Poetic Computation

Computation is a space where language meets mathematics and logic meets electricity. I create poetic interventions through coding and hacking electronics.

Handmade Computers

In Handmade Computers, hand-making circuits from discrete electronic components is a practice devoted to the history and craft of computation. The computer is not a neutral object for aesthetic contemplation. Instead, it is a site of contested politics, and of precarious life. It is a massively large and abstract machine that’s operating by the logic of the capitalism. When our lives are so profoundly affected by algorithms and programs, what are the acts of resistance or dissent that preserve our morality, our humanity?

School for Poetic Computation

I cofounded the School for Poetic Computation to teach about beauty and elegance in the abstraction and repetition of computation. I work on the school’s administration, admissions public events and collaborate on the curriculum and teaching.

 

CPU Dumplings

CPU Dumplings Workshop is a cooking class to learn the fundamentals of computation. Participants perform all the operations of a CPU (Central Processing Unit) by learning to chop chives, mince onions, fill and fold dumplings to become a part of a human computation that simulates a CPU instruction set.

Errantic Poetry

Erratic Poetry is a project on the intersection of code, sign language, drawings and the standard English language. It is a personal journey between the languages that I use and admire – Korean, English, ASCII and ASL. Through methods of translation and interpretation, the project invents new expressive and poetic forms, revealing the fundamental systems of the language and the larger systems that are built with it. 

Processing Community Day

I organized the inaugural Processing Community Day at the MIT Media Lab, convening longtime and new contributors, fellowship and Google Summer of Code alumni, and the Processing Foundation Board. The day included presentations from speakers like Ben Fry, Casey Reas, Lauren McCarthy, Eva Díaz and Daniel Shiffman and workshops by Sydette Harry and Johanna Hedva, among others.

Digital Poetics

Digital Poetics is an essay about projects which incorporate computer software and data into their creation and presentation, asking both “what is digital about poems created through such a process” and “what is poetic about digital technology?” In this essay, I look at generative poetry created by others using inventive words, sets of rules, algorithms and databases. 

Poetic Coding Workshop

In this workshop I taught the students of Ebenezer School and Home for the Visually Impaired coding with HTML. Building upon the Touching the Internet workshop I led for the students in 2019, I taught the students through four sessions of remote, online workshops.

Magical World of Numbers

I organized a workshop called Magical World of Numbers as a part of Kim Youngna’s exhibition at the Buk Seoul Museum of Art. The workshop  explored Na’s exhibition through mathematics and code. I’m thrilled to work with Seung Joon Choi, extra special physics, math, and code educator in Korea. This workshop was conducted in Korean.