Score for Papers #

Mill Mission #

The papermill exists to make the thinking inside Aesthetic Computer visible and shareable. AC generates a constant stream of ideas, experiments, and design decisions — most of which live only in code, commits, and conversation. The mill's job is to catch that stream and press it into forms that can leave the building: papers, cards, references, scores.

The mill is not an academic obligation. It is a publishing infrastructure — a way to keep the research platter honest by forcing ideas through the pressure of writing them down for someone else. If a thread can survive being written as a paper, it was real. If it can survive being compressed to a card, it was essential.

Attribution #

All human-authored AC papers are bylined @jeffrey — this is enforced in cli.mjs (AUTHOR_NAME = "@jeffrey", AUTHOR_URI = "https://prompt.ac/@jeffrey"). The only place a full legal name appears is the CV title. Do not byline AC papers (or AC pop essays) as "Studio Zollo"; that studio name is for @jeffrey's separate personal-art / non-AC attributions only. AC papers + AC pop = @jeffrey / aesthetic.computer. Mediascholar candidates are the exception before human acceptance: they are bylined Mediascholar, carry botted.json, and must not imply that @jeffrey supplied or endorses their topic.

What This Is #

Papers are one output of a research platter — a living collection of materials, references, experiments, and threads that accumulate over time. The platter is always growing. Papers are what gets carved off and shaped into a form that can travel: to a conference, to a reader, to a card.

Each paper starts from a question or observation inside the Aesthetic Computer project and tries to make it legible to someone outside the project. The goal is not to be exhaustive but to be honest about what the work is and why it matters.

Process #

/papers request contract #

The mill is this repository's PDF pipeline. Any request for a document as a PDF — “give me this as a pdf,” “make a pdf of X,” “print this” — routes here by default, alongside the explicit forms (“use the papers stack,” “use /papers,” “render this with the paper stack”). Do not hand-roll a converter, reach for pandoc, or print HTML through a browser because a request sounded informal or urgent; if a one-off render is genuinely wanted, the user will say so. The default deliverable is a scholarly, archival LaTeX paper in the arXiv lane unless the user explicitly asks for a briefing, dossier, essay, deck, card, or another form.

Treating a mill request as mere PDF generation is the failure this contract exists to prevent: “use the papers stack” means the whole workflow — Platter consultation, lane selection, build, QA, visual inspection — not a file with a .pdf extension.

Before outlining or designing it, consult the Platter: this score, the rendered public Platter index, relevant sub-platter manifests, prior AC papers and their bibliographies, and the code, data, images, or other primary evidence behind the subject. Record what was consulted in the source, notes, or bibliography so the result remains reproducible. The Platter supplies context and evidence; it is not permission to inflate the scope or silently publish private vault material.

An arXiv-lane default should include a title, @jeffrey byline and date, abstract, introduction/problem, related work or project context, system/method, implementation, evaluation or evidence, ethics/privacy/limitations, conclusion, references, and numbered, captioned figures/tables where they aid the argument. Source, bibliography, figures, and data provenance live beside the paper. Building is followed by Figure-Table-QA-Check, visual inspection, an aesthetic-eye.json tied to the current PDF hash, and a passing Aesthetic Eye check covering evidence scale as well as diagram craft. Missing, stale, malformed, or failed Aesthetic Eye review is a hard failure; a compiling PDF alone is not finished.

Every new mill-built paper ends with one paperclip linking one embedded ZIP source bundle. The small disclaimer follows the attachment and names both its purpose and exclusions. cli.mjs, papermill.mjs, and bin/build-dossier.mjs create deterministic bundles before LaTeX runs; the shared layout, essay, and cards styles render the tail through ac-source-bundle.sty. By default the ZIP contains the primary .tex, matching Markdown, bibliography, local styles/classes, and a plain-text inventory. A paper may add specific text sources with source-bundle.json ({"include":["notes.md"]}), but paths must remain inside its directory. Never include private evidence, credentials, raw datasets, generated PDFs, or whole directories by implication.

platter (raw material: notes, code, conversations, references)
  → thread (a question or observation worth following)
    → draft (a paper that tries to answer or frame it)
      → formats (arXiv two-column, cards single-sheet, JOSS software paper, dossier)
        → targets (conferences, journals, submissions, mail art)

The platter feeds everything. Threads get pulled from it. Some threads become papers, some become code, some stay threads. Papers can be rendered in multiple formats — the same .tex source produces both a full arXiv-style PDF and a single-sheet index card via cards-convert.mjs.

Swimlanes #

The mill runs several parallel tracks. Each lane is a different shape of artifact, with its own posture, its own audience, and its own pipeline.

1. arXiv-format papers (arxiv-*/) #

The main lane. Two-column LaTeX with AC custom fonts (ywft-processing-bold, ywft-processing-light + Latin Modern). Roughly 30 active titles ranging from 3 to 8 pages. Subjects: KidLisp internals, AC native OS, network audits, latency, identity, sustainability — all derived from things actually built inside AC. Source lives next to the artifact: arxiv-<slug>/<slug>.tex + references.bib + per-paper figures/.

2. Dossiers (arxiv-<org>/, dossier subset) #

A sub-lane of arXiv format with a different posture: fact-surfacing, not argumentative. The dossier records what is publicly recoverable about a digital-arts organization (or its funder) — financials, governance, programs, people, locations, named grants — and stops where the facts run out. Each dossier folder includes a structured data/ directory (CSVs + a README of what's solid / soft / missing) that sits alongside the .tex. The dossier swimlane started 2026-05-02 with Rhizome and SFPC; current set of 17:

Dossier	Posture	Status
Rhizome.org	501(c)(3) recipient, IRS XML pipeline	first-pass
School for Poetic Computation	LLC, public github finance repo	first-pass
Eyebeam	501(c)(3) recipient, IRS XML pipeline	first-pass
Recurse Center	for-profit, founder interviews + recruiting model	first-pass
Internet Archive	501(c)(3) recipient + litigation track	first-pass
Mellon Foundation	funder flip — 990-PF + grants database	first-pass
Pioneer Works	501(c)(3) recipient, founder-as-funder	first-pass
NEW INC	embedded in New Museum 990	first-pass
Studio Museum in Harlem	501(c)(3) recipient, capital campaign	first-pass
HathiTrust	UMich library service, no separate 990	first-pass
The Kitchen	501(c)(3) recipient, 50+ year arc	first-pass
Machine Project	501(c)(3) recipient (until 2018), Echo Park	first-pass
Heavy Manners Library	small space, status-undisclosed	first-pass
Creative Time	501(c)(3) public-art commissioner, IRS 990 pipeline	first-pass (deep — 50-yr legacy, sourced)
Creative Capital	501(c)(3) artist-grant funder, 990 + grantee record	first-pass (sourced)
MicroVision (NASDAQ: MVIS)	public-company flip — SEC EDGAR + 11-yr family archive	first-pass
What's New CalArts!?	CalArts, dossier in news format	first-pass

Every dossier also renders as a single-sheet card (*-cards.tex via cards-convert.mjs) and the lane is grouped in its own dossiers; section on the papers index, separate from the argumentative papers. The display order is fixed by DOSSIER_DIRS in cli.mjs. Each dossier carries an EIN-anchored IRS Form 990 financial spine (multi-year, via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer), an org-archive/press history, and explicit inline flags for the remaining locatable gaps (board roster as filed on 990 Part VII, named-grant inventories, pre-extracted-era financials).

Candidates queued in papers/hitlist.md.

3. Essays (essay-*/) #

The voice-first lane (added 2026-05-25). Magazine-essay format in the tradition of NYT Magazine, Harper's, New York Magazine, and Brooklyn Rail: single-column layout with wide margins, refined serif body with extra leading, magazine title block (deck + display title + dek + byline), drop cap on the opening paragraph, ornamental section breaks (§), pull quotes, discursive endnotes instead of parenthetical citations, and a Further Reading coda instead of a bibliography. Style file: ac-paper-essay.sty.

The essay lane sits between the argumentative arXiv papers and the personal-voice posts that never get written down — for thinking out loud at length when the question is not yet sharp enough for a paper but is sharper than a tweet. References are named in prose. The apparatus moves to the back of the room. Current set:

Essay	Status
Aesthetic May '26	first entry; companion mood-piece to arxiv-futures

4. JOSS papers (joss-*/) #

Condensed software papers for the Journal of Open Source Software. Markdown with LaTeX includes. JOSS review process focuses on software quality, documentation, and community impact — distinct from academic-novelty review. Current: joss-ac/, joss-kidlisp/.

5. Cards (*-cards.tex, generated) #

Single-sheet index-card layout reformatted from arXiv source via cards-convert.mjs. Designed for printing, passing hand-to-hand, pinning on walls. The same .tex source produces both the full arXiv PDF and the card.

6. Conference-specific scaffolds (<venue>-*/) #

Venue-specific submissions that don't fit arXiv format:

• siggraph-asia-2026-tech/ — acmtog LaTeX class for SIGGRAPH Asia Technical Papers (double-blind)
• cc-demo-2026/ — ACM Demo format for Creativity & Cognition
• iccc-kidlisp/, els-kidlisp/ — ICCC and ELS submission packages
• ars-electronica-2026/ — Prix Ars Electronica entry materials

7. Lectures (lectures/) #

Lecture transcripts paired with commentary and references. Material that started as spoken-word and was captured for later citation.

8. Platters (sub-platters) #

Smaller scoped collections. Each has its own manifest.json + sync.mjs:

• jeffrey-platter/ — biographical materials, image corpus, and archival sources for Jeffrey-as-subject, including the 3,996-work drawings.rey.sc history (2006–2016)
• jeffrey-lexicon/ — frequency-attributed dictionary of words used by Jeffrey, sourced only from first-hand textual + transcribed material (textual analogue of jeffrey-platter's photo index and the jeffrey-pvc voice clone)
• whistlegraph-platter/ — Whistlegraph-specific artifacts and references
• lines-platter/ — reading platter for lines, making, and grown marks: Ingold ("Thinking through Making" lecture with local transcript, The Life of Lines, Making), Hockney/van Eyck, Joselit on painted time, plus the private "Accretion Summer" correspondence with Sage Jenson (2026-08-14). Digest entries end in tools: blocks pointing at neofarm/ and the farm lineage; sources/ is gitignored and the Sage materials are permission-gated.
• people-platter/ — TODO; will hold AC-adjacent people biographies
• rhythm-platter/ — reading platter for the geometry of musical rhythm: Toussaint's corpus plus the wider field (maximal evenness, rhythmic oddity, syncopation measures, distance geometry, tiling canons, entrainment, spatial hearing, spoken solkattu, timbre space). 33 sources across 10 shelves — including one OCR'd video source (Levin's konnakol lesson) and the Wessel 1979 timbre-space paper (hand-placed scan from Sage Jenson, 2026-08-15) — 10 digest entries, and timelines.json — 48 Euclidean rhythms extracted from Toussaint (2005) §4 and cross-checked against a local Bjorklund implementation, plus 9 named timelines. Index and citation only; the CRC book is never mirrored, and sources/ is gitignored. Every digest entry ends in a tools: block, because this platter exists to specify pop/lib rhythm tooling and the pop/bracelet/ spatial-necklace lane. Built via fetch-sources.mjs + build-timelines.mjs.
• corporate-graphics-platter/ — reference library of historic bank/corporate/seal/privacy marks (66, from Wikimedia Commons) collected to inform logo work; four sections (banks-finance, modernist-canon, seals-monograms, surveillance-consent) each with manifest.md + a _sheet-*.png contact sheet. Built via fetch-logos.mjs + finalize.mjs. Third-party trademarks — research/moodboard reference only.
• architecture-platter/ — reading platter for foundational architectural treatises. Opens with a matched pair: Palladio's Four Books of Architecture (Ware 1738 folio, Getty/Internet Archive scan) and Durand's Précis of the Lectures on Architecture (Getty Texts & Documents translation, 2000) — proportion-as-authority vs. composition-as-algorithm. Index and citation only; PDFs fetched into gitignored sources/ via fetch-sources.mjs (the Getty Durand is in copyright, distributed free by Getty — never redistributed).
• sosoft-cycle2 — published index of every asset from UCLA Social Software Cycle 2 ("Scores for Social Software," DESMA, spring 2026): the Keymaps as Social Software paper and 64-copy edition score, the live sosoft.arts.ucla.edu doc with Casey Reas's edit log, the header-illustration study, the interactive notepat keymap, the March 2026 proposal and KidLisp score cards, and the unboxing reel (review cuts on the assets CDN). Sources live in ../sosoft/, ../social-software/, ../marketing/sosoft-reel/, and sosoft-keymaps-* here; page at system/public/papers.aesthetic.computer/platter/sosoft-cycle2/.

9. CV (cv/) #

Jeffrey's CV is built through the same pipeline (LaTeX → PDF → site deploy) and treated as a long-form paper for tooling purposes. Hidden from the public index.

10. Print editions (first print edition) #

The physical lane (added 2026-06-12). A paper from any other lane can be cut as a numbered print edition — a finite physical run, hand-numbered __/N, carrying a colophon plaque that records the git hash the edition was cut from and a QR to its canonical, still-updating permalink. The point is the lane's own thesis made material: the printed object is itself a versioned virtual object (per arxiv-keymaps), so cutting it to paper does not freeze it — the edition is one dated snapshot, and the canonical URL keeps moving.

Mechanics:

• Version stamp. Papers in this lane do \InputIfFileExists{version}{}{...}. cli.mjs stampVersion() regenerates version.tex (\paperhash, \paperrev) from git rev-parse --short HEAD + the metadata.json revision counter on every build. The hash gets a + suffix on a dirty tree (git describe --dirty convention), so a clean oven build stamps a bare release hash. version.tex is gitignored — never commit it, or the oven's clean-tree regeneration would diff against a dirty value and loop.
• Plaque. An end-of-paper colophon (double-ruled border, FIRST PRINT EDITION header, publication line, __/N slot in a pals-mark particle field, the version line, and a canonical-URL QR with the "this object does not end here" note). Pinned to the bottom/right of the final references column.
• Canonical QR lives at figures/qr/canonical.png, pointing at papers.aesthetic.computer/<siteName>.pdf.

Edition	Paper	Run	Cut for	Status
First print edition	Keymaps as Social Software (arxiv-keymaps)	64	Scores for Social Software, UCLA Social Software Cycle 2, June 2026	printed — run of 64 cut June 2026

11. Briefings (briefing-*/, vault-side) #

The addressed lane (added 2026-07-11). A briefing is written for a named recipient, about a situation they are entering — a room joined, a residency begun, a meeting scheduled. It is the only lane with an addressee on the cover, and that is the whole of what makes it a different thing:

	dossier	profile	briefing
Subject	an institution	a person	a situation
Audience	the record	@jeffrey	a named recipient
Stance	outside observer	confidential researcher	ally
Ends in	"what this is not"	sources	openings — things to do

Four properties define the form. It is addressed (the recipient is named on the cover). It is occasioned — there is a reason it exists now, and the occasion is stated rather than hidden (contrast the private profile, where the occasion is deliberately excluded). It is corrective: it says plainly where the recipient's current picture is wrong, because that is the most valuable thing an outside reader can supply. And it is actionable — it ends in openings, concrete moves, not in a shrug. A dossier stops when the facts stop; a briefing stops once it has said what to do with them.

Register: direct address, peer-to-peer, warm but sourced. Uncertainty is flagged inline (\soft{uncertain}) rather than smoothed over — a briefing marks its own soft ground, because the recipient is going to act on it.

Briefings are private but not secret: they live in aesthetic-computer-vault/<client>/briefing-*/, not because the recipient can't see them (it is theirs) but because they quote private correspondence and are client-scoped. No CONFIDENTIAL banner — the cover's Prepared for X line is the whole access-control story. Not published: no PAPER_MAP row, no sync-platter.mjs, no deploy.

Briefing	For	Occasion	Status
Stochastic Labs	Sage Jenson (@mxsage)	Arrived at the Stochastic Labs Summer 2026 session (Liveness + Agency), 2026-07-11	rev 2 — rev 1 sent, recipient corrected a factual claim from the room, §5 rewritten

A rule the first briefing earned the hard way. Rev 1 told its recipient that Adrian Freed "pointedly declines to claim" he invented the DAW — inferred from an institutional bio page he doesn't control and a 1985 paper that asserts no priority (which, read properly, is a paper about RS-232 protocol design; the silence was genre, not modesty). Sage, standing next to the man: "adrian DOES say he invented the daw." Never build a behavioral instruction on an argument from silence. A briefing's corrective clause is its sharpest edge and its biggest liability: the recipient is going to act on it, in a room you are not in, in front of people whose feelings are real. Correct only what you can source positively, and where the recipient has primary access and you have the internet, defer to them. The lane's \soft{} inline-uncertainty flag exists precisely for this and rev 1 failed to use it on the one claim that mattered.

12. Gear guesses (gear-guess-*/) #

The procurement lane (added 2026-07-22). A gear guess is a dated, sourced answer to a practical studio question: what would we buy now, why, what would change the answer, and how does it enter the score? It is deliberately not a review or a buyer's guide. Prices expire, port names conceal bottlenecks, and a purchase without an operating method is just a new object in the room.

Each guess fixes seven moves: best guess, price rail, alternatives, compatibility catches, day-one score, canonical object plate, source shelf. Manufacturer claims are identified as such; material performance claims get an independent measurement when one is available. Product photography comes from the manufacturer's canonical page or press kit and carries an asset ledger. Source URLs and a checked date are part of the form. Shared layout and components live in ac-paper-gear-guess.sty; the complete form is specified in GEAR-GUESS.md.

Gear guess	Job	Status
aesthetic-computer-media	One fast portable media workspace across the fleet	guess 1
xbox-native-fleet	Three native screens, a narrow tailnet route, and no imaginary pooled GPU	guess 1

13. Botted Papers (arxiv-botted-*/, candidate-only) #

Mediascholar synthesizes an unsupplied new-media question, checks it against independent public signals and prior papers, then runs the full arXiv mill. Its output is a Botted Paper: bylined Mediascholar, marked with botted.json, and held in an isolated checkout for review. Automation ends at the candidate. Publishing, merging, and adopting an @jeffrey byline remain deliberate human actions.

Tooling #

Sleuth source index #

sleuth/ is the platter's routing index for search mechanisms, online databases, browser skills, and private collection routes. Consult it before a research pass. It is especially important for sparse media pages: search Vimeo or another host directly by URL, numeric ID, uploader, and event context instead of assuming a general web index is complete. The machine- readable registry is sleuth/sources.json.

The mill's code lives at the top of papers/ and in bin/. All scripts are runnable as node papers/bin/<name>.mjs.

Top-level (build, deploy, index) #

Script	Purpose
cli.mjs	Primary build CLI. build, deploy, publish, status, log. Multi-pass xelatex per paper × 4 languages. Auto-bumps metadata.json revisions on each build.
papermill.mjs	Older translation-build pipeline (still used for --format cards).
sync-platter.mjs	Refresh system/public/papers.aesthetic.computer/platter.html (the rendered index of reports / plans / studies / paper count).
cards-convert.mjs	Convert an arxiv .tex source into the single-sheet card layout.
metadata.json	Per-paper created date + revisions counter + updated ISO timestamp. Auto-bumped by cli.mjs publish.

bin/ (dossier-cycle utilities, added 2026-05) #

Script	Purpose
bin/build-dossier.mjs	Multi-pass xelatex + bibtex build for a single dossier or --all. Reports undefined citations.
bin/crunch.mjs	Build a paper on the oven instead of locally — for a machine with no TeX, or a document that must stay private. Tars the directory, POSTs it to /paper-crunch, streams the log, writes the PDF. Never commits and never publishes: the crunched PDF comes back to you and goes nowhere near papers.aesthetic.computer (that is cli.mjs publish, which builds from main). House .sty + webfonts resolve inside the oven's sandbox.
bin/gen-cover.mjs	Generate the colored-pencil vignette cover illustration for a dossier from figures/cover-prompt.txt via OpenAI gpt-image-2 (1024×1024 square, faded edges).
bin/gen-qrs.mjs	Generate per-paper QR-code PNG pointing to the deployed permalink at papers.aesthetic.computer/<siteName>.pdf. Uses qrencode CLI.
aesthetic-eye.mjs	Render final-PDF page contacts plus per-image evidence and diagram crops; enforce useful evidence scale, complete-content preservation, the colored Aesthetic.Computer period, and current visual-inference verdicts. See AESTHETIC-EYE.md.
bin/migrate-cover.mjs	One-shot migration: rewrite an old-style cover block (4em pals + 15em hero) into the new vignette layout (pals top-left + QR top-right + TikZ-overlaid title floating over faded illustration). Idempotent.
bin/fix-people-tables.mjs	One-shot: convert tabularx{lXl} people tables to tabularx{lXX} so the third column wraps and stops overflowing the column width.

Style files #

File	Purpose
ac-paper-layout.sty	Shared visual identity for arxiv papers: AC color palette, font commands, draft watermark, pals logo watermark, section formatting, header/footer.
ac-paper-cards.sty	Cards-format layout.
ac-paper-essay.sty	Essay-format layout: single-column magazine essay style with title block macros (\essaydeck, \essaytitle, \essaysubtitle, \essaybyline), \dropcap, \sectionbreak (silcrow ornament), \begin{pullquote}, \enote{} for endnotes, and \begin{further} / \reading{} for the Further Reading coda.
ac-paper-gear-guess.sty	Gear-guess layout: dated decision block, price rail, alternatives, compatibility warnings, setup score, and direct source shelf.

Formats #

• arXiv: Two-column academic layout with AC custom fonts, syntax-highlighted code, development history, adoption metrics. For preprint submission and sharing.
• Dossier: arXiv-format twocolumn but with a vignette cover, AI-generated colored-pencil illustration as hero, QR top-right pointing to permalink, structured data/ folder with raw CSVs alongside the .tex. Posture is fact-surfacing, not argumentative.
• Cards: Single-sheet index-card layout reformatted from arXiv source. Designed for printing, passing hand to hand, pinning on walls.
• JOSS: Condensed software papers for Journal of Open Source Software. Markdown with LaTeX includes. JOSS reviews focus on software quality, documentation, and community impact.
• Gear guess: Single-column, dated procurement hypothesis with one answer, explicit price uncertainty, compatibility catches, an operating score, and direct source URLs.

Translations #

Every paper exists in four languages: English, Danish, Spanish, and Chinese (and increasingly Japanese). Translations are generated and maintained alongside the English source. This is not decoration — it reflects a commitment to the work being accessible beyond the anglophone academic world.

The cli.mjs build pipeline runs xelatex × 4 languages per paper. metadata.json tracks revision counts per English build only (to avoid double-counting translations).

Papers #

Sorted by most recently edited/added.

Paper	Format	PDF	Source
Free Versus Nonfree: Stallman's Licensing Map, the 1998 Split, and Where Aesthetic.Computer Stands	arXiv (LaTeX, 6pp first-pass, illy cover)	arxiv-free-vs-open/free-vs-open.pdf	arxiv-free-vs-open/free-vs-open.tex
iOS So Far: Ten Years of Aesthetic.Computer on Apple's Store (six app records, one demand event, the last mile; eight ranked openings)	arXiv (LaTeX, 6pp first-pass)	arxiv-ios-so-far/ios-so-far.pdf	arxiv-ios-so-far/ios-so-far.tex
aesthetic-computer-media: one fast portable workspace for the fleet	gear guess (LaTeX, guess 1)	gear-guess-aesthetic-computer-media/aesthetic-computer-media.pdf	gear-guess-aesthetic-computer-media/aesthetic-computer-media.tex
xbox-native-fleet: three native screens and one controller	gear guess (LaTeX, guess 1)	gear-guess-xbox-native-fleet/xbox-native-fleet.pdf	gear-guess-xbox-native-fleet/xbox-native-fleet.tex
The nom Games: A Muncher Arcade for Aesthetic Computer (numbnom / engnom / mexinom / notenom; one shared engine + virtual synth controller)	arXiv (LaTeX, ~5pp first-pass)	arxiv-nom/nom.pdf	arxiv-nom/nom.tex
MicroVision: A Dossier (Genealogy, Products, People, Money, Dilution Mechanics, Takeover Theory, 1993–2026)	arXiv (LaTeX, dossier, 7pp first-pass)	arxiv-microvision/microvision.pdf	arxiv-microvision/microvision.tex
Comp Strats: Compositional Strategies in AC --- Aphorisms for a Shielded Media-Arts Practice	arXiv (LaTeX, ~7pp first-pass)	arxiv-comp-strats/comp-strats.pdf	arxiv-comp-strats/comp-strats.tex
A Fraserin' Art + Tech (methodology essay + prior-art survey, labor-folk register)	arXiv (LaTeX, 7pp first-pass)	arxiv-fraserin/fraserin.pdf	arxiv-fraserin/fraserin.tex
Pioneer Works: A Dossier (Genealogy, History, Programs, People, Money, Footprint, 2012–2026)	arXiv (LaTeX, dossier)	arxiv-pioneer-works/pioneer-works.pdf	arxiv-pioneer-works/pioneer-works.tex
Mellon Foundation: A Dossier (Genealogy, Programs, Giving, People, Politics, 1969–2026)	arXiv (LaTeX, dossier)	arxiv-mellon/mellon.pdf	arxiv-mellon/mellon.tex
Internet Archive: A Dossier (Genealogy, History, Programs, People, Money, Footprint, 1996–2026)	arXiv (LaTeX, dossier)	arxiv-internet-archive/internet-archive.pdf	arxiv-internet-archive/internet-archive.tex
Recurse Center: A Dossier (Structure, History, Programs, People, Money, Footprint, 2011–2026)	arXiv (LaTeX, dossier)	arxiv-recurse/recurse.pdf	arxiv-recurse/recurse.tex
Eyebeam: A Dossier (Genealogy, History, Programs, People, Money, Footprint, 1996–2026)	arXiv (LaTeX, dossier)	arxiv-eyebeam/eyebeam.pdf	arxiv-eyebeam/eyebeam.tex
School for Poetic Computation: A Dossier (Structure, History, Programs, People, Money, Footprint, 2013–2026)	arXiv (LaTeX, dossier)	arxiv-sfpc/sfpc.pdf	arxiv-sfpc/sfpc.tex
Rhizome.org: A Dossier (Genealogy, History, Programs, People, Money, Footprint, 1996–2026)	arXiv (LaTeX, dossier)	arxiv-rhizome/rhizome.pdf	arxiv-rhizome/rhizome.tex
Keymaps as Social Software: Versioned Virtual Objects via Social Contract	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-keymaps/keymaps.pdf	arxiv-keymaps/keymaps.tex
The Pals Mark: A History of the Aesthetic Computer Logo	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-pals/pals.pdf	arxiv-pals/pals.tex
Where the Microseconds Go (SIGGRAPH Asia 2026 Tech Papers port)	acmtog (LaTeX, scaffold)	(build pending)	siggraph-asia-2026-tech/latency-source.tex
Diagrams from Data: A Penrose Pipeline for AC Illustrations	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-penrose/penrose.pdf	arxiv-penrose/penrose.tex
Where the Microseconds Go: Input and Audio Latency in AC Native OS	arXiv (LaTeX, 6pp)	arxiv-latency/latency.pdf	arxiv-latency/latency.tex
Aesthetic Computer Demo (C&C 2026)	ACM Demo (LaTeX)	cc-demo-2026/demo.pdf	cc-demo-2026/demo.tex
The URL Tradition	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-url-tradition/url-tradition.pdf	arxiv-url-tradition/url-tradition.tex
The Potter and the Prompt	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-holden/holden.pdf	arxiv-holden/holden.tex
Two Departments, One Building	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-ucla-arts/ucla-arts.pdf	arxiv-ucla-arts/ucla-arts.tex
Handle Identity on the AT Protocol	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-identity/identity.pdf	arxiv-identity/identity.tex
Aesthetic May '26	Essay (LaTeX, magazine-style, ~5pp first-pass)	essay-may-26/may-26.pdf	essay-may-26/may-26.tex
Five Years from Now: What Aesthetic Computer Probably Becomes	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-futures/futures.pdf	arxiv-futures/futures.tex
Get Closed Source Out of Schools	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-open-schools/open-schools.pdf	arxiv-open-schools/open-schools.tex
CalArts, Callouts, and Papers	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-calarts/calarts.pdf	arxiv-calarts/calarts.tex
What's New CalArts!? — A Dossier (why the president got booed off the stage; a letter, with sources; the 2026 commencement boo traced through 1972 / 2014 / the 2017–26 budget & labor crisis)	cards (LaTeX, hand-authored, local working draft — not deployed)	arxiv-calarts-news/calarts-news-cards.pdf	arxiv-calarts-news/calarts-news-cards.tex
Reading the Score: A Critical Analysis of SCORE.md	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-score-analysis/score-analysis.pdf	arxiv-score-analysis/score-analysis.tex
KidLisp Cards: Programs That Fit on a Card	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-kidlisp-cards/kidlisp-cards.pdf	arxiv-kidlisp-cards/kidlisp-cards.tex
Sucking on the Complex	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-complex/complex.pdf	arxiv-complex/complex.tex
Playable Folk Songs	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-folk-songs/folk-songs.pdf	arxiv-folk-songs/folk-songs.tex
Every Sound is a Painting: Sampling as Visual-Auditory Practice	arXiv (LaTeX)	arxiv-sampling/sampling.pdf	arxiv-sampling/sampling.tex
PLORKing the Planet: From Laptop Orchestra to Planetary Organ	arXiv (LaTeX, 8pp)	arxiv-plork/plork.pdf	arxiv-plork/plork.tex
From setup() to boot(): Processing at the Core of the Piece API	arXiv (LaTeX, 7pp)	arxiv-api/api.pdf	arxiv-api/api.tex
Network Audit: Who Uses Aesthetic Computer and What Do They Make?	arXiv (LaTeX, 4pp)	arxiv-network-audit/network-audit.pdf	arxiv-network-audit/network-audit.tex
KidLisp Language Reference: 118 Built-ins in 12 Categories	arXiv (LaTeX, 4pp)	arxiv-kidlisp-reference/kidlisp-reference.pdf	arxiv-kidlisp-reference/kidlisp-reference.tex
Whistlegraph: Drawing, Singing, and the Graphic Score as Viral Form	arXiv (LaTeX, 4pp)	arxiv-whistlegraph/whistlegraph.pdf	arxiv-whistlegraph/whistlegraph.tex
Dead Ends: Failed Experiments and Abandoned Approaches	arXiv (LaTeX, 4pp)	arxiv-dead-ends/dead-ends.pdf	arxiv-dead-ends/dead-ends.tex
Who Pays for Creative Tools?	arXiv (LaTeX, 5pp)	arxiv-sustainability/sustainability.pdf	arxiv-sustainability/sustainability.tex
Radical Computer Art: Goodiepalian Approaches	arXiv (LaTeX, 4pp)	arxiv-goodiepal/goodiepal.pdf	arxiv-goodiepal/goodiepal.tex
Repository Archaeology: Tracing AC Through Its Git History	arXiv (LaTeX, 3pp)	arxiv-archaeology/archaeology.pdf	arxiv-archaeology/archaeology.tex
Diversity and Inclusion in AC Paper Citations	arXiv (LaTeX, 4pp)	arxiv-diversity/diversity.pdf	arxiv-diversity/diversity.tex
KidLisp: A Minimal Lisp for Generative Art	arXiv (LaTeX, 6pp)	arxiv-kidlisp/kidlisp.pdf	arxiv-kidlisp/kidlisp.tex
notepat.com: From Keyboard Toy to System Front Door	arXiv (LaTeX, 5pp)	arxiv-notepat/notepat.pdf	arxiv-notepat/notepat.tex
AC Native OS '26	arXiv (LaTeX, 5pp)	arxiv-os/os.pdf	arxiv-os/os.tex
Aesthetic Computer '26	arXiv (LaTeX, 5pp)	arxiv-ac/ac.pdf	arxiv-ac/ac.tex
Pieces Not Programs: The Piece as a Unit of Creative Cognition	arXiv (LaTeX, 4pp)	arxiv-pieces/pieces.pdf	arxiv-pieces/pieces.tex
Aesthetic Computer '26	JOSS (Markdown)	joss-ac/paper.pdf	joss-ac/paper.md
KidLisp '26	JOSS (Markdown)	joss-kidlisp/paper.pdf	joss-kidlisp/paper.md

Cover-prompt doctrine #

Every dossier cover illustration must be sourced, not blind-prompted. The colored-pencil vignette is generated from figures/cover-prompt.txt via bin/gen-cover.mjs, but the contents of that prompt are research-driven: each visual element must trace to a real photograph, building, founder portrait, signature product, brand identity, or environmental detail of the organization being dossiered. The point is that the resolved image carries information density, not generic associations.

For each dossier, figures/ carries two files:

• cover-prompt.txt — the prompt fed to gpt-image-2, with rich specificity (the actual building's facade, the founder's recurring outfit, the org's signature object).
• cover-sources.md — the citation log. For every visual element in the prompt, a line of attribution: which photo, which interview, which physical object, which brand asset. Source URLs included. This is the dossier's audit trail for the cover.

This rule is non-optional: a cover is the dossier's most-shared artifact (it's the IG-screenshot vector), so its visual claims need to be defensible the same way the dossier's text claims are footnoted.

Dossier cover gallery #

Each dossier opens with a colored-pencil vignette illustration generated via bin/gen-cover.mjs. The covers share a visual identity: cream paper, single floating iconic form, faded edges. Click through to the dossier .tex to read the source, or scan the in-PDF QR code to fetch the deployed permalink.

Rhizome.org	School for Poetic Computation	Eyebeam
Recurse Center	Internet Archive	Mellon Foundation
Pioneer Works	NEW INC	Studio Museum in Harlem
HathiTrust	The Kitchen	Machine Project
Heavy Manners Library

Building #

Automatic (Oven Papermill) #

PDFs are auto-built on the oven server whenever papers/ changes are pushed to main. The pipeline polls git every 60s, detects changes, and runs node papers/cli.mjs publish (xelatex 3-pass for all papers × 4 languages + deploy + index update).

• Monitor: GET oven.aesthetic.computer/papers-build
• Manual trigger: POST oven.aesthetic.computer/papers-build (requires admin key)
• SSE logs: GET oven.aesthetic.computer/papers-build/:jobId/stream
• Source: oven/papers-builder.mjs, oven/papers-git-poller.mjs
• Health: npm run doctor — the "oven papermill (papers/)" check fails loudly when the poller is stopped, wedged, or its last build did not reach the site.

When the mill goes quiet #

It has gone quiet before, for four months, without anything failing. On 2026-05-13 the poller was paused by hand — a systemd drop-in at /etc/systemd/system/oven.service.d/pause-papers-poller.conf setting PAPERS_POLLER_DISABLED=1 — to stop a rebuild loop. The loop was fixed two days later; the pause was never lifted, and nothing in this repo records it. So when GET /papers-build reports "running": false, look at the unit drop-ins on the oven first, not at the code:

ssh -i aesthetic-computer-vault/oven/ssh/oven-deploy-key root@oven.aesthetic.computer \
  'ls /etc/systemd/system/oven.service.d/ && systemctl show oven -p Environment'

The poller's "already built" marker lives at <repo>/.git/oven-state/papers-last-built-hash, deliberately inside .git/ — the builder ends each run with git checkout -- ., so a marker in the worktree gets reverted by the build it was recording, and the poller then rebuilds the same diff forever. Deleting that marker forces one full rebuild; seeding it with a commit SHA declares that commit's PDFs already deployed.

Manual (Local) #

# Full pipeline: build all → deploy → update index → verify
node papers/cli.mjs publish

# Build only English PDFs
node papers/cli.mjs build en

# Build cards format
node papers/papermill.mjs build --format cards

# Check status of all papers
node papers/cli.mjs status

# Individual paper (manual 3-pass build)
cd papers/arxiv-ac && xelatex ac.tex && bibtex ac && xelatex ac.tex && xelatex ac.tex

Dossier-specific (Local) #

# Build all 13 dossiers (multi-pass xelatex + bibtex with citation report)
node papers/bin/build-dossier.mjs --all

# Build a single dossier
node papers/bin/build-dossier.mjs arxiv-rhizome

# Generate the colored-pencil vignette cover from cover-prompt.txt
node papers/bin/gen-cover.mjs arxiv-rhizome --force

# Generate ALL dossier covers (slow — calls OpenAI gpt-image-2 for each)
node papers/bin/gen-cover.mjs --all --force

# Generate per-paper QR code pointing to the deployed permalink
node papers/bin/gen-qrs.mjs --all
node papers/bin/gen-qrs.mjs --all --langs    # also generate da/es/zh/ja variants

After publish: refresh the platter #

node papers/sync-platter.mjs

Subdomain #

Published at papers.aesthetic.computer and papers.prompt.ac.

Targets #

Upcoming conferences and journals to submit to.

Still Open — Deadlines Ahead #

Venue	Type	Deadline	Conference Date	Status
ACM C&C 2026	Demos	Apr 16, 2026	Jul 13–16, London	DEADLINE PASSED — verify submission per SUBMISSIONS.md
ICCC 2026	Short Papers	Apr 24, 2026 (23:59 AoE)	Jun 29–Jul 3, Coimbra	DEADLINE PASSED — verify submission per SUBMISSIONS.md
ICCC 2026	Early Career Symposium	May 15, 2026	Jun 29–Jul 3, Coimbra	BRIEF ready (iccc-early-career-2026/) — use if SIGGRAPH tech-paper form was not filed
SIGGRAPH Asia 2026	Technical Papers (full)	May 5 form / May 12 paper / May 13 upload	Dec 1–4, Kuala Lumpur	SCAFFOLD + simplified brief ready (siggraph-asia-2026-tech/) — continue only if May 5 form was filed
SIGGRAPH Asia 2026	Art Papers	Jun 8, 2026	Dec 1–4, Kuala Lumpur	NEW
SIGGRAPH Asia 2026	Art Gallery / Emerging Tech / XR	Jun 18, 2026	Dec 1–4, Kuala Lumpur	NEW
SIGGRAPH Asia 2026	Posters	Jul 31, 2026	Dec 1–4, Kuala Lumpur	NEW
SIGGRAPH Asia 2026	Real-Time Live!	Aug 7, 2026	Dec 1–4, Kuala Lumpur	NEW
ICLC 2027	Papers / Performances / Workshops / Installations	Sep 1, 2026 (extended)	Mar 9–13, 2027, Antwerp	NEW
ArtsIT 2026	Full Papers	Jun 1, 2026	Dec 2–4, Bratislava	NEW
JOSS	Software Paper	Rolling	Rolling	Anytime

Deadlines Passed (Track for Next Year) #

NIME (Feb 12), xCoAx (Feb 15), ACM CHI, SIGGRAPH main, Prix Ars Electronica (Mar 9), S+T+ARTS, ISEA (Nov 2025), Creative Capital (Apr 2), Scores for Social Software (Mar 31) — all missed for 2026. Track 2027 calls.

Funding Sources #

Source	Type	Amount
Gary Marsden Travel Awards	Travel grant	Flights, lodging, meals, registration
Creative Capital Award	Project grant	Up to $50,000
Foundation for Contemporary Arts	Emergency Grant	Varies
Prix Ars Electronica	Prize	€10,000 (Golden Nica)

Author #

@jeffrey — ORCID: 0009-0007-4460-4913