dhruv

Music

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I like playing in loops: record a phrase, let the tape wear it down, play along with what comes back. most of it starts on the the same one from the homepage. it wobbles, so everything recorded on it wobbles too.

Photos

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Books

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Currently Reading

I get excited about a lot of books - am often juggling a few.

Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner (music)
Seeing that Frees by Rob Burbea (life)
No Bad Parts by Richard C Schwartz (life)

Anti-Library

What’s an anti-library?

I like thinking about an anti-library as “tsundoku” (積ん読) - the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one’s home without reading them. The term is also used to refer to unread books on a bookshelf meant for reading later. (wikipedia)

A Pattern Language - Christopher Alexander
Finite and Infinite Games - James Carse

Books Read

July 2026

The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu

June 2026

This Is for Everyone by Tim Berners-Lee
Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession
thanks ev!

May 2026

The Healing Hippo Of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama (translated by Takami Nieda)
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
A Modern Way to Live by Matt Gibberd
Drawing Expressive People by Róisín Curé

March 2026

Uneasy Money by PG Wodehouse
Something New by PG Wodehouse

Feburary 2026

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K LeGuin
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K LeGuin
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K LeGuin
The Wind’s Twelve Quarters by Ursula K LeGuin
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K LeGuin

January 2026

Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell

December 2025

On Modern Art by Paul Klee
Zoo of the New by Various
*Modern Japanese prints 1912-1989 * by Lawrence Smith

November 2025

My Year with Swollen Appendices by Brian Eno

October 2025

Zen Guitar by Philip Toshio Sudo

September 2025

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

August 2025

Psmith in the City by PG Wodehouse

July 2025

Mike by PG Wodehouse
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks

June 2025

Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
Listen to This If You Like Great Music by Robin Murray
What Art Does by Bette Adriaanse and Brian Eno

May 2025

A Pebble in Your Pocket by Thich Nhat Hanh
Be in Balance by Angela Bradshaw
Buddhism Beyond Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor
Mood Machine by Liz Pelly
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

March 2025

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
What Artists Wear by Charlie Porter

February 2025

The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten
Pat Metheny Interviews by Richard Niles

December 2024

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

November 2024

Broken Music by Sting
Ringworld by Larry Niven

October 2024

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

September 2024

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

July 2024

Miles Davis: The Definitive Biography by Ian Carr

April 2024

I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Exhalation by Ted Chiang

March 2024

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Classic FM Guide to Classical Music by Darren Henley
Dune by Frank Herbert

Forever Books

Seeing that Frees by Rob Burbea
The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick
The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander

Inspiration

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Here are some things that I’m currently enjoying exploring:

the ideas in The Music Mind by Karl Berger
Paul Motian’s “Bill Evans” album, featuring:
- Bill Frisell
- Scott LaFaro
- Joe Levano
- Marc Johnson
this article about Chopin’s music from Douglas Hofstadter’s book “Metamagical Themas”
contemplations on perception / emptiness from Rob Burbea’s book “Seeing that Frees”
some recent interviews with the musician Bibio

Where Everything is Music

Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

Where Everything is Music is an experiment in interaction with musical lineage.

photo credits Sham Ahmed

It was created out of a manifold desire to encourage curiosity into both music itself, and how music, and its lineage can sometimes be used as a lens to explore cultural history, and the complex ways in which geographies are woven together.

Thoughts on Bench

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

How does your bench, where you stop and contemplate, see the world?

Thoughts on Bench is an interactive experience we created that encourages contemplation and conversation with a sentient bench.

The experience involved people entering a calm space, where a bench was placed overlooking the Bristol Harbourside. They were encouraged to take some time to pause, after which they were asked a series of questions from the perspective of the bench - all of which are intended to offer investigation and insight into an ‘other’ way of perceiving and being.

Distortions 🧠

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

See the app here.

Distortions is a mental health web-app visualising some of the most common cognitive distortions, and how to help break their hold. It illustrates these by giving a description of the distortion, and then outlining a real world example of when this distortion may occur.

About Cognitive Distortions

Cognitive distortions are systematic patterns of thinking that can lead to negative emotions and behaviors. These automatic thought patterns often occur without conscious awareness and can significantly impact mental well-being.

Searching for the Perfect Instrument 🔎

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This project (REVOLVE) is, and extends upon, my master’s thesis, revolving around the use of user-centric genetic algorithms in virtual reality as a means of exploring musical instrument / interaction design space.

The Concept

In simpler terms, this project / experience would randomly create mappings between a virtual reality object, and a simple subtractive synthesizer, forming different links between virtual reality interactions (such as velocity, elevation, rotation etc.) and the inputs to the synthesizer (ASDR envelope levels, pitch, volume etc.).

Senior Full-Stack Contract Engineer | Dhruv Chauhan

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000