iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Monica @monica.dev · 28/09/2025

A few years ago, I attended #virtualCCFest for the first time and left inspired! Today, I will be delivering the closing keynote at CC Fest. I'm looking forward to sharing my love of creative coding and encouraging others to archive (and share!) their creative work.

Poster for virtual CC Fest 9-28-2026 details & rsvp at https:/ccfest.rocks.

A poster for the "Virtual CC Fest" on September 28th, with a schedule running from 9 AM PDT to 12:30 PM PDT. The background is a grid of vertical and horizontal watercolor stripes in yellow, red, blue, and green. The title "virtual CC Fest" is in a red, pixelated font.

The schedule is as follows (all times PDT):

9:00 to 9:30 am: Welcome and opening keynote with Char Stiles

9:30 to 10:30 am: Workshop Round 1

Art, Code & Storytelling with p5.js by Missy Cooper

Your First Creative Coding Class - In a Post LLM world by Akanksha Vyas

Tracing the Storyline by Jesal Mehta

Spatial p5 - Live-Coding for Mixed Reality with p5.js by Tibor Udvari

Computational Thinking and Comics: The Magic of Fractal Gridding by Ecy Femi King

Power of the Portrait by Lisa Hauser

10:30 to 11:00 am: Stretch Break / Info session / Networking

CC Teacher Camp Info Session & Networking by Saber Khan

11:00 am to 12:00 pm: Workshop Round 2

Vibecoding and CS education - An open conversation by Paul Way

Closing the Circle by Jesal Mehta

Teaching and Learning with Web Spinner by Caleb Foss

AI Mirror Play by ash herr

3D printing with p5.js by Gair Subbraman

Digital Quilting Circle by Tess Ramsey

Stringing worms with type & code by Sai Ram Ved Vyapurapu

12:00 to 12:30 pm: Closing keynote and goodbye with Monica Powell

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Monica @monica.dev · 28/09/2025

#virtualCCFest is kicking off soon! It's a free, virtual creative coding festival, and there's still time to register at: ccfest.rocks

screenshot of virtual cc fest coutdown showing the event will begin in 44 minutes and 45 seconds on September 28th, 2025

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Monica @monica.dev · 23/03/2025

Based on my collection of memes and photos iOS classifies these celebs/notable figures under my “People”: * Beyoncé * President Obama (& “The Rock” Obama) * Rihanna * Issa Rae * President Biden * Taraji P Henson * Simone Biles * Janelle Monae * Dr. Cristina Yang * Redacted 🍊

Screenshot of Notable figures under Monica’s “people” in the iOS photo app.
* Beyoncé
* President Obama (& “The Rock” Obama)
* Rihanna
* Issa Rae
* President Biden
* Taraji P Henson
* Simone Biles
* Janelle Monae
* Dr. Cristina Yang
* not pictured: Redacted 🍊

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Monica @monica.dev · 15/03/2025

#VirtualCCFest is happening tomorrow, and it looks like registration is still open! If you're interested in #CreativeCoding, this free event is a great way to spend your Saturday learning and getting inspired by fellow creators. Sign up here: ccfest.rocks/register/

Virtual CC Fest is happening on March 15, 2025, from 9 AM to 1 PM PT (12–4 PM ET). The schedule includes a welcome keynote by Saskia Freeke at 9 AM, followed by two rounds of workshops covering topics like creative coding, AI, 3D printing, live coding, and machine learning. There is a check-in and keynote by Olivia Jack at 10:45 AM, and the event concludes with a closing keynote from Kawandeep Virdee at 12:15 PM.

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Monica @monica.dev · 15/03/2025

I used @remysharp.com's handy CLI tool to send a handful of Webmentions to some people who shared helpful info about their Webmention implementation like @dwayne.xyz , @jamesg.blog.web.brid.gy, @localghost.dev & @petergoes.bsky.social. I'm still sorting out a flow for automatically sending these!

screenshot of terminal showing that I sent six webmentions from the CLI

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Monica @monica.dev · 13/03/2025

In addition to the Clifford Attractor formula, Paul Bourke has a whole collection of fractals, chaos, and attractors: paulbourke.net/fractals/

$Screenshot of Paul Bourke's collection of fractals featuring: Chen Lee Attractor Polynomial Attractors N Attractor Juan Attractor Random Attractors VR Attractor Burke-Shaw Attractor Yu-Wang Attractor Chen-Celikovsky Attractor Four Wing Attractor Tscs Attractor Sprott Attractor Arneodo Attractor Lace Wallpaper Peter de Jong Attractor Clifford Attractor Henon Map Gingerbread Man Henon Phase Diagrams Gumowski-Mira Attractor Grinch Dragon Ikeda Attractor Coral Dragon Twon Dragon$

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Monica @monica.dev · 13/03/2025

There's no shortage of ways math can be used in #CreativeCoding to generate visuals, like this donut-shaped Clifford Attractor that uses linear interpolation for color distribution. 🎨 aboutmonica.com/blog/craftin... 🍩 paulbourke.net/fractals/cli...

donut-shaped variation of the Clifford Attractor with a purple-pink gradient

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Monica @monica.dev · 10/03/2025

I've re-wired webmentions on my site, so now likes and mentions of my articles on @bsky.app will (eventually*) appear on my site! *It's not fully automated yet, because I ran into an issue with Cloudflare's bot protection blocking brid.gy requests 🤖

a screenshot of Monica's webmentions appearing below one of her articles and it includes a post she made on BlueSky.

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Monica @monica.dev · 10/03/2025

Good news! This mention showed up on @ap.brid.gy but now I need to sort out how to funnel the data to webmention.io. Then we'll be in business. I'm currently displaying some of my older webmentions.

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Monica @monica.dev · 07/03/2025

Virtual #CCFest returns on March 15th! 🎉 It's a free, welcoming event with keynote talks & hands-on technical workshops for anyone curious about #CreativeCoding with tools like p5js and hydra.

A flyer advertising Virtual CC Fest. CC Fest is a free and friendly event for anyone curious about creative code! You can register at ccfest.rocks/register

On Saturday, March 15, 2025, from 9 am to 1 pm PST (+8 UTC) join us on Zoom for a virtual creative coding fest. We’ll make interactive and engaging digital art, animation, and games, work with AI or hardware, and explore other options in various workshops. Hear from our keynote speakers, Saskia Freeke, Olivia Jack, Kawandeep Virdee, on important and timely topics related to creative coding!

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Monica @monica.dev · 03/03/2025

There are so many lovely details on @leanrada.com like this article which features an interactive custom web component that renders the Lily58 keyboard layout and allows readers to toggle between keyboard layers. leanrada.com/notes/my-per...

a screenshot of Lean Rada's function keyboard layer which controls settings like brightness and sound

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Monica @monica.dev · 07/02/2025

make a landscape using only primitive shapes | #genuary6 one of my favorite prompts of #genuary involved exploring how simple points and lines can be used to create a constantly changing landscape #creativecoding #p5js

gradient of pink waves along a moving sun constructed of nested circles

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Monica @monica.dev · 05/01/2025

Hello, Genuary! 💕💜 Vertical or horizontal lines only. #genuary1 #genuary2025 #genuary

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Monica @monica.dev · 11/12/2024

As the year wraps up and I plan my travels for next year, I’m excited to announce that I’m attending #RenderATL2025! This will be my third time at @renderatl.com, and it’s one of my favorite tech conferences —especially for how it brings the tech community together.

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Monica @monica.dev · 02/12/2024

What other hobbies have you tried recently? I’ve been thinking about getting into coloring as a winter hobby. It seems like a chill activity where you can listen to background music/podcasts/TV…

Coloring page of Black woman chilling in her room on a yoga mat with her dog and kitty cat.

Coloring page of a Black woman at cafe studying with her laptop, tea and biscuits.

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Monica @monica.dev · 26/11/2024

👋🏾 It's lovely to see so many new faces so let me introduce myself! I'm a software engineer who's excited to join a social network that values how the open web makes the internet a magical place for creators. I'm currently building educational software and experimenting with creative coding.

Monica wearing a black blouse and denim jeans with leopard boots while striking a power pose under a willow looking tree.

Monica on stage presenting at React Summit US 2024 while wearing a purple mauve jumpsuit.

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Monica @monica.dev · 25/11/2024

Adding a toggle to show the grid lines by giving each tile a visible border is handy for debugging pattern continuity. I'm still tempted to draw & cut out some tiles on paper and play...

A truchet tile pattern made of semi circles and lines in shades of blue and seafoam green with grid lines showing where each tile starts/ends

A truchet tile pattern made of semi circles and lines in shades of purple with grid lines showing where each tile starts/ends

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Monica @monica.dev · 25/11/2024

I'm playing around with adding lines to introduce more variations into my truchet tiles #p5js #creativecoding

A truchet tile pattern made of semi circles and lines in shades of blue and seafoam green

A truchet tile pattern made of semi circles and lines in shades of purple

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Monica @monica.dev · 23/11/2024

I love a good book deal! #BlackBookSky I just added four books to my TBR & Kindle for less than $9 total. • Honey & Spice • The Neighbor Favor • Legendborn • Bloodmarked I think I'll start with Legendborn as I'm currently wrapping up The Book of Doors and want to start reading more fantasy.

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Monica @monica.dev · 22/11/2024

I need more cozy hobbies this winter — so I’m glad my delayed Kindle Colorsoft ended up arriving a month early! It’s nice being able to experience the color in e-books on a distraction-free e-ink device.

Girlfriends in the Wash Day Diaries book excitedly greeting each other on a night out.

Monica’s Kindle library in color on her Kindle Colorsoft featuring books like The Book of Doors, Truth be Told and Wash Day Diaries

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Monica @monica.dev · 19/11/2024

I'm looking forward to presenting in ~ 90 minutes in the planetarium 👩🏾‍🚀💫 at @reactsummit.gitnation.org. You can play around with my #CreativeCode demo at tiles.monica.dev and all of the code is open-source at github.com/M0nica/p5-re...

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Monica @monica.dev · 19/11/2024

Good morning! It’s almost #ReactSummit time and I’m starting the day with code (and hopefully soon ☕️).

Preview of Monica’s slides appear on her MacBook with snippet of React input event handler to control animation of Truchet Tiles. There’s a gold presentation clicker placed on her computer.

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Monica @monica.dev · 18/11/2024

Tomorrow at #ReactSummit I'll be presenting a #CreativeCode talk on "Sketching with Code". I will show how to leverage React.js to manage the state of p5js sketches to build visually engaging, interactive experiences.

grid of circle truchet tiles in various shades of pink and purple against a dark background

grid of circles and half circles in various shades of pink and purple against a dark background

gradient ombre pink and purple grid of circles and half circles in against a dark background with grid lines appearing in the background

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Monica @monica.dev · 13/11/2024

Happy 25th Birthday to Neopets! 🎉 Their HTML guide was my first step into learning web development and sparked my passion for #CreativeCoding.

Screenshot of the Neopets HTML Guide which covers basic HTML concepts.

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Monica @monica.dev · 13/11/2024

I'm looking forward to speaking at React Summit next week about creative coding with some of my favorite technologies (@react.dev + p5.js) and have been playing around with the final touches for my demo ✨

rounded truchet tiles that change color gradually from pink to peach

rounded truchet tiles that are randomly blue pink or purple

grid of abstract partial circle shapes that are various shades of blue

abstract partial circle shapes that are either pink or purple

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Monica @monica.dev · 01/07/2023

It’s sad to see such an influential website go down in flames. 🐦 2006 - 2023

Multiple SpongeBobs is running around a room, filled with fire and knocked over computers and desks.

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Monica @monica.dev · 16/06/2023

For some reason I can’t find my followers. #404

A screenshot showing Monica has 404 followers on Bluesky

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Monica @monica.dev · 26/05/2023

Thank you @codepen.io for featuring my collection of creative coding pens! 🤩💜

Screenshot of the trending page on CodePen showing that Monica's Creative Coding collection using P5js, Perlin noise and randomness was Picked by CodePen.

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Monica @monica.dev · 17/05/2023

Thanks @javascriptjam.bsky.social chatting with me! I’m super excited to hang out with everyone at RenderATL and to talk about creating art with JavaScript 🎨👩🏾‍🎨 Below is more info on my upcoming RendeATL talk:

ASMR: ART OF SCRIPTING MEDIA W/ RANDOMNESS

This talk will explore the fundamentals of creative coding with JavaScript to design systems that generate unique but reproducible visual artwork, the significant role that randomness plays in the creative process, and how algorithmic coding compares to more traditional forms of software development. Throughout the talk various there will be numerous examples that illustrate core concepts and techniques that can be used to create stunning digital art.

Attendees will have a better understanding of the fundamental concepts necessary to produce art with software as well as gain familiarity with popular approaches and techniques. Additionally, attendees should feel inspired to further explore their own creative coding experiments.

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Monica @monica.dev · 11/05/2023

I chose the perfect time to share a GitHub link. I promise it works!

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Monica @monica.dev · 11/05/2023

yesterday’s look of the day before I needed a Tide pen

Monica wearing an olive green jumpsuit with reddish brown lipstick and straight but slightly curled hair.

Monica wearing an olive green jumpsuit with reddish brown lipstick and straight but slightly curled hair alternative angle.

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Monica @monica.dev · 11/05/2023

I had a great time presenting at Remix Conf about MDX, one of my favorite technologies for teaching web development!

Photo of Monica, presenting at Remix, showing a mark down article transformed into an array of headings

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Monica @monica.dev · 09/05/2023

Officially checked into Remix Conf 2023! 💿👋🏾

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Monica @monica.dev · 30/04/2023

Hey! I know Bluesky is working on building out important features and architecting the AT protocol but when can I expect to to be able to distinguish posts from astronauts/extraterrestrial life and mere earthlings (like I can on Twitter)?

A screenshot of the footer of a tweet where it shows the tweet was sent from Earth

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Monica @monica.dev · 29/04/2023

I’m going to dance today in celebration of International Dance Day!

The original Aunt Viv from the Fresh Prince of Belair throwing down moves in dance class.

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Monica @monica.dev · 29/04/2023

The good: I figured out how to use the API to post to Bluesky The not good: not sure yet how to get that blank space in the post to actually show the image I “successfully” uploaded. 🤨

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Monica @monica.dev · 29/04/2023

Friday night naps hit different. Wake up and there’s still a whole evening ahead! *GIF of Tom, from Tom & Jerry, living his best life snuggled in a blanket on the couch*

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Monica @monica.dev · 29/04/2023

The block blur is reminding me of Black Mirror, White Christmas.

Photo of blurred out people from black mirror episode

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Monica @monica.dev · 26/04/2023

If you click the ••• by a post you can copy the text in the iOS app. I updated the app today so I am not sure when this was released.

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Monica @monica.dev · 26/04/2023

I’m using the iCloud icon to link to Bluesky for now but will stay tuned for an official Bluesky icon 🫣 github.com/simple-icons/simple-icon…

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Monica @monica.dev · 24/04/2023

Yay! I have a long list of experiments I want to try with my plotter. Do you have any favorite supplies to use with your plotter?

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Monica @monica.dev · 24/04/2023

Welcome Laurie! What’s your fave Lego set? I’ve been getting into the Lego botanical collection.

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Monica @monica.dev · 24/04/2023

React Miami was everything! Amazing speakers && the beach 🏝️. It was awesome meeting new folks and re-connecting with others.

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Monica @monica.dev · 24/04/2023

Hey #BlackSky! I’m a software engineer building educational technology looking to stay connected with #BlackTechTwitter. I fell in love with the Internet after realizing it’s a magical space for creators and niche communities. I enjoy discussing React, creative coding and community building.

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