Dillan D.
Simmons

Artist / Writer / Simmons Farm / Engineer at Microsoft Learn

About

I'm an artist, writer, coder, general tinkerer, and Software Engineer at Microsoft Learn. Based in Seattle Washington. I've had the opportunity to work on a number of great projects and my work focuses on bringing design and development together to build functional and visually interesting experiences. I started developing as a hobby in the early 2000's and have been a professional engineer for the past 8+ years. While I prefer the front-end (JavaScript, Typescript, Node, CSS/SASS), I work in back-end and devops code as well.

Art

Artwork on fxhash , objkt | Experiments on CodePen | Pen Plots
* Please be aware after the HEN shutdown it's unclear how well the generative aspect of early projects still work as intended.
Animated gif showing a selection of abstract art
Artistically I've worked heavily in printing (letterpress / relief) and creative writing. Over the past few years I have started bring these methods into digital art created with code. Seeing the value that my professional skills (code) bring to my art has been mesmerizing and lots of fun. Most of my work falls under the category of generative art, meaning the code will output a (nearly) endless array of outputs based on a random hash value. Above is a small selection of different works, if they look alike they are likely from the same algorithm.

Other notes

Outside of the 9 to 5, I have a young son, work on a number of side projects, and due to my proximity to great trout fisheries here in Washington, you can find me fly fishing many weekends.

I'm also an avid reader and movie watcher. Here is my letterboxd. Below is a list of some books I really enjoyed this year+++ (need to read more):
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea , The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories , Zen in the Art of Writing , Hear the Wind Sing + Pinball , Norwegian Wood , Leaving the Atocha Station , Klara and the Sun , The Sea Around Us , Island Year , A Visit from the Goon Squad , Cities of the Plain: Border Trilogy (3/3) , LESS , When We Were Orphans , Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster , The Road to Wigan Pier , Jesus' Son , Brown Dog , All Quiet on the Western Front , The North Cascadians , Storm of Steel , The Sleepwalkers , Barbarian Days , The Apple Grower , Player Piano , Goodbye to All That , Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World , A Wild Sheep Chase , The Buried Giant , History of Fly-Fishing in Fifty Flies , Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman .