Here’s a thread to hit reply on and introduce yourselves, whether you’re joining Alpaca conference online, or at one of the conference ‘watch parties’/hubs in Barcelona, Berlin, Linz or Sheffield. For example, what interests bring you to the conference, and what’s an interesting pattern you’ve found or made that you’d like to share?
Or if you’d like to offer a topic for discussion, feel free to start a new thread!
Ok I’ll start things off! I’m Alex McLean, based here in Sheffield UK, where I’m one of the organisers of Sheffield Pattern Club (https://patternclub.org/sheffield/). I enjoy making music with code, and helped make the TidalCycles and Strudel live coding environments, as well as helping grow the live coding and Algorave movements around it. I’m lucky to be a full time researcher, exploring algorithmic patterns around e.g. music, choreography and textiles. Here’s my personal website/blog: https://slab.org/
In terms of an interesting pattern to share.. I’ve been fairly obsessed with carnatic rhythms for a while, and shared some links in a thread on this forum, so I’ll just point to that! https://forum.algorithmicpattern.org/t
To introduce myself, Patricia Bentley, I have spent my life with textiles, in one way or another.
I have explored and made textiles through costume design for theatre and opera, and through art making and museum curatorial work. Along the way I have earned an art degree and a PhD but it wasn’t until midlife that I realized my fascination with mathematics and how I was doing mathematics through my weaving practice.
Philosophically I am interested in textiles’ contradictory qualities - of softness yet mathematical rigour - of hiding in plain sight - of patterning - of interlacing - of enduring yet fraying, fading, and falling apart.
My most interesting pattern is always going to be the one I am working on at the moment! Check out my talk on September 19 to have a look.
Hi there! I’m Mags (they/them), and I’m an undergraduate physicist with a particular interest in MRI scanning/machines. Usually I research ways we can improve imaging at ‘ultra-high fields’ (fields stronger than ~5 Tesla. Most hospital scanners are between 1.5 and 3 Tesla.)
Pattern-wise, I’m interested in how we design the magnetic fields the scanner applies to produce an image and how simple algorithmic patterns can be used to gain an understanding of particular experiments. I’ll be speaking about that at 10:25 on the Friday.
I also dabble in live-coding music with Strudel, and perform as part of pastagang! I’m looking forward to seeing you at Alpaca :))
Hey everyone! I’m James, based in London. I was inspired by Alex’s work and decided to set up London Pattern Club, which I’ve been organising for the last couple of years. I’ll be sharing a bit about our group in my talk on September 13th!
In terms of my own creative practice, I make live-coded music as collapse, and I’m interested in overlaps between music, coding and textiles. Recently I’ve been making sensors with e-textiles and incorporating them into live performances.
In terms of nice patterns, I’m fascinated by rhythm and repetition in kumihimo - very excited to attend the workshop on the 14th!
Hi, I’m Rohit, based in Sheffield. I’ll be attending the conference on the Friday. Looking forward to meeting new friends there 
I’ve attended a few algoraves in the past, which were very fun. I play tabla and I also like computer programming. I want to get good at live coding then try sampling my tabla. But life is busy so I haven’t got around to it yet - hopefully this conference gives me motivation!
Forrest O. joining remotely from Helsinki. I introduced myself and one favorite pattern in this thread…
I have another favorite pattern (Sierpiński curve) animated and papercrafted here…
Hi folks, I’m Lee https://leetusman.com
I’m an artist, educator, programmer, quilter, modular synth musician. I will be presenting some current work on encoding patchwork quilting patterns and generating digital (and soon textile as well) artworks with these encodings as data source.
I do live coding in NYC, and teach it as part of my course in Drawing, Moving and Seeing with Code. I’m currently on sabbatical in Berlin, working on a creative coding library in Lua (L5) with Processing APIs. And I host a podcast on art and code called Artists and Hackers.
Things I’m interested in lately (or past few years): permacomputing, low-resolution images/games/weaving, biking, field recordings, microcassette recorders, BASIC, houseplants.
Hi I’m Laura Taalman (aka mathgrrl) and I’m exbhited to be attending this conference and joining this community for the first time (virtually). I’m a mathematician/artist of sorts and I make interactive apps for exploring mathematical and algorithmic patterning in the fiber arts: Yarncraft - mathgrrl
My current project is a community artwork called Granny Life that combines a modern take on crocheted granny squares with motifs generated by a 2D totalistic cellular automaton. If that sounds like your thing, feel free to join the project and crochet a square! www.grannylifecrochet.com
Hello, I’m Anu. I’m based in Malmö, Sweden and I’m part of the conference organising committee. I’ll join remotely this time.
I’m a design researcher (not in academia) and I enjoy working with patterns in everyday textiles, folk arts, and crafts. I’m fascinated by structure and rhythm in hand drawn Kolams (recently with Alex), Sashiko Hitomezashi stitches, Islamic geometry, Pysanky dyeing, and Banjara embroidery. I also enjoy tapping into patterns in everyday life (periods, seasons, motions), and reinterpreting them in textiles, code, and electronics. You can see my previous work here. There’s a lot to be updated though!
I’m currently wrestling time learning Swedish, attempting an inflatable Edwardian garment accessory, and absorbed by Japanese folk art and craft movements since I’m reading ‘The Unknown Craftsman’ by Soestu Yanagi. There’s a great essay called ‘Pattern’ in it, which I highly recommend!
Hi All
I’m Kate I am a choreographer and live coder currently in Richmond, VIrginia. I am in the band Codie with Sarah GHP who is also presenting.
I will be giving an online workshop on a choreographic system by Trisha Brown that creates spatial patterns for the body. I think about this work a lot because it is does not require digital computation, just the body.
Looking forward to hearing presentations!
Hello, Nick here. Computer Scientist by training (got as far as Ph.D.) before drifting into music and performing arts. Have worked as composer/performer, most prominently creating soundtracks for Shobana Jeyasingh Dance, doing live Flamenco score (in electronics) for Luz&Mannion, work for Laurie Booth, Aydın Teker and many others (including @sicchio!). Lots of code and systems for the arts, with gigs for Ballett Frankfurt, Studio Wayne McGregor, Simeon Nelson Studios, body>data>space, Beinghuman and others (also including @sicchio!). Journalist and podcaster for Sound On Sound magazine. Very briefly media technology consultant for Tate Modern, the Pina Bausch Foundation and Snow Patrol. In quite a few bands: Team Metlay, Different Skies, Karelian Skies, mindSpiral, Monomatic. 50% of Khyal Geometries (live-coding alongside Shama Rahman on sitar). 50% of The Printer Jam (live-coding or controllerism alongside Evan Raskob on 3D printer).
Main practitioning/researching at the moment: language semantics and mathematics-driven patterning for display and performance control surfaces, from monome table-top grids to two-ton steel sculptures. Grapheme-colour synæsthete. Tangerine Dream fan. JavaScript hater.
Hello I’m Agoston, an artist and educator based in Budapest.
I usually make code based algorithmic art with various techniques, including mechanical plotter drawings, realtime browser based animations combined with sound synthesis. I sometimes give workshops on systems thinking, creative coding and similar fields, and I will make a Procedural Drawing workshop during the festival, hope to see many of you there!
I will also give a talk titled ‘Entangled Rituals: Visualizing Chance Through Quantum Algorithms’ related to my ongoing artistic research in which I am exploring the intersections and analogies of contemporary computational culture and historical infrastructures for modeling and navigating the world.
Some ‘random patterns’ - I first got involved in live coding at the Foundry, London around the mid2000s when I saw Alex, Dave and Nick performing some very extraordinary performance. Since then I also made some live coding gigs using Pure Data at festivals like Piksel, Chmod +x (Goto10)… I also made a PHD titled ‘Visual Music Instruments’ that is focusing on the different interfaces of sonic interactions and new musical expressions.
my website >> https://entangled.tools/
I’ll be there IRL, Really looking forward for the festival!
Hi, I’m Hannes,
and here as (a) part of pastagang!
pastagang is a wild mix of people jamming together, and apparently writing papers and giving presentations!
You can find more about us at https://pastagang.cc
I’m myself are mostly visually contributing with weird hydra lines, sometimes dabbing into some strudel music as well.
Tinker a lot on our live coding room nudel.cc
Hi ,
I’m Carlos Ramos from Leipzig, Germany.
I hold an MSc in Computer Science and currently work as a researcher/developer at the University of Leipzig, where I build tools for education.
I’ve recently become fascinated by live coding because it feels like the perfect intersection of my interests in algorithmic composition, data visualization, and pattern-making. I’ve been experimenting with computer music for over a decade, and I’m still happily exploring this endless rabbit hole.
As for patterns, I love Escher-style recursive tilings, especially those with birds.
I’m Phil. Interested in music, code, functional programming, grammars, production systems, tiling patterns, emergence, live coding, vibe coding, trees vs graphs, text UIs, chord progressions, Lisp, programming language design, secondary dominants, parsers, gothic cathedrals, wikis, pattern languages, tools for thought, future of coding, new interfaces for musical expression etc.
Hi! My name is Craig Kaplan. I’m a Computer Science professor at the University of Waterloo. I’m interested in all sorts of ways that computers can be used as a tool to generate interesting visual patterns, usually based on mathematical ideas. My earliest research was mostly about Islamic geometric patterns and the art of M.C. Escher, topics I return to frequently. These days I’m doing a lot of more mathematical work related to tilings, particularly after the role I played in the discovery of aperiodic monotiles over the past few years. I also help organize the annual Bridges conference on mathematics and the arts. You can learn more about me on my academic site (papers, etc.) and my personal site (blog, art projects). I’m looking forward to being inspired by Alpaca 2025!
My name is Dragica Kahlina (dr_kah/d_kahlina on Insta or drka@mastodon.social), lecturer at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) in Switzerland, I am a sound artist and game developer as scientist, coder and artist. I love generative, procedural, dynamic art, sonic and visual. I started to integrate my long-term textile hobby into my other endeavors. If you want to talk tatting circles/picots and correspondences to loops and beats in music or rug hooking and pixel art or handcrafted, artisanal AIs I would love to hear your ideas.
Hi Everyone!
My name is Laura, I’m based in the US, and I run a research lab at CU Boulder called the Unstable Design Lab. My research has explored human-machine relationships in making and I’ve always been fascinated by the intersection of computational design and physical/material practice. Most of my research of late has involved woven textiles: making them, designing tools for them, making materials that can make textiles, etc. . I’m currently on sabbatical which has given me some time to devote to cleaning up and solidifying the codebase to AdaCAD, a parametric design software for making woven drafts (or really any kind of bitmap) that we make in my lab (and with the support of generous contributors….some of whom I see on this intro thread - thank you!). Looking forward to virtually meeting you all!
Late to the intros, I’m sorry.
I’m Indra Kupferschmid from Germany, a freelance typographer and full-time teacher (HBKsaar.de). Interested audience here who found the event via Mastodon reposts.
As far as patterns go, I worked on how font design and production technology – and their constraints, for instance unit systems – influence letterforms and typeface design. Also bitmap fonts and rasterization on crude output devices. I am a (hand) knitter, into zero-waste textiles, infrastructure, in particular urban planning and transit, and strolling and how it influences our perception of the world.