Andy Matuschak
@andymatuschak.org
More wonder, more insight, more expression, more joy!
Currently exploring tools that augment human memory and attention.
https://andymatuschak.org
Twitter: andy_matuschak
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Currently exploring tools that augment human memory and attention.
https://andymatuschak.org
Twitter: andy_matuschak
Mastodon: @[email protected]
After the critical failure of Merrily…, Sondheim thought about quitting music to make video games. I’ve wondered what they would be like. Today I found this email exchange—apparently, didactic?! Hard to imagine. www.nypl.org/blog/2022/07...
August 28, 2025 at 12:20 AM
After the critical failure of Merrily…, Sondheim thought about quitting music to make video games. I’ve wondered what they would be like. Today I found this email exchange—apparently, didactic?! Hard to imagine. www.nypl.org/blog/2022/07...
Was David Lynch describing the jhanas in his account of transcendental meditation? (from Catching the Big Fish)
August 5, 2025 at 4:57 AM
Was David Lynch describing the jhanas in his account of transcendental meditation? (from Catching the Big Fish)
Most recently, I thought about it when looking at this photo of me at age 3 playing with Kid Pix. So free! No need for the art to be great! The opposite of what Alan's talking about, and yet some of my happiest childhood memories.
Anyway. How do you grapple with this quote?
Anyway. How do you grapple with this quote?
August 5, 2025 at 4:52 AM
Most recently, I thought about it when looking at this photo of me at age 3 playing with Kid Pix. So free! No need for the art to be great! The opposite of what Alan's talking about, and yet some of my happiest childhood memories.
Anyway. How do you grapple with this quote?
Anyway. How do you grapple with this quote?
Also supporting theme-and-variation: EtherPen can fuzzy-search for a selection (including only by pitch or duration). So if a sequence is repeated but transposed or doubled in time, that'll show up too. There's also a novel minimap representation.
June 19, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Also supporting theme-and-variation: EtherPen can fuzzy-search for a selection (including only by pitch or duration). So if a sequence is repeated but transposed or doubled in time, that'll show up too. There's also a novel minimap representation.
Notes (both engraved and handwritten!) can be selected and directly manipulated in pitch and time.
EtherPen also allows you to select only the pitches or durations of notes—useful for theme-and-variation. e.g. copy pitches and paste them over notes in a different bar without affecting their rhythm.
EtherPen also allows you to select only the pitches or durations of notes—useful for theme-and-variation. e.g. copy pitches and paste them over notes in a different bar without affecting their rhythm.
June 19, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Notes (both engraved and handwritten!) can be selected and directly manipulated in pitch and time.
EtherPen also allows you to select only the pitches or durations of notes—useful for theme-and-variation. e.g. copy pitches and paste them over notes in a different bar without affecting their rhythm.
EtherPen also allows you to select only the pitches or durations of notes—useful for theme-and-variation. e.g. copy pitches and paste them over notes in a different bar without affecting their rhythm.
On the "main" staves, engraved notes, handwritten notes, audio files all co-exist in continuous playback. So you can capture one section by humming, one section by drawing, and one through formal notation. (You can also take a photo and anchor it to a measure, but it won't yet be OCR'd!)
June 19, 2025 at 10:18 PM
On the "main" staves, engraved notes, handwritten notes, audio files all co-exist in continuous playback. So you can capture one section by humming, one section by drawing, and one through formal notation. (You can also take a photo and anchor it to a measure, but it won't yet be OCR'd!)
EuterPen can interpret handwritten music (e.g. for playback or manipulation) *without* needing to replace your ink with engraved notes. In fact, you can non-destructively switch between handwritten and engraved representations. This lets composers visually indicate what's still work-in-progress.
June 19, 2025 at 10:18 PM
EuterPen can interpret handwritten music (e.g. for playback or manipulation) *without* needing to replace your ink with engraved notes. In fact, you can non-destructively switch between handwritten and engraved representations. This lets composers visually indicate what's still work-in-progress.
Staves can be created within a pensieve, and they work just like in the "real" score: they can be played, manipulated, and copied into the main score.
June 19, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Staves can be created within a pensieve, and they work just like in the "real" score: they can be played, manipulated, and copied into the main score.
EuterPen relaxes many of those constraints, but it also offers dedicated scratch spaces, "pensieves", for non-linear exploration. Pensieves can be global or spatially anchored below staves (using a SpaceInk-like gesture).
The pensieve can hold ink, engraved music, audio files, imagery, etc.
The pensieve can hold ink, engraved music, audio files, imagery, etc.
June 19, 2025 at 10:18 PM
EuterPen relaxes many of those constraints, but it also offers dedicated scratch spaces, "pensieves", for non-linear exploration. Pensieves can be global or spatially anchored below staves (using a SpaceInk-like gesture).
The pensieve can hold ink, engraved music, audio files, imagery, etc.
The pensieve can hold ink, engraved music, audio files, imagery, etc.
This is an appreciation thread for EuterPen, a multimodal music notation system by Vincent Cavez et al. It aims to support the non-linear process of exploration during composition.
It's the most sensitive and imaginative academic HCI design work I've seen in quite some time!
It's the most sensitive and imaginative academic HCI design work I've seen in quite some time!
June 19, 2025 at 10:18 PM
This is an appreciation thread for EuterPen, a multimodal music notation system by Vincent Cavez et al. It aims to support the non-linear process of exploration during composition.
It's the most sensitive and imaginative academic HCI design work I've seen in quite some time!
It's the most sensitive and imaginative academic HCI design work I've seen in quite some time!
This was a nice anthology of brief interviews with artist collaborators and collectives. I've been curious to learn more about these scenes as I noodle on how I want to structure collaborations in my own work. Some excerpts below…
June 17, 2025 at 8:40 PM
This was a nice anthology of brief interviews with artist collaborators and collectives. I've been curious to learn more about these scenes as I noodle on how I want to structure collaborations in my own work. Some excerpts below…
I wonder how it feels to be the marketer hired to work on this campaign.
March 9, 2025 at 9:01 PM
I wonder how it feels to be the marketer hired to work on this campaign.
Sunday's approach: it shines a very bright light *up*, at a large circular diffuser, which casts the light into the room.
The diffuser has a coating which really does make it feel like the sky: it's vivid blue, and the spotlight's manipulated reflection looks like the sun.
A visual comparison:
The diffuser has a coating which really does make it feel like the sky: it's vivid blue, and the spotlight's manipulated reflection looks like the sun.
A visual comparison:
February 15, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Sunday's approach: it shines a very bright light *up*, at a large circular diffuser, which casts the light into the room.
The diffuser has a coating which really does make it feel like the sky: it's vivid blue, and the spotlight's manipulated reflection looks like the sun.
A visual comparison:
The diffuser has a coating which really does make it feel like the sky: it's vivid blue, and the spotlight's manipulated reflection looks like the sun.
A visual comparison:
The main problem is that existing ultra-bright lights aren't great for home use. Options include:
1. industrial lamps (ugly, poor CRI)
2. 20+ high-CRI bulbs
3. film lighting (huge, often have fans)
All these will make your space feel like a warehouse unless you add bulky soft boxes .
1. industrial lamps (ugly, poor CRI)
2. 20+ high-CRI bulbs
3. film lighting (huge, often have fans)
All these will make your space feel like a warehouse unless you add bulky soft boxes .
February 15, 2025 at 7:01 PM
The main problem is that existing ultra-bright lights aren't great for home use. Options include:
1. industrial lamps (ugly, poor CRI)
2. 20+ high-CRI bulbs
3. film lighting (huge, often have fans)
All these will make your space feel like a warehouse unless you add bulky soft boxes .
1. industrial lamps (ugly, poor CRI)
2. 20+ high-CRI bulbs
3. film lighting (huge, often have fans)
All these will make your space feel like a warehouse unless you add bulky soft boxes .
Some notes on sundaylight.cc, a sort of… artificial skylight?
It feels good to spend the day in daylight. But that doesn’t happen when I’m working inside. Especially in the winter. So, for years, I’ve used super-bright LEDs while I work. They quite noticeably improve my energy and mood.
It feels good to spend the day in daylight. But that doesn’t happen when I’m working inside. Especially in the winter. So, for years, I’ve used super-bright LEDs while I work. They quite noticeably improve my energy and mood.
February 15, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Some notes on sundaylight.cc, a sort of… artificial skylight?
It feels good to spend the day in daylight. But that doesn’t happen when I’m working inside. Especially in the winter. So, for years, I’ve used super-bright LEDs while I work. They quite noticeably improve my energy and mood.
It feels good to spend the day in daylight. But that doesn’t happen when I’m working inside. Especially in the winter. So, for years, I’ve used super-bright LEDs while I work. They quite noticeably improve my energy and mood.
How would you actually pull off this HyperCard brochure’s interactive map case study? Make 2^n different cards, and have the filters navigate? Could you actually implement the filters via HyperTalk?
February 8, 2025 at 8:33 PM
How would you actually pull off this HyperCard brochure’s interactive map case study? Make 2^n different cards, and have the filters navigate? Could you actually implement the filters via HyperTalk?
Funny enough, that's actually a figure in one of my favorite silent speech papers. www.microsoft.com/en-us/resear...
December 13, 2024 at 7:12 PM
Funny enough, that's actually a figure in one of my favorite silent speech papers. www.microsoft.com/en-us/resear...
Many striking things about Hiroshima's peace park, but most surprising for me was how much was very much in the now: hundreds of fresh flowers at the cenotaph, ever-accumulating millions of paper cranes from visitors, the ever-burning peace flame.
December 4, 2024 at 12:39 AM
Many striking things about Hiroshima's peace park, but most surprising for me was how much was very much in the now: hundreds of fresh flowers at the cenotaph, ever-accumulating millions of paper cranes from visitors, the ever-burning peace flame.
there's two of them, and they're hard to keep straight
November 17, 2024 at 3:26 AM
there's two of them, and they're hard to keep straight
I like this musical representation of fury: playing a familiar theme, but in parallel tritones (with different periods!)
From this very cool analysis: https://thesondheimhub.substack.com/p/beans-beans-and-nothing-but-beans
From this very cool analysis: https://thesondheimhub.substack.com/p/beans-beans-and-nothing-but-beans
September 23, 2024 at 4:50 AM
I like this musical representation of fury: playing a familiar theme, but in parallel tritones (with different periods!)
From this very cool analysis: https://thesondheimhub.substack.com/p/beans-beans-and-nothing-but-beans
From this very cool analysis: https://thesondheimhub.substack.com/p/beans-beans-and-nothing-but-beans
Did any of you ever use the MIT Remembrance Agent? If so: I'm curious to hear how it affected your writing / thinking experience.
(more background at https://www.bradleyrhodes.com/Papers/remembrance.html and https://davidamerland.com/images/pdf/Remembrance-Agent-MIT-Labs-Experiment.pdf)
(more background at https://www.bradleyrhodes.com/Papers/remembrance.html and https://davidamerland.com/images/pdf/Remembrance-Agent-MIT-Labs-Experiment.pdf)
September 11, 2024 at 4:12 AM
Did any of you ever use the MIT Remembrance Agent? If so: I'm curious to hear how it affected your writing / thinking experience.
(more background at https://www.bradleyrhodes.com/Papers/remembrance.html and https://davidamerland.com/images/pdf/Remembrance-Agent-MIT-Labs-Experiment.pdf)
(more background at https://www.bradleyrhodes.com/Papers/remembrance.html and https://davidamerland.com/images/pdf/Remembrance-Agent-MIT-Labs-Experiment.pdf)
Exhortation-to-self is a potent medium!
(crop from whiteboard photo in https://dynamicland.org/archive/2015/Lab_v2)
(crop from whiteboard photo in https://dynamicland.org/archive/2015/Lab_v2)
September 9, 2024 at 9:25 PM
Exhortation-to-self is a potent medium!
(crop from whiteboard photo in https://dynamicland.org/archive/2015/Lab_v2)
(crop from whiteboard photo in https://dynamicland.org/archive/2015/Lab_v2)
Big vicarious joy: “I'd open up a text editor to make this web page, and I was like ugh…I don’t want to mess with CSS. … I realized I could make a hyperphoto … This enormous wave of relief and joy just flooded over me… Instead of using CSS, I could just use paper and tape.”
September 7, 2024 at 9:53 PM
Big vicarious joy: “I'd open up a text editor to make this web page, and I was like ugh…I don’t want to mess with CSS. … I realized I could make a hyperphoto … This enormous wave of relief and joy just flooded over me… Instead of using CSS, I could just use paper and tape.”
In my work with adult learners, conversation usually focuses on materials, tools, techniques—but the key problem is often trouble actually siting down to study. Learners feel sheepish about it, but they're often hesitating for good reasons that should be fixed, not forced. What reasons am I missing?
September 7, 2024 at 2:14 AM
In my work with adult learners, conversation usually focuses on materials, tools, techniques—but the key problem is often trouble actually siting down to study. Learners feel sheepish about it, but they're often hesitating for good reasons that should be fixed, not forced. What reasons am I missing?