Meet our Cocoon residents, who will be joining us in autumn! Selected from a whopping 274 applications, the three residents will be exploring moths and the viruses that infect them... https://thentrythis.org/notes/2026/03/26/cocoon-residents/

Deadline 6 April for our open call for local live coders to take part in a low-intensity residency... It’ll happen over a weekend per month from May ‘til August, finishing with a public event early September. If you’re unsure whether you’ll fit in, or feel like an ‘imposter’, you are especially […]

Last winter, we ran a winter school as part of the Algorithmic Pattern project, in collaboration with Ray Morrison and Lucy Cheesman. With participants with diverse practices brought together via an open call, we explored patterns in origami, dance, music and video animation, taking an embodied […]

An essay on illustrating complex information, from graphs to graphic novels https://thentrythis.org/notes/2026/03/16/illustrating-complexity/

Little workshop this weekend in Falmouth on behalf of The Poly. Come play with Andean/Inca knotted string records (called Khipu), and walking robots made from braided textiles which you can control with more knots […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

Deadline is just over 2 weeks away for our funded Cocoon residencies. You can be from any background, and these are themed on moths and the viruses that infect them, very niche, but you can take it in any direction you like. 1-4 weeks long, up to […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

Bit of a long shot this - but I'm looking for science/social science researchers who might be willing to give some thoughts on how their field of research might have shaped their views on life, death and grief. I've made a short survey here which can be done […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

Refurbishing this pattern matrix for Ellen Harluzius-Klück, who we worked with on her Penelope project. Getting it working with the browser based warp weighed loom simulation. #weaving

⭐ Cocoon Residences - Open Call ⭐ We have funded residencies for autumn, themed on moths and their viruses. These are based at our studio in Cornwall, with our support, and working with our long-term collaborator @b_longdon We have tried to make the […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

"On being formal: communal informatics, khipu technologies, extractivism, and debt." Research workshop of the Epistemic Media Research Group (Institute for Music and Media) with @Khipumancer, @nebogeo, @julian and myself coming up in-person in Düsseldorf on […] [Original post on post.lurk.org]

Riso print made today for @thentrythis project which should be launching this week ✨

We (@Khipumancer, @yaxu, @julian and @nebogeo) are running a workshop at the Institute for Music and Media Düsseldorf, 31 January: "On being formal: communal informatics, khipu technologies, extractivism, and debt." A convergence of two areas of […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

I forgot I had an "AI project", it ran on ZX Spectrum, I should perform it some time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt7JqoPInlg

Our annual review of projects in 2025 is ready! You can download it below, or if you'd like a hard copy for yourself, or a few for your institution/organisation let us know 💚 https://gitlab.com/then-try-this/administration/-/blob/main/Annual_Review_2025__online_.pdf

Final mailout of the year is set to go out at noon UK time, get yourself on there if you fancy receiving (roughly quarterly) studio news and info on open calls as and when they happen 💫 https://view.flodesk.com/pages/63c07d7c2fd941fe62206344

In case anyone uses our SmogOff air pollution documentation/design, we've had to make a small update as during community testing the waterproof seal on the boxes we used failed quite quickly for all three sensors. At a whopping £60 for a plastic box, this is a total pain, and it's not a problem […]

A new epistemic tool has arrived in the @patternclubsheffield lab!

!!!Album release!!! "220 under adit (techno from mine waste)" All proceeds will go to the Panzi Foundation, supporting victims of sexual violence in conflict mining areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an illegal exploitation that ends up filling our laptops and mobiie phones. Please […]

I'm calling the prototype crystal 'log synth' done. Three natural semiconductor voices, each with their own filters, 4 vactrol sequencers and 3 single transistor gates with their own sequencer - actually quite a lot packed in here I realise... Tested in the […] [Original post on post.lurk.org]

A little bit smug about finally getting round to animating our logo 😎 https://thentrythis.org/

SmogOff in the news (only just found out about this from June, but good seeing them out in the wild being used and people taking ownership!) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y8y18m88xo

Finally got a hold of this record made with samplebrain! Brain Mutants by DMX Krew. A liberal application of disco records and TR 101 samples in quite a full on record... https://ara-u.bandcamp.com/album/brain-mutants-ep https://gitlab.com/then-try-this/samplebrain

Our new studio looking exactly as cosy as it is this evening

In September we took over Sheffield's Wintergarden with knots and woven robots with @Khipumancer and @yaxu as part of the @alpaca Festival You could create knot patterns based on Inca/Andean Khipu technology that would program the robots remotely, and […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

Lovely to see our Sonic Kayaks project cited in this nice paper... 'Bridging worlds: exploring synergies between the arts and biodiversity conservation' 🌟 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fee.70012

We had a lucky break in the weather yesterday morning to get out with Cornish artist Libita Sibungu to Nangiles mine with our DIY mineral sound recording rig (contact mics and a electromagnetic sensor). As well a sounds, we collected lots of minerals […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

We've built a special type of loom designed by Peter Collinwood to create the amazing illustrations in his book "The Techniques of Tablet Weaving". This is to help us closely examine the patterns and mathematics behind this weaving technique on the […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

Organised Atoms Fun Palace 2025! We smashed rocks, found crystals and raved out in the rock lab. Thanks go to the Royal Society of Chemistry for supporting this kind of thing! https://thentrythis.org/notes/2025/10/08/organised-atoms-2025-fun-palace-events/

Pre-pre-pre-announcement that around the end of the year/early spring we'll be announcing some new funded residencies, based at our new studio in Cornwall to run around Aug/Sept 2026. The theme this time is moths and their viruses - as part of a bigger research grant on how viruses and their […]

Kind of interesting list of 'endangered' crafts categorised by riffing on the conservation redlist of wildlife https://www.heritagecrafts.org.uk/categories-of-risk/

Write up on our first #organisedatoms workshop of 2025: https://thentrythis.org/notes/2025/09/27/organised-atoms-2025-workshop-1/ Two more (free events) coming up next weekend as part of Fun Palaces - see booking info here if you are near us and want to give it a go […]

New-new studio so close to being up and running ✨ be nice to see an end to the relentless moving and carrying and shelf building and to be back in the world

Some extreme hotel debugging going down for #alpaca2025 - come along to our public khipu play session with @Khipumancer tomorrow in the Sheffield Winter Garden 1-3pm

First bits in our new spot, welcome to the 'Propagation Studio', it is the nicest place we've ever been

We're happy to announce dates for Organised Atoms 2025 - free workshops for kids and their families and friends where we search for crystals, examine them under a microscope and make electronic noises with them! Location: United Downs Raceway, St Day, Cornwall (situated to the south east of St […]

Organised Atoms Workshops 2025, dates announced: see link for details and booking info! https://thentrythis.org/notes/2025/08/25/organised-atoms-workshops-2025/

Wondering what on earth was up with this, and then I remembered how much it rained on the last workshop #organisedatoms

OMG it's #organisedatoms time of year again

Penstruthal is an ancient mine, first recorded output is in 1825 but it was probably worked long before this. The ore (both copper and tin) here is found as veins within the Carnmenellis granite, not the country rock as elsewhere in the Gwennap mines just a few miles to the east. The dumps that […]

We only just moved studio, but unexpectedly then got offered one we've had our eye on for a whole decade... so from September we'll be heading out to Potager as our new work-home! It's a beautiful spot, with hammocks, a huge greenhouse to sit in, a fab […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

We're having a little studio warming on 16 Aug, 11am-2pm, at Gray's Wharf in Penryn - all welcome! It'll also be the launch for Drawings About Things (our new illustration and print offerings) so there will be lots of lovely textural print bits and bobs to take a look at.

We're excited to be hosting Alpaca conference from 12-20th September 2025, with a huge range of talks, workshops and performances exploring algorithmic patterns in the creative arts. Algorithms aren't just about computers, they're also used to make […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

We are doing #OrganisedAtoms again this summer, watch this space for dates! Family fun smashing rocks, crystal collecting, identification, microscopes, electronics and NOISE at United Downs Raceway, St Day, #Cornwall We are currently building some of […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

We're having a little studio warming on 16 Aug, 11am-2pm, at Gray's Wharf in Penryn - all welcome! It'll also be the launch for Drawings About Things (our new illustration and print offerings) so there will be lots of lovely textural print bits and bobs to take a look at.

The Royal Society used our game Nergal at their Disability & Technology report launch on 23 June 💚 This is to the best of our knowledge the first time a citizen science game has been made so folks with little or no sight can play and contribute data […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

Spent the first half of the week up in London for the Royal Society Summer Exhibition opening night, where we were showing our game Nergal with the folks we made it with at the University of Edinburgh to their 800 or so visitors. Snuck some nergal hats […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

Showing Nergal at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition opening night, managed to sneak some hats on the old dudes

Quite a nice surprise article about Nergal in The Scientist https://www.the-scientist.com/nergal-networks-where-friendship-meets-infection-72974

Just got the keys to our new studio, moving over the next 2 weeks 🌱

Frantic prop making is DONE for the Royal Society Summer exhibition in London next week, come say hi if you're nearby on the 1st from 6-10pm.