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This site describes my creative coding and computational art practice. My work engages with historic computer hardware and software in ways that explore their capabilities and limitations, and often invokes the materiality of past computing practices. I am also interested in code and material conservation, the history of computing, and the challenge of restoring machines from the 1970s and 80s to working condition.
Projects, creative works, and interests
Creative coding and computational art
Visual, conceptual, and performance works exploring creative coding, type, image processing, and computer art. Each provided an opportunity to craft unique code tools in a variety of languages -- from shell scripts and Python to FORTRAN and C.
- Punch tape - Works on paper punch tape
- Textmode - Images rendered in single-strike and double-strike type
- Programmed text - Generative compositions for screen and paper
- SNPCAL - Contemporary takes on the fabled Snoopy line printer calendar
- Processing - Acts of personal data processing
- Platform studies - Creative coding on historic micro- and mini-computers
- PPTWEET - Twitter teleprinter appliance for tweeting and punching tweets to paper tape
- Pi Prints - Exploring the digits of Pi with simple code and a daisy wheel printer
- Mandelbrot - ASCII Mandelbrot images, prints, live streams, and zines
- Art1 works - My Art1 compositions
- Drone station - A dystopian streaming service
Conservation and computing history
Notes and projects in code and material conservation, computing history, and programming as inquiry
- Conserving Art1 - Compiling and exploring Richard Williams' Art1 program from 1968
- Frederick Hammersley - Exploratory analysis of Hammersley's Art1 works
- Finding LOVE - Early creative coding and the origin of a BASIC program
- Sharing Time - Recreating a time share system user experience
- 8080 BASIC VER 1.0 - Running Gates and Allen's earliest version of BASIC
- Revisiting Raskin - Building and using the Information Appliance SwyftCard
- Materials and Conservation - Notes on materials conservation (2020-)
Restoration and repair
Projects encompassing electronics, mechanics, programming, fabrication and materials science
- Altair8800c - Building a replica MITS Altair 8800
- Olivetti TE-318 - Documenting the restoration and operation of an Olivetti TE-318 teleprinter (2018-2021)
- Teletype Model 33 - Restoration and notes for the Teletype ASR-33 teleprinter (2021-)
- Decwriter II - Fun with the office hardcopy terminal (2021-)
- Printers - Daisy wheel and dot matrix printers (2021-)
- Retroborkenwerk - My original Google Site covering the IMSAI 8080, Sol-20, disk imaging, and other microcomputer projects and repairs (2016-2019)
- Thoughts on restoration - Personal history and objectives when restoring older computers (2018-2021)
EF1J Press
Small, personal adventures in book making and zines
Online resources
- Useful websites page - Historic computing, digital humanities, etc. etc.
Social media
Mastodon
- @ef1j@post.lurk.org - TTYs, micros, printers, creative coding, conservation, hacking
Elon's Culture Scrap Yard
- @ef1j95 - Self-hosted Twitter archive (TTYs, micros, printers, creative coding, conservation, hacking, 2017-2022)
Code repos
- Github - Art1, Olivettize, and other code tools and projects
- Glitch - Nascent generative text and writing projects (defunct)
HOWTOs, more projects, and contact info
- Self-programming HOWTO - a secular, scientifically-supported, mechanistic project of meditation
- Hosting HOWTO - Notes on homebrew web servers, wikis, ...
- Photos - captured moments of color and light, time, and place
- Twitch - Occasional IRL teleprinter stream, twitch.tv/ef1j
- Youtube - Archived microcomputer and TTY videos
Have comments, questions, insights, or corrections?
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