Talks
I’m often invited to give talks & presentations. Because knowledge is better when it’s shared, I’ve made all my slides freely available here—just click on any of the titles below. However, often my slides don’t make sense in isolation (if had everything I said written on my slides and just read it out my talks would be really boring).
I am available as a guest speaker (and livecoding performer) for both scholarly and corportate-y events. If you’re interested then drop me a line and we can discuss making it happen.
22 Jul '22
Futures...
The events of the last couple of years have reminded us of the fragility of the stories we tell about the future, both as individuals and as part of broader institutions. While some of these lessons have been hard, in some cases seeing the “default” pictures of what’s going to happen evaporate before our eyes has opened us up to new possibilities and empowered us to act with more purpose in the present. Telling different and better stories about the future—and the individuals and institutions within them—allows us to make clearer decisions about where to conform, and where we might be empowered to make change. Dr Ben Swift (Cybernetic Experiences lead at the ANU School of Cybernetics) will share his story as an individual within institutions, some thoughts about the power of the stories we tell about the future, and lead some participatory activities to imagine new, different and (hopefully) better futures for our individuals and institutions.
22 Nov '21
Livecoding for leverage
Some thoughts on design, control and making things from the mind of an artist & coder.
13 Oct '21
Feedback in livecoding: cui bono?
Understanding the sometimes tricky relationship between understanding & enjoyment in various traditional and new cultural practices. An interactive lecture/workshop given to the 3A Institute masters program.
19 Apr '21
From Classics to Colonialism
Did the ancient Greeks know how to bust a move? Is there a deeper mathematical truth to which songs are best to dance to? Can algorithmic composition be a vehicle of oppression?
28 Jan '21
Creative Computing
an invited workshop at the ACT Colleges Conference 2021: Beyond Content! conference
20 May '20
Understanding & enjoyment
Understanding the sometimes tricky relationship between understanding & enjoyment in various traditional and new cultural practices. An interactive lecture/workshop given to the 3A Institute masters program.
17 Jan '20
Designing the c/c/c studio
The arts (music and visual) have always provided a less-travelled but fascinating alternate route into computing. As CS Schools around the world grapple with how best to teach computing to the next generation(s), is computer music/visual art part of the solution? If so, how can we do it without introducing more baggage to a curriculum which already throws plenty of other “hidden prerequisite” hurdles in front of newcomers? In posing (and probably not answering!) these questions I reflect on 10 years of art+code as both an educator and creative practitioner, and describe the c/c/c studio: my current “Reimagine Fellowship” project to bring creative coding into Australian schools.
28 Nov '19
c/c/c studio curriculum design
a half-day workshop at the 2019 CECS Reimagine CoDesign Culture Lab
01 Oct '19
What can livecoding teach us about cyber-physical systems?
Cyber-physical systems sure are important. But what counts as a CPS? And what can they teach us about the things that are important as we design and examine CPSs in all areas of life? An interactive lecture/presentation/workshop given to the 3a Institute masters program.
22 May '19
Musical instructions
Computers are really good at following instructions; they never get bored, and they never make mistakes. The tricky part is finding the right sequence of instructions (the right pattern) so that the work that the computer does is useful. How does this even work with music? An interactive presentation/workshop given at the Lake Tuggeranong College STEM camp.
11 Jan '19
Pop-production as problem-solving
Sure, computers are useful for solving problems, but what about when creativity is required? How do we solve problems like producing a pop song using code? A talk for the National Youth Science Forum 2019
19 Nov '18
The ANU Laptop Ensemble
Where do new media creators fit in the modern university? A talk for code 2k18: A Media Conference of Platforms, Devices and Screens
07 Nov '18
The World Since Google
A short, incomplete, mostly wrong history of the internet since 1996. A talk for the Canberra chapter of the University of the Third Age (U3A).
07 May '18
The role of myth in AI
Recent developments in AI (i.e. deep learning) have produced some amazing images, and the discourse surrounding these images has been even more fascinating. A guest lecture for ARTH2165: Theories of the Image
06 Sep '17
Drawing like a 5-year-old
Who drew pictures as a 5yo? Everone! This one-hour interactive talk/workshop provides an introduction to code art in the web browser using the p5.js library. This talk was originally presented at Telopea High School.
17 Aug '17
The creative potential of random
There’s so much to randomness than just “crazy, unpredictable dice rolls”. Understanding the different types of randomness allows us to shape this randomness for our own creative ends. A talk given as a guest lecture to COMP1720: Art & Interaction in New Media in 2017.
16 Jun '15
Live coding: bringing scientific computing to life
An invited presentation at Yunnan University, China, on the use of live programming techniques in scientific computing.
18 May '15
PIC Live: Real-time interactive programming in scientific simulation
My talk at the Supercomputing Frontiers conference in Singapore about Extempore in HPC.
12 Feb '15
Live coding for Human-in-the-Loop Simulation
A talk I was invited to give to the Defence Sciences Institute in Melbourne about haressing human-in-the-loop simulation codes with Extempore.
29 Apr '14
Coding Livecoding
My talk at CHI ‘14: SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Here’s the paper.