User:Youjung/T2 Assessment

Why XPUB?

First day at XPUB!

Before XPUB, I worked as a brand and visual designer for premium grocery delivery platform. It was one of the domains that I wanted to work for because I loved browsing through the curated feed of delicious foods. And the service was undeniably convenient. If you order before 23:00, you get your product at 6:00.

However, working there made me realise what sustains convenience and abundant content. Behind the seamless interface, deliverers were being worn down and multiple teams were constantly producing content without much intention. We were constantly required for optimisation and efficiency. One example was building company's CMS to make/manage online content more efficiently. I felt powerless using this tool. I was making a lot of things public but most of them felt meaningless. So I started learning code to break free from this form.

I wanted to create something interactive and playful, not only in its outcome, but also in the way it is made. Tools shape how we think and make and I believe deliberate choice of tools is important. XPUB felt like the right place to explore this idea, while also developing a critical perspective on techno-solutionism and the commercialised platform industry.

After 7 months at XPUB, I believe this is the right place for me, although I have some doubts, I am happier than ever.

What did you make?

Overview

Type	Count	Name
Website	3	Cooking Spam e-mails, A mazing machines, Our Digital Home
Interactive Installation	2	A story in a story in a story, Poetry Generater at CCU
Zine	3	A mazing machines, Tangled Thoughts, Practice and Scalability
Workshop	1	Our Digital Home
Radio Show	2	Radio Ghost, Cyber Feminism

October 2025
Python Poetry

Poetry Generator

Extending from Fermenting the Earth workshop at iMAL, part of the participants gathered to make a growing poetry run by the electricity derived from the mud batteries we made. People interacting with the generator chooses different actions: WAIT, FERMENT, GAZE, HEAR or SNIFF and based on this action a different python script is executed. The input texts are conversations and texts we read during the workshop and the script transforms them into phrases of poems. The poems were printed by a receipt printer.

Reflection: I got the initial idea from text adventure games and Eliza. I liked that audience can have short conversations with plants. This project sparked me to explore interaction not only through the screen but also tangible beings(plants and printers).

October 2025
Python, Website

Cooking Spam Emails

For the first radio show on writing machines, I split the spam email from ABN AMRO into phrases and made a python script that structure it into different contexts using random function. The email refreshes every 10 seconds and create a non-sense email. 스팸 메일 뒤에도 사람이 있다.

Reflection: I was inspired by Nick Montfort's poetry. Similarly to what I did in Poetry generator, it was fascinating to see how a python script can create different meaning and context and how it can be differently interpreted by the reader.

November 2025
Python, Game, Pen Plotter

A story in a story in a story

Interactive narrative that lets you explore, gather and plot. Wander around in the virtual environment, pick up what you resonate with and that is what you take with you at the end of the day and becomes a tiny part of you.

Reflection: Instead of a seamless experience, the game has a lot of constraints(terminal interface, loading time to draw, slow), and this reflects on being intentional on what you gather. It is not a linear narrative, the game does not offer a clear message. It is the journey itself. Taking fun seriously

[Work in Progress]

[Event at UBIK]

November 2025
Website, Zine

SI28: A mazing machines Website & Zine

Landing page design and development for Special Issue 29 website. I used LeaderLine to make interactive diagram.

Reflection: This was my first time coding collectively. We encountered merge conflict multiple times and took some time to figure out how to work together. Instead of vibe coding, I tried to understand every line of code I write. Googling how to fix errors helped me to understand that you can make a more solid output rather than relying on LLMs.

March 2025
Zine, Illustration

Tangled Thoughts

Zine made with paged.js. A project to integrate my illustration practice and experimental publishing.

Reflection: How am I going to integrate analog drawing to coding and what we do at xpub?

March 2025
Python, Website, Workshop

Our Digital Home

About: Collective workshop on the materiality of the cloud. We used ftp file systemns and jinja & python to generate html pages. My role was to develop the website and graphics using ascii art.

Reflection: Making a dynamic website! And learning about social practice.

What did you learn?

During the two tri-mester, I learned...

How to work together
Both special issues were very collaborative. I normally prefer working alone, but throughout the special issue I learned listen and reflect on each other's opinion. Finding solution together is much more fun than alone. Especially during SI28, making decisions together was exhausting but we managed to organize a cool event and print a zine before the semester which was rewarding.

How to make things without overthinking
Thanks to our communal server Sergio, it was much easier for me to make and test prototypes on Sergio. Also the text we read during methods class stop making something perfect but to focus on testing out things.

How to be critical
Why do we need to make things scalable? What can we experience from friction and clunky processes? Not everything has to be seamless. And what is good for us, and why this industry is moving this way?

What is your practice?

websites, graphic design, installation? idk

Future research interests?

These are my future research interests...

Platforms and Digital Culture

I like the dopamine these apps give me.

Interesting to read Californian ideology how these services derived from hippie culture. South Korea has the most e-commerce services and unique app environment. What kind of ideology is behind these scenes?

Communal Servers & Collective Making

I want to make things together, have a sense of togetherness rather than doing things alone. Google drive vs sergio

hierarchy strict protocols i dont like, collective making i like!

Drawing + Computation

why with computation... the contrast is fun and live coding