may 2026. twenty years.
behold, annotated selections from our photo roll. semi-linear, semi-narrative, dates and placenames approximate. of course no archive tells the whole story: computers vanish periods of history, things happen online, we forget to capture a moment because we were too distracted or overjoyed or totally freaked out. but somewhere within this collection a web of threads emerge. approaches and inclinations and absurdity and experimentation and dreaming and world-building. to celebrate many ways of being. clues to how we got here and perhaps where we might go.
october 2004, val verde — one of the few handwired prototypes, mostly salvage components, daringly/inadvisably fragile.
january 2005, los angeles — so many of us insisted on playing on the floor, even though the invention of flash photography revealed what a filthy proposition this proved to be.
september 2005, sun valley — an early encounter with profound quantities of wires and rainbows, an accumulation, old junk collected and priced in such a way that it would certainly never leave, yet somehow we brought a couple home, we'd understood and believed the story this place was telling.
january 2006, pomona — repetition and multiplication is one way. doing things by hand, not seeking optimization because scaling was never the intention.
february 2006, pomona — art in its natural habitat. a grid-and-old-computer electro-acoustic egg-tapping drum-machine.
august 2005, pasadena — our first ever circuit board promised that some day the wires maybe wouldn't fall out during a show. the wire debugging flurry was spectacular theatre but maybe not a sustainable career path.
september 2010, delhi — we had no idea what was coming.
december 2007, philadelphia — evidence of the thorough integration of work, art, and life.
march 2006, philadelphia — somehow we thought we would be able to resin-cast all of the enclosures at our worktable. moments after this photo the resin spilled out allover the place and there was hysterical laughter. we changed our minds.
february 2006, philadelphia — there is a legend that the first several hundred grids were solder-paste stenciled, hand-placed with tweezers, and cooked in a toaster oven. we can't confirm this, but if it were true that would be a truly questionable business model.
march 2010, pottstown — a rare sighting of the keypad spontaneous generator.
october 2006, philadelphia — cousteau saw that we needed some supervision and to relax a little bit, so decided to move in.
april 2007, los angeles — live on the dublab netradio with peter.
april 2006, san mateo — it was a sort of science fair, a mob of friends, someone would have an idea and vanish for an hour, coming back with a strange instrument or experiment that before that moment seemed unfathomable. it was a public display of figuring-things-out with immense enthusiasm.
december 2007, philadelphia — michael i am sorry we wrecked your bathroom with all of the silkscreening washouts.
july 2017, iceland — other showers.
march 2019, minneapolis — clouds make rain.
january 2008, philadelphia — early myco-evangelism.
october 2008, philadelphia — black walnut, harvested locally, milled by our friend jason.
february 2009, philadelphia — but then we inspected, sanded, oiled, sanded, oiled, inlaid spliced rubber, inspected, test fit, adjusted. fortunately there was really good music being made during this era.
july 2010, philadelphia — forreals we were running some sort of tiny-furniture shop and now we are slightly/wistfully transported if we happen to encounter the scent of teak oil or nitrile gloves.
march 2008, philadelphia — perhaps literally traumatized by branding. this was the last step and a misaligned hot stamp could really ruin the mood. maybe it follows that we don't put text on anything anymore. sorry!
april 2008, los angeles — the wires held but still didn't learn that other lesson.
march 2007, los angeles — these wires didn't quite hold. some early permacomputing, teaching a workshop which attempted to demystify computers by building an adder with relays. we eventually got it working, but this all certainly would've been easier with a huge operating system connected to a massive datacenter.
february 2016, monahans sandhills — farm to city to campsite to show to friends driveway to gallery to city to residency to family to truckstop to state park to farm.
march 2008, los angeles — overambition subjected to workshop attendees, we'd learn some basic electronics, design etch solder assemble a circuit, make felt from uncarded wool, concoct natural dye vats, and somehow put all it all together into a soft noisy object.
may 2008, los angeles — the internet really liked kelli's soft noisy tape machine.
july 2007, philadelphia — early demand and small batch dynamics created an intense resale market which we defused by offering an even smaller batch of custom grids with various colors and tilt sensors and handmade cases, with the proceeds donated to agricultural aid. this creative intervention worked spectacularly.
april 2008, philadelphia — there is a certain kind of kit that encourages you to not just build the expected thing, but to build the thing that fits the idea you had, and the kit didn't get in the way but just made it easier. the kit has an intentional blank spot, to be filled in with the idea you bring.
october 2006, seattle — beautiful music / empty convention center / is the coffee good?
october 2009, delhi — e-mail management strategy.
august 2017, delhi — the workshop left the living room and dining table, accumulating artifacts in the barn.
april 2010, delhi — multitasking, or, farm technology.
february 2013, delhi — workshop crime scene documentation, whereby table tennis was willfully disrespected. records indicate this may have been a yardsale inventory, given the presence of rare drops. the dignity of the sport was later restored.
october 2013, delhi — kelli and trent demonstrating high level soldering factory labor. we briefly rented space above the future luck dragon during the aleph days. ideas were forming, half hidden.
september 2012, san francisco — very early aleph prototype and ezra's notebook. hot glue has a bad reputation and i feel this is a profound cultural mistake. also two people simultaneously scribbling with pencils on the same paper is peak technological collaboration.
august 2010, delhi — cookie, we are so sorry you had to endure this confusing moment.
october 2015, delhi — sometimes the metal doesn't show up in time for the photoshoot so you have to fake it with a printed paper panel. imagine the savings if we'd just stuck with the paper version.
august 2009, delhi — so we really did live in a tent in the barn for a few seasons while rebuilding the house and somehow even shipped several editions during this time but the point is we could do this because we knew how to nap right.
january 2010, delhi — several editions included very short run letterpress prints, as we experimented with activities not typically well-suited for a construction site.
july 2010, delhi — alas, redemption.
july 2016, järvenpää — and interlude.
march 2022, delhi — in town, half hidden, bottom floor destroyed and reimagined by our own hands. shown is the future location of the semi-public workshop with optimistic visions of devirtualization, all inside of an art store.
september 2024, delhi — despite advances in technology we still weigh our shipments with an analog scale for improved sound quality. the donated mellotron would sound amazing if we found time to repair it. the sound of past futures, the forgone westinghouse tram proposal in los angeles.
july 2006, philadelphia — to answer a remarkably frequently asked question: it's honeycomb paper wrap. it has a commercial name but we think it's lame to try to trademark things like this.
july 2025, delhi — beechi insists that we reuse these cardboard boxes until they absolutely disintegrate, some of which must be a decade old by now. having less enthusiasm for cardboard, lemmy stayed home this day.
december 2024, delhi — a cursed object is also an enchanted object. each arc produced between 2012 and 2022 had its fancy custom bearings anointed with industrial grease using a paintbrush from this object. sometimes we'd need to scoop more from the vat using that bit of circuit board cutoff. some habits are accidental and don't get reevaluated for years because they just sortof work.
may 2008, philadelphia — at times it seems we live in a fortress built of transient cardboard. tape machine saw it all. tape machine is still around.
july 2011, delhi — jus and petra have no idea why anyone would be so fixated on cardboard.
august 2018, azores — the time we headlined the big international circus festival with jay and eric. this scene is an uncomplicated metaphor for running a small business.
december 2025, delhi — luck dragon is an idea and also an art store. imagination and curiosity can save us from the swamp of sadness.
august 2021, delhi — places where time stands still. others where it vanishes. is time actually real?
november 2019, delhi — softbits show rehearsal on the third floor of half hidden, summoning the spirits of victorian wallpaper and repurposed modern construction materials and costumes. weather, the year's halloween theme. we have a deep regard for weather and also halloween. if you agree we could probably be friends.
october 2025, delhi — forlorn barn workshop later became studio. building a good studio requires only two steps. first, find a tree with irresistible energy. and then, be near.
october 2023, delhi — the open side of the barn we succeeded in preventing the inevitable-seeming condition of over-accumulation, staying clear for performances and gatherings, except during harvest season when garlic and onions and potatoes and shallots and herbs of all kinds hang around allover the place curing. most of my favorite music has happened here. eifel agrees.
july 2011, delhi — built the same year as dublab alongside those first broadcasts, and later succumbed at the hands (feet) of friends of dublab in the barn. it was a good party. music and friends and fire.
october 2022, delhi — endings and renewal.
august 2025, delhi — rainbows from dirt.
june 2023, delhi — a bright circle of time, shaped like a square, still here, new and the same.
there are more people to thank than we could possibly endeavor. friends and family with whom we worked and played. hundreds we got to meet in person. thousands we met online. thousands more who we haven't met but believed in this idea and helped push it forward.
thank you for coming on this journey with us. we continue.
and we'd love to hear from you: e-mail tehn@nnnnnnnn.co
monome — updated 05/23/26