This document reads the full Spring 2026 cohort and tracks how the session plan adapted to the people who showed up. It was written before Session 1 and has been updated after each session to reflect what actually happened, what shifted, and what the tools and sessions need to serve going forward.
The cohort is ~29 participants across two registration waves, spanning 12 countries and a wide range of backgrounds. This is not a coding camp cohort. It's a community of practice that happens to be learning to code together. That distinction matters for how sessions are framed.
Returning participants (4) who know the structure, can troubleshoot, and add credibility to the community layer.
Music practitioners (3) who came through different doors — algorithmic composition, DJ/beatmaking, performance — but converge on the same question: what can code do with sound and rhythm?
Civic/urban data people (2) whose work is about making invisible systems visible — one through city planning data, one through ecological geospatial work.
Climate/neuroarts practitioners (2) whose work bridges science communication, embodied experience, and community health.
Deaf/neurodivergent-focused educators (2) in different institutional contexts — graduate students, high school — but facing overlapping questions about access and representation in creative coding.
FAB Lab / MakerSpace educators (2) who think in terms of physical making, low-cost tools, and rural or under-resourced access.
Math/CS educators (2) who want to integrate creative coding into technical courses — one in high school CS, one in mixed-grade math.
Complete beginners (6+) who have almost no coding background but strong creative or pedagogical practice.
Async-only participants (4–5) who won't attend most or all live sessions and need an explicit alternative path.
Guest: Shristi Singh
Session 1 ran as planned. The postcard framing, three-version assignment, and tools (Color Explorer, Postcard Studio) all worked. The opening surfaced the cohort's range — participants heard from a Juilliard-trained composer, a FAB Lab coordinator in Guatemala, and an urban designer at a city mayor's office in the same introductions round. That range became the program's identity.
Async participants received catch-up prompts linking directly to the tools. The Color Explorer and Postcard Studio were positioned as "start here, no experience needed" entry points, which worked well.