Hey Chat,
This is Daniel. Together with Matt and a growing band of travellers, we are building Inanimate - a consumer electronics company for the AI Era.
This is Lab Notes, where we share our work and inspirations.
Previously…
Here’s what’s happening in The Lab.
Straight to Video!
We can’t build a consumer brand in 2026 without going all in on straight-to-camera, max-cringe video. So that’s what we’re doing!
We’re starting a conversation with a wider audience in the social feeds. We’ll be sharing our ideas, our process, and our prototypes to a level that makes us feel "uncomfortably open”.
The Main Thing
Over the last two weeks we have:
Chosen candidate devices to take forward - form is set, language is in development.
Improved the HMI (human-machine interface) with a focus on reliability.
Developed an entirely new framework for making and tweaking the behaviour and UI of “apps” (they are more like experiences, but we don’t have a better word yet)
Getting the pre-loaded behaviour right for the candidate devices
Developed a Mac companion app to pull context off machine and enable new device behaviour
What else?
The path to AGI is now a regular lunchtime discussion topic, as are the benefits of companies over clans in driving civilizational development (Joel Mokyr), and rat computers.
Yes, and…
Here’s what’s been influencing and inspiring me this week.
Desk Ornaments from Apple Folklore
In 1981, while developing the Macintosh system software, Apple engineers Andy Hertzfeld and Bud Tribble had a breakthrough. While RAM limitations meant they could only run one major application at a time, there was nothing stopping them from creating mini-apps for tasks connected to the main application and core workflow.
In Bud Tribble’s words, as told by Andy Hertzfeld:
"You'd want tiny apps that were good at a specific, limited function that complements the main application. Like a little calculator, for example, that looked like a real calculator. Or maybe an alarm clock, or a notepad for jotting down text. Since the entire screen is supposed to be a metaphorical desktop, the little programs are desk ornaments, adorning the desktop with useful features… Ornaments have to fit into the world of the main application", Bud responded, "but not the other way around. The main application owns the menu bar, for example, but maybe the ornaments can have a menu when they're active. The main application would still run its event loop, but it would occasionally pass events to the little guys. And of course you can cut and paste between them."
The physical desktop was bundled onto the virtual desktop through skeuomorphs to aid new ways of working in a new era of computing.
Read this and more at folklore.org
Play Light with Your Fingertips
Pattern Flow is an open-source LED synthesizer by Korean creative technologist SeungHun Lee. It lets you “play light with your fingertips”.
Lee’s work is a reimagining of video art pioneer Nam June Paik’s “Participation TV” (1963). More on Paik’s art and predictions for the future of technology here.
Pattern Flow is properly open source. You can make your own, order a kit, play with the code, or muck around with the virtual website version.
Flawless execution. No notes.
Study Two Shell
Last week, an old friend (and subscriber to Lab Notes) sent a voice note arguing that while we may be stuck in a cultural moment (as mentioned last time), there are signs of a breakthrough in the form of Two Shell.
Out of nowhere, in 2020, Two Shell burst onto the underground electronic music scene. Initially releasing post-dubstep and garage, they have drifted through house music towards something weirder - AI-generated hyper-pop.
I’ve liked and respected their music for a while. But tracking down their best work is hard. This is because Two Shell’s pranks precede them. They send decoys to interviews and live shows, release music on ephemeral password-protected websites and send different versions of the same album to music reviewers. It’s a fun commentary on the state of music marketing, but you need to work to keep up.
Their new album - Infinite Now+ - is a playful but I think sincere effort to understand the role of the artist in the era of generative AI. It’s pop-music created by real musicians, possibly all created from prompt alone.
Sonically, it’s all uppers and bangers. Good for the run or the gym. And while not everyone’s cup of tea, maybe while commenting on our infinite now, Two Shell offer a glimpse of the future.
Thanks for reading. See you soon.