Assemblages and assembly

Midi.js is an assemblage of Javascript libraries for using MIDI in the browser, using converted soundfonts.


Molecule Synth is an assemblage of hex-shaped, snap-together components for building modular synths like molecules.


What are Occlupanids?

Occlupanids are generally found as parasitoids on bagged pastries in supermarkets, hardware stores, and other large commercial establishments. Their fascinating and complex life cycle is unfortunately severely under-researched. What is known is that they take nourishment from the plastic sacs that surround the bagged product, not the product itself, as was previously thought. Notable exceptions to this habit are those living off rubber bands and on analog watch hands.

Ads in public spaces are the new arena for discourse. (Scare quotes around “discourse” may be added at the reader’s discretion.) In response to anti-muslim ads on SF Muni buses, one group crowdfunded a billboard to provide a countermessage.


Zadie Smith writes about her local library and the slow erosion of the British state.

What kind of a problem is a library? It’s clear that for many people it is not a problem at all, only a kind of obsolescence. At the extreme pole of this view is the technocrat’s total faith: with every book in the world online, what need could there be for the physical reality? This kind of argument thinks of the library as a function rather than a plurality of individual spaces. But each library is a different kind of problem and “the Internet” is no more a solution for all of them than it is their universal death knell.... Libraries are not failing “because they are libraries.” Neglected libraries get neglected, and this cycle, in time, provides the excuse to close them. Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay.

One more assemblage: Constellaction is an assemblage of light-emitting and light-sensitive tetrahedra that are lined up to create a nighttime domino effect.