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Zach

Blogging

Hi. I'm Zach.

I am a software engineer, creative technologist, and sewist. I am a millennial who made Geocities sites in elementary school and loved computers & the internet ever since ... until now. My work is me trying to reckon with the contorted form the technology that once felt countercultural and liberating, that once felt like an infinite free library full of possibility, has been deteriorated by corporate control and opportunistic manipulation.

I'm interested in how the digital world impacts the physical world, how online norms influence our everyday culture, how productivity tools impact our memory, and how online culture changes our internal sense of identity.

My Work

Sewing

Ever since I had first seen a Longfurby I immediately envisioned a longfurby version of Björk's iconic 2001 swan dress. So, armed with the internet, I taught myself how to sew and refined my craft for 6 months til I could make it myself! I wore it to a drag festival, with this being my first and only time ever in drag. Captured viaGothamistFjürby, 2021, tulle + faux fur + fake feather trim.

In this last year, as a reaction to the selectivism of the "y2k revival" pushed by capital-F Fashion, I have made a couple garments to highlight the chaotic environment online, to avoid it being erased from our cultural memory of the era. Memes now have the lifecycle of fast-fashion, and have a real-world commodified crossover. Memes of the early 2000s were largely unintentional multi- which in that era never broke out of the screenh and into the real world in the way contemporary internet culture gets commodified.

Goatse (1999) is a symbol recognizable to anyone who had it sprung upon them. The type of brand-recognition that Fashion strives for. Alas, it's an image so toxic that it's been left untouched from commodification. Wearing them often leads to discussions of our online upbringings.Flat presentation of the back of denim shorts with embroidered hand-shaped pockets that emulate the hands of the original Goatse image (ring included!). The back crotch seam is heavily frayed. The hem is left raw to also be lightly frayed.Close-up shot to highlight the heavily-frayed back crotch seamDenim, 2025.

Visually tamer, Loss (2008) nevertheless had a devastating impact upon me. This webcomic's uncharacteristic breakout earnest moment in response to personal tragedy was met with internet-wide mockery. Teenage me, growing up socially isolated in a hostile conservative midwest town, over-extended the derision to think that no amount of earnest expression was acceptable. The devestation was that it took me a decade to realize that this "rule" I had internalized didn't extend to conversations had with IRL close friends. The context was lost on me.Flat presentation of the front of the denim jacket, with large nickel zippers for the front and pockets, and nickel buttons for breast pockets and cuffs.Flat presentation of the back of the denim jacket. The back panel is divided into a 2x2 grid to resemble the Loss comic's grid. Each panel has a zipper in place of the character positions in the Loss comic, which has frequently been memed with increasingly minimal representations.Denim, 2025.

I've written more about sewing on my other site, sew.clothing

Computing

Beyond my simple functional websites (sew.clothing), I'm increasingly interested in subverting contemporary technology.

My most recent example is a userscript that re-skins ChatGPT to look like Grindr's chat interface. Try it out, and feel the difference.

Screenshot of a web browser with an active tab of a ChatGPT conversaton, visually re-skinned to resemble Grindr's messaging interface. As a joke, this screenshot is of a conersation about the artistic merit of someone making such a userscript.

Does your ChatGPT use now feel dirty? Why? Does it feel like a natural fit for the bot-like impersonal nature of hookup apps? Or, does it make you watn to install it on a friend/coworker who overrelies on AI to think for them?

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