CC Fest · Creative AI / ML camp · free & virtual

What is the machine actually doing?

A field manual for taking generative systems apart — how they write, imagine, and move. Browser tools, session plans, and worksheets for educators, artists, and students — no coding, no accounts, no live AI needed.

Three Saturdays · July 11 / 18 / 25 · interest form due July 4 · dates & logistics →

Recorded · async-friendly · global time zones welcome — can't make 9am PT? the async route is a full path →

Tool principle — every tool makes something invisible visible.

campaign board · live previewgenerating · temp 0.9

Learnp=.41 ingp=.87 Machp=.34 inesp=.92

a free creative AI camp — text, images, video — for educators, artists, students & curious learners.

Fig. 01 — Textone token at a time

Text is sequential.

Fig. 02 — Imagesall pixels at once

Images are spatial.

Fig. 03 — Videocoherence over time

Video has to remember.

3+Core sessions + studio

25Launch-ready tools

3Media taken apart

5Participation pathways

§ 00 · Start here

three quick starts — full route guide · five ways to take part →

Teach / Design

Run Session 1.

Open the facilitation guide, pick a pathway, and use the text tools without requiring student accounts.

Facilitation guide → Use

Start with a visible machine.

Break text into tokens, adjust temperature, and see prediction become something you can point at.

Open the Tokenizer → Critical / No-AI

Use the no-AI pathway.

Participate through critique, consent, observation, and unplugged activities without direct generation.

See the pathway →

§ 01 · Sessions

predict → change one thing → document what moved

Three core sessions plus optional studio. One investigation arc.

campaign signal · modality arc

Text becomes pixels becomes frames becomes evidence.

The same investigation loop moves through each medium: predict, change one thing, compare what moved, then name the human decision.

Text

Machines that write

Tokens, prediction, temperature, and the illusion of meaning.

Open session → 02

Images

Machines that imagine

Pixels, features, diffusion, prompts, and visual defaults.

Open session → 03

Video

Machines that move

Time, drift, coherence, anchoring, and video failure.

Open session → 04

Showcase

Optional studio · human in the loop

Evidence, reflection, classroom adaptation, and critique.

Open session →

§ 02 · Tool index

single-file · browser-based · no accounts

tool index · machine in motion

Small machines, each exposing one mechanism.

Filter by modality, then inspect the visible thing: a token distribution, a denoising path, a drifting frame, or a documented claim.

Start with the session essentials.

The small set of tools featured live in the Zoom sessions. The full catalog — including the go-deeper and studio tools — is one click away.

Open full tool index →

§ 03 · Method

the habit students carry out of the camp

Treat every tool like an experiment.

Not “play with the AI.” Investigate it. The loop is the same in every session, across every modality.

Naming rule — not “it was weird.” Name the specific behaviour: a default, a failure, a pattern.

Predict

Before running anything, write down what you expect to happen.

Change one variable

Adjust one setting, prompt, or input. Hold everything else still.

Compare the evidence

What actually appeared? How does it match your prediction?

Name what the machine did

Default, failure, or pattern — say it precisely.

Decide what the human does next

Revise, reject, document — or turn it into a project or lesson, and loop back.

§ 04 · Pathways

every activity, five ways in

Five ways to take part

The same five verbs used everywhere in the camp — the quick starts above are three of them. Opting out of direct AI use never means opting out: see the No-AI pathway for the full route.

Use

Try a tool directly and document what happens.

Observe / Critique

Analyse pre-generated examples without logging into a tool.

Teach / Design

Create a lesson, worksheet, or facilitation plan.

Build / Code

Make an explainer or a small interactive tool.

Critical / No-AI

Write a critique, consent checklist, model card, or unplugged activity.

Join the camp — it's free.

Three Saturdays · July 11 / 18 / 25 · 9–11 am PT · virtual · no coding, no accounts. Interest form due July 4.

§ 05 · Materials

for facilitators and participants

For facilitators

Run Console · live cockpitRun-of-show, paste link & launch per step Camp 2026 · Dates & LogisticsTimezones, recordings, on-ramp Session Link SheetOne canonical link per tool, per session Session 1 FacilitationText, prediction, ELIZA No-AI FacilitationTool list, language, and session plan All facilitator materialsGuides, consent protocol, checklists

Worksheets & participant paths

Vocabulary Field GuidePlain-language glossary with tool links Field NotebookLocal notes, saved pages, worksheet work No-AI PathwayParticipate without direct generation Further ReadingCritical & intersectional · fiction & philosophy AI Access & InequalityWho can use this at all · free & low-cost ways in AI Use + ConsentNorms, pathways, recap permissions All participant materialsWorksheets, packs, reading, hands-on

AI use in development

These tools were designed and revised with LLM assistance, including Claude and ChatGPT. Because this camp studies AI systems, that assistance stays visible, reviewed, and open to critique — see the build story for the full timeline.

Classroom origins

Grew from Saber Khan and Danny Gámez’s course Generative AI as a Creative Collaborator at Campbell Hall School. The goal isn’t to make AI feel magical — it’s to make mechanisms, defaults, failures, and judgment visible.

Consent & context

Public sharing should follow the Consent Protocol. For the full frame, read the Project Brief or visit the original CC Fest Coding Camp.