfortably with Others, 2025
I created a generative work of infinite duration, exhibited as part of LOVE.exe online at New Media Art Space at Baruch College opening today. The software was written in p5.js. Sound performed/recorded on modular synth.
ALPACA - Algorithmic Pattern Salon
In September 12 - 14 I'll be visiting Sheffield, England for Algorithmic Pattern Salon, where I'll be giving a talk on encoding vernacular patchwork quilt patterns. I'll present my work creating generative visual poems, photo and animation work, a chapbook and more all based on these quilt encodings. The conference is both in-person in Sheffield, UK Sep 12 - 14 as well as held online with even more talks from around the world streaming over the internet the following weekend Sep 18 - 20. More info. I'm looking forward to this, and to catching up with friends and colleagues.
Amish barn quilts. Quilt blocks on bank barn: Camelot Star, Irish Chain Block, Shoo Fly Block, Ohio Star and Maple Leaf Block. Photograph by Roseohioresident CC BY-SA
Photos laid out in Drunkard's Path pattern
Amish bars quilt pattern, in Pico-8
Directions in Run Run Run
I have a new computational poem Directions in the publication Run Run Run, published by Nick Montfort's press Bad Quarto.
A spread of Run Run Run showing Other Bodies Writer by Agustin Rosa and A Map of Possible Futures by Andy Wallace. Photo from Bad Quarto.
This small computational piece was written in Lua with size constraints. The code and output had to fit within one side of a half-fold zine page.
Here's a newly generated piece not contained in the zine.
How to go on:
At the mall do go backward
At the fork do go left
Stop when you get to her
How to go with malice:
At the turn don't go straight
At the fork don't go left
At the channel do go straight
At the passage do go forward
Stop when you get to the parking lot
You can pick up the zine to see more of my work and many other computational artists and poets.
ExquisiteCorp performances
I want to play more concerts, live scores, soundtracks, etc on my modular synth. Hire me! Before heading to Berlin I performed a live score for Jemila Macewan's VENIS performance at Flux Factory for the exhibition Shared Grounds.
Playing in a modular synth supergroup at OHM
I performed music three times over the past month, at Zhzhzhzh night at Pedalmarkt, at Zoll 19 Stammtisch in the nightclub OHM, with over a dozen other modular synth players, and this last Friday evening at ZK/U for the first event I've put on there.
The other performers on Friday were Patrick Topitschnig (Flux Factory friend and collaborator), Lor, Blackmoonchild and myself playing as ExquisiteCorp (check out my new performance website). We were lucky to have visuals performed by Sarah GHP live coded in La Habra.
Huge thanks to the ZK/U residents who helped make the event possible and other friends for joining us and helping out. A particularly big thanks to Westley Hennigh-Palermo for setup, food, troubleshooting, and photography. The following photos are thanks to him. Thanks as well to the performers, to Patrick for helping to coordinate, to ZK/U for support, and everyone that attended, and the ZK/U cleanup crew.
All photos by Westley Hennigh-Palermo.
visuals live coded by Sarah GHP
HTML (Energy Day)
I've been spending lots of time at Offline, a community space in Berlin. Highlights include Show Us Your Screens, the Permacomputing Meetup and August's HTML Day.
I have a writeup about it on my blog:
Generative art made in a field 🌳👩🏽💻
Here's an image from All the Greens, which I created that day, initially in HTML/CSS/JS. Later I ported it to my new programming language L5...
All The Greens (original written-in-a-field version), 2025
L5
I am working on a new Lua-based creative coding library based on the Processing API and using the Love2d framework for rendering visuals. I have a draft version complete, am working on getting a documentation site up, and am excited to roll out a first version for friends and then the broader community this fall.
I presented some of my artwork and my early work on L5 in presentations at Creative Code Berlin Stammtisch at Prachtsaal Studio and Show Us Your Screens at Offline in August.
If you're interested in trying it out, could you respond to this email and let me know? I'll be finishing initial documentation over the next week or so and it would be helpful to have friends check it out and give feedback before sending out to the wider public. Some background in Processing or p5.js would be helpful! Danke.
I think that's it for now. I'm taking German lessons while I'm here! I do miss my friends in NYC and elsewhere too. More soon. Write anytime.
Mit herzlichen Grüßen, Lee