Toto Tvalavadze

Hi, I’m Toto—software engineer, fine-art photographer, gallery curator, and independent interface researcher.

This is my working notebook exploring photography processes, handbound books, creative systems, and humane interfaces—a place to log experiments, publish essays, and ship tools.

Newsletter

The Flâneur is an even more meandering version of this website and perhaps the best way to follow me — Instagram is also a-okay too.

Projects

A few projects I’m proud of and focused on. See all 20 projects.

Plaintext Commons
Plaintext Commons – Manifesto for keeping long-form knowledge in durable, human- and agent-friendly files.
project-humane
Arrowhead CLI
Arrowhead CLI – a plain-text search engine and agent bridge for Obsidian vaults
project-humane
Unbound Notebook System
Unbound Notebook System – an analog notebook system that is friendly to thinking and exploration
project-humane

Notes

March 2026

  • Made a leather-bound pillow guestbook with debossed covers—first attempt, and it actually worked!
  • Published whoopy, a CLI client for the Whoop API, written in Go.
  • Published withingy, a similar CLI for the Withings Health API.
  • Published a Go CLI app template on GitHub for quickly spinning up new command-line tools.
  • Started building HyperContext, a local-first personal context store that aggregates health metrics, journal entries, and agent memory into a single searchable interface. Got it to a usable state and began work on CRDT-based sync.
  • Completed the first maquette of Scent of Time—perfect bound from prints cut during a five-hour bookbinding class session. The print house delivered the wrong binding spec (perfect instead of sewn) and shifted the colors, but the prototype served its purpose.
  • Presented Scent of Time at the FotoFilmic Book Program retreat in Ebisu. Three days of reviews with Greg Girard, Takayuki Kobayashi (Flotsam Books), Titus Spree, Naoko Uchima, and Naoko Ohta. Incredible experience and very valuable feedback received. Excited to announce the book and work on it in the open.
  • Visited the Railway Museum in Omiya, Saitama—overwhelming collection, on par with Technik Museum Sinsheim.
  • Flew Tokyo → Rome direct (15 hours). First long-haul nonstop flight ever.
  • Started building a macOS app for plaintext task management. Got it surprisingly fluid on the first day.
  • Received a Space Selfie from CrunchLabs—forgot I even ordered it.
  • Ordered a Saturn 4 Ultra 16K resin printer as the first tool for the Rome studio.
  • Began studio renovations: stripped wallpaper, masked windows, tested primer. The ceiling is intimidating.
  • Visited Centro della Fotografia for its opening exhibition—Irving Penn and Silvia Campironi’s Atlas of Italy series.
  • Saw the Wu Jian’an: Metamorphoses exhibition at the Baths of Diocletian.
  • Visited the Capuchin Crypt. Every photo could double as a death metal album cover.
  • Watched Hoppers (Pixar) in theaters, adorable.

I had lunch at a Georgian restaurant in Rome. Realized I can date when Georgians living in Europe left the country almost to the year by how they present themselves. Possibly a good portrait project to practice portraiture and make a small book.

Highlight of the month was definitely the photo book program retreat in Tokyo. Finally meeting Greg in person and also getting to know many amazing people in the art scene, both teaching and curating. I had an incredible experience and received very valuable feedback. Excited to finally announce the book and work on it in the open.

No less of a big deal is a nice studio space in Rome. It needs remodeling, but Ludo and I already started working on it. It’s big and located quite close to where we live. I love the Kyojima area a lot, but it was a one-hour commute from my Shinjuku house and limited me a bit when I wanted to tinker with books or electronics spontaneously.

Get In Touch

Best way to reach me is via email.

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