Vibe Tennis
A CREATIVE CODING RALLY
Reviving the experimental web, one volley at a time.
Vibe Tennis is an invitational competition where artists with fresh vision and deep wisdom volley ideas, each paired with an AI chatbot as their creative partner. Part game, part experiment, part co-creation, emphasizing feel over function.
Each match challenges players to explore the unexpected, to make work that couldn't exist without both artist and machine.
Competition Updates
Drop your email for the first match announcement and important updates from the Vibe Tennis team.
Origin
Photoshop Tennis flipped the web back in 2001 when Chicago hometown design heroes Field Notes (née Coudal Partners) turned a Photoshop file-swapping competition into Friday must-see-TV for designers all over the world. For nearly a decade, Photoshop Tennis inspired spectators by showcasing the world's best designers in a friendly but serious creative competition.
Three Chicago originals are reopening the court with the support of the original team. Only this time, Ps layers are being traded for vibe-coded commits, enabling a contemporary class of experimentation, expression, and competition.
Why This and Why Now?
We miss the energy of the pre-commercial web, a time when experimentation, learning, and sharing was the aim; when online communities were born of shared passions rather than algorithmic curation.
Vibe Tennis is a return to the community and spirit of that era.
We're not here to ship. We're here to serve.
How a Match Works
Vibe Tennis is a game designed to express creativity. We provide a theme with just enough structure to create tension. Artists volley ideas in concert with a machine that behaves less like a tool and more like a collaborator. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it hallucinates, but it always pushes the match forward.
- Serve The match opens with a foundational offer inviting a creative return. No utilitarian apps, no vaporware product landing pages, just experimental and unconventional vibes pushed over the net.
- Volley The receiver pulls the serve down and twists it up. They create however they see fit, after which they volley their effort back to the server.
- Rally The match consists of 4 volleys per player, after which the match is broadcast to the world.
- Game, Set, Match The crowd is invited to view the finished match and explore the volleys. The match recap and repo will remain available as a living artifact to inspire generations of future players.