NYU ITP Camp 2025, week 1

I've made massive progress on Collxn while at ITP Camp. The alpha is basically ready now. More fun stuff about that soon.

But I wanted to jot down info on the two sessions I led this week before I forget. Lots of links follow. Enjoy.

Session: Here comes everybody's AI coding tools

Last year I did a session called "AI for the mere mortal web developer". It was a very 2024 did-you-know-you-can-do-this-omg-AI session.

This year, I wanted to be non-prescriptive about it because, at this point, yes—we all know it's possible, but there are so many tools that it's hard to try everything. Exposure is everything.

This session was very similar to the one we recently did at the Astoria Tech Meetup in May.

Session description

Verbatim:

We've got a jillion AI coding tools to play with so let's show em off.

During this session, I'll try to have 4–6 people to come up and show us what AI tools they use to build. Each person will get about 10 minutes to make something live and narrate what tools they are using.

THE GOAL: maximum exposure for the audience to a wide buffet of AI coding tools.

SEEKING VOLUNTEERS: come show us a workflow. You don't need to blow our minds! Just show us something you use. I'll chat with you about what we're doing in advance so you'll be more than ready.

Notes

Thanks to Loren, Avi, and Alice for joining me to show off some AI workflows! And thanks to everyone who came to the session!

Below are some things that were used or mentioned.

AI coding stuff:

• Claude Code
• Cursor IDE
• Windsurf IDE
• ChatGPT
• Val Town Townie

Non-AI coding stuff:

• Ghostty
• Wispr Flow

Concepts:

• PRD: product requirements document (writing this can help your AI build for you; you can write it with AI!)
• Scaffolding: The basic structure of your application (AI is often great at building the boilerplate!)
• Rules files: these files can set rules for LLMs in your IDEs. How to do this depends on your IDE (Cursor rules, Claude rules, Roo rules, etc)

Tips:

• Prompt for prompts: Ask the LLM to prompt the next LLM conversation. Super useful toward the end of the context window.
• Console logs: paste your console errors into the LLM to get help in fixing them. Great feedback loop for the LLM.
• Use non-text assets: PDFs and images often work great in this context. Got a UI problem? Screenshot it and ask!
• Docs and wikis: Ask the LLM to write markdown files with documentation of your decisions, action items, etc etc. Future LLM chats can refer back to it later!

Artifacts:

• Alice's slides! (link)
• Subcurrent Shuffle (link, source code)

Session: Bring a record

I recently went to a BYO Record event at Catalyst Records in the Lower East Side, and I wanted to do the same during ITP Camp. It was a lot fun.

Session description

Verbatim:

Roll up with your favorite LP, 12”, or 45.

No particular agenda here. We’ll put on a little of each record and hang, hack, sew, chat about music, or whatever you like.

Notes

Thanks to Anup, Isra, and Leo for bringing in music to share, and to everyone else who came to hang out and listen.

Music heard or mentioned:

1. [Ash] Olive Oil – Pianity Part 2
2. [Anup] Television – Adventure
3. [Leo] Marshall Allen – New Dawn
4. [Isra] Tinariwen – The Radio Tisdas Sessions
5. [Leo] Awesome Tapes From Africa (label)
6. [Isra] The Sabri Brothers & Ensemble – Qawwali - Sufi Music From Pakistan
7. [Ash] Yaeji – EP 1+2
8. [Ash] DJ Koze – DJ-Kicks

Record stores mentioned:

• Human Head Records (Brooklyn)
  • Instagram: @humanheadnyc
• Catalyst Records (Lower East Side)
  • Instagram: @catalyst_records_les
  • NOTE: Their Bring Your Own Record meetup is on 6/19. Let's go!
• For The Record (Greenpoint)
  • Instagram: @fortherecordbk

I have at least one more session on the calendar to lead this year. In it, we'll be racing AIs. All I hope for is calamity.