This is Daniel. Together with Matt and a small group of radicals, we are building Inanimate - a consumer electronics company for the AI Era. 

This is Lab Notes, where we share our work and inspirations.

Here’s what’s happening in The Lab.

Back in the spring, Matt and I spent several weeks in New York with Betaworks as part of their Agent Systems Camp. You can read more about our experience in an earlier edition.

Our Demo was recorded, but we kept it unlisted. Our early prototypes were not quite ready for the world.

Time has passed, our prototypes are no longer the frontier, and we are posting all about them now anyway (check out our Prototyping series here). So - here it is. Our Demo Day presentation.

When this was recorded, it was the most coherent single expression of our vision for room-scale intelligence and agentic devices. Enjoy!

New episodes of our video diary WORKS in Progress drop every Tuesday. Shorter videos about prototyping and experimenting with new use cases drop every Thursday.

Follow along on Instagram and X. Be awesome, and throw a like and a re-share our way.

All people (and agents) remain focussed on launching WORKS. 

We were forced to tidy up the lab, as we were drowning in a sea of 3D printed forms and models.

Here’s what has been influencing me this week.

I generally have an aversion to “looking back”. I am wired for “forwards only” mode. But I enjoyed a recent jaunt to the Winamp Skin Museum. 

It’s like an archive of digital bedroom art - a virtual wall of early-00s interfaces and band posters. Full of outdated cultural references and lovely late-rave 3D art.

Have a browse. Or pipe your Spotify feed through it using Spotifast.

The wimmelbook format (the longer form German compound noun translates as "teeming picture book") was created by Dutch grandmaster Hieronymus Bosch, famous for his nightmarish depictions of hell.

Bosch was the father of the format, but the wimmelbook was popularised by children’s illustrators Richard Scarey (“What Do People Do All Day”) and Martin Handford (“Where’s Wally/Waldo” books).

Wimmelbooks show us a world of people, systems, and connection. Children get pulled in by their innate curiosity and then revel as they are lost in the picture’s complexity, like a visual rabbit hole they can tumble down. I’m into them. They are a lovely way to communicate the complexity of human life. More here.

You probably know Francis Bourgeois, AKA “The TikTok Train Guy”. At first glance, he’s a strange phenomenon.

Francis started posting on TikTok a few years ago, sharing undeniably uncool videos of himself screaming with excitement at the end of station platforms as trains shot past. He filmed with his signature head-mounted GoPro and its distinctive fisheye lens. It looked… unique. But it also felt unique, and people noticed.

He has become widely loved, and I think it’s because he is unashamedly enthusiastic about something most people consider the epitome of uncool - trainspotting - and he just doesn’t care.

Case in point: this video, in which Chris (a grumpy, alpha-male car type) gets swept up in Francis’s raw emotion as they chase down a steam engine.

The story follows a hero’s journey, which we’re wired to love, but the emotions feel convincing and real. Excitement, concern, determination, and joy, all propelled by something so rare these days: a complete absence of cynicism.

This cuts directly against our political climate, where cynicism seems entrenched and is bleeding into every part of our culture. I wonder if, through enthusiasts like Francis, we’re glimpsing a changing world.

If attention-seeking rage and provocation are the virus, perhaps enthusiasm, optimism, and the emotional energy of someone else’s joy are the antidote?

Here’s to the enthusiasts and their leadership of a better world.

Hope to see you next time.

Daniel