benswift.me

Handy Extempore techniques: cosr, markov chains, weighted random, relative pitches, nof vs repeat, quasiquote, clock sync and more.

I've added counter.dev as a lightweight, relatively un-invasive analytics tool.

A PowerShell snippet for bulk-adding students to an MS Teams class from a CSV of email addresses---works on macOS and Linux too.

The 2020 ANZSRC Field of Research codes in a searchable HTML table, because the ABS only publishes them in a spreadsheet.

A simple GitHub template for writing in markdown and producing nice PDFs via Pandoc and LaTeX, with optional BibTeX citations.

A YAML-based Statement of Originality that teaches students how to cite code, declare collaborators and list licences in every assignment.

Students make brilliant memes to explain course content to each other---so why not make that an official part of the class?

Practical advice for ANU computing students on writing a capstone project description and learning outcomes that actually guide your research.

How to get org-roam, org-roam-bibtex and org-noter working together in Spacemacs for a Zettelkasten-style academic workflow.

A student project idea: real-time handwriting-style code rendering for livecoding performances, synced to the music.

A Creative Computing course for ACT year 11 students has been approved for 2021 through the ANU Extension program.

The family has grown by one, so I'm off on parental leave for the rest of the year.

The mbsync 1.3.2 update silently requires a SubFolders setting.

A detailed rundown of the tools we used to run ACMC2020 online---YouTube Premiere, Discord, EasyChair, and a lot of ffmpeg.

The ANU Laptop Ensemble's S1 2020 final gig is streaming live on YouTube this Friday night.

A step-by-step guide to sending and receiving OSC messages between Extempore and Pure Data.

Joining an ANU COVID-19 taskforce to build epidemiological simulation tools for the Canberra health system.

Taking the ANU Laptop Ensemble online during COVID-19---what changes, what stays the same, and why it might actually work.

Highlights from a UK research trip: ICLC, chatting with Sam Aaron and Simon Peyton Jones, and falling over on a Scottish hill.

A small JS snippet that auto-swaps Ctrl/Cmd in keyboard shortcut hints based on the reader's OS.

Workshop materials and outline for the Introduction to music-making in Extempore session at ICLC 2020, Limerick.

The Australasian Computer Music Conference is coming to ANU in July 2020, with a theme of inclusion.

A free evening of experimental sounds---livecoding, processed voice and neural networks---at the ANU School of Music.

A hands-on intro to making music with Extempore at ICLC 2020 in Limerick---no experience required, just bring a laptop.

A recursive Scheme implementation of Euclidean rhythms in Extempore, plus some unexpectedly cool visual patterns.

The ANU Laptop Ensemble is back for Semester 1 2020, open to students in music, art, CS and beyond.

My plans for this website in 2020: Jekyll 4, maybe Eleventy, maybe Netlify, maybe Tailwind.

A pointer to the ANU Extension creative code program.

Come see the COMP1720 Art & Interaction in New Media major project exhibition---this year's theme is listening in/listening out.

A hands-on workshop where participants spin code/creativity/culture wheels and design a real c/c/c studio assessment task.

Photos from the ANU Laptop Ensemble's Semester 2 2019 final performances at the School of Music composition showcase.

I'm handing COMP2300 over to Charles Martin in 2020 so I can focus on the c/c/c studio Reimagine Fellowship.

A quiz (and a plea for consistency) on whether your package manager uses update or upgrade.

A simple trick for making Altair chart text and marks bigger: set a small width/height and export to SVG.

A crash course on reading, processing and writing audio files in Extempore using the libsndfile C library bindings.

The IoT China Study Tour at BIT isn't running this year---the New Colombo Plan grant has expired.

The ANU Laptop Ensemble got a Canberra Times feature, with encouraging words from the School of Music about code in music-making.

A reference list of key people, ICLC committees and TOPLAP nodes in the global livecoding community.

PRIMM-style tutorials for learning sound and music in Extempore, from sine waves through to samplers and metronomes.

A rough map of the people, structures and processes already in place as the c/c/c studio takes shape.

I've been awarded an inaugural CECS Reimagine Fellowship, which means the c/c/c studio is happening.

Four standard questions I use to keep one-on-one research supervision meetings focused and useful.

Livecoding with Charles Martin and Kieran Browne at Drill Hall Gallery, plus ANU Laptop Ensemble members.

I was interviewed for an ABC News article about the Australian livecoding scene.

Profiling a slow Jekyll build, finding the culprit in Nokogiri node copying, and getting a 20x speedup by switching to in-place tree mutation.

The project plan for the c/c/c studio, a creative code outreach program bringing art, music and code to high school students through the ANU Reimagine Fellowship.

How to apply elisp functions to org-mode table rows using named tables and code blocks, with practical caveats and a Pride and Prejudice example.

Going on parental leave, deleting all unread emails on return, and the surprisingly liberating auto-reply policy behind it.

An interactive, spinnable version of the ANU Reimagine logo, built with ClojureScript and Reagent.

A generative 'verb your verb' billboard that picks random verbs and Unsplash backgrounds, built with reveal.js and later rewritten in ClojureScript.