⚠️ Photosensitivity Warning Patternflow displays rapidly changing light patterns that may trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised. If you experience any discomfort, stop use immediately.
Turning four physical knobs reshapes patterns from creative coding on an LED matrix in real time. The light is no longer a visual effect to be watched but a multisensory experience connected directly to the motion of the hand.
Audiences do not stop at appreciating a finished piece. Through the publicly released hardware files, firmware, 3D models, web preview, and AI prompts, anyone can build their own Patternflow, generate their own patterns, test them in the browser, and upload them to the device.
Patternflow returns to Nam June Paik's Participation TV in the technological conditions of the present.
Where Participation TV showed that the audience could intervene in an electronic image, Patternflow proposes the step that comes after participation. The audience can move from operating the work to making, modifying, and sharing it as creators.
It is a living system in which a physical experience extends outward into open-source making and community creation.
Build it from the files, or wait for the kit.
👉 Ready to build? Follow the Current Full Build Guide (docs/BUILD.md) to assemble your own Patternflow from scratch! You can also explore the modular Assembly Map (docs/assembly/README.md) for alternative enclosure and electronics paths.
v2.0.0 is live. Cold-boot fix, runtime pattern switching, browser flasher, Live Editor, journal, build map, and AI-assisted custom patterns.
The Live Editor opens with a preset library of nearly 30 patterns — a month of daily pattern-making, each loadable in one click and remixable right in the browser. It's the fastest way to see the range of what the system makes, and every preset is a starting point you can edit, preview, and reflash.
On the device, PatternFlow OS v2.0.0 ships with two base patterns:
- Origin — concentric sine waves sampled by an emergent grid
- Wave Saw — rotated sawtooth waves with fractal noise distortion
Long-press encoder 4 to switch between patterns on the device — all bundled in a single firmware image, no reflashing needed.
New pattern studies go up on Instagram almost daily, and the Discord patterns channel goes further — it mirrors every post and collects the community's own creations, each with full JavaScript source, a hardware-tested C++ header, and the design notes behind it. Come for a pattern you saw on a post, stay to share your own.
Patternflow ships with a prompt template designed for AI coding assistants (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.). To make a new pattern:
- Go to the Live Editor in the Pattern section on patternflow.work and click Copy creation prompt.
- Paste it into your AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.) along with a description of the look you want.
- Copy the generated JavaScript code, paste it into the Live Editor, and turn the virtual knobs in the web preview to test the pattern.
- Once you are happy with the visuals, click Copy C++ prompt in the editor and send it to your AI assistant.
- Save the C++ output as a new
pattern_*.hfile in thefirmware/patternflow/folder. - Register the namespace in
pattern_registry.h. - Open
firmware/patternflow/patternflow.inoin Arduino IDE and upload your custom build.
No GLSL or rendering pipeline knowledge needed. The template handles the encoder mapping, brightness curve, and HUB75 buffer interface; you describe the visuals.
Custom patterns require a local Arduino IDE compile/upload step for now.
Patternflow can react to browser audio over Wi-Fi. The recommended workflow is the experimental Chrome/Edge extension in tools/patternflow-audio-extension: it captures the current tab's audio, analyzes four FFT bands, and sends lightweight WebSocket knob values to the device. The firmware converts those values into virtual encoder motion, so every encoder-driven pattern can respond without adding audio code to each pattern.
The device still serves a built-in page at http://patternflow.local/ when Wi-Fi is configured. Keep it around for file playback, microphone input, and local experiments; browser tab/system audio capture is more reliable through the extension because normal http://patternflow.local pages are limited by browser capture permissions.
- patternflow.work — browser flasher, Live Editor, journal, build map
- Releases — stable bundles
- Discord — questions, builds, custom patterns
- Audio Extension — experimental Chrome/Edge tab-audio controller
Patternflow is built around a standalone ESP32-S3 driving a HUB75 RGB LED matrix at low resolution — each pixel reads as a discrete point of light, with its own brightness and color. Four rotary encoders feed firmware written in Arduino-compatible C++ around a modular pattern architecture: each pattern is a self-contained module with its own setup, update, and draw routines, while the shared framework handles input, LED rendering, mode transitions, and color calibration. The PCB was designed by the artist; the enclosure is 3D-printed by default, with stainless steel, transparent acrylic, and laser-cut variations in progress.
firmware/— Arduino code for ESP32-S3, plus the custom pattern templatehardware/— enclosure files and electronics source files (case, PCB, Gerbers, schematic PDF)web/— Next.js site (landing, browser flasher, Live Editor, journal)docs/— build paths, build guide, media, license summarytools/— desktop-side helpers, including the experimental audio-react browser extension
Guidelines for contributing to the repository are currently under preparation. In the meantime, please refer to the CONTRIBUTING.md file for more information.
| When | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Jan 2026 | Built Patternflow Origin, the first pattern · visited the Nam June Paik Art Center |
| Mar 2026 | First experiments with LEDs and potentiometers |
| Apr 2026 | First prototype · strong response on Reddit and Instagram — the community asked for the files, not a product, so Patternflow went open source · first PCB fabricated (sponsored by PCBWay) · website live |
| May 2026 | Continuous pattern development · Crowd Supply agreement · Discord community growing · a Paris-based creative technologist joins as the first collaborator |
| Jun 2026 | First community-made pattern shared · 3D-printed enclosure in production (sponsored by PCBWay) |
| Next | Contribution guide & issue cleanup · Crowd Supply campaign · growing a sustainable business · wider outreach · continued development |
📖 Longer write-ups and the full story behind each step live on the journal.
Patternflow's PCB fabrication and 3D-printed enclosure are sponsored by PCBWay. The first PCB came back clean and on-spec, ordering was straightforward, and the team has been genuinely responsive throughout — the support that made these milestones possible. The 3D-printed enclosure parts are in production now; this section will be updated with photos once they arrive.
The first Patternflow PCB, fabricated by PCBWay.
- Firmware & web — MIT (LICENSE-MIT)
- Hardware & designs — CC-BY-SA 4.0 (LICENSE-CC-BY-SA)
"Patternflow" is a trademark of SeungHun Lee.
The Patternflow series: LED Synthesizer (2026) · Origin (2026)
