v3 and Beyond

I finally shipped v3. I added a USB-C adapter to the PCB, and the enclosure got snap-fits, raising the overall product quality. Apart from a few enclosure improvements, I'll probably run the Crowd Supply launch with the v3 version. This was the whole ordeal I'd been going through for exactly that. At first I didn't know it would take this long. I thought if there was a problem I could solve it with a single fix, but not at all; the more I did, the more there was to fix. Now that it's finally wrapped up, I feel relief and, at the same time, a little afraid. I have to focus on the software and the community. With hardware, you just revise, print again, order, solder, and test, so really I moved my body more. Now I have to use my head more. Tiring.

There are so many thoughts running around my head that I don't know what to write. My mood's been really bad recently, and seeing that a nap made it a bit better, I guess I was just very tired. Still, if I force myself to write: first, I have to rebuild the community. I'd chosen Discord because it's easy and free, but there are problems. The biggest one is that there turn out to be more countries where Discord is banned than I'd expected. That shouldn't be. It makes no sense for creation and community activity to be hindered for geopolitical reasons. It comes to me as if I'd made a choice that shuts those people out, and it leaves me guilty and uneasy. So without removing the existing community, the Discord, I want to rebuild the main one on the web. And the main focus of that community will probably be pattern sharing. Rather than discussion threads, I mean… I don't know. You only get a real estimate once you try it, so right now I don't know.

I want to take the pattern-making features further. I want to bring out a lot of pixel-art feel, too. This is a really personal taste. Just having shaders is cool in its own right, but more than that I want to make cute or beautiful scenes with Patternflow. And I'll make the resolution freely configurable. This one's a simple change.

By now I'm more interested in how to present a pattern than in making new ones. This side is closely tied to research, and I think the nature of the Instagram channel helps a lot. Here's why. Post a video to the Patternflow Instagram account and at least a thousand people will see it. That floor will keep rising over time, and statistically that's a pretty big advantage. On top of that, using an Instagram feature called pilot reels, I post several videos of a single pattern played in different ways and compare the responses. Through this I can study what elements draw people to a pattern more. Say, differences in speed change, starting fast then slowing, or slow then fast, or trying various color shifts. Additionally, through OSC I can connect the auditory side and study that too. I think it's a pretty good source, and it's something I'm personally hungry for. Because if I repeat this kind of research, a sense for what pattern changes people like will grow naturally, and I think that's a pretty good intangible asset for an artist.

If I imagine how I'd want Patternflow to be introduced in the distant future, the first is, of course, that it contributed to bringing interactive media art to everyone. The second is that I'd want the journey of making Patternflow, and the worth of me as a person, to be recognized. Maybe that one's even bigger. And if I add one more, that I built an ecosystem where makers and artists coexist? So that it's introduced as a case where art and technology, which had been separated, came back together. I'm off to the cafeteria for dinner, so I'll wrap up around here. If I make money off Patternflow, I'm going to buy myself good food every single day.