Newsletters — Tim Rodenbröker

#23 — Permacomputing

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hey you,

I hope you are doing good! I continuously dive deeper into the realms of Permacomputing, and it really excites me and gives me hope.

Permacomputing is a thinking framework and a community of practice that offers an alternative view on how we use computers in our lives and in our creative work. It is connected to the idea of Permaculture and applies its principles to computing. Permacomputing encourages the use of self-imposed limits to create sustainable, circular, free, repairable, composable, simple, transparent, honest and poetic hardware and software. Permacomputing is often framed as nostalgia, but it's actually a much better kind of progress.

I am currently thinking about doing a PhD in that field. For me, it currently feels like the logical next step: to dive deep instead of going broader. Because... design-wise, nothing has resonated with me that much since I discovered Creative Coding almost fifteen years ago.

These are five of my favorite Permacomputing resources:

Permacomputing Aesthetics: Potential and Limits of Constraints in Computational Art, Design and Culture
There is no way around starting with this PDF, which actually explains the whole concept in a very tangible way. And it's especially relevant for art and design.
LINK

Permacomputing as a practice for digital Graphic Design
Hannah Gmeiner wrote an outstanding bachelor thesis on the topic and explored experimentally how Permacomputing could be applied to Graphic Design. The website has the longest domain I have ever seen:
LINK

Permacomputing 101 by 100 Rabbits
100 Rabbits is an artist duo who travels the world on a sailboat they call "Pino". The constraints of their life on a boat drew them to Permacomputing. They are real demonstrators and show how Permacomputing can be integrated fully into life. For me an invaluable inspiration. They transcribed their talk at Critical Signals 2025, which is also linked on the website (YouTube):
LINK

FLOSS+Art
Not named "Permacomputing" yet, but as relevant as the other resources. FLOSS+Art is an academic book from the year 2008, written by Aymeric Mansoux & Marloes de Valk, investigating the aesthetic implications of Free and Open Source software in the arts. Aymeric is also a co-author of the Permacomputing Aesthetics paper.
LINK

Machine learning is neither good nor evil
What is Permacomputing's take on Machine Learning and AI? This essay by another co-author of the Permacomputing Aesthetics paper makes a really interesting point:
LINK

I have way more if you are interested. Do you have something related to read that you'd like to share with me? Please do.

Ah, and if you have any tips for me related to the PhD, let me know.

Warm greets from Barcelona,

Tim

#22 — The Kintsugi Computer Epiphany

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hey you!

Here comes an update about the writing process of my book "downgrade", which you can check out here:

https://downgrade.timrodenbroeker.de/

If you have missed the last newsletter: The book is publicly accessible during the the writing process until February 1st 2027 and I am sharing a status update every two weeks.

This is update number 2/12.

The last two weeks have been probably the most productive in the whole process of writing this book. I've made it to close the most gaps in the first two chapters!

The first chapter has a new title now: The Kintsugi Computer Epiphany . I really like the tension that emerges from that unusual constellation. The Kintsugi Computer Epiphany feels conceptually mature. Now it's time to work on the language.

I rewrote the second main chapter "Diogenes meets Demo Festival ". But I still don't know if the Diogenes motif is the right one to constellate with my story. Right now it feels a bit too decorative. As if I am trying to look intellectual. Let's see if I find a good fix or an alternative for that.

Souvereign Nonconformity is an essay I wrote it for a seminar about Seneca while stuying philosophy (just for fun). It's very different from the other texts, has lots of quotes and it also still needs some rework in terms of language, but I think that it really belongs into the book, to show that downgrading creates a lot of friction IRL: It's a disconnection, it creates incompatibilities and it adds extra effort to other people who work and live with me. It breaks social codes and it provokes, especially within the competitive world of design. It can be misunderstood as an expression of moral superiority. This dimension of the downgrade definitively deserves more space in the book!

The text 128KB is a remix of an essay I contributed to the Radical Computing exhibition catalogue, which is is published as a mini cd rom. Such a cool idea!

I have realized that "downgrade diary" is a very strong constellation. The two words, that couldn't be further away from each other, create friction and warmth. Should I maybe title my book "downgrade diary", instead of just "downgrade"? It would be honest and illustrate the personal character that it has. To me, "downgrade" sounds like a manifesto, like a prompt... But "downgrade diary" is actually closer to what I want to express: it's honest and shows ambiguity, the struggle and the doubts as well.

I am excited to push this project forward and see where it goes in the next two weeks! I'll get back to you soon and let you know about updates.

Warm greets!

Tim

#21 — Book Progress Update 1/12

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hey you!

Since early 2023 I have been working on this project. In the beginning, it wasn't clear what it would become. But I knew the name: downgrade.

It started as a defiant, outraged protest against the narratives around AI within the design space. But the protest turned into something different, something more productive and proactive — a fascinating creative adventure. I started to explore various fields that counter acceleration through simplicity and slowness: Low Technology, Permacomputing, Digital Minimalism... The question I kept asking myself was: how could I integrate these ideas into my own work?

And this is what you're looking at right now: a quite personal book, a growing collection of essays and experiments, oscillating between thought and action, putting together what I've learned on my way, exploring the realms of the downgrade.

The thing is... The book isn't finished. People warned me and said I should not share anyting online. Publishers do not want to produce books that are already available on the web. Makes sense. But... I have always created my best ideas in public. It inspires me and motivates me to share ideas and get feedback. So I did something a bit crazy and created a website that contains all the content. It's an open working draft. A Digital Garden. My space to learn in public.

https://downgrade.timrodenbroeker.de/

The plan is to finish the project in February 2027. Until then I will send you a newsletter every two weeks and share updates. And I want to emphasize that I am really happy to get your feedback, ideas and critique! Please send me an e-mail to

downgrade@timrodenbroeker.de

Thanks! Sending warm greets,
Tim

#20 — My Data Lives on My Keyring

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hey you!

I fixed my data problem.

Photos, project files, notes — everything was scattered across my local hard drive, Google Drive and Dropbox. Both clouds held almost half a terabyte and were a total mess. There was no clear line for what belonged where. The only reason I kept both was that different collaborators needed different tools.

Working inside this mess was exhausting. It costed me cognitive energy just to find things. So I decided to clean up the most important tool in my creative work: my archive.

The first step was sorting. I fixed the structures and moved everything I wasn't actively using onto an external hard drive — I call it "the tomb."

With that new foundation, I started using a self-hosted Nextcloud. It worked almost exactly like Dropbox, except the space was capped at 10 gigabytes. Interestingly, that limit made me creative — it forced cleaner structures and cut out most of the noise that used to distract me. The feeling of opening my archive changed. It felt welcoming and supportive.

At some point I was struck by an idea: for my own files, beside the collaborative projects I work on, I don't actually need a cloud. Having my work accessible around the clock, on every device, small and large, was a source of stress. It created a certain tension, even when it wasn't time to work. It kept me from hitting pause, from slowing down, from resting and disconnecting.

The problem was that I still needed to work on multiple computers — a heavy laptop I don't like to carry around, and a smaller one. So I bought a small USB hard drive with 1TB of storage that I can carry with me.

I used Mistral AI to code a script that backs up and syncs all my files across multiple locations: another USB hard drive with 2TB and an external Hetzner server — just in case I lose everything at the same time, which is obviously very unlikely.

I haven't solved the collaboration problem yet. For that I still use a small Dropbox, which is a total mess. But the most important part of my data is now decoupled from commercial cloud companies. My data now lives on my keyring.

Please forward this e-mail. Thank you very much!

Send Feedback

Warm greets from Barcelona,

Tim

#19 — I Don't Use Apple and Adobe Anymore

This video about my transition from proprietary software and hardware to Open Source software is one of the most viewed ones I have ever posted on the internet.

Switching all of my workflows to Open Source is an long-term, ongoing project. It all started with a broken laptop in 2019 which I have repaired by installing a Linux Operating System called Ubuntu. Since then, I slowly removed the software and hardware of companies I do not trust. And I have learned that there are incredible open source alternatives.

I think that many people sabotage their own opportunities to enter this space by adopting a purist mindset, an all-or-nothing mentality. This frustrated me quite some time myself, but I have learned to approach this project iteratively and remain aware that there is no definitive end to this journey.

My goal is not to show people how to become hermits; I will never move into the forest and live on grapes and mushrooms (I promise). My goal is to encourage people to take action and look at the alternatives that are on the table.

Ultimately, there is so much to gain, especially for us designers: we as creatives underestimate ourselves; the potential of design for a better future can only truly unfold when we courageously engage with the true structures of the technology. That’s also what programming teaches us.

Our anxiety-driven frenzy in the fast lane makes us unable to recognize where we actually are. Open source is an invitation to leave the highway and discover something completely new on side roads and rural paths.

Digital technology is the core driver of history in these times. Now is the time to use the resources of design in the broadest sense to create the kinds of technologies that we want to live with.

I want to act as a scout or explorer here and tell you about what I have discovered beyond the horizon. My upcoming book will be all about that.

Now today, I want to share a list of tools I use to make my work happen.

Laptop / Workstation
- What I used before: Apple Macbook Pro
- My substitute: Used laptops for max. 1000,- €
- Mood: ❤️ Very Happy
Operating System
- What I used before: Apple Mac OS
- My substitute: Debian, Ubuntu (both Linux-based)
- Mood: I love it!
Video Editing
- What I used before: Adobe Premiere, FinalCut
- My substitute: KDEnlive, FFMPEG
- Mood: 😺 Happy
Photo Editing
- What I used before: Adobe Photoshop, Affinity
- My substitute: Gimp
- Mood: 😺 Happy
Note Taking
- What I used before: Notion
- My substitute: Obsidian, Markdown
- Mood: ✔️ Transitioned
Web Development
- What I used before: Visual Studio Code
- My substitute: /
- Mood: 🤔 Not happy yet
Animation
- What I used before: Adobe After Effects
- My substitute: Processing, p5.js
- Mood: 😺 Very happy
E-Mail
- What I used before: Apple Mail, Outlook
- My substitute: Mozilla Thunderbird
- Mood: 😺 Very happy
Surfing the Web
- What I used before: Chrome, Safari, Edge
- My substitute: Firefox
- Mood: 😺 Very happy
Messaging
- What I used before: WhatsApp
- My substitute: Signal
- Mood: 😺 Happy, but it's slow, many people don't use Signal
Writing Text
- What I used before: Notion, Google Docs, Word
- My substitute: Obsidian, Markdown, LibreOffice
- Mood: 😺 Happy
Social Media / Sharing my Work
- What I used before: Instagram
- My substitute: Mastodon
- Mood: This is my weakest spot. I feel professionally very dependent on Instagram. Mastodon works well, but too few people use it.
Search Engine
- What I used before: Google
- My substitute: DuckDuckGo, Ecosia
- Mood: 😺 Very happy
AI Assistance
- What I used before: ChatGPT
- My substitute: Mistral Le Chat 🇪🇺
- Mood: 😺 Happy
Vector Graphics
- What I used before: Adobe Illustrator
- My substitute: /
- Mood: Not happy yet
Calendar
- What I used before: Google Calendar
- My substitute: Paper calendar
- Mood: Happy ❤️
Cloud
- What I used before: Dropbox
- My substitute: Small SSD, solid backup practice, still Dropbox for shared files, NAS
- Mood: It works fine
Smartphone
- What I used before: iPhone
- My substitute: Fairphone 6 with /e/os
- Mood: I love it
Navigation
- What I used before: Google Maps
- My substitute: Maps /e/os
- Mood: It's sometimes a pain
Video Messaging
- What I used before: Google Meet, Zoom
- My substitute: /
- Mood: It's okay.

What do you think? Are you planning such a switch too? Do you want to recommend a tool?

Its Nice That POV: What happens when design ditches big tech?
Thinking Different: Using Linux in Design
Creative Coding on a Raspberry Pi 5
Blau Originals
New Podcast: Demystify Technology
I am writing a book
Meandering Thoughts on Low Technology

#18 — Building Tools

Hey you,
wow, sometimes life is unpredictable and drops us into completely unexpected situations. That's what's happening on my end right now. It's kinda turmoil. But: I get energy and full support from the best friends imaginable. Real friendship is so powerful! What also helps me is to read. I've decided to do this deep dive into this one single book: Jenny Odell's "How to do Nothing – Resisting the Attention Economy". I want to understand its skeleton, its deep structures, its architecture and anatomy. A book I can highly recommend – Go check it out!

Maybe also a quick update my the writing process of my own book: I'm incredibly happy that I've met Alex, who is closely accompanying me as an editor. It can be quite painful – but Alex has this special mix of being super friendly and merciless at the same time. He holds up a mirror to me when I get completely carried away again. Thank you Alex!
🙂

Building Tools
Today, I'd like to give you something to read, maybe over the weekend. There are quite a few things I wrote. Where to start? Perhaps with the questions I answered for Slanted Magazine on the topic of “Digital Tools.” It's becoming easier and easier to develop custom design software, and I published an online course on this very topic last year.
Check it out here

Of course AI plays a major role here. It helps us in completely new, previously unimaginable ways. I find myself in a dilemma here, because it is obvious that AI is leading people to believe that they no longer need to learn basic skills. People marry their favorite LLM and feel like gods. This leads to more dependencies and more incompetence.
What we really need is independence. Software and hardware must be built in such a way that humans can still grasp how they work. And AI floods already hyper-complex systems with even more complexity.

On the other hand, I welcome tools that further democratize technology and challenge the monopolies. I often think that design education could make an enormously important contribution here. It's a free space that is not yet pervaded with money and the mechanics of the market. Design education should support a culture of toolbuilding. If it were up to me, design schools today would include software design at the core of their curriculum. All based on values and principles. This would enable us to educate the next generations to become true demonstrators. The difference between demonstrators and protesters: Demonstrators show alternatives, while protesters just rant or post memes of despair and
rage on Instagram. Demonstration is productive, protest is destructive. Demonstration means moving forward, despite all odds. Building digital tools is a great start, I think. It teaches us how the systems work we are entangled in. Building tools is a process of emancipation. I hope you enjoy the interview!

I wish you a calm and beautiful Christmas time.

Warm greetings, ☀️

Tim

PS: Do you enjoy my newsletter? Would you consider forwarding it to a friend? That would help me a lot. Thank you very much!

#17 — Teaching Through the Lens of the Tool, with Prof. John Caserta

I hope you are doing good! On a hot day in the summer of 2024, my friend Cem Eskinazi brought a stack of books to our shared office. These publications had been designed at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where Cem had studied. What was really special about them was that none of these books had been designed using proprietary layout software like Adobe InDesign. Instead, they had been developed entirely using code: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and a framework called bindery.js. This was an epiphany moment for me. I could not believe it: The quality of the publications was almost identical to that of the books I had on my shelf. The method is called WebToPrint, and it has many interesting features.

John Caserta , Cem’s professor, introduced this way of working more than a decade ago at the RISD and guess what, I’ve had the opportunity to interview John about all of this. The conversation was incredibly inspiring to me. In him I’ve discovered a full-blooded and passionate design educator, whose teaching is rooted in values. I felt like John has a such a deep trust and admiration in design as a craft, for the process as a design subject itself. From that perspective, WebToPrint is an invitation to discover new pathways and processes, beyond proprietary software lock-ins and outrageously expensive subscription models.

Thank you so much Cem and of course John. I’ve learned a lot!

Listen to the podcast episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

I wish you all a great November.

#16 — 128kb

Hey you,

I hope you're doing well! Do you remember “the old internet”? The old internet was a better place, which still worked for the people, not against them. Individuals and organizations ran their own websites, interconnected via hyperlinks. At some point social media appeared. And it was really amazing in the beginning. Even still in 2015 – that was the year when I started sharing creative coding experiments on Tumblr, a social feed, but without manipulative algorithms, without high-resolution videos you never subscribed to. Tumblr blogs usually revolved around a specific theme; there were inspiring diaries, portfolios and mood boards. I found exactly the content that interested me, with almost no distractions.

As a creative coder, one specific feature of Tumblr particularly fascinated me. There was a strict upload limit of two megabytes for GIF animations, the format I used to capture my ideas. That was like... nothing. In comparison: If you scroll through an Instagram feed for just a few seconds and watch a few videos, hundreds of megabytes are sent from a distant server to your device. And these videos are already highly compressed.

The .gif (Graphics Interchange Format) was invented in the mid eighties and it is uncompressed, which means that it can consume a significant amount of storage space when used for fluid animations. But it was precisely this technical hurdle of the two megabyte limit that unexpectedly became a powerful driver of my creativity. I had to think carefully about how many frames, how many colors, and which resolution I used for the GIF animations in order to stay under that limit. This challenge fascinated, inspired, and pushed me at the time.

Limitations are the ultimate drivers of creativity and innovation. Boundaries are a form of liberation. Bottlenecks give rise to new ideas. The experience of the scarcity in Tumblr's bandwidth fundamentally shaped how I work and how I develop my ideas.

In 2024, I was invited to speak at the “Back to the Future of the Internet” conference in Barcelona. That title inspired me to develop a project, a quick prototype for a small "social media" application that takes the filesize limit of Tumblr to the extreme. I call it "128KB". The website is designed as a growing feed of tiny works from the global creative coding scene. Anyone can submit a gif directly from the browser.

Check it out: https://128kb.eu

I wish you a beautiful October.

Warm regards,

Tim

PS: Natürlich steht meine Idee auf den Schultern großer anderer Ideenkosmen. Einige der Inspirationen möchte ich hier noch teilen:

#15 — CodeCrafted

Hey you!

I hope you are doing good!

Yesterday, I received a very special package: it was my copy of the book CodeCrafted! This is the first printed publication to which I've contributed to as an author and it makes me really proud!

CodeCrafted highlights the intersection of branding and creative coding and showcases a vibrant range of work from world-renowned design studios.

With about 8000 words, I am inviting readers to zoom out to the meta level: What lies behind the appealing visual worlds emerged from creative coding and generative design? In five essays, I try to make it clear that the potential of creative coding extends far beyond its output.

In the first piece, From Coded Aesthetics to Techno Literacy, I point out that creative coding is much more than just a tool for designers: it can be a key to empowered access to technology for individuals as well as entire societies – so that we can transform our role from users of predefined tools into designers of systems.

In the second essay, An Introduction to Coding Systems, I reflect on my close collaboration with my friend and colleague Martin Lorenz, with whom I explore the intersection between code and flexible visual systems under the name Coding Systems. We are currently working on a collaborative book that, as the successor to Martin's long-selling Flexible Visual Systems (FVS), makes it clear that code is the ideal material for defining design systems.

In the third essay, What is Creative Coding, I attempt to clarify what creative coding is. To this end, I compare a common definition with a good one and make it clear that creative coding is primarily a process that is all about experimentation.

In the fourth essay, Getting started with Creative Coding, I map out the beginning of the learning process and mention some pitfalls and challenges, before explaining how to effectively overcome these obstacles.

The fifth and final essay, Principles for Coding Designers, is an open and unfinished collection of ethical principles for creative coders, based on the premise that as designers and developers, we hold a great deal of power in our hands, which comes with great responsibility.

The book is available from Victionary.

Order it here

I wish you a beautiful September!

Tim

#14 — Demystify Technology

Technology is a Myth

One of the most beautiful books I have ever held in my hands is “Lo–TEK” by Julia Watson, an architect, designer, and activist who has been researching the technologies of indigenous peoples for 20 years. In it, she writes:

While scientific knowledge is considered an essential truth, it is actually a constantly growing mythology.

Today's technologies, the hardware and software we use, are covered by a thick layer of myth and ideology. Marketing, PR, and design from Big Tech tell us big tales of progress and growth, but these are now collapsing in the face of multiple crises. This finally sparks important questions: How much technology is actually appropriate? What does technological simplicity mean? Can technology be in the hands of people rather than companies (as is the case with open source)? How can we build a new, sovereign relationship with tech?

Creative Coding

There is a direct and interesting connection here with creative coding: through my own teaching, I eventually realized that people who come into contact with code tend to look past the front end and see the bare technology. Coding is a process that comes with a direct insight into the hidden and genuine structures of software. Creative coding is a lense to demystify technology.

My New Podcast

"Demystify Technology". These two words have become a guiding principle for me in recent years. I tend to say that they answer the question of why I do what I do: to demystify technology. It is a call for digital education and empowerment. Now I have started a new podcast where this demystification will be the main topic. With it, I want to create a new repository for conversations in the periphery of what I mainly do in my work. In this way, I hope to create order and clarity.

Episode 1: Kris De Decker

Today, I am publishing the very first episode of the podcast. And I couldn't have imagined a more fitting guest than Kris de Decker, the researcher, journalist, activist, and blogger from whom I have learned so much over the past year. Kris lives in Barcelona and has been writing about low technology for almost 20 years. He runs lowtechmagazine.com, a platform where he shares all his learnings and insights. Kris turns his own life into a laboratory and a medium, achieving an astonishing degree of integrity.

Our conversation revolves around the question of what an internet free of big tech might look like, what challenges we face as content creators and bloggers within the current infosphere, and what ways there are to counter information capitalism, at least to some extent.

I hope you enjoy the first episode and I'm really looking forward to your feedback. Do you have any suggestions? Which guests would you recommend? Feel free to write to me at feedback@timrodenbroeker.de .

Enjoy this August!

Tim

#13 — Learnings from a Six-Week Writing Marathon

Hey there, I hope you are doing great!

I've just finished a six-week writing marathon - I sat at the computer for at least an hour every day to work on my book “Downgrade”. It was all about crafting texts and getting down to business. No reading - just writing - I did all the research beforehand and on the side. All in all, it was a real pain, but also very productive. Today I would like to reflect on how far I have come.

About the project: Downgrade is going to be a collection of essays that take a critical and creative look at the current state of technology. I'm turning myself into a medium or a protagonist, who reflects about observations, conversations and experiments. Ending up in a plea for simple technology. The goal of the book is mainly to show alternative perspectives - that simple, honest and transparent technology has fundamental advantages and lastly, how all of this applies to design and media art. I hope this gets clear, please let me know if you have questions.

Challenges

The six-week writing marathon was a very creative yet painful ride. Everything was a bit more difficult than I had imagined. You come across quite a few unexpected problems and questions when writing, especially if, like me, you've never worked on such a large text project before.

How do I make sure that I remain solution-oriented instead of just stating problems?
How much philosophy can I put my readers through?
How do I find a balance between idealism and pragmatism in my attitude?
How do I write in such a way that it sparks and inspires other people to take action themselves?
At what point do I seem so crazy with my message that people no longer want to go along with it? What's the sweet spot?
What is my writing voice?
Many of these questions have still not been answered. But the ingredients for the book are now complete and in the right order. Now it's time to finish preparing the dish. And that's still a lot of work.

Fighting with Myself

You stand in the middle of the forest and completely lose your orientation. It's frustrating and sometimes I felt like I was going crazy. But I also have to say that the Habit kept pulling me out of the hole. It simply wasn't an option not to write - I forced myself to do it again and again and was happy about it almost every time in the end. The lack of direction sometimes meant that I missed the point, but I also see it in a positive light: it allowed me to explore peripheral areas, which at least always taught me something new.

Writing Alone

I think a big problem is that I write without an editor with whom I can discuss my texts. Ideally, I would like to find someone who is familiar with the topic, knows the target group and can guide me along the way with proper project management. But I have no idea how to find someone like that and how to keep it affordable.

Looking through the Downgrade-lense

I also realize that I am growing enormously with this project. I'm delving deep into the subject area and everything is starting to make sense now. I can see the connections, but also the subtle differences. The book project is like a lens through which I look into the world. I'm constantly on the hunt for new and exciting aspects, I observe my everyday life more attentively and I'm really happy when I notice something that I can make use of. Perhaps this can be metaphorically compared to pregnancy. You carry the project inside you.

What I Have Learned about the Essay as a Medium

The essay fascinates me as a medium. It’s a tool to make sense, shed light on a subject, look at a thing from different perspectives, share an opinion or strengthen the individual attitude. Essays can be deeply poetic. I like to think of them like collages - the best pieces are those which meander between stories from the past, trivial observations from the present and hopes for future.

Getting in touch with Like-minded People

Which is really priceless: I get to know so many exciting people. I am now in frequent contact with several of them, some of whom are also authors who are struggling with very similar problems. And I just realize: Writing a book is hard, takes time and I am not alone with this.

Publishing

My thoughts are also still revolving around the question of whether I should release the book with or without a publisher. I have a list of publishers that would certainly be a good match. But at the same time, I find the idea of making my texts publicly accessible and then offering a print-on-demand book that frames all the texts and allows them to be read offline attractive. I learned this strategy from Kris de Decker, who does exactly the same with his Low Tech Magazine. The problem is that publishers have little interest in publishing content that has already been published. Print on demand basically fits in well with my strategy and has the advantage that the entire publication process is extremely lean and also environmentally friendly. On the other hand, I then have to market the book completely myself and can't get it into the bookstores.

What's Next?

I really need a break now. All of this happened next to my daily life and I had to tap into some energy reserves at the end - now it's time for vacation. But honestly, I'm also looking forward to starting the next marathon with renewed energy.

Feedback

I'm glad you've read this far - thanks for that! Do you have any ideas, tips, advice or comments? Then I would love to hear from you.

Feel free to write to me at feedback@timrodenbroeker.de

Warm greets,

Tim

#12 — The Tool Becomes the Message

Hi Folks,

I hope you are all well! Today I want to share an idea with you that I find very interesting. The world has been accelerating at a breathtaking pace for years and this is probably more noticeable for creatives, artists and designers than for any other sector. I'm not at all interested in what seemingly great benefits artists and designers will have from AI - because we can see that the risks and damage to our surrounding systems are already incredibly high.

In the lkast years, I have learned to know quite a few people who are actively opposing the unquestioned adaptation of dangerous technology. I have met artists, designers, journalists and activists who not only face the risks courageously and openly, but above all develop, prepare and provide alternative perspectives themselves. This raises a lot of exciting questions that we should pursue: What do we gain by consciously embracing simple, manageable "technology at human scale" (as E. F. Schumacher onced put it in "Small is Beautiful")?

Spanish media artist Raquel Meyers, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Prague in 2023, teaches us this very well. One of her most important tools is the Commodore 64 (1982-1992), the first ever commercial home computer. She has been using it like a drawing tool for almost 20 years, using letters and symbols to type fabulous illustrations for stories and philosophical reflections. She sometimes exhibits them - then they usually are shown on old tube televisions, on obsolete technology, on devices from electronic waste.

When I got to know Raquel and her work, one thing became clear to me: The tool is the message! It's fascinating: no matter what Raquel's pictures and installations display, the medium and the tool have this strong aura, inheriting her worldview. You simply can't reproduce that digitally. Suppose - a quickly generated graphic that looks exactly like one of Raquel's imaginative illustrations never has the same aura, the same value. Her story, her tools, her attitude, that media, the struggle - all this comes together to form a powerful overall statement.

Raquel's poetic works are based on letters and symbols. In media art, there is a term for this: textmode. In one of her essays, she writes that text as a medium is a sharp critique of techno-maximalism, of the opportunism of our time. Techno-maximalism always forces itself on us, it does not remain silent, it screams. It is actually a violent crime, a theft of our rare attention. Textmode however is quiet, subtle, silent. Its illustrations are not very detailed, but they don't need any detail as they speak for themselves. The tool is the message!

I interviewed Raquel Meyers and we talked about all of this. Another stroke of luck with Raquel is that she deals with her work in writing and manifests her thoughts in essays. In the show notes you will find many links to read more and dive deeper.

Click here: https://timrodenbroeker.de/raquel-meyers/

I wish you a wonderful weekend!

Tim

#11 — Downgrade as a Design Philosophy

Hi you, 👋

a few months ago I published a post to announce that i am writing a book titled "downgrade". This project became the guiding star of everything I do right now and it is an incredible journey, really! In the meantime I've started to study philosophy in Paderborn, the city where I live and where we have a progressive faculty that has set a focus on wisdom related to the human relationship with technology. As you probably know, this is exactly the field that I resonate with and that I am thinking and publishing about since many years.

This is my first semester and right now I am diving deep into the philosophy of the ancient stoics and the cynics. Maybe you have read my last essay, Diogenes meets Demo Festival, which is influenced by the research I am doing right now. I am trying to connect these buried treasures with the most pressing questions of our time. But more importantly: These ancient schools were not about developing theories, there were trying to bring wisdom into practice. Especially for the cynics and the stoics, philosophy was a pathway to become better human beings by developing virtues and acting in sync with their values.

For me, this way of thinking is an amazing treasure trove for a different way of creativity in design - not as a practice to decorate surfaces, but to develop ideas that are truly innovative, that embody attitude. My book is going to shed light into this way of thinking. Spoiler: Coding is the a major tool to make this happen. More about that soon.

What's amazing is that I finally found the sparrings partners that I need to make progress. For the book itself I am incredibly thankful to Alexander Scholz, who is helping me right now to bring the outline of the book into shape. Also, I am speaking to loads of people who had an impact onto my thinking and therefore the content of the book. If you folks read this - I am sending you the warmest thanks!

I am always thankful to hear what you think about all this. Let me know by sending an e-mail to feedback@timrodenbroeker.de

Warmly,

Tim

#10 — Diogenes Meets Demo Festival

Hi folks,

I hope you are all well! In January 2025, the DEMO Festival took place and I was once again involved as a curator. Over the past few months, I've been processing my collected impressions in an essay that I'm excited to share with you today. It's called “Diogenes meets Demo Festival”.

Click here to check it out

There's an audio version too. As always, I am very happy to receive feedback. Feel free to send me an email to feedback@timrodenbroeker.de

Warm greets, enjoy your weekend!

Tim

#9 — Obsolete Technology

Hi you!
I hope you are doing good! Maybe you have read my second last newsletter and noticed that I'm currently working on a book. The chapter I'm currently trying to finish focuses on my experiments with ‘Obsolete Technology’, specifically: what it's like to consciously develop motion design with an obsolete laptop (Thinkpad x260). The chapter is the text version of the talk I gave at the Design in Motion Festival (DEMO).

Lucy Bourton from Its Nice That interviewed me after my alk and the festival and we discussed the underlying ideas and lessons learnt from these experiments. She wrote a great article about it, which I would like to share with you (link)

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/pov-efficiency-vs-effectiveness-what-happens-when-design-ditches-big-tech-insights-digital-240225

Viele Grüße!

Tim

#8 — Back to the Future of the Internet

Hello folks,

I hope you are doing good. It was almost exactly a year ago that I had the opportunity to join some highly esteemed people on a stage in Barcelona to discuss possible futures for the Internet. I want to share the recording of this event with you today, because the topic is especially relevant after Trump's and Musk's evil pact.

Click to watch the video

A few powerful men in the USA and China hold the strings of the “social web” in their hands. I personally, as a human being and as a content creator, feel tangled up in it and torn back and forth, constantly fighting to keep the grip. But things are finally starting to move. The discussions about the Infosphere are now at back the centre of the discourse on Europe's future.

“Back to the Future of the Internet” was the tense title of the event at the Akasha Hub in Barcelona. Back and Future - how do those go together? In this context, the word back may evoke a negative feeling. Some may think: ‘Oh God, now they want to send us back to the Stone Age!’. These reactions often come up when technologies are discussed that are no longer considered “high tech” today. I think, the problem could be that we are still stuck in the terminology of an old narrative, which assumes that all countries treat each other peacefully and fairly, and that everything is going steadily better if we trust the laws of the market. We have looked at progress as a one-dimenional straight line upwards. "Forward is good and backward is bad". The entangled issues of enviromental breakdown, the threatening political climate and the mental issues of a whole generation tell the truth: We were wrong.

In other words: This is a great moment to get active! In order to shape the future of a new, a better infosphere, we should dare to look back, to the past. Because in the decades-long crossfire of ever new technical innovations, we have overlooked, dropped and passed over highly valuable ideas and technologies.

In the video you'll see three talks: The first one is by Kris de Decker, the founder of lowtechmagazine.com, who shares memories on the early days of social media. Kris is one of the most inspiring people I've met in Barcelona.

In the second lecture, Roel Roscam Abbing takes us through scientific perspectives on social media, reveals the weaknesses of the tech giants and makes it clear what solutions the Fediverse has to offer.

And then you see another talk from me, obviously a bit nervous. It’s about my online learning platform for Creative Coding, why I call my website "a fortress" and what kind of dilemmas with ‘social media’ I struggle with.

I'm very curious to hear what you think about it.

For feedback, please feel free to email me at feedback@timrodenbroeker.de .

Enjoy the video and have a great weekend,

Warm greets,

Tim

#7 — Downgrade

Hey you!

I hope you are doing good.

It's crazy what times we live in, isn't it? It feels it was only the day before yesterday when we were still discussing blockchain, NFTs and the value of digital art. Today, just two and a half years later, the topic has completely disappeared from the media because even more blatant technologies, AI tools such as ChatGPT and Midjourney have shifted the pace of so-called “technological progress” up two levels. It feels like you have to keep getting faster and faster, everyone has to run, otherwise we’ll be left behind. Hartmut Rosa once put it nicely: We are in a state of “racing standstill” (“rasender Stillstand”), we are running up escalators that are heading downwards. It is the technologies that are becoming more and more dangerous for us, with their free services and hypocritical promises - right into politics, into our respectful interaction with one another and into our more than human world.

I have always felt an enormous responsibility towards the people and institutions I work with. And I have many questions in my mind. Which perspectives and tools are useful for freeing ourselves from our technological paralysis? How can we make critical thinking about technology tangible without drifting into the academic and abstract? How do you approach such a damn complex topic without going completely mad?

With questions like these in mind, I moved to Barcelona in early 2023 to look for answers. There I kept a diary, had countless conversations, joined communities, founded a local network for creative technologists, taught at Elisava and learned a lot from the low-tech community, which is very active there. What I learned there is now flowing into a book: "downgrade" is a plea for simple, honest, and transparent technology.

“downgrade” is a collection of independent essays that address various aspects between culture and technology. Embedded in the guise of narratives and experience reports, these texts touch on major themes, but remain in an attitude of wonder, questioning and searching.

I really like the notion of “downgrade”. The term is polarizing, but that also makes it interesting. And perhaps it also reveals that we associate many words used in the context of technology with negative connotations. The downgrade that I have in mind is positive, it boldly forges ahead and illuminates dark places.

The book will hopefully come out in 2025. I'll keep you posted about it here in the newsletter! Any ideas, comments, anything you want to share with me? Just drop me a line to feedback@timrodenbroeker.de

Happy New Year to you all! 🎉

Tim

#6 — Coding Systems

Hey there!

How does Creative Coding relate to the broad term “systems theory”? This question has been the subject of many conversations with my very good friend Dr. Martin Lorenz for many years now. One possible answer has to do with graphic design: Martin’s popular book “Flexible Visual Systems” (link) provides a theoretical foundation for coded design: Code is a language that can describe the appearance and behavior of a visual system. But it turned out that this answer only scratched the surface. In three years of long conversations, online and offline, walking around Barcelona and its suburbs, Martin and I have developed a shared terminology and many exciting ideas. The plan to start a studio has been around for a few years. But the time wasn’t right. Now it is and we are very excited to finally share codingsystems.info with you.

So what do we do as Coding Systems?

Research
In our jam sessions, we are developing design workflows that challenge the standardized and funneled processes that are set by the big software companies. In our conversations, we discuss the bigger picture of creative coding and systems theory by challenging each other with tough questions.

Development
As a team of creative directors, we work for clients with strong values. For example, in 2024 we helped shape the identity system for a project at the University of Pennsylvania. Next year, we will develop the visual identity for one of Spain’s most charming design festivals. In addition to client work, we also plan to develop products.

Sharing
Both of us are educators at heart. Sharing our ideas and experiences through talks and workshops (online and offline) will be a main pillar of our work in the future.

Interested to learn more?

Visit our website codingsystems.info

Click here

That’s it from my side. I wish you a very nice and calm christmas time!

All the best,

Tim

#5 — Studio Visit: Julian Hespenheide

Hi there!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting Julian Hespenheide, a creative technologist and artist, in his Berlin-based studio.

Surrounded by cables, circuit boards, and retro displays, we talked about his thoughts on “learning through limitations” and his passion for reimagining outdated technologies and transforming them into expressive, modern artwork. Julian’s work bridges the realms of new media, interaction design, and physical computing, crafting art that brings the digital world to life in unique, tangible ways.

Through creative coding and a deep appreciation for the aesthetic of low-resolution displays, his art invites to look at technology from a fresh perspective, blending the nostalgia of low tech with a forward-thinking approach.

Studio visit:

Julian Hespenheide

I spoke to Julian, creative technologist and artist, about low-resolution displays and creative coding. He connects digital and physical worlds and co-operates a Berlin gallery that focuses on algorithmic art.

Link

Any feedback? As always I am happy to read from you.

Just drop me a line to feedback@timrodenbroeker.de .

Warm greets,

Tim

#4 — Daniel Shiffman on the Nature of Code

Hi you!

I can't imagine a world without Daniel Shiffman and my career would have been a different one if this sympathic and ingenious man wouldn't have cultivated Creative Coding for such a long time. Without him and his important work, Processing and p5.js would not be as accessible. On his YouTube-channel The Coding Train, Daniel reaches millions of people.

Now the completely overhauled version of his influential book "The Nature of Code" has been released. In an hour-long conversation, we talked about his book, his teaching at NYU and many other exciting topics.

Daniel Shiffman on The Nature of Code

In this conversation Daniel and I discussed a broad range of topics, from the role of AI in Creative Coding to the beauty of Object Oriented Programming.

Link

And here’s something really cool: You get a massive discount if you use the promo code TRCC when you buy the book directly from Dan’s website or from his publisher Nostarch Press.

https://natureofcode.com/ 👀

Any feedback? As always I am happy to read from you. Just drop me a line to feedback@timrodenbroeker.de .

Warm greets,

Tim

#3 — Various Perspectives on Creative Coding

Hi you!

Welcome to another edition of my newsletter! Wow, it's already the third and so it is three months ago since I've decided to publish a monthly newsletter, because social media platforms these days feel incredibly noisy and overwhelming.

This month I want to introduce you to five people I've had the honor to chat with. All of them integrate Creative Coding into their practice in their very own way: The spectrum of topics that these people deal with is incredibly diverse, ranging from design and art to philosophy and ecology.

I am really grateful that I had the opportunity to come into contact with all these fascinating people.

I hope you enjoy these conversations too!

Tim

PS: Any feedback? As always I am happy to read from you. Just drop me a line to feedback@timrodenbroeker.de .

Hannah Gmeiner on Permacomputing in Graphic Design
Hannah, a recent visual communication graduate, discusses her bachelor’s project on “Permacomputing,” a sustainable approach to technology inspired by permaculture.

Link

Tameem Sankari on Creative Coding for Large Media Corporations
Tameem blends Processing and Blender to craft a unique visual language, showcased in projects for The New York Times, Wired, The Economist, and Spotify.

Link

A conversation with Talia Cotton
I met Talia in our studio space Glashaus in Poblenou. We had a great conversation about designers who code, her studio Cotton Design, teaching and much more.

Link

Kiel Danger Mutschelknaus on building Design Tools with Code
In this video interview, I talk to Kiel, a Maryland-based designer who creates innovative tools like the Space Type Generator and collaborates with brands like Apple and Adidas.

Link

Sam Griffith connects Creative Coding with Enviromentalism
Currently pursuing a Master’s degree, Sam delves into blending computational processes with fiber arts, her approach to integrating environmental consciousness into her creative practice, and her future plans.

Link

#2 — Demo Festival & 128kb

Hi you!

Welcome to the second issue of my newsletter! This time it's all about 128kb, a new website I've launched this year to showcase Creative Coding works that emerge from a very strict set of rules, inspired by the principles of Permacomputing and the Demoscene.

The next edition of the Demo Festival is already approaching and I am currently developing a brand new talk for it. But back to the beginning: In 2022, I was one of six curators at the Demo Festival, which showcases motion design from around the world. When I asked the team if they knew the name “Design in Motion”, they all said no. So I came up with the idea of giving a lecture on the seemingly forgotten computer art culture of the demoscene. Since the 1990s, the Demoscene has been concerned with achieving maximum effect within tight technical limitations.

These observations led me to the idea for 128kb: to create impressive artworks and designs with a maximum file size of 128 kilobytes. In the last months, many of you have participated and I am thrilled to see the collection of works in the online gallery constantly growing!

Any feedback? As always I am happy to read from you. Just drop me a line to feedback@timrodenbroeker.de .

Warm greets,

Tim

Power of Two – 128kb by Lena Weber
After becoming a curator for 128kb, Lena realized the project's strict technical limitations inspire creativity and continuous learning in coding.
Link

128kb
128kb is an online-gallery for Creative Coding. Get inspired, lean more about the 128kb challenge and feel free to submit.
Link

A p5.js starter template for the 128kb Challenge
In this article I present a template you can use to start developing your idea within the 128kb framwork.
Link

The 128kb Framework and its Aesthetic Characteristics
One day in early 2024 I started to experiment with a new idea. I wrote down a set of rules for a new explorative project.
Link

Join the 128kb challenge!
Frustrated by mainstream social media, I created 128kb.timrodenbroeker.de as a platform for sharing 128kb gif animations and connecting via Discord to inspire the creative coding community. Dive in!
Link

Throwback: My Talk at Demo Festival 2022
In this post I share my 2022 talk "The New Demoscene" at the DEMO Festival, which explores the fascinating parallels between the Demoscene and the contemporary creative coding community.
Link

#1 — Tools

Hi you!

Wow, I am so excited to finally share my first newsletter with you! From now on, you will receive it once a month, with a wide spectrum of content circling around Creative Coding in the realms of Design and alternative routes of thinking about technology.

Some of you may know that I already have a newsletter that I send once a week via Patreon, which is more an update about the ongoing development of my online courses. In the last years, especially during my time in Barcelona, my goals expanded from teaching people to code to empowering creatives to build their own tools and especially question the way how software influences the way we think and design. These ideas sometimes felt a bit too broad for the weekly Patreon update. This monthly newsletter is more like a birds-eye view, like a magazine, a curated selection of thoughts, offering more in-depth perspectives, framed by a specific theme.

This first issue is all about the theme tools. I hope you enjoy it! 🙂Any feedback? As always I am happy to read from you. Just drop me a line to feedback@timrodenbroeker.de

Warm greets,

Tim

p5.js Design Tools Directory
This article is a collection and growing list of case studies and direct links to graphic design tools built with p5.js. Feel free to suggest a tool!
Link

]
A custom Mockup Tool, built with Processing
For my students at Elisava, I have created a new version of my mockup-tool. Find out more about it and learn how it works.
Link

Ruder Processing Unit by Kevin Koch
A former student of mine built an application that interactively deals with the works and design methods of the book Typographie by Emil Ruder. A project documentation about his outstanding, complex bachelor thesis.
Link

p5studio
Learn more about the prototype for a web-based design-software, aiming to display the technical and creative possibilities of a browser-based design-tool.
Link

Thinking Different - Using Linux (in Design)
Five years of experimenting Linux operating systems broadened my view as a designer. An essay from my new writing project “downgrade” about a radical idea.
Link

Random discoveries

p5.js has a great new website!
The portfolio by Lea Naisberg, the founder of Creative Coding NYC
The portfolio of Julian Hespenheide

Newsletters — Tim Rodenbröker

#23 — Permacomputing

#22 — The Kintsugi Computer Epiphany

#21 — Book Progress Update 1/12

#20 — My Data Lives on My Keyring

#19 — I Don't Use Apple and Adobe Anymore

Related

#18 — Building Tools

#17 — Teaching Through the Lens of the Tool, with Prof. John Caserta

#16 — 128kb

#15 — CodeCrafted

#14 — Demystify Technology

Technology is a Myth

Creative Coding

My New Podcast

Episode 1: Kris De Decker

#13 — Learnings from a Six-Week Writing Marathon

Challenges

Fighting with Myself

Writing Alone

Looking through the Downgrade-lense

What I Have Learned about the Essay as a Medium

Getting in touch with Like-minded People

Publishing

What's Next?

Feedback

#12 — The Tool Becomes the Message

#11 — Downgrade as a Design Philosophy

#10 — Diogenes Meets Demo Festival

#9 — Obsolete Technology

#8 — Back to the Future of the Internet

#7 — Downgrade

#6 — Coding Systems

#5 — Studio Visit: Julian Hespenheide

#4 — Daniel Shiffman on the Nature of Code

#3 — Various Perspectives on Creative Coding

#2 — Demo Festival & 128kb

#1 — Tools