School
for
Poetic
Computation
This course will be in two parts. The first four weeks will be focused on getting comfortable with the building blocks of programming and natural language processing using Python. We will look to the history of the love letter as a form, from the quill to the sext.
The last four weeks will be an investigation of the browser as a fertile site for ambient and playful communication. Through code and the browser we can facilitate the kind of care that happens in the small moments of routine. In this part of the course we will get comfortable with the building blocks of the web and make browser extensions using javascript.
We will learn:
No prior coding experience is necessary, as this class is oriented towards new programmers. We are committed to co-creating with participants an anti-racist, anti-sexist, and environmentally conscious theory of computation. The code of conduct will be co-written by and upheld by all participants. SFPC is a school organized by people who are committed to making space for people who exist at the intersections of oppressed identities, including but not limited to those who are queer, trans, people of color, or disabled. The pedagogy of this class draws on the lead teacher Melanie Hoff’s experience as a programmer, artist, and organizer of Code Societies, a three week intensive event at the School for Poetic Computation. In Code Societies, we engaged with code and the ways code acts on our bodies and networks, equally as subject and as medium. Both Code Societies and Digital Love Languages approach learning a technical thing as inseparable from learning a social history of that thing.
This class is intended for beginners without much experience in coding. If you have experience with coding, we recommend other classes offered at SFPC.
Melanie Hoff is an artist, organizer, and technologist working within spaces of hacking and performance. Their work cultivates spaces of learning and collective reflection grounded in poetry and reconciliation for how we choose to live and what choices have been made for us. At the core of their practice is a study of intersecting systems of classification and power, building spaces—organizational and artistic—where contradictions can be held and futures rehearsed. Melanie teaches about art, sex, technology, design, and social cybernetics at Harvard, NYU, and Yale. Their work has been exhibited at the New Museum, Queens Museum, Bronx Museum, and elsewhere. They co-direct Hex House, an artist's space they co-founded in Brooklyn. They also co-founded Cybernetics Library, and formerly co-directed the School for Poetic Computation where they can often be found teaching from the edges of their research and experimentation.
any
Max Fowler is an artist and programmer working with offline-first software, mycology and community infrastructure. They are a contributor to PeachCloud, software that makes hosting peer to peer software on local low-power hardware more accessible. They are also a co-founder of KiezPilz (kiezpilz.de), a communal fungi cultivation group based in Berlin. They were a student at the School For Poetic Computation in 2016, and later a TA. They are one of the admins of sunbeam.city, and are interested in foraging, flip-phones, rust and html.
they/them
Bitter Kalli (b. 1996) is a writer and land worker born in Brooklyn and based in Philly. They work across mediums including soil, seeds, and printed matter. Bitter is the author of the essay collection ,Mounted: On Horses, Blackness, and Liberation ,(Amistad/HarperCollins 2025).
Bitter’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in ,BOMB Magazine,, ,Guernica Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail,, ,Arts.Black,, and ,Architectural Digest,, among others. They have received support from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program and Columbia University. As a speaker and teaching artist, Bitter has worked with students at organizations including the School for Poetic Computation, the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Bitter is the founder of Star Apple Farm and Nursery, a project focused on increasing access to African and Asian diaspora heritage crops.
Adina Glickstein is a writer and editor interested in the social implications of emerging technology. Her work focuses on labor and language in view of new media. She has edited books and magazines for the international art press centered on subjects like Web3, AI, and digital intersubjectivity, and previously wrote a monthly column about "internet culture" for Spike Art Magazine.
she/they
Neta Bomani is a community organizer, educator, and zine maker. She is the co-director of programs at the School for Poetic Computation and co-director of Sojourners for Justice Press—an imprint of Haymarket Books. Neta is also the co-founder of the Black Zine Fair. Their work has been exhibited or collected by the Brooklyn Museum, the Barnard Zine Library, The Kitchen, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art Library. Neta received a graduate degree in Interactive Telecommunications from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Her practice empowers people to critically engage with technology; embody abolitionist, Black feminist, and do-it-yourself philosophies; and co-create liberatory systems.
she/they
Emma Rae Bruml practices writing and teaching. She is an artist and a scholar who studies the history of the computer mouse. In other words, Emma studies the space between humans and computers
Applications open until Applications closed on June 1, 2020.
You can expect to hear back from us about the status of your application on . Please email us at admissions@sfpc.study with any questions you have.
For 10 classes, it costs $1200 + processing fees, for a one-time payment. We also offer payment plans. Participants can schedule monthly payments of the same amount. First and last payments must be made before the start and end of class. *Processing fees apply for each payment.
SFPC processes all payments via Withfriends and Stripe. Please email admissions@sfpc.study if these payment options don't work for you.
For more information about what we look for in applicants, scholarships, and other frequently asked questions, please visit our applicant FAQ.
Interested in more learning opportunities at the School for Poetic Computation? Join our newsletter to stay up to date on future sessions and events, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Support our programming through scholarships. Get in touch over email.
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