User:Youjung/T2 Assessment
Why 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 feed of delicious foods. However, working in the company made me realize that behind the endless feed there are group of people constantly producing content. I was making a lot of things public but at the same time nothing, as they are repetitive and have less time for reflection.
I liked the idea of working on a domain making something interactive through the internet. Below are the things that I wanted to gain from XPUB:
- Make interactive projects using code
- Learn how to make things collectively
- Gain critical perspectives towards technology
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.
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?
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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/will be 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