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Cultivating curiosity in creative coding with Matthew Ragan

Cultivating curiosity in creative coding with Matthew Ragan

In this podcast you will learn why curiosity matters more than technical skill.  

In this interview, Matthew Ragan explores coding as a practice of sculpting and rehearsal, showing how collaboration with technology leads to more fluid and sustainable creative outcomes.

Matthew Ragan is a California-based creative technologist, educator, and co-founder of SudoMagic. He has an MFA in interdisciplinary digital media and performance. His TouchDesigner tutorials are used by creatives worldwide.

Listen to this podcast to learn about:

  • Why curiosity and patience matter more than technical skill in creative coding
  • What Matthew Ragan’s circus training revealed about working with technology as a collaborator rather than an obstacle.
  • Why “slow coding” offers a sustainable counterbalance to the culture of instant results.

 

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Chapters

  • (00:00:00) Introduction and host's acknowledgment
  • (00:00:48) Guest introduction: Matthew Ragan
  • (00:01:15) The importance of curiosity in creative coding
  • (00:02:31) Exploring noise algorithms and sculpting
  • (00:05:08) Lessons from circus performance to coding
  • (00:07:17) Balancing creative and commercial projects
  • (00:09:15) Matthew's journey into coding
  • (00:22:03) Choosing the right tools and languages
  • (00:24:03) Advice for newcomers and final thoughts
  • (00:30:55) Conclusion and call to action

About Matthew Ragan  

Matthew Ragan is a California-based creative technologist, educator, and artist whose work bridges performance and technology. With a background in acting, dance, and circus arts, he brings embodied lessons of rehearsal and collaboration into his creative coding practice. He has shaped a generation of artists through his widely used TouchDesigner tutorials, and professionally he has led large-scale projects at Obscura Digital and the Madison Square Garden Company, including Art on theMart and the MSG Sphere. He is the co-founder of SudoMagic, a boutique software and design studio.

Takeaways from this interview with Matthew Ragan

Curiosity

“The one thing that maintains a lot of your longevity in kind of exploring what it is to be a creative coder, I think. The piece that comes back to me is wanting to stay curious and to cultivate your curiosity in the world, because I think ultimately that’s kind of a foundational piece of what helps you keep pursuing and chasing ideas and trying to create new things, is being curious about the world.”

For Matthew, curiosity is not just a starting point, but a way of sustaining creative energy over time. It is the drive that keeps ideas alive and pushes exploration forward.

Coding as sculpting

“I think… whether it’s noise or whether it’s code in general, the way that you access and think about some of those ideas is working with a form or something that has a set of rules… how do you push that a little bit further one way or pull it closer to you in another way?”

For Matthew, coding is not an abstract or purely intellectual act. It is sculptural, iterative, and performative, more like rehearsal in theatre or dance than engineering.

Working with, not against, technology

“The more you resisted the apparatus, the more it hurt… when I found a way to relax into it… and think about how I’m collaborating with it, those were the moments that changed my relationship.”

From circus training, Matthew learned that resistance to the apparatus creates friction and pain. He applies the same principle to coding: technology becomes a partner when you lean into it rather than fight against it.

Curiosity and patience matter more than skill

“My strange beginnings for code were actually Excel spreadsheets… I was deeply curious about what my sleep trends were. What are my activity trends? ” 

Matthew emphasises that curiosity, not technical expertise, was his entry point. Patience and slow exploration remain central to his creative practice, showing that creative coding is less about raw skill and more about sustained curiosity.

The gift of deadlines

“Sometimes setting a deadline is really about a gift that you’re giving yourself.”

Constraints such as deadlines and frameworks provide focus, preventing endless wandering and allowing curiosity to become productive exploration.

Slow coding

“Coding for me has always been such an endeavour of patience and slow contemplation… the good souffle actually takes the time to craft.” 

Matthew likens coding to cooking: you can’t rush a souffle. In the same way, creative coding needs time to develop flavour, depth, and complexity.

Advice—Focus on Expression, Not Just Tools

“Pick a framework, pick a scripting language, and pick a shading language… then it’s less about how I make the thing work, and more about how I express a particular idea.”

For newcomers, Matthew suggests starting small and focusing on expression rather than tools. His advice reframes learning as cultivating curiosity, not mastering technical detail.

Links from this podcast with Matthew Ragan

Posted 27-09-2025