Coffee zine

Coffee, play and living

GenAI Agents
DON’T NEED
COFFEE
Like I DO
(Yet)

Coffee, play and living

Timothi Lim

For the UKRI AHRC EDI-AI

SEP ’26

The cover is painted with diagonal turquoise strokes over red, yellow and white. Black handwriting fills the page. Blue and brown lines cross beneath the subtitle. The date is written vertically at the left edge, and a small number 1 appears at the top right.

Feeling recognised

“The agent sounded like me”

At Keisha Thompson’s
Probabilistic Poetry
Workshop, Two AI
Models described me

“Curious / Experimental /
Resilient / Builder”

But neither mentioned
COFFEE

Yet I still felt
recognised

Yellow sweeps fill the upper page, with brown lines crossing through them. Turquoise and green strokes, dotted with red, cross the lower page. COFFEE and recognised are underlined. The page continues the painted lines visible on the adjacent page.

Making or managing?

GenAI gives me extra
capacity to “do” but
I am less comfortable
with how managerial
the process is.

Once I used
to sip coffee
while coding

Now, I can finish
a whole cup while
the agents “work”

Yellow and brown strokes cross the upper half. Blue, green and red marks run beneath the lower text. The page contrasts sipping coffee while coding with drinking a whole cup while agents work. The word coffee has a metallic-looking finish.

Nobody creates alone

BUT I don’t create
alone! Sure, the code
may be done at home,
but the real creating
is done with others.

Even Coffee comes
from the work of
others!

AI has lots of hidden
Labor that isn’t
visible.

My “system of self”
is not just
me!

Yellow strokes occupy the top, and blue and green strokes run along the bottom. Brown lines sweep through the middle and continue across the fold. The phrase system of self is placed diagonally near the bottom. A small part of a finger remains at the photographed lower edge; no writing has been reconstructed.

Playing together

I’m a Gamedev.
But why I make
games is because
I enjoy
Playing
Together

Now I research
how GenAI
and interactive rooms
help strangers and the
public play together.

Playing and Together are large and underlined, bridging the yellow upper portion and the blue-green lower portion. Brown arcs cross the upper text. Small red clusters are scattered near the description of the research.

Who has to adapt?

Matt Hayler’s
Workshop on Neurodiversity
Made me question
Who has to adapt:
the system? other
people? ourself?

Q: What does GenAI
ask/force us to adapt
to?

Red and grey horizontal strokes sit behind the workshop reflection, with yellow dots below. A black arrow points down towards the question. Blue and red paths cross the lower page and continue into page 7.

Behind the machine

Yet GenAI is Probabilistic
So how do we trust?

Jack Wilson’s
Session helped
me think of the
HUMAN DECISIONS
behind the machine

Q: Can you TRUST
those decisions?

Red paint covers much of the upper page. HUMAN DECISIONS is capitalised and underlined. Blue and dashed red lines cross the lower question, continuing from page 6. TRUST is written in large capitals above an underline.

But what is more?

I am still a developer
without coffee

I am still a developer
without GenAI

“As long as I can
Imagine, I can play
and I can make!”

Coffee + GenAI
= MORE

But what is
MORE??

The back cover has broad red and pink strokes, crossed by blue, red and brown lines. Coffee has a metallic-looking finish. The quoted statement sits above Coffee + GenAI = MORE. The final question is large, with turquoise and brown underlines.