This edition of Office Hours Side Projects Edition is a sort of creative office hours where artists, technologists, and thinkers shared work at the intersection of AI, speculative storytelling, and embodied experience.
Sandro kicked things off with a deep dive into his explorations of composable documents—dynamic web-based documents that regenerate themselves based on user interaction, local context, or AI prompts. Drawing inspiration from tools like Brett Victor’s Inventing on Principle and the interactive website The Way of Code, Sandro demonstrated a system where writing, code, and interface design converge. He showcased an in-browser coding environment that supports voice-controlled coding, AI-based completions (including personas like Marshall McLuhan), and real-time rendering—all running locally. The ambition? To create personal, generative environments for writing and interface design that blur the line between tool and creative collaborator.
Rodney followed with a presentation that was part speculative fiction, part design ethnography. Drawing from past work in product design and a deep practice in somatic futures, he shared a poetic series of “911 call transcripts” from decommissioned cyborgs who’ve become aware of their own obsolescence. These pieces, generated in part using ChatGPT and performed via car audio (!), mixed machine code and broken English to give voice to semi-sentient machines experiencing termination. Rodney framed this work through his larger methodology of Somatic Futures—an embodied practice of worldbuilding from the bottom up, where imagined bodies reveal imagined worlds through movement and sensation. He proposed installations and workshops where participants physically embody corrupted AI systems and glitching cyborgs as a means of imagining future modes of being.
What emerged across both talks was a shared ethos: experimentation with new hybrid forms of expression that collapse the distance between interface, language, memory, and identity. Whether through remixable, regenerating documents or AI-driven speculative performances, both presenters invited us to rethink the tools we use and the stories we tell.
The conversation afterwards ranged from AB testing and personalization in AI interfaces to speculative design as digital anthropology, and even the proposal of a shared “creative stack” or “hub” to collect and cross-pollinate these experiments.
If you’re interested in AI creativity, embodied design, or speculative interfaces, these are exactly the kinds of ideas worth tracking — and better yet, contributing to.
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Chat Transcript
00:03:21 Dré Labre: Hi, I’m transcribing this call with my Tactiq AI Extension: https://tactiq.io/r/transcribing00:04:53 John A: https://zebrasecrets.bandcamp.com/00:04:58 Christine Prefontaine: Reacted to "https://zebrasecrets..." with ❤️00:05:16 Dré Labre: Reacted to "https://zebrasecre..." with 🦓00:05:24 Prineeth Ramachandra: Reacted to "https://zebrasecrets…" with ❤️00:05:43 Giula Passarelli: Reacted to "https://zebrasecrets..." with ❤️00:05:47 Faizan Abbasi (Fay-Zaan): Slot 2: Rodney Fredrickson ➱ The Gossamer Leap - a speculative 911 call log of cyborgs trying to understand what decommissioned means.00:07:07 Julian Bleecker: Reacted to "Slot 2: Rodney Fredr..." with 🤟00:08:26 Prineeth Ramachandra: Reacted to "Slot 2: Rodney Fredr…" with 🤟00:10:32 Sean Park (he/him): Based on Tao Te Ching, core Taoist text (Lao Tzu), not Art of War00:10:56 John A: Reacted to "Based on Tao Te Chin..." with 👍00:15:39 Christine Prefontaine: Makes me think of a Mozilla project from a while back called “Hackasaurus”00:22:59 Julian Bleecker: If you have a remark or question or reflection, please raise your hand, I guess?00:30:03 Mateusz Pozar: Hey, Brandel is a ghost again!00:30:46 Julian Bleecker: Replying to "Hey, Brandel is a gh..."
Like a diffraction or some other light-based emanation00:31:44 Mateusz Pozar: Replying to "Hey, Brandel is a gh..."
Hologram avatar? Diffracted holotar?00:34:47 Brandon Harwood: Would be really interesting as a journaling system that reacts to how your understanding of concepts you explore or write about change over time00:36:07 Brandel Zachernuk: Replying to "Hey, Brandel is a gh…"Wait till you see the liquid glass version00:36:22 Mateusz Pozar: Replying to "Hey, Brandel is a gh..."
Glassogram?00:37:32 Brandel Zachernuk: Kai’s gpt convolver!00:37:57 Brandon Harwood: Collaborative/reactive disagreement opens up so many paths!00:38:12 Julian Bleecker: Reacted to "Collaborative/reacti..." with 🤟🏽00:42:38 Brandel Zachernuk: https://berglondon.com/blog/2010/09/04/b-a-s-a-a-p/00:42:56 Julian Bleecker: Reacted to "https://berglondon.c..." with 🤟🏽00:45:00 Sandro Pasquali: NVR00:45:35 Sandro Pasquali: Reacted to "Based on Tao Te Chin..." with 👍00:45:55 Sandro Pasquali: Replying to "Based on Tao Te Chin..."
Thank you for the clarification. Wrong Tzu 🙂00:46:17 Sandro Pasquali: Reacted to "Would be really inte..." with ❤️00:46:31 Sandro Pasquali: Reacted to "Kai’s gpt convolver!" with 👏00:46:37 Sandro Pasquali: Reacted to "Collaborative/reacti..." with 🤟🏽00:46:58 Sandro Pasquali: Reacted to "https://berglondon.c..." with 🐕00:52:12 Taryn O'Neill: Amazing, Rodney - I instantly see this as a great short film.00:52:21 Julian Bleecker: Reacted to "Amazing, Rodney - I ..." with 😉00:52:46 sebcampos@gmail.com: This is really Fing cool!00:53:37 Giula Passarelli: Reacted to "Amazing, Rodney - I ..." with 👏🏻00:53:47 Faizan Abbasi (Fay-Zaan): Great presentations and thank you all for your presence today.Need to leave for dinner. Enjoy your weekend ahead:)
Would love to connect:https://www.linkedin.com/in/faizan-abbasi-9a667449/00:57:37 Giula Passarelli: This could also be applied to nowadays IoT as well, right?Like decommissioned intelligent refrigerators that were never turned off or something00:57:46 Julian Bleecker: If you have questions/thoughts/feedback raise your hand!01:00:56 Sandro Pasquali: Replying to "Makes me think of a ..."
Yes! The web was originally about sharing, BOTH uploading and downloading. I came New York in 2008 specifically to work with Limewire building a sharing community for “websites”: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255579887_LimeBits_Open-source_community_for_sharing_recycling_customizing_and_improving_web_code01:01:51 Sandro Pasquali: Replying to "Makes me think of a ..."
Another inspiration for me is this “forgotten” book: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262015479/the-secret-war-between-downloading-and-uploading/01:02:04 Sandro Pasquali: Reacted to "Makes me think of a ..." with 👍01:02:11 Christine Prefontaine: Reacted to "Another inspiration ..." with 👀01:04:40 Brandon Harwood: I’ve gotta run to head to a dentist appointment but will definitely connect later Rodney & Sandro. Thanks Julian for hosting this - it’s my first office hours and this gathering just feels special.01:05:14 Sean Park (he/him): This was amazing Rodney!01:05:23 Julian Bleecker: Reacted to "I’ve gotta run to he..." with 🤟🏽01:05:36 Prineeth Ramachandra: Fascinating work Sandro and Rodney! Thanks for sharing!01:06:22 Sandro Pasquali: Replying to "Hey, Brandel is a gh..."
Vitrine01:07:54 Dré Labre: I was introduced to Butoh when I watch Baraka back in the day - Baraka Silent Scream01:08:27 Sandro Pasquali: Replying to "I was introduced to ..."
Smooth as butoh01:08:34 Dré Labre: Reacted to "Smooth as butoh" with 😂01:08:54 sebcampos@gmail.com: Reacted to "I was introduced to ..." with ❤️01:08:56 Rodney Frederickson: Reacted to "I was introduced to ..." with ❤️01:09:02 Rodney Frederickson: Reacted to "Fascinating work San..." with ❤️01:09:06 Rodney Frederickson: Reacted to "This was amazing Rod..." with ❤️01:09:17 Taryn O'Neill: Reacted to "I was introduced to ..." with 👍01:10:31 Dré Labre: Great film. So much motion control tech innovations created for it.Baraka (1992) : ron fricke : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive01:11:05 Mateusz Pozar: Traces of interaction – finger movement on phone screens playing Angry Birds: https://laughingsquid.com/angry-birds-all-levels-inked-art-of-every-finger-swipe-needed-to-complete-the-game/01:12:46 Rodney Frederickson: Reacted to "Great film. So much ..." with ❤️01:12:51 Rodney Frederickson: Reacted to "Traces of interactio..." with ❤️01:15:57 Sandro Pasquali: Reacted to "Traces of interactio..." with ❤️01:16:06 Sandro Pasquali: Reacted to "Traces of interactio..." with 💋01:17:53 Christine Prefontaine: Reacted to "Traces of interactio..." with 👀01:19:44 Harini: Thanks Rodney for sharing your work. Would love to connect later and learn more about somatic futures01:19:56 Rodney Frederickson: Reacted to "Thanks Rodney for sh..." with ❤️01:20:07 Sandro Pasquali: Reacted to "Thanks Rodney for sh..." with 🎉01:20:36 sebcampos@gmail.com: Discover Our Exclusive Range at El Paisa Clothing Co01:20:39 Giula Passarelli: Sorry, I need to drop! Thanks for this call 🙂 Your projects are really interesting and inspiring, will be waiting for the next office hours!01:21:04 Rodney Frederickson: Replying to "Thanks Rodney for sh..."
Thank you @Harini - yes, let’s connect!01:21:26 Christine Prefontaine: I also need to drop. Thanks so much, all. Always a pleasure.01:23:09 Sean Park (he/him): Thanks again y’all.01:23:56 Enrique Peralta: I'm heading out. Thanks for hosting.. it's been my first time here and my brain has definitely gone to places. See you next time!01:24:00 Eric Bergman: thx :-)01:26:08 Dré Labre: humoprojectophic01:26:20 Rodney Frederickson: Reacted to "humoprojectophic" with 😃01:31:02 sebcampos@gmail.com: remember when we used to tell jokes instead of describing memes?01:31:25 Julian Bleecker: Reacted to "remember when we use..." with 🦷01:31:30 Sandro Pasquali: And thus the Swedish “Jets powered by water” experiment ended.01:33:05 Rodney Frederickson: For the Gossamer Leap PDF, here’s my Somatic Futures substack post with it: https://somaticfutures.substack.com/p/the-gossamer-leap01:33:27 Taryn O'Neill: And then, from a philosophical stance, what happens to our relationship with time?01:33:37 Rodney Frederickson: Reacted to "And then, from a phi..." with ❤️01:35:33 Rodney Frederickson: Gotta run folks - thank you all!01:35:37 Taryn O'Neill: They have those electronic bunny ears in Japan that display your emotions — was from years ago.01:37:48 Taryn O'Neill: Thanks -as always - for the invigorating convo. Have to go.01:42:44 Parth: Thanks everyoneSee Also