Journal

A Rather Privileged Perspective on my Post-Doc

Post-Doc, Reflection
August 02, 2025

Or how I’m slowly coming to my senses.

Ludus—Ludeme

Ludeme, Ludus, Video-Game-Studies
June 09, 2025

Last month I mapped a working definition of game (ludus) and ludeme (conceptual units of a game and play) in preparation for an upcoming article on ludemes and programming video games. I went through many of better know attempts for a definition and asked myself where my own perspective differs and what my approach needs to express.

Historical Code Hermeneutics

Critical-Code-Studies, Conference, Readings
May 23, 2025

In the past few months I have been engaging in the exegesis of source code from the 1980ies and -90ies. Serendipity towards the end of last year brought me in closer contact with the concept of ludemes, in which I found a fitting perspective on these magic moments of translation. David M. Berry outlines this processes through the computational image, Hartmut Rosa approaches it through his theories on resonance, Karen Barad talks about inter- and intra-actions, and Luhman also has an opinion on the topic. Either way, ludemes have been utterly fruitful in reading source code against a techno-deterministic grain, and as a lens into programming practices of the past.

Reconsidering Publishing to the Internet

Publishing, Smol, Internet, Artificial-Intelligence
April 26, 2025

I was increasingly unhappy with mypublishing strategy (or the lack thereof), but also increasingly worriedabout the state of the internet, especially the aggressive scrapping ofcontent by AI bots. So, I reconsidered my approach.

Scraps and Scrapping

Abstract, Scrapping, Dissertation, bash
March 20, 2025

I have finally found the time to produce two (extremely dense) abstracts for the next paper (on Source Code and Ludemes).

Critical Code Studies from Afar

Critical-Code-Studies, Conference, Digital-Humanities, Computational-Methods
March 10, 2025

In which I’m reflecting on critical code studies, distant reading source code and my recent workshop at the DHd 2025.

Axes of Translation

Reflection, Dissertation-Theory, Conceptualizing-Programming
January 23, 2025

A few notes on the moment of translation between epistemologies and ontologies in software.

Playing Alba the Relational Way

Video-Game-Studies, Relational-Play
January 19, 2025

Inspired by the silly inquiries of Any Austin and the concept of relational playworld by Melos Han-Tani I figured I’m going to spend some more time in Alba, after I finished it for the second time.

Metaphors and Theory

Theory, Metaphors, Writing
January 17, 2025

A few quick notes on thinking theory through metaphors.

December Adventure, but different

Assembly, Programming-Languages, Metaphors
December 24, 2024

I tried to learn assembly, but didn’t find the energy. But I had a inspired times anyways.

Embodying Player Phenomenologies in Code. Also, Ludemes and Routines.

Conceptualizing-Programming, Programming-Practices, Embodiment
November 19, 2024

I was chewing on the concept of ludemes lately and needed to map it out, conceptionally. Especially from the perspective of code and programming, there are terms that overlap and differ.

Grinding that paper

Writing, Writing-Practice, Academia
October 22, 2024

Writing this first paper felt grindy. But I enjoyed working on something for that long of a time. I also learned a lot, again.

Frustration, Conferences and Ludemes

Ludeme, Conference, Writing, Blinded-by-the-Light
September 15, 2024

Everyday Life and Research

Log, Clustering, Writing, Reflection
August 30, 2024

This summer I got the feeling, that I’m getting used to do researcherly things as a job

More embeddings and roasting my CPU

Log, Clustering, BASIC, Preservation
August 16, 2024

I’m a Mediocre Minigolf Player

Log, Preservation, Clustering
August 07, 2024

NIFFF, Let’s Plays and Cluster Visualizations

NIFFF, Clustering, Conference
July 15, 2024

Some thoughts on watching genre movies and observing visual clusters.

Thinking through Metadata

Metadata, Wikidata
June 21, 2024

ReAnimate, Montréal, Multidisciplinarity, and Method

Event, Research-Basics, Blinded-by-the-Light, Computational-Methods
June 17, 2024

Five month later, more or less

Reflection, Blinded-by-the-Light, Research-Basics, Hypothesis
June 07, 2024

What is the video game image?

Log, Video-Game-Visuality, Critical-Code-Studies
May 31, 2024

I finished readingy “The philosophy of software” last week and went half through “Homebrew Gaming and the Beginnings of Vernacular Digitality” this week. The two books, on with a philosophical approach and one with a focus on everyday programming practices, are a great match and sparked some fruitful insights.

Thinking about Images and Software

Critical-Code-Studies, Visual-Studies, Reflection
May 21, 2024

I’ve been left with quite some material to think through after the Leisure Electronics conference. My current reading, The Philosophy of Software, is expanding on that. Which leads me to an attempt of capturing the current state of that reflection.

When did tinkering become programming?

Conference, Case-Study, Reflection
May 03, 2024

The title is a direct quote from Pierre-Yves Hurrel, one of the organizers of the Leisure electronics Conference in Lausanne conference, which I attended this week. It is also one of my key takeaways from the conference, as well as my own presentation, Programming and Becoming. The conference concentrated on “the emergence of video games: Towards a genealogy of ludic practices and computing artifacts”, that pivotal moment when video game culture started to establish itself.

Preserving 5.25 inch floppies and audio cassettes

Computer-History, Floppy-Disks
April 26, 2024

Next to intensively preparing for a conference talk, I had the chance to attend a preservation-session with people from the Swiss Video Game Archivists association.

Why would someone want to do that, voluntarily?

Case-Study, Technicity, Conference, Reflection
March 22, 2024

I’m interested in video game graphics programming practices. One aspect of that interest is the motivation and intention that these programmers had, back then, when they went about their programming business. Why did they do, what they did? The slightly sarcastic reframing of the question for the proposal comes about from my own experience. It’s not a scientific question, but an honest wondering. I experienced learning to code as something very frustrating, time-taking and occupying. And up to this day, I haven’t heard from anybody who slid into coding easily and has fond memories of the process.

29 Days Later

Blinded-by-the-Light, Video-Games, Dissertation
March 03, 2024

Although we have a leap year, and were gifted an additional day in February, that month went by rather quickly. I spent the time mostly by either being with friends, or working on my dissertation project. I still try not to engage with any projects or topics that don’t fit (can’t be made fit) into my thesis, and I believe it pays off.