Alex McLean

@yaxu

Non-academic #UKRIFLF research fellow at non-profit org @thentrythis, working on algorithmic patterns (@alpaca). Instigator of @tidalcycles, and co-founder of @algorave […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir yaxu.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Alex McLean@yaxu· Jun 8

After @th4's cnytt workshop (https://codeberg.org/aherrou/cnytt) I've been enjoying choosing a couple of random stitches and repeating them to see what happens. Here just repeating two stitches - yarn over, knit two together. Lovely tangly repetition.

Knitted messy lacework with white cotton yarn

Alex McLean@yaxu· May 23

Playing with improvising some sanquhar-style patterns in the round (so I don't have to do purls), and decided to turn it into a sock for my lovely Zoom L6 portable mixer. #knitting

Alex McLean@yaxu· May 18

I spotted this settee in a national trust place yesterday https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/446444 The pattern on the cushions is something called 'flame stitch' or Bargello https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bargello_(needlework) I took a couple of […] [Original post on post.lurk.org]

Zig zagging embroidery pattern in green and creamy colour

Alex McLean@yaxu· May 14

@tomstafford My results are more similar

Alex McLean@yaxu· May 6

This from Ingold (being alive 2011, pg. 62) reads as more optimistic than it used to. LLMs are closed rather than open, and can we really say its users aren't losing skill as "the ‘living appendages’ of lifeless mechanism"?

Not only, then, are machines open rather than closed, but also the project of technology chases a target that recedes as fast as it is approached. ... at the same time that narratives of use are converted by technology into algorithmic structures, these structures are themselves put to use within the ongoing activities of inhabitants, and through the stories of this use they are reincorporated into the field of effective action within which all life is lived.The essence of skill, then, comes to lie in the improvisational ability with which practitioners are able to disassemble the constructions of technology, and creatively to reincorporate the pieces into their own walks of life. In this ability lies life’s power to resist the impositions of regimes of command and control that seek to reduce practitioners to what Karl Marx once called the ‘living appendages’ of lifeless mechanism. Thus skill is destined to carry on for as long as life does, along a line of resistance, forever undoing the closures and finalities that mechanisation throws in its path.

Alex McLean@yaxu· May 2

Lyon knows how to algorave

Alex McLean@yaxu· Apr 26

This from Stockhausen is remarkable in a couple of ways.. First it closes his book and clearly he felt it was important, but as far as I know dancing is completely absent from computer music/electroacoustic education institutions that otherwise laud Stockhausen […] [Original post on post.lurk.org]

And then, finally, I would recommend that every student of music go dancing at least once a week. And dance. Please, really dance: three or four hours a week. Any dance, whatever is going at the discotheque or dance spot, though discos tend to become monotonous. Different dances, you should dance with a partner, and to different rhythms and tempi: slow, medium, fast and in different rhythms based on two, three or four beats. Make your own evenings with tapes of folk dances: Austrian, Spanish, Hungarian, South American. There should be a good dancing teacher on the staff, that would be perfect: not for ballet, but for social dancing, real social dancing, once a week, as part of the music course, for the whole duration of study.

Alex McLean@yaxu· Apr 18

Knitting the cover for the rumoured upcoming epiploke album

Hand knitting in black and white, showing patterns in a sanquhar style and the text "epiploke"

Alex McLean@yaxu· Apr 5

Remembering when I got booked to do a tedx talk about algorave and went on and on about maypole dancing

Person without grey hair emoting in front of a slide that says "algorithmic dance culture" on it on top of an illustration of children doing a maypole dance

Alex McLean@yaxu· Mar 22

A reminder that we were almost on the timeline where nintendo released a knitting machine peripheral for the NES. They did make a prototype, things could have been very different if it had reached production.

A mocked up advert saying:

Now you're knitting with power

You’re looking at the Nintendo Knitting Machine.

It’s not a game; not a toy; not something a young girl can outgrow in three or six months or even a year.

It’s a machine that interacts with the powerful Nintendo Entertainment System to actually knit sweaters: and not just one or two patterns but a multitude of different and unique designs.

The Nintendo Knitting Machine is just one more example of the innovative thinking that keeps Nintendo on the cutting edge of video technology. And your customers on the edge of their seats.

Of course we should probably mention that no other video game system offers anything even remotely similar. But why needle the competition?

Alex McLean@yaxu· Mar 20

After some days work, I finally made my first unassisted warp, got on the loom and threaded up with 189 ends. It seems I had only one small mistake in the threading, just had to swap two threads. Can't wait to explore some lift patterns with this ! #weaving

A test weave with blue warp and peppermint coloured weft

Around half way through the threading process, showing dangling blue threads on the loom

The finished threading, showing a fairly complex pattern

Alex McLean@yaxu· Mar 15

Spent some time fiddling with my experimental crackle weave operation in #adacad, and am thinking of trying to thread this one I'd have thought that the square patches of different patterns would give it an interesting woven structure? #weaving

A weaving programming interface, showing operations connected together, each with a black and white grid showing its outputs. The final output looks has a weird cross pattern

Alex McLean@yaxu· Mar 3

Having a go at threading a crackle weave on my 8 shaft table loom, using an algorithmically generated pattern by Ralph Griswald #weaving

A wooden table loom with threads all over the place and a print out of a binary grid pattern with scribbled notes

Alex McLean@yaxu· Jan 24

Was going to post some thoughts about going on holiday but remembered asking chatgpt4 about my holiday schedule and it had been spying on my mastodon profile and made a pretty good guess

chatgpt output giving my typical holiday schedule in detail

Alex McLean@yaxu· Jan 19

"On being formal: communal informatics, khipu technologies, extractivism, and debt." Research workshop of the Epistemic Media Research Group (Institute for Music and Media) with @Khipumancer, @nebogeo, @julian and myself coming up in-person in Düsseldorf on […] [Original post on post.lurk.org]

Montage of knotted strands of Andean khipu and diagrams of Cornish mines

Alex McLean@yaxu· Jan 10

@nnenov Basically you select an item and press 'd' and you get this handy thingie

Alex McLean@yaxu· Dec 26

Spent ages designing a complex new pattern in adacad ( https://adacad.org/?share=2381632051 ), was excited to weave it but it's turned out surprisingly boring so far..

Alex McLean@yaxu· Dec 24

Yesterday I had some fun exploring double weave (mind expanding stuff) and what I think is overshot (pictured). Not sure what to try next.. I'm curious about rosepath threading but have quite a lot of warp left with this point threading..

Alex McLean@yaxu· Dec 22

So tired, but had to have a go at this advancing pattern.. Woven by hand, following the source code here https://adacad.org/?share=20441310 #weaving

Alex McLean@yaxu· Dec 22

Warp is on and getting stuck in with a trippy waffle pattern!

Trippy textured pink, blue and green weaving

Weaving draft in the AdaCAD software for a simple (but effective) waffle pattern

Alex McLean@yaxu· Dec 21

Stumbled across this again

A doctored 'volca code' synthesiser with buttons for different tidalcycles functions

Alex McLean@yaxu· Dec 21

After some research I decided to change it out to do a point (zig-zagging) threading. Took some hours but allows wider 14 thread repeats.. This is a nice introduction of the possibilities of point threading, I love the advancing pattern, which reminds me of […] [Original post on post.lurk.org]

warp threads going through string headlines in a kind of diagonal pattern

Alex McLean@yaxu· Dec 20

I still agree with this tbh

Alex McLean@yaxu· Dec 19

With a lot of help from my friend Seiko Kinoshita, I have made my first warp! I've done quite a bit of weaving before, but not with shafts, and only with already-existing warp. I've done the a basic threading which can only make an eight-thread repeat (one […] [Original post on post.lurk.org]

Alex McLean@yaxu· Dec 17

lyric sheet for the red flag, o tannenbaum and o christmas tree

Alex McLean@yaxu· Dec 17

7 years ago, I got a room full of people in Sheffield to sing the red flag, o tannenbaum and o christmas tree simultaneously, while I played with the chords in @tidalcycles (they all have the same tune) merry xmas!

Alex McLean@yaxu· Dec 16

A new epistemic tool has arrived in the @patternclubsheffield lab!

A wooden, an eight-shaft table loom waiting to be warped up, with miscellaneous audio gear in the background

Alex McLean@yaxu· Dec 5

Just released "Compassion through algorithms volume III" - a huge 55 track album full of really great music and noise from the live coding/algorithmic music community, fundraising to support Palestinian health, dignity and culture. Buy it today (name your […] [Original post on post.lurk.org]

Album artwork - pen plotter art with colours of the Palestinian flag superimposed

Alex McLean@yaxu· Oct 12

If you ever wonder why I'm so beautiful, it's because I'm from Coleford, the home of Ribena.

Old advert for Ribena, claiming that it makes you beautiful, and mentioning htat it is made in Coleford.

Alex McLean@yaxu· Sep 1

Any tips for taming storage for cables used quite often in random order?? Maybe I just need more hooks