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111111-{\acbold\fontsize{20pt}{24pt}\selectfont\color{acdark} From \texttt{setup()} to \texttt{boot()}}\par
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113113-{\fontsize{10pt}{12pt}\selectfont\color{acpink} Processing at the Core of the Piece API}\par
114114-\vspace{0.8em}
115115-{\normalsize\color{cyan!70!blue}\textbf{@jeffrey}}\par
110110+\includegraphics[height=9em]{pals}\par\vspace{0.1em}
111111+{\acbold\fontsize{18pt}{22pt}\selectfont\color{acdark} From \texttt{setup()} to \texttt{boot()}}\par
112112+\vspace{0.1em}
113113+{\fontsize{9pt}{11pt}\selectfont\color{acpink} Processing at the Core of the Piece API}\par
114114+\vspace{0.4em}
115115+{\normalsize\color{cyan!70!blue}\href{https://prompt.ac/@jeffrey}{\textbf{@jeffrey}}}\par
116116{\small\color{acgray} Aesthetic.Computer}\par
117117{\small\color{acgray} ORCID: \href{https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4460-4913}{0009-0007-4460-4913}}\par
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120118\vspace{0.4em}
121121-{\small\color{acpink!40}\textit{working draft --- not for citation}}\par
122122-\vspace{0.3em}
123123-{\footnotesize\color{acgray} March 2026}\par
119119+\rule{0.5\textwidth}{0.5pt}\par
120120+\vspace{0.15em}
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122122+\vspace{0.1em}
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2929+ pdftitle={CalArts, Callouts, and Papers: Art School as Operating System},
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4242+{\acbold\fontsize{18pt}{22pt}\selectfont\color{acdark} CalArts, Callouts, and Papers}\par
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4444+{\fontsize{9pt}{11pt}\selectfont\color{acpink} Art School as Operating System}\par
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4646+{\normalsize\color{cyan!70!blue}\href{https://prompt.ac/@jeffrey}{\textbf{@jeffrey}}}\par
4747+{\small\color{acgray} Aesthetic.Computer}\par
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6868+\section{The Disney Machine}
6969+7070+Walt Disney founded CalArts in 1961 by merging the Chouinard Art Institute and the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. He wanted an art school that worked like his studio: all the disciplines in one building, sharing tools and ideas. Disney died before the Valencia campus opened in 1971, but the structure he demanded---no walls between departments, shared facilities, a culture of cross-disciplinary collision---shaped everything that followed.
7171+7272+The founding vision was industrial. Disney needed animators who could draw, musicians who understood timing, actors who could improvise to a storyboard. The school was a talent pipeline for the studio~\citep{singerman1999art}. But something else happened. The faculty Disney's heirs hired---among them Allan Kaprow, Judy Chicago, John Baldessari, Miriam Schapiro, Nam June Paik---turned the interdisciplinary structure into a laboratory for postwar American art. The machine Disney built to produce animators became a machine that produced conceptual artists, feminist performance, video art, and eventually the generation that would define post-studio practice.
7373+7474+The operating system analogy is exact. An OS does not make the software; it provides the environment in which software can run. CalArts does not make the art; it provides the conditions---spatial, social, pedagogical---in which a particular kind of artist becomes possible. Change the OS and you change what can be made.
7575+7676+\section{Callouts}
7777+7878+\subsection{The crit as oral tradition}
7979+8080+The crit at CalArts is not a grade. It is a callout. Someone puts work on the wall and the room responds---not with rubrics or learning outcomes but with the unscripted, sometimes brutal, sometimes generous honesty of people who have been looking at art together for long enough to skip pleasantries.
8181+8282+\citet{elkins2001why} argues that the crit is unteachable in the same way art is unteachable: what happens in a good crit cannot be reduced to a method. It is an oral tradition. The knowledge produced in a three-hour crit exists only in the room. It cannot be written down without becoming something else---a summary, a review, a judgment. The crit is live. It is a performance of attention~\citep{hooks1994teaching}.
8383+8484+CalArts crits are famous for their intensity. The school's small size (roughly 1,500 students), residential campus, and interdisciplinary structure mean that a painter's crit might include a composer, an animator, a filmmaker, and a dancer. The feedback is not discipline-specific. It is \emph{perceptual}: what does this do to my body, my ear, my sense of time? The callout is not ``this is good painting.'' The callout is ``this is alive'' or ``this is dead.''
8585+8686+\subsection{Hallway knowledge}
8787+8888+Most of what CalArts teaches happens outside the classroom. The hallways of the main building---a brutalist megastructure designed by Ladd \& Kelsey---function as an informal salon. A composer walks past a sculptor's open studio and hears a sound that changes both of their work. A filmmaker screens dailies at 2 AM and a dancer wanders in and starts improvising to the footage.
8989+9090+This is not curriculum. It is \emph{architecture}. The building forces collision. The cafeteria (the only one) forces everyone into the same room. The hallways are wide enough to stop and talk. The studios are open. The practice rooms leak sound. The building is an instrument that plays the people inside it.
9191+9292+\citet{deduve1994attitude} identifies three paradigms of art education: the academy (talent-imitation), the Bauhaus (creativity-medium-invention), and the postwar art school (attitude-practice-deconstruction). CalArts invented a fourth: \emph{proximity}. Put different disciplines close enough together and they contaminate each other. The contamination is the education.
9393+9494+\subsection{The institutional dare}
9595+9696+CalArts runs on dares. Not explicit ones---no one says ``I dare you.'' But the culture is organized around a challenge structure: can you make something that holds up in a room full of people who are better than you? Can you present work that survives the callout?
9797+9898+This is different from the tech-school sprint review, where work is evaluated against user stories and acceptance criteria~\citep{vinsel2020innovation}. The CalArts dare has no criteria. There is no rubric. The question is not ``does this meet the brief?'' The question is ``does this need to exist?'' The dare is existential, not functional.
9999+100100+The dare also operates between departments. A music student who makes a piece with video is daring the film students to pay attention. A dancer who codes an interactive installation is daring the art students to take technology seriously. The dare is the mechanism of cross-disciplinary contamination. It says: your discipline is not sufficient. Come play in mine.
101101+102102+\section{Why Papers}
103103+104104+\subsection{The paper as callout}
105105+106106+This paper series---twenty papers written in three weeks---is itself a callout. It says: an artist-programmer can write theory. Not ``theory-lite,'' not ``artist statements with citations,'' but real papers with real arguments and real bibliographies that engage with real scholarship.
107107+108108+The art world does not expect this. Artists are expected to make work and let critics write about it. The division of labor is clear: artists produce, critics explain, historians contextualize. When an artist writes theory, the institutional response is suspicion. Is it real scholarship? Is it vanity publishing? Is it art?
109109+110110+The answer is: it does not matter. The paper is a callout. It forces the ideas to stand in the open, exposed to criticism, in a format that the academy recognizes and the art world does not control. \citet{fraser2005critique} noted that institutional critique became an institution. These papers attempt something different: not critique of the institution but \emph{use} of the institution's own format---the academic paper---as artistic material.
111111+112112+\subsection{The paper as instrument}
113113+114114+A paper is a technology. It has a format (sections, citations, abstract, bibliography), a distribution system (journals, preprints, repositories), and a social protocol (peer review, citation, response). Like any technology, it can be played.
115115+116116+\ac{} treats the piece as the fundamental unit of creative cognition~\citep{scudder2026pieces}. A piece is a single file that exports lifecycle functions: \texttt{boot}, \texttt{paint}, \texttt{act}, \texttt{sim}. A paper has the same structure: it boots (abstract), paints (argument), acts (engages with prior work), and simulates (proposes consequences). The paper is a piece written in \LaTeX{} instead of JavaScript.
117117+118118+This is not metaphor. The papers are built with the same infrastructure as the software: a CLI (\texttt{papers/cli.mjs}), incremental builds, multi-language deployment, automated publishing. The paper \emph{is} software. The argument \emph{is} the program.
119119+120120+\subsection{The PSYCHO designation}
121121+122122+This paper is marked PSYCHO. Not ``Working Draft,'' not ``Preprint,'' not ``Under Review.'' PSYCHO.
123123+124124+The designation is a callout to the paper format itself. Academic papers pretend to be neutral---objective reports of findings, written in passive voice, stripped of personality. The PSYCHO label refuses this pretense. It says: this paper has a voice, it has an agenda, it has a temperature. It is not neutral. It is not trying to be.
125125+126126+The word ``psycho'' comes from the Greek \textit{psykhe}---soul, mind, breath. A PSYCHO paper is a paper with a soul. It breathes. It has opinions that are not hedged with ``further research is needed.'' It makes claims and dares you to disagree.
127127+128128+\section{CalArts and Aesthetic Computer}
129129+130130+\subsection{The OS inheritance}
131131+132132+The author attended CalArts (MFA Art, 2012). The experience is the substrate on which \ac{} is built. Not the techniques---CalArts does not teach programming---but the \emph{assumptions}: that disciplines should contaminate each other, that the medium is not the point, that the dare is more important than the deliverable, that art is a way of being in the world rather than a product to be shipped.
133133+134134+\ac{} inherits CalArts's operating system. The piece model---one file, immediate-mode graphics, lifecycle functions---is the digital equivalent of the open studio: anyone can see what you are making, anyone can fork it, anyone can call it out. The social network is organized around \emph{paths} (memorizable URLs) rather than feeds, the same way CalArts is organized around hallways rather than algorithms.
135135+136136+\np{}.com is the clearest CalArts inheritance. It is an instrument that anyone can play, that does not require training, that rewards exploration over expertise. The hallway encounter---stumbling onto someone else's work and being changed by it---is the design pattern. You type a URL. You land on a piece. You play it. You move on. No feed. No algorithm. No metrics. Just proximity.
137137+138138+\subsection{The crit goes online}
139139+140140+Publishing these papers is a crit. The room is the internet. The callout is public. The work is exposed---not to a room of fifteen people who know you but to anyone with a browser and an opinion.
141141+142142+This is terrifying in the same way a CalArts crit is terrifying: you cannot control the response. The work either holds or it does not. The dare is the same dare: does this need to exist?
143143+144144+\section{Against Neutrality}
145145+146146+The academic paper pretends to be a window---transparent, letting you see the research behind it. But every window is also a frame. The paper format frames what can be said: passive voice, hedged claims, deference to prior work, the fiction of objectivity~\citep{freire1970pedagogy}.
147147+148148+CalArts teaches the opposite. Stand behind your work. Say what you mean. If you cannot defend it in the room, it is not ready. The callout is a technology of accountability: it forces you to own your claims in front of people who will push back.
149149+150150+These papers are written in that spirit. They have a voice. They make claims. They cite scholarship not to hide behind it but to argue with it, to build on it, to dare it to respond. The PSYCHO designation is a flag: this paper is not pretending to be neutral. It has a position. It has a temperature. It is standing in the room, waiting for the callout.
151151+152152+\citet{spivak2012aesthetic} argues that aesthetic education trains the imagination for ethical solidarity. CalArts does this---not through curriculum but through proximity, through the dare, through the crit that forces you to see your work through someone else's eyes. These papers attempt the same thing in a different medium: to train the reader's imagination for a different kind of creative computing, one built on instruments rather than feeds, on pieces rather than products, on callouts rather than engagement metrics.
153153+154154+\section{Conclusion}
155155+156156+CalArts is an operating system. Its kernel is proximity. Its shell is the crit. Its process model is the dare. \ac{} runs on the same OS, ported from the physical campus to the browser to bare metal~\citep{scudder2026ac, scudder2026os}.
157157+158158+The callout is the mechanism. The paper is the format. The PSYCHO designation is the temperature. Together they say: art can write theory, theory can be art, and neither needs permission from the institutions that claim to own them.
159159+160160+These papers are hallway knowledge, finally written down---knowing that the writing changes them, knowing that the crit never ends, knowing that the dare is the point.
161161+162162+\vspace{0.5em}
163163+\noindent\textbf{ORCID:} \href{https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4460-4913}{0009-0007-4460-4913}
164164+165165+\bibliographystyle{plainnat}
166166+\bibliography{references}
167167+168168+\end{document}
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4444-{\fontsize{10pt}{12pt}\selectfont\color{acpink} Platform Hegemony, Critique-as-Content, and the Need for Anti-Environments}\par
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4646-{\normalsize\color{cyan!70!blue}\textbf{@jeffrey}}\par
4141+\includegraphics[height=9em]{pals}\par\vspace{0.1em}
4242+{\acbold\fontsize{18pt}{22pt}\selectfont\color{acdark} Sucking on the Complex}\par
4343+\vspace{0.1em}
4444+{\fontsize{9pt}{11pt}\selectfont\color{acpink} Platform Hegemony, Critique-as-Content, and the Need for Anti-Environments}\par
4545+\vspace{0.4em}
4646+{\normalsize\color{cyan!70!blue}\href{https://prompt.ac/@jeffrey}{\textbf{@jeffrey}}}\par
4747{\small\color{acgray} Aesthetic.Computer}\par
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5149\vspace{0.4em}
5252-{\small\color{acpink!40}\textit{working draft --- not for citation}}\par
5353-\vspace{0.3em}
5454-{\footnotesize\color{acgray} March 2026}\par
5050+\rule{0.5\textwidth}{0.5pt}\par
5151+\vspace{0.15em}
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5353+\vspace{0.1em}
5454+{\footnotesize\color{acgray} March 2026 · \href{https://github.com/whistlegraph/aesthetic-computer/commit/2113ef735}{2113ef735}}\par
5555+\vspace{0.1em}
5656+{\footnotesize\color{acgray}\href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/sucking-on-the-complex-26-arxiv-da-cards.pdf}{Dansk} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/sucking-on-the-complex-26-arxiv-es-cards.pdf}{Español} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/sucking-on-the-complex-26-arxiv-zh-cards.pdf}{{\accjk 中文}} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/sucking-on-the-complex-26-arxiv-ja-cards.pdf}{{\accjk 日本語}}}\par
5557\end{center}
5658\vspace*{\fill}
5759···119121120122\subsection{Masking the face}
121123122122-\citet{blas2014informatic} developed the ``Facial Weaponization Suite'' (2011--2014): collective masks generated from biometric data that defeat facial recognition. The work has been shown at the ICA London and presented at Tate Modern. It is a powerful metaphor for collective opacity, for the right to not be seen.
124124+\citet{blas2014informatic} developed the ``Facial Weaponization Suite'' (2011--2014): collective masks generated from biometric data that defeat facial recognition. The work has been shown at the Whitechapel Gallery and presented at Tate Modern. It is a powerful metaphor for collective opacity, for the right to not be seen.
123125124126But the mask is an art object in a vitrine. It is not a tool you can wear. It was designed for the gallery wall, not for the street. The gesture toward resistance is contained by the institution that houses it.
125127···133135134136This pipeline degrades both ends. It makes the feed feel like art---``I saw Paglen's new work on my Instagram''---and it makes the institution feel like a feed---booth after booth of content at Art Basel, photographed and posted before the paint dries. \citet{fraser2005critique} identified this loop in institutional critique three decades ago; platform hegemony is the same structural problem with surveillance capitalism layered on top.
135137136136-\citet{ulman2014excellences} scripted a five-month Instagram performance in 2014, manipulating the platform's logic of aspiration and self-display. The work was acquired by the Tate. It is instructive: Ulman's piece succeeded precisely because it was indistinguishable from content. The platform did not know it was being used as material. The behavioral data it generated was identical to that of genuine lifestyle posts. The algorithm does not distinguish critique from endorsement. Paglen's photograph of an NSA facility gets more likes than a landscape painting. Both generate engagement. Both feed the machine.
138138+\citet{ulman2014excellences} scripted a five-month Instagram performance in 2014, manipulating the platform's logic of aspiration and self-display. The work was exhibited at Tate Modern in 2016. It is instructive: Ulman's piece succeeded precisely because it was indistinguishable from content. The platform did not know it was being used as material. The behavioral data it generated was identical to that of genuine lifestyle posts. The algorithm does not distinguish critique from endorsement. Paglen's photograph of an NSA facility gets more likes than a landscape painting. Both generate engagement. Both feed the machine.
137139138140\section{The Structural Trap}
139141···191193192194\subsection{Aesthetic Computer}
193195194194-\ac{} builds its own runtime, its own social network, its own instrument (\np{}.com), its own operating system~\citep{scudder2026ac, scudder2026notepat, scudder2026os}. It is not critique-as-art but infrastructure-as-art. The behaviors are new: memorizable paths instead of feeds, pieces instead of posts, instruments you play instead of profiles you curate. The platform \emph{is} the work. The Whistlegraph project~\citep{scudder2026whistlegraph}, which reached approximately 2.6 million TikTok followers, demonstrated that viral culture could be built on a foundation of drawing and singing rather than algorithmic optimization. The contradiction is real: the anti-environment achieved its largest audience \emph{through} the complex. When TikTok removed the account, the 2.6 million followers vanished overnight---but the underlying creative practice of drawing and singing survived, because it had never been dependent on the platform's infrastructure. The audience was lost. The practice was not.
196196+\ac{} builds its own runtime, its own social network, its own instrument (\np{}.com), its own operating system~\citep{scudder2026ac, scudder2026notepat, scudder2026os}. It is not critique-as-art but infrastructure-as-art. The behaviors are new: memorizable paths instead of feeds, pieces instead of posts, instruments you play instead of profiles you curate. The platform \emph{is} the work. The Whistlegraph project~\citep{scudder2026whistlegraph}, which reached approximately 2.7 million TikTok followers, demonstrated that viral culture could be built on a foundation of drawing and singing rather than algorithmic optimization. The contradiction is real: the anti-environment achieved its largest audience \emph{through} the complex. When the trio went on hiatus in late 2023, the TikTok account and its 2.7 million followers remained---but the underlying creative practice of drawing and singing continued independently, because it had never been dependent on the platform's infrastructure. The audience is rented. The practice is owned.
195197196198\subsection{Indigenous and decolonial computing}
197199
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7070+\section{Introduction}
7171+7272+\ac{} is a mobile-first runtime and social network for creative computing, comprising 359 built-in interactive programs (``pieces''), a bare-metal Linux operating system that boots any x86\_64 machine into a creative instrument, a minimal Lisp dialect for generative art, and a growing community of 2,812 registered users~\citep{scudder2026ac}. The project is authored and maintained primarily by a single developer, @jeffrey, with AI-assisted maintenance (``AestheticAnts'') handling routine upkeep.
7373+7474+As of March 2026, the project has produced 19 research papers across four languages, a bare-metal OS that boots in 7.3 seconds~\citep{scudder2026os}, a blockchain integration for minting generative artworks, and a 7,912-line musical instrument (\np{}) that has become the system's front door~\citep{scudder2026notepat}. The codebase traces its lineage through 94 predecessor projects spanning more than a decade of tool-making.
7575+7676+This paper does not propose what \ac{} \emph{should} do. It attempts to read what it \emph{probably will} do, based on the momentum already visible in the code, the papers, the infrastructure decisions, and the philosophical commitments that have shaped the project to date.
7777+7878+% ============ 2. NINETY-FOUR PROJECTS ============
7979+8080+\section{Ninety-Four Projects and Counting}
8181+\label{sec:history}
8282+8383+Any projection of \ac{}'s future must reckon with the depth of its past. The project is not a startup pivoting toward product-market fit. It is the 95th iteration of a single sustained inquiry: \emph{what should a personal creative computing instrument be?}
8484+8585+\subsection{The Drawing Software Lineage (2011--2020)}
8686+8787+The archaeology paper~\citep{scudder2026archaeology} traces \ac{} through 94 predecessor projects spanning two GitHub accounts (50+ repositories), a 109\,GB legacy server archive, and a Dropbox corpus. The trajectory begins with \textbf{thePRBAT} (Polygon Replicating Bitmap Authoring Tool, 2011), a Flash-based digital imaging tool built as a BFA thesis at Ringling College, and arrives at \ac{} through a decade of drawing software variants: \textbf{JeffreyPaint} (2014, JavaScript + Unity), \textbf{Finger Quilt} (2016, iOS/Swift), \textbf{Dot} (2017, a plotting application that prefigures AC's \texttt{plot} disk), and most importantly \textbf{No Paint} (2014--2020), which went through five incarnations---Rails, JavaScript shim, WebGL prototype, iOS/Cordova, Vercel site---before being absorbed into \ac{}.
8888+8989+This is not a history of abandoned projects. It is a history of \emph{restarts}: the same person, asking the same question, choosing to start over rather than accumulate features. The pattern is visible in \ac{} itself: the piece model (single file, lifecycle functions, immediate-mode graphics) is a constraint-first design that \emph{prevents} the feature accumulation that killed earlier iterations.
9090+9191+\subsection{The Performance Turn (2016--2018)}
9292+9393+Between 2016 and 2018, @jeffrey toured with Goodiepal \& Pals across 65+ venues in Europe, building real-time performance tools: audience participation interfaces, music notation renderers, subtitle displays for live lectures. These tools---built fast, used once, thrown away---established a design principle that persists in \ac{}: software as instrument, not as product. The tools were played, not shipped.
9494+9595+The Goodiepal influence runs deeper than collaboration. The goodiepal paper~\citep{scudder2026goodiepal} identifies five threads that carry through to \ac{}: instrument-first design, community organized through affinity rather than institution, works designed to resist digital reproduction, and radical pedagogy through direct engagement rather than curriculum.
9696+9797+\subsection{Why History Matters for Projection}
9898+9999+The 94-project history constrains our projection in two ways. First, it makes sudden pivots unlikely. @jeffrey has been circling the same problems---personal tools, creative instruments, constraint-based design---for 15 years. The next 5 years will almost certainly stay within this orbit. Second, it makes abandonment unlikely for the reasons people usually abandon projects (boredom, loss of interest, attraction to something shinier). The risk is not distraction; it is exhaustion. We return to this in \S\ref{sec:giveup}.
100100+101101+% ============ 3. THE SURPLUS HARDWARE WAVE ============
102102+103103+\section{The Surplus Hardware Wave}
104104+\label{sec:surplus}
105105+106106+The single largest force acting on \ac{}'s future is external: in October 2025, Microsoft ended support for Windows 10, rendering an estimated 240 million PCs obsolete by institutional standards~\citep{ewaste2024monitor}. These machines are not broken. They are ThinkPads, EliteBooks, and Latitudes with 8--16\,GB RAM, 1080p screens, WiFi, and 6--10 hour batteries. They cost \$30--80 on the surplus market. They are the raw material for everything that follows.
107107+108108+\subsection{From Prototype to Fleet (2026--2027)}
109109+110110+\acos{} already boots on surplus hardware~\citep{scudder2026os}. The gap between ``boots on two ThinkPads in @jeffrey's apartment'' and ``boots on 30 machines in a classroom'' is not primarily technical. It is operational: WiFi credential management, per-device identity provisioning, hardware compatibility testing across dozens of laptop models, and a flashing workflow that a non-technical person can execute.
111111+112112+The likely near-term work is mundane but critical:
113113+114114+\begin{itemize}
115115+ \item \textbf{Per-user WiFi storage}: moving hardcoded SSIDs out of JavaScript pieces into persistent per-device config files that survive OTA updates
116116+ \item \textbf{Hardware compatibility matrix}: systematic testing across ThinkPad X1/T/L series, HP EliteBook 800 series, Dell Latitude 5000/7000 series
117117+ \item \textbf{One-command flashing}: a USB image builder that takes a handle, colors, and WiFi credentials and produces a bootable drive
118118+ \item \textbf{A/B kernel slots}: dual-partition boot with automatic rollback if the new kernel fails health checks
119119+\end{itemize}
120120+121121+These are not glamorous features. They are the difference between an art project and an infrastructure project. The trajectory of the codebase---OTA updates already working, build names already generated, device identity already inscribed in the boot partition---suggests that @jeffrey understands this distinction and is moving toward the infrastructure side.
122122+123123+\subsection{The 50-Dollar Instrument (2027--2028)}
124124+125125+If the operational work lands, the economic argument becomes very loud: a complete creative computing instrument---personalized, self-updating, requiring zero IT infrastructure---for the price of a surplus laptop and a USB drive. No Chromebook enrollment. No Apple ID. No subscription.
126126+127127+The OLPC project~\citep{kraemer2009olpc} demonstrated that hardware-first approaches to computing access fail on cost and logistics. The Raspberry Pi addressed cost (\$35) but requires \$150 in accessories. \ac{}'s proposition is different: the hardware already exists, already has a screen, keyboard, battery, and WiFi, and is being discarded by the millions. The software is 89\,MB.
128128+129129+The likely outcome by 2028 is not mass adoption but \emph{proof points}: a handful of classrooms, community centers, or workshop contexts where fleets of 10--30 surplus machines run \acos{} and the results are documented. These proof points become the evidence base for grant applications, institutional partnerships, and the sustainability arguments described in \S\ref{sec:sustainability}.
130130+131131+% ============ 3. PLANETARY ENSEMBLES ============
132132+133133+\section{Planetary Ensembles}
134134+\label{sec:ensembles}
135135+136136+The PLOrk paper~\citep{scudder2026plork} makes an argument that the existing codebase already supports: laptop orchestras have been musically legitimate since Princeton's PLOrk proved the concept in 2006~\citep{trueman2006plork}, but the model is trapped in universities at \$1,500+ per seat. \acos{} on surplus hardware reduces the cost to \$50/seat. The question is whether anyone will play.
137137+138138+\subsection{notepat as Ensemble Instrument (2026--2027)}
139139+140140+\np{} is already a polyphonic keyboard instrument with 32-voice synthesis, room reverb, and wave-type selection~\citep{scudder2026notepat}. It runs on bare metal at 192\,kHz. The missing ingredient for ensemble performance is not audio quality but \emph{coordination}: synchronized tempo, shared harmonic space, and a conductor interface.
141141+142142+The likely development path:
143143+144144+\begin{itemize}
145145+ \item \textbf{UDP ensemble sync}: extending the existing dual-channel networking (WebSocket + UDP) to synchronize beat clocks across devices on a local network
146146+ \item \textbf{Conductor piece}: a new piece that displays the ensemble state and allows a conductor to set tempo, key, and dynamics
147147+ \item \textbf{Spatialization}: using the physical positions of surplus laptops as distributed speakers---the ensemble \emph{is} the sound system, following Turino's participatory music model~\citep{turino2008music}
148148+\end{itemize}
149149+150150+This thread has obvious conference appeal. A live demonstration of 10 surplus ThinkPads playing a coordinated musical piece---each showing the player's handle in rainbow text, each contributing a voice to a distributed sound field---is the kind of demo that wins Ars Electronica mentions and NIME submissions.
151151+152152+\subsection{Beyond Music (2028--2031)}
153153+154154+The ensemble model generalizes beyond music. A network of surplus machines running coordinated pieces could be:
155155+156156+\begin{itemize}
157157+ \item A \textbf{distributed drawing wall}: each screen shows a section of a larger canvas, participants draw locally, and the network composites the result
158158+ \item A \textbf{collaborative KidLisp environment}: students write generative programs that feed into a shared visual space
159159+ \item A \textbf{performance score}: the machines execute a graphic score~\citep{scudder2026pieces}, each interpreting the same notation through different pieces
160160+\end{itemize}
161161+162162+The infrastructure for all of these already exists: WebSocket relay, UDP broadcast, per-device identity, and a piece model that supports any combination of graphics, audio, and input. What's missing is the \emph{choreography}---the pieces themselves and the social forms around them.
163163+164164+% ============ THE THIRD DIMENSION ============
165165+166166+\section{The Third Dimension}
167167+\label{sec:3d}
168168+169169+\ac{} is widely perceived as a 2D system. The immediate-mode graphics API---\texttt{wipe}, \texttt{ink}, \texttt{line}, \texttt{box}---and the pixel-art aesthetic of most pieces reinforce this impression. But the infrastructure tells a different story. A full software 3D rasterizer already exists, a multiplayer FPS already ships, and the architectural choices made in the bare-metal OS position 3D as the next major expressive frontier.
170170+171171+\subsection{What Already Works}
172172+173173+The bare-metal OS includes \texttt{graph3d.c}, a ~600-line CPU software rasterizer with perspective projection, frustum clipping (Sutherland-Hodgman against 6 clip planes), depth buffering, per-vertex color interpolation, and texture mapping with perspective-correct barycentric coordinates. The JavaScript API exposes this through a \texttt{Form} constructor: pieces create meshes with vertex positions, colors, and texture coordinates, then render them with \texttt{ink(r,g,b).form(mesh)}.
174174+175175+Two production pieces demonstrate the system. \texttt{fps.mjs} provides a first-person camera with pointer lock, WASD movement, textured ground planes, and rotating cubes. \texttt{1v1.mjs} extends this into a multiplayer FPS with hitscan weapons, bot AI (patrol/chase/flee states), kill tracking, and the dual-channel networking pattern (WebSocket for reliable game events, UDP for low-latency position sync). The browser path uses Three.js (r0.182) with WebGL rendering and includes VR/XR session support~\citep{sutherland1968head}.
176176+177177+The system thus has two parallel 3D paths: a software rasterizer on bare metal (CPU-only, no GPU) and a hardware-accelerated path in the browser (WebGL/Three.js, with WebGPU infrastructure in place). The API surface is identical from the piece author's perspective.
178178+179179+\subsection{The GPU Question on Bare Metal (2026--2028)}
180180+181181+The software rasterizer is elegant but fundamentally limited. Every surplus ThinkPad and EliteBook in the target fleet has an Intel integrated GPU capable of OpenGL 4.x or Vulkan 1.x, sitting idle. The kernel's DRM subsystem already manages the display via KMS modesetting; extending it to expose a render node for GPU-accelerated rasterization is a known engineering path (EGL on DRM, or Vulkan via \texttt{/dev/dri/renderD128}).
182182+183183+The likely trajectory is cautious. @jeffrey's design instinct favors software control over hardware delegation---the entire bare-metal OS philosophy is ``know every instruction between power-on and pixel.'' GPU drivers introduce opacity: firmware blobs, driver bugs, vendor-specific behavior. The software rasterizer's virtue is that it is \emph{legible}: the pipeline from vertex to pixel is 600 lines of C that a student can read.
184184+185185+The probable compromise: GPU acceleration as an opt-in path for pieces that need it, with the software rasterizer remaining the default and the reference implementation. This mirrors the browser architecture, where WebGPU exists alongside the 2D canvas but doesn't replace it.
186186+187187+\subsection{3D as Creative Medium (2028--2031)}
188188+189189+The more interesting question is not technical but expressive. What does 3D mean in a system designed around constraint, immediacy, and single-file pieces?
190190+191191+The predecessor projects offer a clue. @jeffrey's work has always been about \emph{painting}: No Paint, JeffreyPaint, thePRBAT, the Radical Digital Painting lecture tour. The 3D infrastructure is not building toward a game engine or a CAD tool. It is building toward \emph{spatial painting}---the ability to place marks, colors, and forms in three-dimensional space with the same immediacy that \texttt{ink(255,0,0).line(0,0,100,100)} provides in two dimensions.
192192+193193+The pieces that will matter are not the ones that look like Unity demos. They are the ones where 3D is used the way @jeffrey uses 2D: as raw material for instruments, for performances, for things that are played rather than consumed. A 3D \np{} where notes have spatial position and the room reverb is literal---sound emanating from forms distributed in virtual space. A 3D KidLisp where \texttt{(box 0 0 0 50 50 50)} places a cube the way \texttt{(rect 0 0 50 50)} places a rectangle. A fleet of surplus laptops each rendering a different camera angle of the same distributed 3D scene.
194194+195195+The convergence with ensembles (\S\ref{sec:ensembles}) is where 3D becomes genuinely new. Synchronized 3D scenes across networked surplus machines---each screen a window into a shared virtual space, each player's input affecting the scene for all participants---is a form that neither game engines nor creative coding tools have explored at the \$50/seat price point. The networking is already proven (\texttt{1v1.mjs}). The hardware is already available (\S\ref{sec:surplus}). The missing piece is the artistic vision for what a distributed spatial instrument should feel like, and that is precisely the kind of question @jeffrey has spent 94 projects learning how to answer.
196196+197197+% ============ 5. THE SCHOLARLY TURN ============
198198+199199+\section{The Scholarly Turn}
200200+\label{sec:scholarly}
201201+202202+Between March 3 and March 20, 2026, @jeffrey produced 19 research papers in four languages. This is not normal behavior for a solo developer. It signals a deliberate turn toward scholarly legitimacy---an attempt to build what the RESEARCH-DIRECTION.md file calls a ``research moat'' around the project.
203203+204204+\subsection{The Paper Mill (2026--2027)}
205205+206206+The paper infrastructure is already industrial: a custom \LaTeX{} template with AC fonts, automated PDF building via a server (``the oven''), a cards format for single-sheet printouts, and a translation pipeline producing Danish, Spanish, and Chinese editions of every paper. The 40+ readings library provides the citation base. The pipeline is designed to produce, not to prototype.
207207+208208+The near-term trajectory is submission: ACM C\&C Demos (April 16), ICCC Short Papers (April 24), JOSS software papers (rolling). If any of these land, the project gains a scholarly foothold that most creative coding tools never achieve. Processing~\citep{reas2007processing} and Scratch~\citep{resnick2009scratch} built their academic legitimacy over years; @jeffrey is attempting to compress that timeline by producing volume and targeting multiple venues simultaneously.
209209+210210+\subsection{Artist-Scholar Identity (2028--2031)}
211211+212212+The CalArts paper argues that an art school is an operating system---that the structures of proximity, critique, and disciplinary contamination that characterize institutions like CalArts can be ported into software. If @jeffrey continues to publish at this rate, the papers themselves become a body of work: not documentation of a software project, but a sustained argument about what creative computing is and who it is for.
213213+214214+The likely 5-year outcome is one of two scenarios:
215215+216216+\begin{enumerate}
217217+ \item \textbf{The moat holds}: 6--10 papers are published across peer-reviewed venues, @jeffrey is invited to speak at conferences, and \ac{} enters the canon alongside Processing, Scratch, and Sonic Pi~\citep{aaron2016sonic} as a recognized creative computing environment. The papers create a feedback loop: scholarly attention brings users, users create pieces, pieces generate new papers.
218218+ \item \textbf{The moat doesn't hold}: submissions are rejected, the solo-author pattern raises reviewer eyebrows, and the paper infrastructure goes dormant. The code survives; the scholarly identity does not. This is the more common outcome for artist-programmers.
219219+\end{enumerate}
220220+221221+The honest bet is somewhere between: a few publications land, enough to establish credibility in niche venues (NIME, xCoAx, ICLC), but the mainstream HCI and PL conferences remain out of reach without collaborators and user studies.
222222+223223+% ============ 5. KIDLISP'S OWN LIFE ============
224224+225225+\section{KidLisp's Own Life}
226226+\label{sec:kidlisp}
227227+228228+KidLisp is a 118-function Lisp dialect for generative art~\citep{scudder2026kidlisp}. It is sandboxed (no file I/O, no networking), runs in the browser, and has already accumulated 16,779 stored programs and a blockchain minting integration via Tezos. The language is small enough to fit on an index card.
229229+230230+\subsection{Language Community (2026--2028)}
231231+232232+The Tezos ``keeps'' system---where KidLisp programs are minted as on-chain artworks for 2.5 XTZ---creates an economic incentive to write KidLisp. The keeps contract (v11) is live, the minting UI exists at keeps.kidlisp.com, and 5 tokens have already been minted and migrated. If the generative art market remains active, this thread sustains itself.
233233+234234+The more interesting possibility is pedagogical. KidLisp's constraints---no state mutation, no side effects beyond drawing, 118 functions, runs in a browser---make it a candidate for teaching environments. A KidLisp curriculum built around the cards format (single-sheet programs that students can hold in their hands) aligns with Papert's constructionism~\citep{papert1980mindstorms} and the project's existing infrastructure.
235235+236236+\subsection{Language Evolution (2028--2031)}
237237+238238+KidLisp will face pressure to grow. Users will want state, animation, interactivity, sound. The design question is whether the language absorbs these features (becoming a general-purpose creative language) or remains deliberately minimal (a ``haiku language'' for static generative art, with JavaScript handling everything else).
239239+240240+The project's history suggests the latter. @jeffrey's design instinct, visible across 94 predecessor projects, favors sharp constraints over feature accumulation. The piece model itself---single file, lifecycle functions, immediate-mode graphics~\citep{scudder2026pieces}---is a constraint-first design. KidLisp will probably stay small. The interesting growth will be in what people make with it, not what the language adds.
241241+242242+% ============ 6. SUSTAINABILITY ============
243243+244244+\section{The Sustainability Question}
245245+\label{sec:sustainability}
246246+247247+Every thread described above depends on a single person continuing to work. \ac{} has no venture funding, no institutional backing, and no employees beyond @jeffrey. The AestheticAnts maintenance system automates routine tasks, but architectural decisions, paper writing, hardware testing, and community cultivation require human attention.
248248+249249+\subsection{The Funding Landscape (2026--2028)}
250250+251251+The project has identified funding sources: Creative Capital (\$50,000 project grants), Prix Ars Electronica (\texteuro10,000), Gary Marsden Travel Awards, and GitHub Sponsors. The paper mill is partly a grant-writing strategy: a project with 19 papers, conference demos, and a documented user base is a stronger applicant than one with only code.
252252+253253+The Tezos keeps provide a small revenue stream. Prints (20 ordered as of March 2026) provide another. Neither is sufficient to sustain full-time development.
254254+255255+The honest projection: by 2028, the project either secures a grant or institutional affiliation (a residency, a teaching position, a research fellowship) or it slows to maintenance-mode development. This is not a failure scenario---many important creative tools are maintained part-time by their creators for decades. But the ambitious threads (planetary ensembles, surplus hardware fleets, scholarly moat) require full-time attention.
256256+257257+\subsection{The Solo-Author Risk (2028--2031)}
258258+259259+Illich's ``tools for conviviality''~\citep{illich1973tools} argues that good tools should be operable without specialized expertise. \ac{} aspires to this for its users, but the project itself is not convivial in Illich's sense: it requires @jeffrey's expertise to maintain. The bus factor is one.
260260+261261+The mitigation is already partially in place: the codebase is open source, the architecture is documented in 19 papers, the piece API is designed for single-file simplicity, and the AestheticAnts system handles routine maintenance autonomously. But the difference between ``the code is open'' and ``someone else can lead the project'' is vast.
262262+263263+The likely 5-year trajectory: @jeffrey remains the sole architect. A small community of piece authors contributes content (265 published pieces and growing). One or two contributors submit pull requests for specific features. The project does not achieve the ``thousand contributors'' model of Processing or p5.js, but it doesn't need to---its value proposition is not breadth but depth: a single vision, rigorously maintained, that takes creative computing to places committee-designed tools cannot go.
264264+265265+% ============ 7. THE CONVERGENCE ============
266266+267267+\section{The Convergence}
268268+\label{sec:convergence}
269269+270270+The seven threads described above are not parallel tracks. They converge.
271271+272272+The 94-project history (\S\ref{sec:history}) establishes the trajectory that makes the other threads legible. Surplus hardware (\S\ref{sec:surplus}) provides the material base for planetary ensembles (\S\ref{sec:ensembles}). The 3D infrastructure (\S\ref{sec:3d}) extends the ensemble model into spatial performance. The papers (\S\ref{sec:scholarly}) document and legitimize all of it. KidLisp (\S\ref{sec:kidlisp}) provides a safe entry point for new users who arrive through any of these channels. Sustainability (\S\ref{sec:sustainability}) determines whether the convergence happens at all---and \S\ref{sec:giveup} examines what happens if it doesn't.
273273+274274+The most likely 5-year scenario is this: by 2031, \ac{} is a recognized but niche creative computing environment with:
275275+276276+\begin{itemize}
277277+ \item \textbf{5,000--10,000 registered users}, up from 2,812, driven by notepat virality, conference demos, and classroom deployments
278278+ \item \textbf{A bare-metal OS} deployed on 100--500 surplus machines across 5--15 sites (schools, community centers, artist residencies, workshops)
279279+ \item \textbf{3--5 published papers} in peer-reviewed venues, establishing a minimal scholarly footprint
280280+ \item \textbf{50,000+ KidLisp programs}, with a small but active generative art community minting keeps on Tezos
281281+ \item \textbf{Ensemble performances} at 2--3 festivals or conferences, using fleets of surplus laptops as distributed instruments
282282+ \item \textbf{A single maintainer} still writing most of the code, with AI-assisted maintenance handling an increasing share of routine work
283283+\end{itemize}
284284+285285+This is not the most ambitious outcome, nor the most conservative. It is the outcome consistent with a project that has made specific, deliberate choices about what it cares about---depth over breadth, instruments over IDEs, maintenance over disruption---and that has the infrastructure to follow through on those choices at the pace a solo developer can sustain.
286286+287287+% ============ 8. WHAT COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING ============
288288+289289+\section{What Could Change Everything}
290290+\label{sec:wildcards}
291291+292292+Projections based on momentum are reliable precisely because they ignore discontinuities. Four wildcards could alter the trajectory entirely:
293293+294294+\subsection{An Institutional Home}
295295+296296+If @jeffrey takes a teaching position at an art school or research university, \ac{} gains something it currently lacks: students. A cohort of 15--30 students using \ac{} as their primary creative computing environment for a semester would produce more pieces, more bug reports, more use cases, and more scholarship than a decade of solo development. The CalArts paper's argument---that art school is an operating system---works in reverse: the operating system could become a school.
297297+298298+\subsection{A Viral Moment}
299299+300300+\np{} was posted to Hacker News and received attention. A second viral moment---a TikTok of a classroom full of surplus laptops playing music together, a tweet thread about the \$50 creative instrument, a conference demo that gets filmed and shared---could bring thousands of users in a week. The infrastructure (URL-addressable pieces, instant registration, social features) is designed to absorb this. Whether @jeffrey \emph{wants} to absorb it is a separate question. The project's anti-platform stance~\citep{fisher2009capitalist} suggests ambivalence about growth-for-growth's-sake.
301301+302302+\subsection{AI as Collaborator}
303303+304304+The AestheticAnts system already uses AI for routine maintenance. The agent memory system logs interactions and maintains continuity across conversations. If AI capabilities continue to advance, a future version of this system could do more than maintenance: it could write pieces, generate KidLisp programs, compose ensemble scores, and draft papers. The solo-author risk (\S\ref{sec:sustainability}) diminishes if the ``solo author'' is augmented by an AI collaborator that understands the project's history, philosophy, and codebase.
305305+306306+This is not speculative in the way the other scenarios are. It is already happening. The question is one of degree: by 2031, does AI handle 10\% of the creative work, or 50\%? The answer will depend on choices @jeffrey makes about what he delegates and what he insists on doing himself. The project's emphasis on personal voice, on the ``PSYCHO'' papers that bear the author's temperature, suggests that the most important work will remain human. The infrastructure around it may not.
307307+308308+\subsection{What If He Stops}
309309+\label{sec:giveup}
310310+311311+The projections above assume continued effort. But the 94-project history (\S\ref{sec:history}) contains a pattern that must be named: @jeffrey has walked away from things before. No Paint had five incarnations. Each one was abandoned, not because the idea failed, but because the implementation calcified---because the gap between what the tool \emph{was} and what it \emph{should be} grew intolerable. The restarts were not failures of commitment. They were expressions of it.
312312+313313+The risk for \ac{} is not that @jeffrey loses interest. Fifteen years of circling the same problems rules out casual abandonment. The risk is \emph{structural exhaustion}: the accumulation of operational weight---server bills, user support, hardware testing, paper submissions, grant applications, dependency updates---until the maintenance load crowds out the creative work that makes the project worth maintaining. Ukeles~\citep{ukeles1969manifesto} argued that maintenance is art, but even Ukeles acknowledged that maintenance without recognition becomes invisible labor.
314314+315315+Three scenarios for cessation deserve consideration:
316316+317317+\begin{enumerate}
318318+ \item \textbf{The quiet fade}: development slows to sporadic commits, the servers stay up but the community drifts, and \ac{} joins the long list of ambitious personal tools that exist as archives rather than living systems. This is the most common outcome for solo-authored creative computing projects. It is not dramatic. It is the default.
319319+320320+ \item \textbf{The deliberate stop}: @jeffrey declares the project complete at some natural boundary---perhaps when the OS boots reliably on a dozen laptop models, or when the paper count reaches a round number, or when the 100th piece is published by someone other than him. He returns to painting on canvas (the Venice Family Clinic exhibition in May 2026 suggests this thread is already active). The code remains open. Someone may fork it. Most likely, no one does.
321321+322322+ \item \textbf{The 95th restart}: @jeffrey walks away from \ac{} to build its successor. This is the pattern the history predicts most strongly. No Paint became \ac{}. \ac{} could become something else---something that absorbs the lessons of the OS, the piece model, the ensemble networking, and the 3D rasterizer, but sheds the accumulated infrastructure weight. The new project starts clean, in a single file, and the cycle begins again. From the outside, this looks like failure. From inside the 94-project lineage, it looks like the process working exactly as designed.
323323+\end{enumerate}
324324+325325+The honest assessment: scenario 3 is unlikely within 5 years because \ac{} has achieved escape velocity in ways No Paint never did---a registered user base, a bare-metal OS, a blockchain integration, 19 papers, a language with 16,000+ programs. The sunk cost is too high for a clean restart. But scenario 1 is entirely possible if the sustainability question (\S\ref{sec:sustainability}) goes unanswered. A project this ambitious, maintained by one person without stable funding, is always one bad year away from the quiet fade.
326326+327327+The mitigation is the same one that has sustained the project so far: making the work itself rewarding enough that the operational burden is tolerable. The papers, the performances, the 3D rasterizer written from scratch, the bare-metal boot that takes 7 seconds---these are not features on a roadmap. They are the creative practice. If the practice stops being interesting, the project stops. If it stays interesting, the project survives anything short of the lights going out.
328328+329329+% ============ 10. CONCLUSION ============
330330+331331+\section{Conclusion}
332332+333333+Aesthetic Computer is a project that knows what it is. It is not searching for product-market fit, pivoting toward enterprise, or optimizing for growth metrics. It is a personal creative computing instrument being built in public by a single person who has been making versions of it for more than a decade across 94 predecessor projects.
334334+335335+The next five years will be shaped by forces both internal (the pace @jeffrey can sustain, the funding he can secure) and external (240 million surplus PCs, the generative art economy, the academic conference cycle). The project's infrastructure---bare-metal OS, paper mill, piece model, social network, blockchain minting---is built to absorb these forces. Whether it will is a question of stamina, luck, and the willingness of the world to care about creative computing tools that are not owned by a platform.
336336+337337+Nelson wrote in 1974 that ``you can and must understand computers NOW''~\citep{nelson1974computerlib}. Illich wrote in 1973 that tools should expand personal autonomy, not require institutional mediation~\citep{illich1973tools}. Ukeles wrote in 1969 that maintenance is art~\citep{ukeles1969manifesto}. \ac{} is the synthesis: a tool that is personal, convivial, and maintained as a creative practice. The bet is that this synthesis, applied to surplus hardware and sustained over time, creates something that lasts.
338338+339339+Whether it does is the only interesting question. This paper offers no answer, only a reading of the forces in play. The code will decide.
340340+341341+\vspace{0.5em}
342342+\noindent\textbf{ORCID:} \href{https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4460-4913}{0009-0007-4460-4913}
343343+344344+% ============ REFERENCES ============
345345+346346+\bibliographystyle{plainnat}
347347+\bibliography{references}
348348+349349+\end{document}
···4141\thispagestyle{empty}
4242\vspace*{\fill}
4343\begin{center}
4444-\includegraphics[height=8em]{pals}\par\vspace{0.3em}
4545-{\acbold\fontsize{20pt}{24pt}\selectfont\color{acdark} Radical Computer Art}\par
4646-\vspace{0.3em}
4747-{\fontsize{10pt}{12pt}\selectfont\color{acpink} Goodiepalian Approaches in \acrandname{}}\par
4848-\vspace{0.8em}
4949-{\normalsize\color{cyan!70!blue}\textbf{@jeffrey}}\par
4444+\includegraphics[height=9em]{pals}\par\vspace{0.1em}
4545+{\acbold\fontsize{18pt}{22pt}\selectfont\color{acdark} Radical Computer Art}\par
4646+\vspace{0.1em}
4747+{\fontsize{9pt}{11pt}\selectfont\color{acpink} Goodiepalian Approaches in \acrandname{}}\par
4848+\vspace{0.4em}
4949+{\normalsize\color{cyan!70!blue}\href{https://prompt.ac/@jeffrey}{\textbf{@jeffrey}}}\par
5050{\small\color{acgray} Aesthetic.Computer}\par
5151{\small\color{acgray} ORCID: \href{https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4460-4913}{0009-0007-4460-4913}}\par
5252-\vspace{0.8em}
5353-\rule{0.6\textwidth}{1pt}\par
5452\vspace{0.4em}
5555-{\small\color{acpink!40}\textit{working draft --- not for citation}}\par
5656-\vspace{0.3em}
5757-{\footnotesize\color{acgray} March 2026}\par
5353+\rule{0.5\textwidth}{0.5pt}\par
5454+\vspace{0.15em}
5555+\colorbox{yellow!60}{\small\color{red!80!black}\textbf{\textit{working draft --- not for citation}}}\par
5656+\vspace{0.1em}
5757+{\footnotesize\color{acgray} March 2026 · \href{https://github.com/whistlegraph/aesthetic-computer/commit/2113ef735}{2113ef735}}\par
5858+\vspace{0.1em}
5959+{\footnotesize\color{acgray}\href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/radical-computer-art-26-arxiv-da-cards.pdf}{Dansk} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/radical-computer-art-26-arxiv-es-cards.pdf}{Español} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/radical-computer-art-26-arxiv-zh-cards.pdf}{{\accjk 中文}} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/radical-computer-art-26-arxiv-ja-cards.pdf}{{\accjk 日本語}}}\par
5860\end{center}
5961\vspace*{\fill}
6062···72747375\ac{}~\citep{scudder2026ac} is a mobile-first runtime and social network for creative computing. It is, by conventional standards, a software platform. It has a session server, a KidLisp interpreter, an NFT minting pipeline, and over 350 interactive programs called ``pieces.'' Its score is written in Markdown. Its logo is a pair of eyes called ``Pals.''
74767575-This paper argues that the distance between these two projects is smaller than it appears. \ac{}'s design decisions---many of which seem like engineering choices---are better understood as Goodiepalian commitments: philosophical positions about who computing is for, what constitutes a creative instrument, how communities of practice should organize, and what it means for software to address non-human audiences.
7777+The distance between these two projects is smaller than it appears. \ac{}'s design decisions---many of which seem like engineering choices---are better understood as Goodiepalian commitments: philosophical positions about who computing is for, what constitutes a creative instrument, how communities of practice should organize, and what it means for software to address non-human audiences.
76787779The scholarly literature on \gp{} remains thin but is growing. Wamberg's ``Art for Aliens''~\citep{wamberg2022artforaliens} situates \gp{} within a ``xenophile posthumanism'' informed by Rudolf Steiner, in which Artificial Intelligence is broadened to a more extensive network of material clusters that \gp{} designates Alternative Intelligence (ALI). A 2017 feature documentary, \emph{The Goodiepal Equation}~\citep{sanpakkila2017equation}, followed \gp{} over several years and multiple reinventions; \emph{In Spite Magazine} characterized the subject as ``renegade, anarchist, genius, trickster''~\citep{inspite2024goodiepal}. In 2020, the SMK (National Gallery of Denmark) devoted six rooms to ``Unboxing: The Goodiepal Collection''~\citep{smk2020unboxing}---one of Europe's largest private collections of sound art and sound objects, including a delay engine, a computer made entirely of glass, salt and water, and a machine which supposedly makes it possible to speak with the dead.
7880
···11+% !TEX program = xelatex
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1414+\usepackage{booktabs}
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4949+5050+\makeatletter
5151+\def\input@path{{../}}
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5353+\usepackage{ac-paper-cards}
5454+5555+% Extra commands from base paper
5656+\newcommand{\atproto}{\textsc{AT Protocol}}
5757+\definecolor{jskw}{RGB}{119,51,170}
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6262+6363+\hypersetup{
6464+ pdftitle={Handle Identity on the AT Protocol: From Auth0 to Decentralized Sign-In},
6565+}
6666+6767+\renewcommand{\acpdfbase}{handle-identity-atproto-26-arxiv}
6868+\begin{document}
6969+7070+% ============================================================
7171+% TITLE CARD
7272+% ============================================================
7373+\thispagestyle{empty}
7474+\vspace*{\fill}
7575+\begin{center}
7676+\includegraphics[height=9em]{pals}\par\vspace{0.1em}
7777+{\acbold\fontsize{18pt}{22pt}\selectfont\color{acdark} Handle Identity on the AT Protocol}\par
7878+\vspace{0.1em}
7979+{\fontsize{9pt}{11pt}\selectfont\color{acpink} From Auth0 to Decentralized Sign-In on Aesthetic Computer}\par
8080+\vspace{0.4em}
8181+{\normalsize\color{cyan!70!blue}\href{https://prompt.ac/@jeffrey}{\textbf{@jeffrey}}}\par
8282+{\small\color{acgray} Aesthetic.Computer}\par
8383+{\small\color{acgray} ORCID: \href{https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4460-4913}{0009-0007-4460-4913}}\par
8484+\vspace{0.4em}
8585+\rule{0.5\textwidth}{0.5pt}\par
8686+\vspace{0.15em}
8787+\colorbox{yellow!60}{\small\color{red!80!black}\textbf{\textit{working draft --- not for citation}}}\par
8888+\vspace{0.1em}
8989+{\footnotesize\color{acgray} March 2026 · \href{https://github.com/whistlegraph/aesthetic-computer/commit/2113ef735}{2113ef735}}\par
9090+\vspace{0.1em}
9191+{\footnotesize\color{acgray}\href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/handle-identity-atproto-26-arxiv-da-cards.pdf}{Dansk} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/handle-identity-atproto-26-arxiv-es-cards.pdf}{Español} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/handle-identity-atproto-26-arxiv-zh-cards.pdf}{{\accjk 中文}} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/handle-identity-atproto-26-arxiv-ja-cards.pdf}{{\accjk 日本語}}}\par
9292+\end{center}
9393+\vspace*{\fill}
9494+9595+% ============================================================
9696+% INDEX CARD
9797+% ============================================================
9898+\cardindex
9999+100100+% ============================================================
101101+% BODY
102102+% ============================================================
103103+\section{Introduction}
104104+105105+Identity on the web is a landlord problem. You do not own your handle on Twitter, your username on Instagram, or your login on any platform that can delete your account. The AT Protocol~\citep{atproto2024spec}---the decentralized social networking protocol behind Bluesky---proposes a different arrangement: your identity is a cryptographic key pair, your handle is a domain name you control, and your data lives on a Personal Data Server that you can move between providers.
106106+107107+Aesthetic Computer has operated a hybrid identity system since 2024. Auth0~\citep{auth0spa} handles authentication: OAuth 2.0 with PKCE, refresh tokens, and a managed user database. Separately, a self-hosted PDS at \texttt{at.aesthetic.computer} mints ATProto identities for every verified user. The result is a doubled system: two identities per user, two credential stores, two handle sync paths, and a paid Auth0 subscription bridging the gap.
108108+109109+This paper asks: what if the PDS \emph{is} the identity provider?
110110+111111+The answer is not hypothetical. pckt.blog~\citep{pcktblog2025}, a blogging platform built on the \atproto{}, authenticates users entirely through \atproto{} OAuth. Users sign in with their Bluesky handle, their self-hosted PDS, or any compatible identity provider. No Auth0, no Firebase, no centralized user database. The content syncs to the user's own PDS using shared lexicons from Standard.site~\citep{standardsite2025}.
112112+113113+We examine how this model applies to Aesthetic Computer---a creative computing platform with 600+ interactive pieces, multiplayer sessions, a KidLisp programming language, and a native bare-metal OS~\citep{scudder2026os}---and propose a phased migration that preserves backward compatibility while moving toward decentralized identity.
114114+115115+% ============ 2. THE CURRENT AC IDENTITY ARCHITECTURE ============
116116+117117+\section{Current Architecture}
118118+\label{sec:current}
119119+120120+\subsection{Auth0 as Identity Provider}
121121+122122+Authentication flows through Auth0's SPA SDK. On page load, \texttt{boot.mjs} checks localStorage for cached Auth0 state. If a session exists (or an OAuth callback is detected), it initializes the Auth0 client with PKCE and refresh tokens, exchanges authorization codes for access tokens, and retrieves the user profile. The Auth0 \texttt{sub} field (e.g., \texttt{auth0|abc123} or \texttt{google-oauth2|xyz}) serves as the internal user identifier.
123123+124124+\begin{lstlisting}[style=acjsstyle]
125125+// boot.mjs: current Auth0 flow
126126+const auth0 = await createAuth0Client({
127127+ domain: |\textcolor{jsstr}{"hi.aesthetic.computer"}|,
128128+ clientId: |\textcolor{jsstr}{"LVdZaM..."}|,
129129+ cacheLocation: |\textcolor{jsstr}{"localstorage"}|,
130130+ useRefreshTokens: true,
131131+});
132132+const user = await auth0.getUser();
133133+// { sub, email, email_verified, ... }
134134+\end{lstlisting}
135135+136136+\subsection{Handle System}
137137+138138+Handles are stored in a MongoDB \texttt{@handles} collection, mapping Auth0 \texttt{sub} to a 1--16 character alphanumeric string (with \texttt{.} and \texttt{\_} allowed). Validation enforces no leading/trailing punctuation, case-insensitive uniqueness, and profanity filtering. Handles are the primary user-facing identity: URL-addressable (\texttt{@handle/piece-name}), visible in chat, and spoken aloud by AC Native OS.
139139+140140+\subsection{ATProto Shadow Identity}
141141+142142+On first email verification, an Auth0 webhook triggers \texttt{createAtprotoAccount()}, which:
143143+144144+\begin{enumerate}
145145+ \item Generates a 32-character password
146146+ \item Creates an invite code on the PDS
147147+ \item Creates an account at \texttt{handle.at.aesthetic.computer}
148148+ \item Stores the DID, handle, and encrypted password in MongoDB (\texttt{users.atproto})
149149+\end{enumerate}
150150+151151+When a user changes their AC handle, \texttt{updateAtprotoHandle()} syncs the change to the PDS. Content (paintings, moods, KidLisp snippets, tapes, news) is mirrored to the PDS via six custom lexicons (\texttt{computer.aesthetic.*}). The ATProto identity is real and functional---but the user never authenticates through it. It is a shadow identity: present, synced, but not sovereign.
152152+153153+\subsection{The Duplication Problem}
154154+155155+This architecture means:
156156+157157+\begin{itemize}
158158+ \item Two credential stores (Auth0 + PDS)
159159+ \item Two handle namespaces (AC handles + PDS handles)
160160+ \item Two sync paths (handle changes propagate Auth0 $\to$ MongoDB $\to$ PDS)
161161+ \item A paid dependency (Auth0 subscription)
162162+ \item No interoperability (a Bluesky user cannot sign into AC with their existing identity)
163163+\end{itemize}
164164+165165+The PDS already knows who each user is. It already stores their DID, their handle, their content. The Auth0 layer adds cost and complexity without adding capability that the PDS cannot provide.
166166+167167+% ============ 3. THE AT PROTOCOL IDENTITY STACK ============
168168+169169+\section{The AT Protocol Identity Stack}
170170+\label{sec:atproto}
171171+172172+Understanding the migration requires understanding the three layers of \atproto{} identity: DIDs, handles, and OAuth.
173173+174174+\subsection{Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs)}
175175+176176+A DID~\citep{w3cdid2022, atproto2024did} is a persistent, cryptographically verifiable identifier. The \atproto{} primarily uses \texttt{did:plc}, a method designed for strong consistency, high availability, and key rotation without losing identity. Each DID resolves to a document containing:
177177+178178+\begin{itemize}
179179+ \item A \textbf{signing key} (P-256 or K-256)~\citep{atproto2024crypto} for authenticating repository updates
180180+ \item \textbf{Rotation keys} for account recovery
181181+ \item A \textbf{PDS endpoint} URL
182182+ \item The user's current \textbf{handle}
183183+\end{itemize}
184184+185185+The DID is the stable identity. Handles change; keys rotate; PDS providers come and go. The DID persists. AC already mints DIDs for every user through its PDS. The infrastructure exists.
186186+187187+\subsection{Handle Verification}
188188+189189+An \atproto{} handle~\citep{atproto2024handle} is a domain name that bidirectionally resolves to a DID. Verification uses two methods:
190190+191191+\textbf{DNS TXT}: Place a record at \texttt{\_atproto.example.com}:
192192+\begin{lstlisting}
193193+_atproto.example.com TXT "did=did:plc:abc..."
194194+\end{lstlisting}
195195+196196+\textbf{HTTPS Well-Known}: Serve the DID at:
197197+\begin{lstlisting}
198198+GET /.well-known/atproto-did
199199+Response: did:plc:abc...
200200+\end{lstlisting}
201201+202202+Both methods require the handle to resolve to the DID \emph{and} the DID document to claim the handle back. This bidirectional verification means: if you control the domain, you control the handle. No central authority assigns handles; DNS is the authority.
203203+204204+For AC, this means \texttt{jeffrey.at.aesthetic.computer} is a real, verifiable ATProto handle because AC controls both the DNS and the PDS. But it also means a user who already owns \texttt{alice.bsky.social} or \texttt{alice.dev} has a cryptographically verified identity that AC can trust without a password.
205205+206206+\subsection{ATProto OAuth}
207207+208208+The \atproto{} OAuth specification~\citep{atproto2024oauth} extends OAuth 2.1 with three mandatory security mechanisms:
209209+210210+\textbf{PKCE} (Proof Key for Code Exchange)~\citep{rfc7636pkce}: Prevents authorization code interception. The client generates a random verifier, sends its hash with the authorization request, and proves possession of the original verifier during token exchange.
211211+212212+\textbf{PAR} (Pushed Authorization Requests)~\citep{rfc9126par}: The client submits authorization parameters via POST to the authorization server \emph{before} redirecting the user. This prevents parameter tampering in the redirect URL.
213213+214214+\textbf{DPoP} (Demonstrating Proof of Possession)~\citep{rfc9449dpop}: Each request includes a signed JWT proving the client holds the private key associated with the token. Even if an access token leaks, it cannot be used by a different client.
215215+216216+\subsubsection{Client Identification}
217217+218218+Unlike traditional OAuth, \atproto{} does not require pre-registration with each authorization server. Instead, clients publish metadata at a public HTTPS URL:
219219+220220+\begin{lstlisting}[style=acjsstyle]
221221+// aesthetic.computer/oauth/client-metadata.json
222222+{
223223+ |\textcolor{jsstr}{"client\_id"}|: |\textcolor{jsstr}{"https://aesthetic.computer/..."}|,
224224+ |\textcolor{jsstr}{"client\_name"}|: |\textcolor{jsstr}{"Aesthetic Computer"}|,
225225+ |\textcolor{jsstr}{"redirect\_uris"}|: [|\textcolor{jsstr}{"https://..."}|],
226226+ |\textcolor{jsstr}{"grant\_types"}|: [|\textcolor{jsstr}{"authorization\_code"}|],
227227+ |\textcolor{jsstr}{"dpop\_bound\_access\_tokens"}|: true
228228+}
229229+\end{lstlisting}
230230+231231+Any PDS can discover and verify the client by fetching this URL. No pre-shared secrets, no app store registration, no API key management.
232232+233233+\subsubsection{The Flow}
234234+235235+\begin{enumerate}
236236+ \item User enters their handle (e.g., \texttt{alice.bsky.social})
237237+ \item Client resolves handle $\to$ DID $\to$ PDS endpoint $\to$ authorization server
238238+ \item Client pushes authorization parameters via PAR
239239+ \item User is redirected to their PDS's authorization UI
240240+ \item User approves; PDS redirects back with authorization code
241241+ \item Client exchanges code for DPoP-bound access token
242242+ \item Client verifies the returned DID matches the expected identity
243243+\end{enumerate}
244244+245245+The critical difference from Auth0: the user authenticates with \emph{their own server}. AC never sees a password. The PDS---whether Bluesky's, AC's own, or a self-hosted instance---is the identity authority.
246246+247247+% ============ 4. HOW PCKT.BLOG DOES IT ============
248248+249249+\section{Case Study: pckt.blog}
250250+\label{sec:pckt}
251251+252252+pckt.blog~\citep{pcktblog2025} is a blogging platform that authenticates exclusively through \atproto{} OAuth. Its implementation demonstrates the practical viability of ATProto-only authentication for a content platform.
253253+254254+\subsection{Authentication}
255255+256256+Users sign in by entering their ATProto handle. pckt.blog resolves the handle, discovers the authorization server, and initiates the OAuth flow. The user approves on their PDS (Bluesky, Blacksky, a self-hosted server). pckt.blog receives a DPoP-bound access token and the user's DID. No passwords are stored. No separate user database is maintained.
257257+258258+\subsection{Data Sovereignty}
259259+260260+Content syncs to the user's own PDS using Standard.site lexicons~\citep{standardsite2025}:
261261+262262+\begin{itemize}
263263+ \item \texttt{site.standard.publication} --- blog collections
264264+ \item \texttt{site.standard.document} --- individual articles
265265+ \item \texttt{site.standard.graph.subscription} --- follow relationships
266266+\end{itemize}
267267+268268+If pckt.blog disappears, the user's content remains on their PDS, accessible to any compatible reader. This is the promise of ATProto: the platform is a view, not a silo.
269269+270270+\subsection{Implications for AC}
271271+272272+pckt.blog proves that a content-oriented platform can operate entirely on ATProto identity. The parallels to AC are direct:
273273+274274+\begin{itemize}
275275+ \item pckt.blog publishes articles; AC publishes pieces, paintings, and moods
276276+ \item pckt.blog uses Standard.site lexicons; AC has six custom \texttt{computer.aesthetic.*} lexicons
277277+ \item pckt.blog's users own their content on their PDS; AC already mirrors content to its PDS
278278+ \item Both are Node.js/JavaScript applications
279279+\end{itemize}
280280+281281+The gap: pckt.blog was built ATProto-native. AC has an existing Auth0 user base that must be migrated gracefully.
282282+283283+% ============ 5. PROPOSED MIGRATION ============
284284+285285+\section{Proposed Migration}
286286+\label{sec:migration}
287287+288288+\subsection{Phase 1: ATProto OAuth as Secondary Sign-In}
289289+290290+Add ``Sign in with Bluesky'' alongside Auth0, without removing Auth0.
291291+292292+\textbf{Infrastructure:}
293293+\begin{enumerate}
294294+ \item Publish client metadata at \texttt{aesthetic.computer/oauth/client-metadata.json}
295295+ \item Add \texttt{@atproto/oauth-client-node}~\citep{npmAtprotoOauth} to the backend
296296+ \item Create two new Netlify functions:
297297+ \begin{itemize}
298298+ \item \texttt{POST /api/atproto-auth/start} --- resolve handle, PAR, redirect
299299+ \item \texttt{GET /api/atproto-auth/callback} --- code exchange with DPoP
300300+ \end{itemize}
301301+ \item Store sessions in Redis (DID, handle, DPoP key pair, tokens)
302302+\end{enumerate}
303303+304304+\textbf{Client flow:} A new ``Sign in with Bluesky'' button in \texttt{boot.mjs} triggers the ATProto OAuth flow. On success, \texttt{window.acUSER} is populated from the ATProto session (DID as \texttt{sub}, handle, no email unless the user provides one). The piece API surface is identical---pieces see a user with a handle, regardless of which auth path created the session.
305305+306306+\subsection{Phase 2: Handle Bridging}
307307+308308+When a user signs in via ATProto, bridge their handle to AC:
309309+310310+\begin{enumerate}
311311+ \item Extract the username from the ATProto handle (e.g., \texttt{alice} from \texttt{alice.bsky.social})
312312+ \item Check availability against the AC \texttt{@handles} collection
313313+ \item If available and valid (1--16 chars, alphanumeric), offer one-click claim
314314+ \item If taken, check if the existing owner's email matches---offer account linking
315315+ \item If taken by someone else, prompt for an alternative
316316+ \item Store a DID $\leftrightarrow$ AC sub mapping in MongoDB for future sign-ins
317317+\end{enumerate}
318318+319319+Custom domain handles (e.g., \texttt{alice.dev}) require the user to choose an AC handle manually, since the domain itself may not map to a valid handle string.
320320+321321+\subsection{Phase 3: Identity Linking}
322322+323323+Existing Auth0 users can link their ATProto identity:
324324+325325+\begin{enumerate}
326326+ \item From account settings, initiate ATProto OAuth
327327+ \item On success, store the external DID alongside the Auth0 sub
328328+ \item Future sign-ins accept either auth path
329329+ \item Content can optionally sync to the user's external PDS (not just AC's PDS)
330330+\end{enumerate}
331331+332332+This phase turns the existing \texttt{users.atproto} field from a shadow identity into a first-class identity link.
333333+334334+\subsection{Phase 4: ATProto-Primary}
335335+336336+Once the migration is validated:
337337+338338+\begin{enumerate}
339339+ \item New signups default to ATProto OAuth (creating accounts on AC's PDS)
340340+ \item Auth0 remains as a legacy path for existing users
341341+ \item Gradually sunset Auth0 as users link their ATProto identities
342342+ \item Remove Auth0 dependency, eliminate subscription cost
343343+\end{enumerate}
344344+345345+\subsection{PDS Routing}
346346+347347+A key architectural decision: where does content go?
348348+349349+\begin{itemize}
350350+ \item \textbf{Auth0-only users}: content syncs to AC's PDS (current behavior)
351351+ \item \textbf{ATProto users with external PDS}: content syncs to \emph{their} PDS
352352+ \item \textbf{ATProto users on AC's PDS}: content stays on AC's PDS
353353+\end{itemize}
354354+355355+This means the backend sync functions (\texttt{media-atproto.mjs}, \texttt{painting-atproto.mjs}, etc.) need a conditional path: resolve the user's PDS endpoint from their DID document, and write to that endpoint rather than assuming AC's PDS.
356356+357357+% ============ 6. HANDLE SEMANTICS ============
358358+359359+\section{Handle Semantics}
360360+\label{sec:handles}
361361+362362+The handle is the most human-visible piece of the identity stack, and the migration raises questions about what a handle \emph{means}.
363363+364364+\subsection{Current Handle Model}
365365+366366+Today, an AC handle is:
367367+\begin{itemize}
368368+ \item A 1--16 character string, first-come-first-served
369369+ \item Unique within the AC namespace
370370+ \item Used for URLs (\texttt{@alice/painting}), chat, and OS personalization
371371+ \item Stored in MongoDB, cached in Redis
372372+ \item Mirrored to the PDS as \texttt{alice.at.aesthetic.computer}
373373+\end{itemize}
374374+375375+\subsection{ATProto Handle Model}
376376+377377+An ATProto handle is:
378378+\begin{itemize}
379379+ \item A domain name (any valid DNS name)
380380+ \item Verified bidirectionally against a DID
381381+ \item Globally unique by DNS authority
382382+ \item Portable across services
383383+\end{itemize}
384384+385385+\subsection{Bridging the Models}
386386+387387+The proposal: an AC handle is an \emph{alias} that maps to a DID. The source of truth shifts from MongoDB to the DID layer. Multiple sign-in methods (Auth0, ATProto OAuth) resolve to the same DID, which resolves to the same AC handle.
388388+389389+For AC Native OS~\citep{scudder2026os}, where the handle is inscribed in \texttt{config.json} on the boot partition, this means the device identity is backed by a cryptographic identity. ``Hi @alice'' on the boot screen means Alice's DID, Alice's signing key, Alice's portable identity---not just a string in a config file.
390390+391391+% ============ 7. OPEN QUESTIONS ============
392392+393393+\section{Open Questions}
394394+\label{sec:questions}
395395+396396+\textbf{Handle priority.} If \texttt{alice} is unclaimed on AC but \texttt{alice.bsky.social} signs in, should she get it automatically? First-come-first-served is simple but allows squatting. ATProto-verified priority is fairer but adds complexity.
397397+398398+\textbf{Email requirement.} Auth0 provides verified email for account recovery. ATProto OAuth does not guarantee email. Should AC require an email for full account features (purchasing, notifications)?
399399+400400+\textbf{Multi-tenant.} AC operates a second tenant (\texttt{sotce}) with separate Auth0. How do ATProto identities map across tenants? The DID is tenant-agnostic, which may simplify cross-tenant identity.
401401+402402+\textbf{Session server.} Real-time features (chat, multiplayer) authenticate via Auth0 tokens forwarded through WebSocket. The session server must accept ATProto-issued tokens or a unified session token.
403403+404404+\textbf{Device pairing.} AC Native OS pairs via a 6-character code exchanged through Auth0. The ATProto equivalent: scan a QR code that initiates an OAuth flow on the phone, delivering tokens to the device.
405405+406406+\textbf{Admin identity.} Admin is currently \texttt{handle === "jeffrey" \&\& sub === ADMIN\_SUB}. Under ATProto-first auth, admin is \texttt{did === admin\_did}---cleaner, cryptographically grounded.
407407+408408+% ============ 8. RELATED WORK ============
409409+410410+\section{Related Work}
411411+\label{sec:related}
412412+413413+\textbf{Decentralized identity.} The W3C DID specification~\citep{w3cdid2022} provides the formal framework for decentralized identifiers. The AT Protocol's \texttt{did:plc} method~\citep{atproto2024did} extends this with strong consistency guarantees and a centralized-but-auditable directory at \texttt{plc.directory}. This is a pragmatic compromise: full decentralization of identity resolution remains an open problem, and \texttt{did:plc} trades some decentralization for operational reliability.
414414+415415+\textbf{ATProto-native applications.} pckt.blog~\citep{pcktblog2025} demonstrates blogging; Leaflet.pub and Offprint.app collaborate on shared lexicons via Standard.site~\citep{standardsite2025}. These applications prove the viability of ATProto-only auth for content platforms.
416416+417417+\textbf{OAuth security.} DPoP~\citep{rfc9449dpop} prevents token theft; PAR~\citep{rfc9126par} prevents parameter tampering; PKCE~\citep{rfc7636pkce} prevents code interception. Together they represent the state of the art in browser-based OAuth security---significantly stronger than the Auth0 SPA flow AC currently uses.
418418+419419+\textbf{Convivial identity.} Illich's tools for conviviality~\citep{illich1973tools} frame the question: does the identity system expand personal autonomy, or does it require dependence on a provider? Auth0 is a managed service---convenient but dependent. ATProto identity is portable, self-verifiable, and provider-independent. Nelson's vision of personal computing~\citep{nelson1974computerlib} extends naturally to personal identity: you should own your name on the network.
420420+421421+% ============ 9. CONCLUSION ============
422422+423423+\section{Conclusion}
424424+425425+Aesthetic Computer already runs a PDS, mints DIDs, syncs content to ATProto records, and publishes custom lexicons. The only piece missing is letting users authenticate through that infrastructure instead of routing through Auth0. The migration is not a rewrite---it is the removal of a workaround.
426426+427427+The phased approach (ATProto as secondary sign-in $\to$ handle bridging $\to$ identity linking $\to$ ATProto-primary) ensures no existing user is disrupted. The end state: a creative computing platform where your handle is a cryptographic identity, your content lives on a server you control, and signing in means proving you own your keys---not trusting a third party to vouch for you.
428428+429429+The PDS is already running. The DIDs are already minted. The lexicons are already published. It is time to let users sign in through the front door.
430430+431431+% ============ REFERENCES ============
432432+433433+\vspace{0.5em}
434434+\noindent\rule{\columnwidth}{0.5pt}
435435+436436+\subsection*{Reference Links}
437437+438438+\noindent\small
439439+440440+\textbf{AT Protocol Specifications:}
441441+\begin{itemize}
442442+ \item \url{https://atproto.com/specs} --- Full protocol specification
443443+ \item \url{https://atproto.com/specs/oauth} --- OAuth specification
444444+ \item \url{https://atproto.com/specs/handle} --- Handle resolution
445445+ \item \url{https://atproto.com/specs/cryptography} --- Cryptographic methods
446446+ \item \url{https://web.plc.directory/spec/v0.1/did-plc} --- DID PLC specification
447447+ \item \url{https://atproto.com/guides/lexicon} --- Lexicon schema system
448448+ \item \url{https://atproto.com/guides/oauth-patterns} --- OAuth implementation patterns
449449+\end{itemize}
450450+451451+\textbf{Implementation Guides:}
452452+\begin{itemize}
453453+ \item \url{https://docs.bsky.app/blog/oauth-atproto} --- Building ATProto OAuth apps
454454+ \item \url{https://docs.bsky.app/docs/advanced-guides/resolving-identities} --- Identity resolution
455455+ \item \url{https://docs.bsky.app/docs/advanced-guides/oauth-client} --- OAuth client guide
456456+\end{itemize}
457457+458458+\textbf{NPM Packages:}
459459+\begin{itemize}
460460+ \item \texttt{@atproto/oauth-client-node} --- Node.js OAuth client
461461+ \item \texttt{@atproto/oauth-client-browser} --- Browser OAuth client
462462+ \item \texttt{@atproto/api} --- TypeScript XRPC client
463463+ \item \texttt{@atproto/identity} --- DID/handle resolution
464464+ \item \texttt{@atcute/oauth-browser-client} --- Lightweight alternative
465465+\end{itemize}
466466+467467+\textbf{Reference Implementations:}
468468+\begin{itemize}
469469+ \item \url{https://github.com/pilcrowonpaper/atproto-oauth-example} --- Astro OAuth example
470470+ \item \url{https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto} --- Official ATProto monorepo
471471+ \item \url{https://standard.site/docs/introduction/} --- Standard.site shared lexicons
472472+\end{itemize}
473473+474474+\textbf{Applications Using ATProto Auth:}
475475+\begin{itemize}
476476+ \item pckt.blog --- Blogging on the open social web
477477+ \item Leaflet.pub --- Long-form publishing
478478+ \item Offprint.app --- Collaborative writing
479479+\end{itemize}
480480+481481+\textbf{IETF Standards:}
482482+\begin{itemize}
483483+ \item RFC 9449 --- DPoP (Demonstrating Proof of Possession)
484484+ \item RFC 7636 --- PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange)
485485+ \item RFC 9126 --- PAR (Pushed Authorization Requests)
486486+\end{itemize}
487487+488488+\vspace{0.5em}
489489+490490+\bibliographystyle{plainnat}
491491+\bibliography{references}
492492+493493+\end{document}
···4040\thispagestyle{empty}
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4747-\vspace{0.8em}
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4444+{\acbold\fontsize{18pt}{22pt}\selectfont\color{acdark} Network Audit}\par
4545+\vspace{0.1em}
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4949{\small\color{acgray} Aesthetic.Computer}\par
5050{\small\color{acgray} ORCID: \href{https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4460-4913}{0009-0007-4460-4913}}\par
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5351\vspace{0.4em}
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5555-\vspace{0.3em}
5656-{\footnotesize\color{acgray} March 2026}\par
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5353+\vspace{0.15em}
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5555+\vspace{0.1em}
5656+{\footnotesize\color{acgray} March 2026 · \href{https://github.com/whistlegraph/aesthetic-computer/commit/2113ef735}{2113ef735}}\par
5757+\vspace{0.1em}
5858+{\footnotesize\color{acgray}\href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/network-audit-26-arxiv-da-cards.pdf}{Dansk} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/network-audit-26-arxiv-es-cards.pdf}{Español} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/network-audit-26-arxiv-zh-cards.pdf}{{\accjk 中文}} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/network-audit-26-arxiv-ja-cards.pdf}{{\accjk 日本語}}}\par
5759\end{center}
5860\vspace*{\fill}
5961
···3838\thispagestyle{empty}
3939\vspace*{\fill}
4040\begin{center}
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4242-{\acbold\fontsize{20pt}{24pt}\selectfont\color{acdark} notepat{\color{acpurple}.}{\color{acpink}com}}\par
4343-\vspace{0.3em}
4444-{\fontsize{10pt}{12pt}\selectfont\color{acpink} From Keyboard Toy to System Front Door}\par
4545-\vspace{0.8em}
4646-{\normalsize\color{cyan!70!blue}\textbf{@jeffrey}}\par
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5149\vspace{0.4em}
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5353-\vspace{0.3em}
5454-{\footnotesize\color{acgray} March 2026}\par
5050+\rule{0.5\textwidth}{0.5pt}\par
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5454+{\footnotesize\color{acgray} March 2026 · \href{https://github.com/whistlegraph/aesthetic-computer/commit/2113ef735}{2113ef735}}\par
5555+\vspace{0.1em}
5656+{\footnotesize\color{acgray}\href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/notepat-26-arxiv-da-cards.pdf}{Dansk} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/notepat-26-arxiv-es-cards.pdf}{Español} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/notepat-26-arxiv-zh-cards.pdf}{{\accjk 中文}} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/notepat-26-arxiv-ja-cards.pdf}{{\accjk 日本語}}}\par
5557\end{center}
5658\vspace*{\fill}
5759···6567% ============================================================
6668\section{Introduction}
67696868-Creative coding platforms are typically evaluated at the system level: language design, editor affordances, community size~\citep{reas2007processing,mccarthy2015p5js,resnick2009scratch}. Even within digital musical instrument research, the unit of analysis is usually the instrument class or interaction paradigm rather than the evolution of a single artifact over years~\citep{magnusson2010designing,marquez2018dmi}. This paper takes a narrower and longer lens: one piece---\texttt{notepat}---inside \ac{}, studied across 20 months of active development.
7070+Creative coding platforms are typically evaluated at the system level: language design, editor affordances, community size~\citep{reas2007processing,mccarthy2015p5js,resnick2009scratch}. Even within digital musical instrument research, the unit of analysis is usually the instrument class or interaction paradigm rather than the evolution of a single artifact over years~\citep{magnusson2010designing,marquez2018dmi}. I take a narrower and longer lens: one piece---\texttt{notepat}---inside \ac{}, studied across 20 months of active development.
69717072\texttt{notepat} is a melodic keyboard instrument. It is directly addressable as \texttt{aesthetic.computer/notepat} and through the branded domain \texttt{notepat.com}. As of March 2026, it is the most complex piece in the system, the default boot piece on bare-metal hardware, and the primary subject of performance testing infrastructure. None of this was planned at the outset. The instrument grew, and the platform grew around it.
7173
···11+% !TEX program = xelatex
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1313+\graphicspath{{figures/}{../arxiv-ac/figures/}}
1414+\usepackage{booktabs}
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2323+\def\input@path{{../}}
2424+\makeatother
2525+\usepackage{ac-paper-cards}
2626+2727+% Extra commands from base paper
2828+\newcommand{\acos}{\textsc{AC Native OS}}
2929+3030+\hypersetup{
3131+ pdftitle={Get Closed Source Out of Schools: Every Chromebook Is a Gateway Denied},
3232+}
3333+3434+\renewcommand{\acpdfbase}{open-schools-26-arxiv}
3535+\begin{document}
3636+3737+% ============================================================
3838+% TITLE CARD
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4444+{\acbold\fontsize{18pt}{22pt}\selectfont\color{acdark} Get Closed Source Out of Schools}\par
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4848+{\small\color{acgray} Aesthetic.Computer}\par
4949+{\small\color{acgray} ORCID: \href{https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4460-4913}{0009-0007-4460-4913}}\par
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5252+\vspace{0.15em}
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5858+\end{center}
5959+\vspace*{\fill}
6060+6161+% ============================================================
6262+% INDEX CARD
6363+% ============================================================
6464+\cardindex
6565+6666+% ============================================================
6767+% ABSTRACT CARD
6868+% ============================================================
6969+\clearpage
7070+\begin{accentcard}
7171+\cardtitle{Abstract}
7272+7373+\noindent
7474+There are over 50 million Chromebooks in American schools. Each one is a capable computer running a locked-down, closed-source operating system that funnels every student interaction through Google's surveillance infrastructure. The student cannot see how the machine works. The student cannot modify the machine. The student cannot own the machine in any meaningful sense. In the age of large language models---when ``everyone is a programmer'' is no longer a slogan but a material reality---this is an act of educational malpractice. This paper argues that every student deserves a free and open operating system stack: one where the Chromebook becomes a gateway to the student's own path through logic, creativity, the internet, community, and the computational landscape as a whole. We present the technical, pedagogical, economic, and political case for replacing closed-source school computing infrastructure with open alternatives, drawing on international precedents from Kerala, Schleswig-Holstein, and France, environmental data on planned obsolescence, federal and state legal actions against student surveillance, and emerging research on AI-assisted programming education. We present \acos{}~\citep{scudder2026acos} as one concrete implementation of this vision.
7575+\end{accentcard}
7676+7777+% ============================================================
7878+% BODY
7979+% ============================================================
8080+\section{The Chromebook Problem}
8181+8282+In 2012, Google began aggressively marketing Chromebooks to American school districts. The pitch was simple: cheap hardware, zero IT overhead, everything in the cloud. By 2026, Chromebooks account for roughly 60\% of devices shipped to U.S. K--12 schools, with an installed base exceeding 50 million units~\citep{google2024chromeos}. An entire generation of American students is being educated on machines they cannot understand, cannot modify, and do not own---even when the school paid for them.
8383+8484+ChromeOS is proprietary software. Its source is not available for inspection. The browser is the entire interface. Every document lives in Google Drive. Every search goes through Google. Every interaction is logged, analyzed, and used to build behavioral profiles that follow the student into adulthood~\citep{zuboff2019surveillance}.
8585+8686+This is not a privacy concern at the margins. This is the \emph{architecture} of how American children learn to use computers. The medium is the message~\citep{mcluhan1964understanding}: the Chromebook teaches that a computer is a device for consuming cloud services owned by a corporation. It teaches that your work lives on someone else's server. It teaches that the machine is not yours to understand.
8787+8888+\subsection{What the Student Cannot Do}
8989+9090+On a school Chromebook, a student cannot:
9191+9292+\begin{itemize}
9393+ \item Install a programming language runtime (Python, Node.js, GCC)
9494+ \item Run a local web server or compile code
9595+ \item Inspect the operating system source
9696+ \item Modify the boot sequence
9797+ \item Connect to hardware peripherals for physical computing
9898+ \item Use the machine offline for serious work
9999+ \item Keep their data on the device without cloud sync
100100+ \item Choose their own software
101101+ \item Understand what the machine is doing with their attention
102102+\end{itemize}
103103+104104+ChromeOS includes a Linux container (Crostini) that could theoretically provide these capabilities, but school IT administrators almost universally disable it. The machine ships with a terminal and then locks it shut. Every one of these restrictions is a door closed. Every closed door is a path the student will never discover. The Chromebook is not a gateway---it is a \emph{gate}.
105105+106106+\subsection{The Cloud as Landlord}
107107+108108+When a student's work lives in Google Drive, they are tenants, not owners. Google can change the terms of service. Google can discontinue products. Google can revoke access. The student graduates and loses their school Google account---and with it, every document, every project, every creative artifact they produced during their education.
109109+110110+This is not hypothetical. It happens every year, in every school district. Students lose access to years of work because the institution that purchased their cloud account decommissions it. The architecture \emph{guarantees} this outcome: the student never had their files. They had permission to access files on Google's servers, and that permission was revoked.
111111+112112+Freire called this the ``banking model'' of education~\citep{freire1970pedagogy}: knowledge deposited into students by authorities. The Chromebook literalizes the metaphor. The student's work is deposited into a bank they do not control, cannot audit, and will eventually be locked out of.
113113+114114+\subsection{Planned Obsolescence: The AUE Problem}
115115+116116+Every Chromebook ships with an Auto Update Expiration (AUE) date, after which Google provides no security patches, no feature updates, and no browser updates. Historically set at 6.5 years from the \emph{platform's} first release---not the purchase date---a school buying a Chromebook late in a platform cycle might receive only 3--4 years of updates. Google extended this to 10 years for devices launched in 2024, but the installed base of shorter-lived machines remains enormous.
117117+118118+The U.S. PIRG Education Fund estimated that AUE policies would force the premature disposal of 21.5 million functionally working Chromebooks by 2024, costing schools approximately \$1.8 billion in unnecessary replacements~\citep{pirg2023chromebook}. These are machines with working processors, working screens, working keyboards---rendered obsolete by a software policy, not by hardware failure.
119119+120120+The contrast with Linux is absolute. A 2015 ThinkPad running Ubuntu LTS continues to receive security updates indefinitely. There is no artificial expiration date tied to the hardware model. The machine remains useful as long as the hardware functions.
121121+122122+% ============================================================
123123+% 2. THE SURVEILLANCE MACHINE
124124+% ============================================================
125125+126126+\section{The Surveillance Machine}
127127+\label{sec:surveillance}
128128+129129+Google provides Chromebooks to schools below cost because students are a captive market for behavioral data~\citep{zuboff2019surveillance, doctorow2020attack}. A student who grows up in the Google ecosystem---Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Classroom, YouTube---is a customer for life. The Chromebook is not a charitable donation. It is a customer acquisition strategy deployed against children.
130130+131131+\subsection{What Google Collects}
132132+133133+The data collected from student Chromebooks includes:
134134+135135+\begin{itemize}
136136+ \item Every search query and every website visited
137137+ \item Every document opened, edited, and shared
138138+ \item Every YouTube video watched and for how long
139139+ \item Keystroke timing patterns and login frequency
140140+ \item Location data (on cellular models)
141141+ \item Social graphs (who collaborates with whom in Google Docs)
142142+ \item Device diagnostics and app usage telemetry
143143+\end{itemize}
144144+145145+Google claims that data collected under Workspace for Education ``core services'' is not used for advertising. But ``additional services''---YouTube, Google Search, Google Maps when signed in---operate under different terms. Students on school Chromebooks use these additional services constantly, and the data flows to Google's advertising infrastructure.
146146+147147+\subsection{Legal Actions}
148148+149149+The legal record is damning. In 2019, Google paid \$170 million to the FTC and New York Attorney General for YouTube's COPPA violations---collecting data from children without parental consent~\citep{google2019coppa}. In 2020, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas sued Google directly for collecting personal data from children using Chromebooks in schools~\citep{newmexico2020google}. The EFF filed an FTC complaint in 2015 documenting that Google was data-mining student browsing activity through Chromebooks~\citep{eff2015chromebook}. In 2024, a coalition of digital rights organizations filed additional FTC complaints regarding ongoing student surveillance~\citep{eff2024monitoring}. Class actions alleging biometric data collection from students under Illinois' BIPA statute are ongoing.
150150+151151+This data is collected from minors, in an institutional setting where participation is mandatory, on machines the student did not choose and cannot configure. The student cannot opt out. The parent often cannot opt out. The school district signed a contract, and the children are bound by it.
152152+153153+\subsection{Monitoring Software}
154154+155155+Beyond Google's own data collection, school districts layer additional surveillance software---Gaggle, GoGuardian, Securly---onto Chromebooks. The EFF documented that these tools surveil private communications and disproportionately target disadvantaged, minority, and LGBTQ youth~\citep{eff2024monitoring}. Of 152 ed-tech services surveyed by the EFF, only 118 had published privacy policies; far fewer addressed data retention, encryption, or de-identification.
156156+157157+Winner argued that artifacts have politics~\citep{winner1980artifacts}. The Chromebook's politics are clear: it is an instrument of surveillance deployed in a context where the surveilled have no choice, no recourse, and no understanding of what is being taken from them.
158158+159159+A free and open operating system collects no telemetry. It phones home to no corporation. It builds no behavioral profile. The student's attention, their curiosity, their mistakes, their explorations---all of these remain private, because the machine has no economic incentive to observe them.
160160+161161+% ============================================================
162162+% 3. THE LLM INFLECTION
163163+% ============================================================
164164+165165+\section{Everyone Is a Programmer Now}
166166+167167+Large language models have changed the economics of programming. A student who can describe what they want in natural language can produce working code. The barrier to computational creation has collapsed from ``years of technical training'' to ``the ability to articulate an idea.'' Karpathy's observation that ``the hottest new programming language is English'' is no longer hyperbole---it is a description of material reality.
168168+169169+This is the most important shift in computing since the personal computer. And it makes the Chromebook problem \emph{catastrophically worse}.
170170+171171+\subsection{The New Literacy}
172172+173173+If everyone can program, then programming is literacy. And literacy requires tools the literate person can own. You do not teach a child to read by giving them a locked book that can only be opened in a specific building with a specific corporate account. You give them the book. They take it home. They read it in bed. They write in the margins. They lend it to a friend.
174174+175175+A student with an LLM and an open operating system can:
176176+177177+\begin{itemize}
178178+ \item Build a tool to organize their homework
179179+ \item Write a game and share it with classmates
180180+ \item Automate a repetitive task their teacher assigns
181181+ \item Create a small business selling software to their community
182182+ \item Contribute to open-source projects that serve humanity
183183+ \item Understand and modify the systems that govern their digital life
184184+ \item Explore logic, mathematics, and language through direct manipulation
185185+ \item Build instruments for artistic expression
186186+\end{itemize}
187187+188188+A student with an LLM and a Chromebook can use Google Docs faster.
189189+190190+Ko (University of Washington) has argued that if AI can write code, CS education must shift toward systems thinking, debugging, and evaluation---all of which require access to real development environments, not sandboxed browsers~\citep{denny2024computing}. Krishnamurthi (Brown University) has been critical of approaches that reduce programming to prompting. The emerging consensus in CS education research is that LLMs make full-stack access \emph{more} important, not less~\citep{prather2024robots}: students need to run, debug, modify, and understand generated code. Chromebooks make all four harder.
191191+192192+\subsection{The Chromebook Cannot Execute}
193193+194194+Here is the concrete failure: the LLM produces a Python script, and the Chromebook cannot run it. The LLM generates a web server, and the Chromebook cannot host it. The LLM writes C code, and the Chromebook has no compiler. The LLM teaches the student how an operating system works, and the Chromebook will not let them inspect one.
195195+196196+On a typical school Chromebook (MediaTek or Celeron processor, 4\,GB RAM), even the Linux container---when enabled---struggles to run basic development toolchains. Running a local LLM is physically impossible: even a quantized 1B parameter model requires more memory than most school Chromebooks possess.
197197+198198+The alternative is trivial. A surplus ThinkPad with 8\,GB RAM running Linux can execute any LLM-generated code, run a local 3B parameter model via Ollama at interactive speeds, host a web server, compile programs, and give the student root access to the entire system. The hardware exists. The software is free. The Chromebook is the bottleneck.
199199+200200+\subsection{The Spiritual Dimension}
201201+202202+This is not only about economics or career preparation. There is a spiritual dimension to computing that the Chromebook architecture annihilates.
203203+204204+When a student writes a program that does something they did not expect---when the machine surprises them with emergent behavior from rules they defined---they experience something profound. They encounter the boundary between intention and consequence. They learn that systems have their own logic. They develop a relationship with abstraction itself.
205205+206206+Papert understood this~\citep{papert1980mindstorms}: Logo was not about teaching programming. It was about giving children a medium for thinking about thinking. The turtle was a vehicle for epistemology.
207207+208208+LLMs amplify this a thousandfold. A student can now have a \emph{conversation} with the computational medium. They can ask ``what if?'' and get an answer in seconds. They can iterate on ideas at the speed of thought. They can explore paths that no curriculum anticipated.
209209+210210+But only if the machine lets them. A Chromebook does not let them. A Chromebook says: you may consume services. You may not create infrastructure. You may not run your own code in your own way on your own machine.
211211+212212+% ============================================================
213213+% 4. WHAT STUDENTS DESERVE
214214+% ============================================================
215215+216216+\section{What Every Student Deserves}
217217+218218+Every student deserves a computer that:
219219+220220+\begin{enumerate}
221221+ \item \textbf{They can understand.} The source code of the operating system should be available for inspection. Not as an abstract principle, but as a practical reality: the student should be able to read the code that runs when they press a key.
222222+223223+ \item \textbf{They can modify.} If the student wants to change how the machine behaves, they should be able to. Not through an app store, not through a settings panel, but by changing the code.
224224+225225+ \item \textbf{They can own.} The student's work should live on the student's machine. Not on a corporate server, not in a cloud account that will be decommissioned when they graduate.
226226+227227+ \item \textbf{They can share.} The student should be able to give their software to a friend. Not through a platform, not through a marketplace, but by copying a file.
228228+229229+ \item \textbf{They can break.} The student should be able to break the machine and fix it. This is how you learn. A system that cannot be broken cannot be understood.
230230+231231+ \item \textbf{They can take with them.} When the student leaves the school, the computer---and everything on it---goes with them. Their computational life is not leased. It is theirs.
232232+233233+ \item \textbf{Respects their attention.} The operating system should not contain advertising, behavioral tracking, or engagement optimization. The student's attention belongs to the student.
234234+235235+ \item \textbf{Connects them to community.} The student should be able to contribute to the computational landscape---to write code that others use, to participate in open-source projects, to build tools that serve their community and maintain their lifestyle and wellbeing.
236236+\end{enumerate}
237237+238238+Every one of these requirements is violated by ChromeOS. Every one of them is satisfied by a free and open operating system.
239239+240240+% ============================================================
241241+% 5. IT ALREADY WORKS
242242+% ============================================================
243243+244244+\section{It Already Works: International Precedents}
245245+246246+The objection that open-source school computing is untested is false. It has been tested, at scale, on three continents.
247247+248248+\subsection{Kerala, India: 16,000 Schools}
249249+250250+Kerala's KITE (Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education) program moved entirely to free software in 2007 across 16,000+ public schools. KITE GNU/Linux 22.04, released in August 2024, runs on over 300,000 school computers~\citep{kite2024gnulinux}. The distribution includes educational software (Krita, GCompris, PictoBlox), basic AI/ML teaching tools, and a Wayland display server. The estimated savings: 30 billion INR (approximately \$400 million). Over 150,000 primary teachers have been trained. India's National Law School hailed KITE as the national benchmark for open-source transformation in education.
251251+252252+This is not a pilot program. It is a state-wide deployment serving millions of students, running continuously for nearly two decades.
253253+254254+\subsection{Schleswig-Holstein, Germany: 30,000 PCs}
255255+256256+By end of summer 2025, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein completed migration of nearly 30,000 government PCs from Microsoft to Linux, with an additional 30,000 public school teachers expected to follow~\citep{schleswig2025linux}. Replacements include LibreOffice, Nextcloud, Open-Xchange, and Mozilla Thunderbird. Estimated savings: 15 million EUR in 2026 alone. Denmark announced a similar transition between June and November 2025.
257257+258258+\subsection{France: National Open-Source Strategy}
259259+260260+France's Digital Education Strategy 2023--2027, led by Alexis Kauffmann at the Ministry of Education, explicitly targets digital sovereignty and reduced dependence on Microsoft and Google~\citep{france2023digital}. The national platform \texttt{apps.education.fr} provides open-source tools to all French teachers. In 2025, France enacted an interoperability decree requiring schools to use digital tools complying with open standards---creating a structural advantage for open-source solutions.
261261+262262+\subsection{Penn Manor, Pennsylvania: 1,725 Linux Laptops}
263263+264264+In the United States, Penn Manor School District in Lancaster, PA deployed 1,725 Ubuntu laptops to students in grades 9--12~\citep{pennmanor2024linux}. The program includes a student-run repair initiative where students learn to fix their own machines. This is not a special district with special funding. It is a public school district that made a different choice.
265265+266266+\subsection{The ``Public Money, Public Code'' Movement}
267267+268268+The Free Software Foundation Europe's ``Public Money? Public Code!'' campaign---arguing that software developed with public funds should be released under free licenses---has gathered over 200 civil society organizations and 31,000 individual signatories~\citep{fsfe2024publiccode}. UNESCO's 2024 Dubai Declaration on Open Educational Resources formally commits signatories to advancing open resources through AI and emerging technologies~\citep{unesco2024oer}. The Global Digital Compact commits to ``developing, disseminating, and maintaining open-source software, open data, open AI models, and open standards that benefit society.''
269269+270270+These are not fringe movements. They are the direction of international policy.
271271+272272+% ============================================================
273273+% 6. THE ECONOMICS
274274+% ============================================================
275275+276276+\section{The Economics}
277277+278278+\subsection{The Cost Excuse}
279279+280280+Chromebooks are cheap. But so are surplus laptops running Linux. A retired ThinkPad T480 or Dell Latitude 5400 costs \$100--180 in bulk and is a superior machine in every dimension except ``managed by Google.'' The cost argument for Chromebooks is an argument for Google's ecosystem, not for the hardware.
281281+282282+\begin{table}[H]
283283+\small
284284+\centering
285285+\begin{tabular}{lrr}
286286+\toprule
287287+\textbf{Approach} & \textbf{Cost} & \textbf{Student Owns It} \\
288288+\midrule
289289+Chromebook (new) & \$250--350 & No \\
290290+Chrome Edu Upgrade & +\$38/device & No \\
291291+Google Workspace Plus & +\$5/student/yr & No \\
292292+iPad (edu) & \$299+ & No \\
293293+\midrule
294294+Surplus laptop + Linux & \$100--180 & \textbf{Yes} \\
295295+Surplus laptop + AC OS & \$100--180 & \textbf{Yes} \\
296296+\bottomrule
297297+\end{tabular}
298298+\caption{Cost and ownership comparison. Chromebook costs exclude monitoring software (GoGuardian: \$5--10/device/year) and forced AUE replacements.}
299299+\label{tab:cost}
300300+\end{table}
301301+302302+When factoring in Google's Chrome Education Upgrade (\$38/device), Workspace for Education Plus (\$5/student/year), monitoring software, and the forced replacement cycle from AUE, the total cost of ownership for a Chromebook over 5 years can reach \$450--550/device. A surplus ThinkPad running Linux: \$100--180, with zero ongoing licensing costs, no artificial expiration, and the student keeps it.
303303+304304+\subsection{The Supply}
305305+306306+The machines exist. An estimated 50--60 million business PCs are retired annually in the United States. Corporate lease cycles retire millions of functional laptops every 3--5 years---machines with modern processors, 8--16\,GB RAM, WiFi, and 6--10 hour batteries. Organizations like PCs for People (100,000+ devices/year), Human-I-T (50,000+/year), Kramden Institute, Free Geek, and the federal Computers for Learning program already refurbish and distribute these machines.
307307+308308+A classroom of 30 creative computing instruments can be provisioned for \$3,000--5,400 in hardware. No ongoing subscription. No IT support contract. No managed accounts.
309309+310310+\subsection{The Environmental Case}
311311+312312+A typical laptop produces 300--400 kg CO$_2$e in manufacturing---70--80\% of its total lifetime carbon footprint. Refurbishment adds approximately 5--15 kg CO$_2$e. Circular Computing's independently audited analysis found 316 kg CO$_2$e saved per remanufactured laptop~\citep{circularcomputing2023carbon}. The UN Global E-waste Monitor 2024 reports that the US generates approximately 7.2 Mt of e-waste annually, with only 25\% properly recycled~\citep{un2024ewaste}.
313313+314314+Google's AUE policy forces schools to discard millions of working Chromebooks. Right-to-repair legislation is beginning to address this: Oregon's act (effective January 2025) requires manufacturers to provide parts and repair information~\citep{oregon2024repair}; New Hampshire's HB1701 explicitly covers school-provided laptops~\citep{newhampshire2024repair}. But legislation cannot fix a software policy that declares functional hardware obsolete.
315315+316316+Linux has no AUE. A laptop running a free operating system remains useful as long as the hardware functions.
317317+318318+% ============================================================
319319+% 7. THE OPEN STACK
320320+% ============================================================
321321+322322+\section{The Open Stack}
323323+324324+\subsection{Every Chromebook Is Already a Linux Machine}
325325+326326+Here is the absurdity: every Chromebook already runs the Linux kernel. ChromeOS is Linux with a locked-down userspace that forces all interaction through Google's browser. The hardware is perfectly capable of running a free operating system. Google took a free kernel, wrapped it in proprietary restrictions, and sold it to schools as a cost-saving measure.
327327+328328+The liberation of these machines does not require new hardware. It requires flashing new software. Many Chromebooks can be unlocked and reflashed with a standard Linux distribution or with \acos{}. The machine \emph{already wants to be free}. Google is the lock.
329329+330330+\subsection{The IT Excuse}
331331+332332+School IT departments choose Chromebooks because they are ``easy to manage.'' This is true. It is easy to manage a machine that does nothing. It is easy to administer a fleet when every device is a thin client for a single corporation's services. The ease of management is a direct consequence of the machine's powerlessness.
333333+334334+The question is: easy for whom? Easy for the IT department, certainly. But catastrophic for the student. The IT department's convenience is purchased with the student's autonomy. This is a bad trade.
335335+336336+Open-source management tools exist. NixOS provides reproducible system configurations. Ansible automates fleet deployment. PXE boot enables zero-touch provisioning. \acos{}~\citep{scudder2026acos} demonstrates that an entire OS can be deployed by flashing a USB drive in under a minute, with OTA updates requiring zero IT infrastructure. Penn Manor runs 1,725 Linux laptops with a smaller IT team than comparable Chromebook districts~\citep{pennmanor2024linux}. The ``management problem'' is solved. What remains is institutional inertia and a contractual relationship with Google that serves the institution, not the student.
337337+338338+\subsection{The LLM Infrastructure}
339339+340340+An open system enables a fundamentally different relationship with AI. A single surplus server (32--64\,GB RAM, or a used NVIDIA T4 GPU at \$100--200) can run Ollama and serve an entire classroom of students via Open WebUI---a free, open-source LLM frontend. Students connect from their laptops via a browser pointed at the local server. Models like Llama 3.2 3B (fits in 4\,GB), DeepSeek Coder 6.7B, or Qwen 2.5 Coder 7B provide strong code generation capability.
341341+342342+This is local AI infrastructure that the school owns, that collects no telemetry, that sends no data to any corporation, and that students can inspect, modify, and learn from. The alternative---Google Gemini integrated into Workspace for Education---adds another layer of corporate dependency, another data pipeline, another subscription fee.
343343+344344+% ============================================================
345345+% 8. THE LLM GATEWAY
346346+% ============================================================
347347+348348+\section{The Student as Author}
349349+350350+On an open system with LLM access, the student can:
351351+352352+\begin{itemize}
353353+ \item Ask the LLM to explain the operating system's source code
354354+ \item Generate programs that run locally, with full hardware access
355355+ \item Build web servers, databases, APIs---real infrastructure
356356+ \item Create tools that solve real problems in their community
357357+ \item Learn any programming language by building in it
358358+ \item Understand the LLM itself by examining its inputs and outputs
359359+ \item Create a piece on \ac{}~\citep{scudder2026ac} that anyone in the world can run
360360+\end{itemize}
361361+362362+The LLM becomes a tutor with infinite patience, available 24 hours a day, that meets the student exactly where they are~\citep{khan2024bravenew}. But this tutor can only be effective if the student has a machine that can \emph{execute} what the tutor produces.
363363+364364+The Chromebook model says: you are a user. The open model says: you are an author. In the age of LLMs, the difference between these two framings is the difference between digital literacy and digital serfdom.
365365+366366+% ============================================================
367367+% 9. A PATH FORWARD
368368+% ============================================================
369369+370370+\section{A Path Forward}
371371+372372+\subsection{Phase 1: Awareness}
373373+374374+Parents, teachers, and school board members must understand what a Chromebook actually is: a surveillance device that teaches learned helplessness. The first step is education---not of the children, but of the adults who purchase the machines. The EFF's ``Spying on Students'' documentation, the U.S. PIRG's ``Chromebook Churn'' report, and the New Mexico AG's lawsuit provide concrete evidence that can be presented at school board meetings.
375375+376376+\subsection{Phase 2: Pilot Programs}
377377+378378+School districts should pilot open-source alternatives, following Penn Manor's model:
379379+380380+\begin{itemize}
381381+ \item 30 surplus laptops running Linux or \acos{}, provisioned for \$3,000--5,400
382382+ \item A local LLM server (one surplus workstation, \$200--500) running Ollama + Open WebUI
383383+ \item An LLM-assisted curriculum where students build real software
384384+ \item Student ownership: the machine goes home with the student
385385+ \item A student-run repair program (Penn Manor's students fix their own machines)
386386+ \item No cloud dependency: work is stored locally and backed up by the student
387387+ \item Open assessment: the student's portfolio is code they wrote, tools they built, contributions they made
388388+\end{itemize}
389389+390390+\subsection{Phase 3: Policy}
391391+392392+States and districts should adopt policies requiring that:
393393+394394+\begin{enumerate}
395395+ \item All software deployed on student devices be open-source or source-available
396396+ \item Students have root access to their own machines
397397+ \item No behavioral telemetry is collected from student devices
398398+ \item Students retain ownership of all work produced on school devices
399399+ \item Graduating students keep their devices
400400+ \item Device procurement prioritize refurbished hardware over new manufacturing
401401+\end{enumerate}
402402+403403+Over 40 states have passed student data privacy laws. California's SOPIPA prohibits using student data for targeted advertising. The new COPPA rules (effective June 2025) strengthen children's data protections. These legislative trends support the case for open, non-surveilling school computing infrastructure.
404404+405405+\subsection{Phase 4: Liberation}
406406+407407+The endgame is not a policy change. It is a cultural shift. The endgame is a generation of students who understand that a computer is not a product they consume but an instrument they play---a medium for thought, creation, and contribution. Students who can read source code the way they read books. Students who can modify their tools the way a carpenter modifies a workbench. Students who see computation not as a corporate service but as a public commons to which they both contribute and belong.
408408+409409+Nelson wrote in 1974~\citep{nelson1974computerlib}: ``You can and must understand computers NOW.'' Fifty years later, we have failed this imperative in precisely the way Nelson feared---by handing the machines to corporations and calling it progress.
410410+411411+The LLM moment makes this failure visible. Every student now has the \emph{capability} to program. What they lack is a \emph{machine that lets them}. This is a solvable problem. The technology is free. The hardware is surplus. The only thing standing between every student and their own computational path is a corporate operating system that was never designed to serve them.
412412+413413+% ============================================================
414414+% 10. CONCLUSION
415415+% ============================================================
416416+417417+\section{Conclusion}
418418+419419+Every Chromebook in every American school is a Linux machine in chains. The hardware can run a free operating system. The student can learn to program with an LLM. The surplus laptop market provides machines for \$100--180. The entire open-source stack is available at zero cost. Kerala has done it for 300,000 computers. Schleswig-Holstein has done it for 30,000. Penn Manor has done it for 1,725. It works.
420420+421421+What we lack is not technology. We lack the political will to prioritize student autonomy over institutional convenience and corporate profit.
422422+423423+Illich wrote that tools should expand personal autonomy rather than require specialized expertise~\citep{illich1973tools}. Papert wrote that computers should be instruments for thinking about thinking~\citep{papert1980mindstorms}. Stallman wrote that users deserve to control the software they run~\citep{stallman2002free}. Postman warned that technology in schools without purpose serves the technology, not the child~\citep{postman1995end}. These are not fringe positions. They are the founding principles of personal computing, and we have abandoned them in the one place they matter most: the education of children.
424424+425425+Get closed source out of schools. Give every student a free and open operating system. Let the Chromebook be what it was always capable of being: not a gate, but a \emph{gateway}---to logic, creativity, community, spirituality, and every student's own path through the computational landscape.
426426+427427+In the age of LLMs, this is not idealism. It is the minimum viable education.
428428+429429+\vspace{0.5em}
430430+\noindent\textbf{ORCID:} \href{https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4460-4913}{0009-0007-4460-4913}
431431+432432+\end{multicols}
433433+434434+% ============================================================
435435+% REFERENCES
436436+% ============================================================
437437+438438+\bibliographystyle{plainnat}
439439+\bibliography{references}
440440+441441+\end{document}
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9193\vspace*{\fill}
9294···104106105107Meanwhile, the consumer computing market produces a constant surplus of functional machines. Corporate lease cycles retire millions of laptops every 3--5 years. Retail overstocks, cancelled orders, and cosmetic defects generate warehouse inventories. E-waste recyclers receive machines with years of useful life remaining. These surplus computers---ThinkPads, EliteBooks, Latitudes---are available for \$30--80 with modern processors, 8--16\,GB RAM, WiFi, keyboards, and screens.
106108107107-\acos{} takes the opposite approach from OLPC: instead of designing custom hardware, we design a custom operating system that transforms \emph{any} commodity x86\_64 machine into a dedicated creative computing instrument. The entire OS is a single file. Flashing it onto a USB drive takes under a minute. The machine boots in 7.3 seconds into a musical instrument, a drawing tool, or a programming environment---with the owner's name on the screen and their voice greeting them by name.
109109+\acos{} takes the opposite approach from OLPC: instead of designing custom hardware, I design a custom operating system that transforms \emph{any} commodity x86\_64 machine into a dedicated creative computing instrument. The entire OS is a single file. Flashing it onto a USB drive takes under a minute. The machine boots in 7.3 seconds into a musical instrument, a drawing tool, or a programming environment---with the owner's name on the screen and their voice greeting them by name.
108110109109-This paper describes the system architecture~(\S\ref{sec:architecture}), the personalization model~(\S\ref{sec:personalization}), the surplus hardware thesis~(\S\ref{sec:surplus}), the OTA update system~(\S\ref{sec:ota}), comparisons with existing approaches~(\S\ref{sec:related}), and implications for creative computing access~(\S\ref{sec:implications}).
111111+I describe the system architecture~(\S\ref{sec:architecture}), the personalization model~(\S\ref{sec:personalization}), the surplus hardware thesis~(\S\ref{sec:surplus}), the OTA update system~(\S\ref{sec:ota}), comparisons with existing approaches~(\S\ref{sec:related}), and implications for creative computing access~(\S\ref{sec:implications}).
110112111113% ============ 2. ARCHITECTURE ============
112114
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5759
···4040\thispagestyle{empty}
4141\vspace*{\fill}
4242\begin{center}
4343-\includegraphics[height=8em]{pals}\par\vspace{0.3em}
4444-{\acbold\fontsize{20pt}{24pt}\selectfont\color{acdark} Whistlegraph}\par
4545-\vspace{0.3em}
4646-{\fontsize{10pt}{12pt}\selectfont\color{acpink} Drawing, Singing, and the Graphic Score as Viral Form}\par
4747-\vspace{0.8em}
4848-{\normalsize\color{cyan!70!blue}\textbf{@jeffrey}}\par
4343+\includegraphics[height=9em]{pals}\par\vspace{0.1em}
4444+{\acbold\fontsize{18pt}{22pt}\selectfont\color{acdark} Whistlegraph}\par
4545+\vspace{0.1em}
4646+{\fontsize{9pt}{11pt}\selectfont\color{acpink} Drawing, Singing, and the Graphic Score as Viral Form}\par
4747+\vspace{0.4em}
4848+{\normalsize\color{cyan!70!blue}\href{https://prompt.ac/@jeffrey}{\textbf{@jeffrey}}}\par
4949{\small\color{acgray} Aesthetic.Computer}\par
5050{\small\color{acgray} ORCID: \href{https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4460-4913}{0009-0007-4460-4913}}\par
5151-\vspace{0.8em}
5252-\rule{0.6\textwidth}{1pt}\par
5351\vspace{0.4em}
5454-{\small\color{acpink!40}\textit{working draft --- not for citation}}\par
5555-\vspace{0.3em}
5656-{\footnotesize\color{acgray} March 2026}\par
5252+\rule{0.5\textwidth}{0.5pt}\par
5353+\vspace{0.15em}
5454+\colorbox{yellow!60}{\small\color{red!80!black}\textbf{\textit{working draft --- not for citation}}}\par
5555+\vspace{0.1em}
5656+{\footnotesize\color{acgray} March 2026 · \href{https://github.com/whistlegraph/aesthetic-computer/commit/2113ef735}{2113ef735}}\par
5757+\vspace{0.1em}
5858+{\footnotesize\color{acgray}\href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/whistlegraph-26-arxiv-da-cards.pdf}{Dansk} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/whistlegraph-26-arxiv-es-cards.pdf}{Español} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/whistlegraph-26-arxiv-zh-cards.pdf}{{\accjk 中文}} · \href{https://papers.aesthetic.computer/whistlegraph-26-arxiv-ja-cards.pdf}{{\accjk 日本語}}}\par
5759\end{center}
5860\vspace*{\fill}
5961···69717072``I'm a butterfly. Flapping for you guys. It's just a costume. I put on in my room.'' A hand draws a butterfly on paper while a voice sings these words. Each wing is a line; each line is a lyric; the finished drawing is a score that anyone can perform by tracing the lines and singing the words. The video is 15 seconds long. It was posted on TikTok in early 2020. Millions of people watched it.
71737272-This is a whistlegraph: a memorizable hybrid of drawing, singing, and poetry in which every mark corresponds to a sung syllable, producing a graphic score that is simultaneously artwork, song, and instruction manual for its own reproduction~\citep{dirt2023whistlegraph}. The format was invented by the author in 2019, developed into a trio practice with Alex Freundlich and Camille Klein during the COVID-19 pandemic, scaled to 2.6 million TikTok followers, exhibited at the New Museum and on Feral File, and then---after the trio separated in November 2023---fed directly into the design of \ac{}.
7474+This is a whistlegraph: a memorizable hybrid of drawing, singing, and poetry in which every mark corresponds to a sung syllable, producing a graphic score that is simultaneously artwork, song, and instruction manual for its own reproduction~\citep{dirt2023whistlegraph}. I invented it in 2019, developed it into a trio practice with Alex Freundlich and Camille Klein during the COVID-19 pandemic, scaled it to 2.6 million TikTok followers, exhibited it at the New Museum and on Feral File, and then---after the trio separated in November 2023---it fed directly into the design of \ac{}.
73757474-This paper is not a retrospective. It is documentation of a form that emerged from the intersection of several practices---Radical Digital Painting~\citep{scudder2017manifesto}, Goodiepal's Radical Computer Music~\citep{goodiepal2012elcamino}, constraint-based art, and short-form social video---and that continues to inform the author's current work. The whistlegraph is the bridge between the author's painting practice and the creative computing platform.
7676+This paper is not a retrospective. It is documentation of a form that emerged from the intersection of several practices---Radical Digital Painting~\citep{scudder2017manifesto}, Goodiepal's Radical Computer Music~\citep{goodiepal2012elcamino}, constraint-based art, and short-form social video---and that continues to inform my work. The whistlegraph is the bridge between my painting practice and the creative computing platform.
75777678\section{The Form}
7779···99101100102\subsection{Radical Digital Painting}
101103102102-The whistlegraph emerged from the author's Radical Digital Painting (RDP) practice, active since 2016~\citep{scudder2017manifesto}. RDP treated digital painting not as a supplement to traditional painting but as its next material ground: ``Painting is just a kind of picture message.'' Over 65 lecture-performances across the US and Europe---including a 2018 European tour with Goodiepal \& Pals and a presentation at the 35th Chaos Communication Congress~\citep{scudder2018rdp35c3}---developed a format in which painting, speaking, and performing were fused into a single act.
104104+The whistlegraph emerged from my Radical Digital Painting (RDP) practice, active since 2016~\citep{scudder2017manifesto}. RDP treated digital painting not as a supplement to traditional painting but as its next material ground: ``Painting is just a kind of picture message.'' Over 65 lecture-performances across the US and Europe---including a 2018 European tour with Goodiepal \& Pals and a presentation at the 35th Chaos Communication Congress~\citep{scudder2018rdp35c3}---developed a format in which painting, speaking, and performing were fused into a single act.
103105104106The whistlegraph formalized what the RDP lectures did informally: synchronized the act of making with the act of narrating. Where an RDP lecture was improvised and unrepeatable, a whistlegraph was composed, memorizable, and reproducible. The shift from improvisation to composition---from lecture to score---was the key innovation.
105107106108\subsection{COVID-19 and the Trio}
107109108108-In 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, the author formed a trio with Alex Freundlich and Camille Klein in a cabin in Ashland, Oregon. The pandemic eliminated the possibility of live performance and lecture tours. TikTok, which had exploded in popularity during lockdown, offered a platform for short-form video that matched the whistlegraph's natural duration.
110110+In 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, I formed a trio with Alex Freundlich and Camille Klein in a cabin in Ashland, Oregon. The pandemic eliminated the possibility of live performance and lecture tours. TikTok, which had exploded in popularity during lockdown, offered a platform for short-form video that matched the whistlegraph's natural duration.
109111110112The trio posted musical drawing tutorials: a hand draws while a voice sings, the camera captures both, and the result is a 15-second video that teaches the viewer to reproduce the whistlegraph themselves. The format was natively suited to TikTok's duet and stitch features, which allowed viewers to perform alongside the original video. The whistlegraph was not just content to be consumed; it was a score to be performed.
111113···161163162164\section{Separation and Continuation}
163165164164-In November 2023, the trio separated due to a conflict in future goals. The author took sole access to the group's social media platforms, including the 2.6-million-follower TikTok account. The @whistlegraph handle now posts \ac{} content.
166166+In November 2023, the trio separated due to a conflict in future goals. I took sole access to the group's social media platforms, including the 2.6-million-follower TikTok account. The @whistlegraph handle now posts \ac{} content.
165167166168The separation ended the trio but not the form. The whistlegraph's core properties---reproducibility, mark-melody correspondence, the graphic score as instruction manual---directly informed the design of \ac{}:
167169
+228
papers/arxiv-whistlegraph/whistlegraph-ja.tex
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2424+\usepackage{hyperref}
2525+\usepackage{graphicx}
2626+\graphicspath{{figures/}{../../papers/arxiv-ac/figures/}}
2727+\usepackage{ragged2e}
2828+\usepackage{microtype}
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4141+ pdftitle={Whistlegraph:ドローイング、歌唱、そしてバイラルな形式としてのグラフィックスコア}}
4242+4343+\titleformat{\section}{\normalfont\bfseries\normalsize\uppercase}{\thesection.}{0.5em}{}
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5050+\fancyhead[C]{\footnotesize\color{acpink}\textit{作業草稿——引用不可}}
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5252+5353+\newcommand{\ac}{\textsc{Aesthetic.Computer}}
5454+\newcommand{\wg}{\textsc{Whistlegraph}}
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6565+6666+\begin{document}
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6969+\begin{center}
7070+\includegraphics[height=4em]{pals}\par\vspace{0.5em}
7171+{\acbold\fontsize{22pt}{26pt}\selectfont\color{acdark} Whistlegraph}\par
7272+\vspace{0.2em}
7373+{\aclight\fontsize{11pt}{13pt}\selectfont\color{acpink} ドローイング、歌唱、そしてバイラルな形式としてのグラフィックスコア}\par
7474+\vspace{0.3em}
7575+{\aclight\fontsize{9pt}{11pt}\selectfont\color{acgray} Ashlandの小屋から260万フォロワーを経てAesthetic Computerへ}\par
7676+\vspace{0.6em}
7777+{\normalsize @jeffrey}\par
7878+{\small\color{acgray} Aesthetic.Computer}\par
7979+{\small\color{acgray} ORCID: \href{https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4460-4913}{0009-0007-4460-4913}}\par
8080+\vspace{0.3em}
8181+{\small\color{acpurple} \url{https://aesthetic.computer}}\par
8282+\vspace{0.6em}
8383+\rule{\textwidth}{1.5pt}
8484+\vspace{0.5em}
8585+\end{center}
8686+8787+\begin{center}
8888+{\small\color{acpink}\textbf{[ 作業草稿——引用不可 ]}}
8989+\end{center}
9090+\vspace{0.3em}
9191+9292+\begin{quote}
9393+\small\noindent\textbf{要旨。}
9494+Whistlegraphはドローイング、歌唱、詩の記憶可能な融合体である:各描線が歌われる詩の一行に対応し、同時にドローイングであり、歌であり、自身の複製説明書でもあるグラフィックスコアを生成する。この形式は2019年に著者によって発明され、COVID-19パンデミック中にOregon州Ashlandで三人組(@jeffrey、Alex Freundlich、Camille Klein)によって発展し、短尺動画の音楽ドローイングチュートリアルを通じてTikTokで260万フォロワーを獲得し、2023年11月の三人組解散に至った。本論文はwhistlegraphを形式として記録する:その構造、実験音楽におけるグラフィックスコアとの関係、ダンスとリップシンクのために設計されたプラットフォームでの予期せぬバイラル性、機関的受容(Rhizome/New Museum委嘱、Feral File展覧会、Schneider Museum設置、KADIST収蔵)、そして\ac{}~\citep{scudder2026ac}の直接的前身としての役割。Whistlegraphの力はその\emph{再現可能性}にあると論じる——線を一本引き、音符を一つ歌える人なら誰でも演奏できる——そしてアルゴリズムによるプロモーションではなくこの再現可能性がバイラルな拡散を説明する。Whistlegraphは自身の演奏方法を教えるスコアである。
9595+\end{quote}
9696+\vspace{0.5em}
9797+}]
9898+9999+\section{序論}
100100+101101+「I'm a butterfly. Flapping for you guys. It's just a costume. I put on in my room.」一本の手が紙に蝶を描き、同時に声がこの歌詞を歌う。各翅が一本の線であり、各線が一行の歌詞であり、完成したドローイングは誰もが線をなぞり歌詞を歌うことで演奏できるスコアとなる。動画の長さは15秒。2020年初頭にTikTokに投稿された。数百万人が視聴した。
102102+103103+これがwhistlegraphである:ドローイング、歌唱、詩の記憶可能な融合体で、各筆触が歌われる一音節に対応し、アートワークであると同時に歌であり、自身の複製説明書でもあるグラフィックスコアを生成する~\citep{dirt2023whistlegraph}。この形式は2019年に著者によって発明され、COVID-19パンデミック中にAlex FreundlichとCamille Kleinとともに三人組の実践として発展し、TikTokで260万フォロワーに拡大し、New MuseumとFeral Fileで展示され、そして——2023年11月の三人組解散後——\ac{} のデザインに直接注入された。
104104+105105+本論文は回顧ではない。複数の実践の交差点から出現した形式の記録である——ラディカル・デジタル・ペインティング~\citep{scudder2017manifesto}、Goodiepalのラディカル・コンピュータ・ミュージック~\citep{goodiepal2012elcamino}、制約ベースのアート、そしてショートフォームのソーシャルビデオ——そしてこの形式は著者の現在の作業に影響を与え続けている。Whistlegraphは著者のドローイング実践とクリエイティブコンピューティングプラットフォームの間の橋渡しである。
106106+107107+\section{形式}
108108+109109+\subsection{構造}
110110+111111+Whistlegraphには同時進行する3つのレイヤーがある:
112112+113113+\begin{enumerate}
114114+ \item \textbf{視覚}:リアルタイムで描かれるドローイング。通常、紙にペンまたはマーカーで、あるいは黒板にチョークで。各筆触は意図的であり、音楽的要素に対応する。
115115+ \item \textbf{音楽}:歌われるメロディ。各音符がドローイングの筆触と整合する。メロディは一度か二度の視聴で覚えられるほど単純である。
116116+ \item \textbf{テキスト}:詩として機能する歌詞。歌詞は描写し、語り、指示する。覚えられるほど短い。
117117+\end{enumerate}
118118+119119+完成したドローイングは\emph{グラフィックスコア}として機能する——パフォーマンスを再現するために必要なすべての情報をエンコードした視覚的文書。ドローイングを見てメロディを思い出せる人なら誰でもwhistlegraphを演奏できる。スコアは自身の演奏方法を教える。
120120+121121+この自己文書化という特性が、whistlegraphを実験音楽における他のグラフィックスコアから区別する~\citep{magnusson2010designing}。CageやCardewのグラフィックスコアは解釈を必要とする——演奏者は視覚的な印が音楽的に何を意味するかを決定しなければならない。Whistlegraphは解釈を必要としない。印と音の関係は一対一であり、オリジナルのパフォーマンスで確立され、録画に保存されている。スコアは即興演奏のプロンプトではない——ドローイングに偽装された精密な指示書である。
122122+123123+\subsection{長さと制約}
124124+125125+ほとんどのwhistlegraphは5〜30秒である。制約は意図的である:一度の視聴で記憶できるほど短く、子どもが再現できるほど単純で、完成したドローイングが独立した画像として満足できるほど完結していなければならない。これらの制約——簡潔さ、単純さ、完結性——がwhistlegraphの設計パラメータである。Kleeの教育的練習~\citep{klee1925pedagogical}やKandinskyの点-線-面分析~\citep{kandinsky1926point}を彷彿とさせるが、TikTokの15秒縦型動画というネイティブフォーマットに変換されている。
126126+127127+最長のwhistlegraph——「The Longest Whistlegraph Ever (so far)」、Rhizomeの委嘱~\citep{rhizome2022longest}——は約22分で、上端にベルが取り付けられた4×6フィートの黒板にチョークで演奏された。これは制約を証明する例外である:New Museumの観客は持続的な注意を維持した。なぜなら数百の15秒whistlegraphによって、この形式特有の印とメロディの融合を期待するよう訓練されていたからである。
128128+129129+\section{起源}
130130+131131+\subsection{ラディカル・デジタル・ペインティング}
132132+133133+Whistlegraphは、2016年以来著者が取り組んでいるラディカル・デジタル・ペインティング(RDP)の実践から出現した~\citep{scudder2017manifesto}。RDPはデジタルペインティングを伝統的ペインティングの補完ではなく次なる物質的基盤として扱う:「ペインティングは単なるピクチャーメッセージにすぎない。」アメリカとヨーロッパでの65回以上のレクチャーパフォーマンス——2018年のGoodiepal \& Palsとのヨーロッパツアーや第35回Chaos Communication Congressでのプレゼンテーション~\citep{scudder2018rdp35c3}を含む——が、ドローイング、ナレーション、パフォーマンスを一つの行為に融合する形式を発展させた。
134134+135135+WhistlegraphはRDPレクチャーが非公式に行っていたことを形式化した:創作行為と語りの行為の同期。RDPレクチャーは即興的で再現不可能だったが、whistlegraphは作曲され、記憶可能で、再現可能である。即興から作曲へ——レクチャーからスコアへ——が核心的なイノベーションである。
136136+137137+\subsection{COVID-19と三人組}
138138+139139+2020年、COVID-19のロックダウン中に、著者はOregon州Ashlandの小屋でAlex FreundlichとCamille Kleinとともに三人組を結成した。パンデミックはライブパフォーマンスとレクチャーツアーの可能性を排除した。TikTokはロックダウン中に人気が爆発し、whistlegraphの自然な長さに合致するショートフォーム動画のプラットフォームを提供した。
140140+141141+三人組は音楽ドローイングチュートリアルを投稿した:一本の手が描き、声が歌い、カメラが両方を同時に捉え、結果として観客にwhistlegraphの自己複製方法を教える15秒の動画が生まれた。このフォーマットはTikTokのデュエットやリミックス機能と自然に適合し、観客がオリジナル動画と一緒に演奏することを可能にした。Whistlegraphは単に消費されるコンテンツではなかった——演奏されるスコアだった。
142142+143143+\section{バイラルな拡散}
144144+145145+\subsection{成長}
146146+147147+@whistlegraph TikTokアカウントは2020年から2023年にかけてゼロから260万フォロワーに成長した。成長はオーガニックだった——有料プロモーションなし、アルゴリズム操作なし、トレンド便乗なし。バイラルのメカニズムは形式そのものだった:whistlegraphを学んだ視聴者はそれを演奏したくなり、彼らの演奏がこの形式を彼ら自身のオーディエンスに紹介した。
148148+149149+「I'm a Butterfly」——ミュージシャンbo enとのコラボレーション——は最初期のヒットの一つだった。そのメロディ(「I'm a butterfly / flapping for you guys / it's just a costume / I put on in my room」)とドローイング(四筆で描かれるシンプルな蝶)は、レコメンデーションではなく反復を通じて拡散するほど記憶に残るものだった。
150150+151151+\subsection{なぜTikTokで効果があったのか}
152152+153153+TikTokの主要コンテンツフォーマット——ダンスチャレンジ、リップシンク、コメディスキット——はwhistlegraphと一つの構造的特性を共有している:\emph{再現可能なパフォーマンス}であるということ。ダンスチャレンジは、視聴者が振り付けを学び自分のバージョンを投稿する時に成功する。Whistlegraphは同じバイラルメカニズムを持つドローイングチャレンジである:スコアを学び、演奏し、投稿する。
154154+155155+しかしwhistlegraphは他のTikTokフォーマットに欠けている要素を導入した:\emph{オリジナルの作曲}。ダンスチャレンジは既存の曲を使う。リップシンクは既存の音声を使う。Whistlegraphはそれ自身の歌であり、それ自身のドローイングであり、それ自身の使用説明書である。他のメディアからバイラル性を借りるのではなく、自身の構造からバイラル性を生成する。
156156+157157+これはPapertのコネクショニズム~\citep{papert1980mindstorms}である:whistlegraphは「マイクロワールド」であり、学習者は何かを構築することによって知識を構成する。観客はwhistlegraphを受動的に消費するのではない——能動的に複製し、そうすることで視覚的な印と音符の関係について何かを学ぶ。
158158+159159+\section{機関的受容}
160160+161161+\begin{table}[h]
162162+\small
163163+\centering
164164+\begin{tabularx}{\columnwidth}{Xlr}
165165+\toprule
166166+\textbf{機関} & \textbf{作品} & \textbf{年} \\
167167+\midrule
168168+Rhizome / New Museum & 委嘱+パフォーマンス & 2022 \\
169169+Feral File & Ten Whistlegraphs(45エディション) & 2022 \\
170170+Taipei Dangdai & NFT Launch Stage & 2022 \\
171171+Schneider Museum (SOU) & 屋外インスタレーション & 2021 \\
172172+KADIST (San Francisco) & RDP \#98 収蔵 & 2021 \\
173173+SMK(デンマーク) & Ten Minute Painting & 2018 \\
174174+Rhizome ArtBase & 永久収録 & 2022 \\
175175+\bottomrule
176176+\end{tabularx}
177177+\caption{機関での展覧会と収蔵。}
178178+\label{tab:institutions}
179179+\end{table}
180180+181181+機関的軌跡はその速さで注目に値する:TikTokチュートリアルからRhizome/New Museum委嘱まで2年未満。Rhizome委嘱~\citep{rhizome2022longest}——New Museumと協力して展示されたFirst Lookシリーズの一環——にはチョークのライブパフォーマンス、22分4Kビデオ、IPFS上のトークンゲート付き原稿と録音、そしてQueensでの13〜18歳向けワークショップ(Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation助成)が含まれた。作品はRhizomeのArtBaseに収録され、TikTokネイティブのアート形式がOlia LialinaやJODIのネットアートと同じコレクションに並んだ。
182182+183183+Feral File展覧会~\citep{feralfile2022ten}——ERC-721トークンとしての10のwhistlegraph、各々にビデオパフォーマンス、グラフィックスコア、キュレーションされたTikTokセレクションが含まれる——は45エディション販売された。Taipei DangdaiではArt BlocksやOutlandとともに展示された。
184184+185185+60ページの小冊子がAsher Penn(\emph{Sex Magazine})の編集で2023年6月に出版され、印刷部数は750部。三人組全員のインタビューとJacob Ciocci(Paper Rad)による「The Butterfly Effect / Rules Set You Free」と題された論考~\citep{ciocci2023butterfly}が収録され、whistlegraphをPaper Radのルールベース、コミュニティ生成アートの遺産と結びつけている。
186186+187187+\section{音楽}
188188+189189+三人組はストリーミングプラットフォームで音楽をリリースした:シングル(「Infinitely Falling, Pop Sounds」、「Whistlegraph Practice」、「What's Inside Your Heart?」)とスタジオアルバム\emph{Music 2 Whistlegraph 2}(2022年12月、Charlie Kamin-Allenプロデュース)。アルバムはwhistlegraphの形式をより長い楽曲に拡張しつつ、核心的原則を維持した:各音楽要素が視覚的な印に対応する。
190190+191191+音楽は副業ではない。Whistlegraphのもう半分である。音楽のないグラフィックスコアは絵画であり、グラフィックスコアのない音楽は歌である。両方が合わさってwhistlegraphとなる。ストリーミングリリースはTikTokとは独立して流通できる形式でこの融合を記録した。
192192+193193+\section{解散と継続}
194194+195195+2023年11月、将来の目標の衝突により三人組は解散した。著者はグループのソーシャルメディアプラットフォームへの単独アクセス権を得た。260万フォロワーのTikTokアカウントを含む。@whistlegraphユーザー名は現在\ac{} のコンテンツを投稿している。
196196+197197+解散は三人組を終わらせたが、形式を終わらせはしなかった。Whistlegraphの核心的特性——再現可能性、印-メロディ対応、使用説明書としてのグラフィックスコア——は\ac{} のデザインに直接影響した:
198198+199199+\begin{itemize}
200200+ \item \textbf{プロンプトは楽器}というメタファー(即興演奏を通じて発見される記憶可能なパス)はwhistlegraphの記憶可能なスコアを反映している。
201201+ \item \textbf{ピースモデル}(一つのコンテキストで実行される自己完結したプログラム)はwhistlegraphの自己完結したパフォーマンスを反映している。
202202+ \item \textbf{即時モードレンダラー}(毎フレームゼロから描画)はwhistlegraphの、ドローイングは静的なアーティファクトではなくリアルタイムで行われなければならないという主張を反映している。
203203+ \item \textbf{TikTokからプラットフォームへのパイプライン}——ソーシャルネットワーク上の260万フォロワーがクリエイティブコンピューティングプラットフォームに流入——は他のクリエイティブツールが試みたことのない配布モデルである。
204204+\end{itemize}
205205+206206+Whistlegraphは\ac{} からの回り道ではない。ほとんどのクリエイティブコンピューティングツールが持たなかったオーディエンス構築フェーズである。ProcessingにはMITがあった;p5.jsにはUCLAがあった;Sonic PiにはCambridgeがあった。\ac{} には、ドローイングと音楽が同じものでありうることを知っている260万人がいた。
207207+208208+\section{インターフェースとしてのグラフィックスコア}
209209+210210+Whistlegraphは、一枚の絵がインターフェースになりうることを提案する——インターフェースの表現(ワイヤーフレームのような)ではなく、自身の実行命令をエンコードする\emph{機能的}インターフェースである。これが\ac{} のデザイン哲学との接点である:プロンプトは入力に応答することで使い方を教えるインターフェースである。ピースはインタラクションを通じてアフォーダンスを明らかにするインターフェースである。Whistlegraphはなぞることでメロディを明らかにするインターフェースである。
211211+212212+Eshunの「ソニックフィクション」~\citep{eshun1998more}——それが描写する現実を構築する音楽——はwhistlegraphに視覚的なアナロジーを持つ:それが描写するパフォーマンスを構築するドローイング。グラフィックスコアはwhistlegraph\emph{について}のドキュメントではない——それがwhistlegraph\emph{そのもの}であり、コードがプログラムについてのドキュメントではなくプログラムそのものであるのと同じように。
213213+214214+\section{結論}
215215+216216+WhistlegraphはTikTokで機能するはずのない形式だった。ダンスでもない。リップシンクでもない。コメディスキットでもない。一人の人間がゆっくりと描きながら静かに歌っているだけだ。260万フォロワーを獲得したのは、TikTokネイティブのフォーマットが提供しないものを提供したからだ:学べるスコア、描ける絵、歌える歌、そしてその三つを同時に行うための指示。
217217+218218+形式の機関的受容——Rhizome、New Museum、Feral File、KADIST、SMK——はwhistlegraphがアートとして認知されたことを確認する。TikTokでの受容はコンテンツとして認知されたことを確認する。\ac{} での継続はデザイン方法論として認知されたことを確認する。三つすべてであるのは、再現可能であるように設計されたからであり、再現可能性こそがアート(スコア)、コンテンツ(ビデオ)、インターフェースデザイン(プロンプト)を接続する特性だからである。
219219+220220+著者は「気ままに絵を描く楽しさを、自らのツール技術を前進させる苦しさと交換した」~\citep{scudder2019drawing}。Whistlegraphは絵を描くことがまだ楽しかった最後のプロジェクトである。それ以降のすべてはツールの構築である。
221221+222222+\vspace{0.5em}
223223+\noindent\textbf{ORCID:} \href{https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4460-4913}{0009-0007-4460-4913}
224224+225225+\bibliographystyle{plainnat}
226226+\bibliography{references}
227227+228228+\end{document}