I’ve had this sketch in my notebook for around a year and a half now. I’ve been meaning to vectorize it but never got around to it! Looking back on it, the stroke weight is all over the place and it looks pretty crazy, but its ridiculous patterns and geometric forms kind of resonate with me. This is one of those things that I made this site for, and believe me I’ve been meaning to share it for a while (although I’m a lot less happy with it now than I was back then).
While sifting through files on my server, I came across something I had developed for a friend who wanted to host some computer science contests for people at my school. This was two years ago, just before I learned about using grid systems for layout (I know, right?). Surprisingly, the site is pretty amazing for someone who knew so little. There was an API for my friend to pull contest data as it came in, a user management system, and (of course) a system for creating problems and making contests with them. It does much more than that and has a slick JavaScript-driven interface, along with some CSS3 goodness. My friend insisted it only took me two weeks, and I couldn’t believe I built something like that so long ago in such a short time!
How did I forget about this thing!? I just now stumbled upon it again, and it’s been pretty inspiring. It makes me want to try knocking out my portfolio site within the next week!
Before I started working with SuperCollider for my senior project, I had actually composed some stuff in GarageBand (stop making that face at me!). Probably the best thing I’d composed was this piece called Sweden Alone:
You can actually hear some of the melodies from here recycled in my piece Didot. Everyone I play it for seems to like it, so I’m pretty happy with it. If you download it, ignore the weird metadata; there was a time when I thought I’d publish my music under the name Quite for whatever reason.
For my senior project I was making music with the SuperCollider audio synthesis language. Quite a few people showed interest in hearing my final piece (which I’ve titled Didot, after the typeface), so here it is:
The first and last two minutes are this avant-garde type of sound, while the middle is a jumble of stuff that almost sounds like disco at one point. I had a lot of fun making this and was pretty surprised to see how well it turned out, despite only studying SuperCollider for 4 months in my spare time! I’ll post some more stuff I did for my senior project later, although most of it is awful.
A few years ago I realized that I needed a place of my own to share some music and things I was working on with my friends. About a year ago I started sketching the initial designs for this blog, and after nine months of development here it is! The layout is a little peculiar, but I’m quite happy with my little space and intend to fill it with all sorts of creative works. Mostly music. I don’t seem to draw much anymore.
At some point I’ll probably post my notes and sketches from when I was still fretting this site’s design, but right now I’m more concerned about getting my senior project online. I did mine on composing music with code and people keep asking to hear my pieces, so that gets priority!
While I don’t intend for this to become a place for personal ramblings, I guess I should also mention today’s my 18th birthday. Pretty exciting day so far!
