TODEPOND TIMES: Six months
Welcome back to the TODEPOND TIMES.
What's new this week?
Six months of weekly videos
I did it! I posted one NEW VIDEO EVERY WEEK for six months. Those of you who have been around for a long time will know that this is how I started: I put up one NEW VIDEO EVERY WEEK every single week, and this is how the videos started becoming more and more surreal: Because... when there's not enough time to think too much about what you're putting up... things start to get weirder.
From re-adopting this practice, I've certainly noticed that starting to happen again. Next week's video is a particularly weird one: So much so that I'm officially naming it EPISODE 38 AND A HALF of the Sandpond Saga.
Don't expect too much though! It's a particularly painful one to watch all the way through (and it's 45 minutes long). But I hope you enjoy it in some capacity.
That being said, do be on the lookout for more and more Tode and Berd related storytelling hidden in the weekly videos. I've got a couple more Sandpond-Saga-related ones in the works (on top of the long-awaited TOP 99 WAYS TO MAKE SAND that is still planned for release this year: maybe December 99th or something).
Automation and me
Among the videos I'm putting out, the talk recordings seem to be the most popular. I suppose they feel the closest to the old Sandpond Saga videos I used to do (AND STILL DO, JUST VERY SLOWLY).
A recent talk I put up was FULLY AUTOMATED COMPUTER MUSIC. It wasn't a very good one, but I did manage to try out some new material that I'm considering for a few upcoming keynotes. For instance, I'm giving the opening keynote at BotCamp soon: I'm giving a talk all about AUTOMATION AND ME.
As you might know, I started out my youtube channel with cellular automata, so automation is in my blood! But automation gives a completely different mouthfeel nowadays: In a world where artificial intelligence promises to automate almost everything, where does that leave us? Where does that leave sand?
I continually feel the pull towards doing things ridiculously manually. Of course, making sand in 99 different ways is a long, manual, and tedious process, but I suppose that means almost nothing in 2026: [Just] get an AI model to do it for you! You can have as many sands as you want!
For me, this is why manual creative coding means so much. I get to dedicate a lot of time (over two and a half years(!)) into a single project and I get to imbue it with as much human-ness as that allows me.
Thank you for supporting my continual (long) work. I want to let you know that I've now switched to doing my day job for 3 days a week, so I now spend 2 days a week creating things to share with YOU. Let me know what you think. I'm keen to hear any feedback on the things I put out there. Let me know what you enjoy and what you don't enjoy, and what you'd be interested in / what you're curious about.
TodeVlog
As I mentioned in the previous TODEPOND TIMES, I went to the AMRO festival to give a workshop and do a performance. While I was there, I recorded a bunch of vlog-style footage. I might try to turn it into a thing at some point. I wonder what a Todepond-style vlog would be like? Could I make it trippy somehow? I have a few ideas for how to build it up into the usual dreamlike madness.
It's been interesting experimenting with a few different formats for videos. For example, I'm still working on some bonus long ones, including one where me and Dave Ackley do a dramatic reading of our entire paper and it's unlike anything I've ever made or even watched.
One thing is clear: The recordings of my live music sets consistently do very badly. No one wants to see them and that's okay :) But yes, I do tend to lose quite a lot of subscribers with every new type of video I put out. That's okay, I think. I'm also gaining a lot of new subscribers, so I guess this is maybe a sign of a changing audience?
Either way, I want you to know that you're funding all of this work. Every week, it continues to happen because of YOUR support. Thank you! Wherever you are in the world... whatever you're doing... I hope you have a fantastic week.
Tode is still asleep.
Bot is still missing.
And berd... Berd flew away.