Livecoding the SynthKit: Little Bits as an Embodied Programming Language

LittleBits (little Bits.cc) is an open-source hardware library of pre-assembled analogue components that can be easily assembled into circuits, disassembled, reassembled, and re-used. In this paper, we consider littleBits - and the littleBits SynthKit in particular -- as a physically-embodied domain specific programming language. We describe the littleBits system, explain how littleBits "programs" are constructed as configurations of physical modules in the real world, and describe how they are typically used to control physical artefacts or constructions. We then argue that littleBits constructions essentially "visualise themselves". We describe how littleBits' liveness, embodiment, and plasticity assists both learning and debugging, and then evaluate littleBits configurations according to the cognitive dimensions of notations.