UPDATE: The London workshop has been pushed back a week, THERE ARE SPACES STILL AVAILABLE and it will start THIS WED SEPT 8TH instead of Sept 1st. for at least 5 sessions (4 Wednesdays + one or more Tuesdays) so PLEASE EMAIL US NOW!
Also – look at our wiki to see our working outline of the 5 weeks!
One Button Challenge
A combination workshop and challenge to see who can build the most creative device using only a single button for user interaction.
The Idea
In a world where our interaction with technology is dominated by qwerty keyboards, multi-functional hand-held devices, motion-detection controllers and touch screens what becomes of the lowly, single button? Is it still possible to find inventiveness in simplicity?
The One Button Challenge attempts to answer the question – setting this simple limitation as both a physical and creative boundary.
This October, Openlab Workshops and Cybersonica present a One Button Challenge as part of the AND (Abandon Normal Devices) Festival in Manchester, UK.
In the run-up to the event, we are offering both a 5 week workshop in London at (and supported by) SPACE Studios, and an intensive workshop in Manchester on how to design and build your own One Button Device. We trust in your imagination to create devices which will amaze, surprise, entertain, inform, humour and perhaps even offend. So go on, ask yourself what your button would do… and take up the challenge!
At the end of the workshop, participants and instructors will choose two of the best devices to include in the AND Festival.
We Provide:
We will provide some useful electronics (plenty of LEDs, resistors, servos, motors, capacitors, etc) inspirational examples, and hands-on expertise to help guide you through the development of your one-button object.
You Provide:
A creative idea and anything else you require – feathers, knitted objects that can fit buttons inside, LED matrix, solenoids, motors, speakers. We’ll help you choose them based on your project.
You also should have some basic familiarity with Arduino (or basic electronics, if you don’t plan on using one). If you know how to program your Arduino to blink an LED, you’re all set.
What Is A One Button Device?
It has a single button.
When that button is pushed, something happens. Something profound. Something exhilarating. Or at least, minimally entertaining.
It is ready to be installed with minimal fuss.
It is a work of art; a game; a toy; a useful tool; a nihilistic statement of futility.
Photo by Audrey Penven (audreypenven.net) of Jonathan Moore’s Doubt Button exhibited as part of One Button Objects curated by Kokoromi (kokoromi.org) and Create Digital Motion (createdigitalmotion.com) at GAFFTA (gaffta.org), SF, 12 March 2010.
Ok, But WHAT?
Maybe you’d like a more concrete example of some fully-realized One Button Objects: http://www.flickr.com/photos/audreypenven/sets/72157623614749574/
We were very inspired by Heather Kelley of Montreal-based video games collective Kokoromi and Peter Kirn of CreateDigitalMusic who both organized and curated GAMMA IV: One Button Games, earlier this year at the 2010 GDC:
“In an age of sophisticated multi-touch, augmented reality, and sensors, what can be done with a single, lowly button? Inspired by a one-button challenge to game designers for the Gamma game competition, a group of artists, working with sound, interaction, light, and gaming, answers that question. From a plush, beating heart to a drinking game to one-button musical instruments, these handmade circuit objects push the envelope of what a single button can do.”
We are thankful that we have their blessing to run this event!
We were also inspired by Gamasutra’s excellent article on designing one-button games.
Schedule and Cost
The 5-week London workshop will take place every Wednesday night at 7-9:45PM from September 1st 8th until September 29, 2010, at the very well-outfitted SPACE Studios in Hackney. That’s 4 Wednesdays plus one or more Tuesdays, total. This workshop costs £160 for the whole 5 weeks, which includes some very useful electronics (but sadly, not Arduinos for everyone). A £30 deposit is required to secure a spot, with full payment due by the 3rd session.
The Manchester workshop will take place at Cornerhouse from 11am-5pm on October 4 at a cost of £45, including materials. An optional second day will take place on Tuesday, 5th October, 11am-5pm at Fablab Manchester, Ancoats – part of a a global network of local labs, enabling invention by providing access for individuals to tools for digital fabrication and supported by the Manufacturing Institute, introducing you to this fantastic free resource and enabling you to fabricate your own custom made enclosures and/or display mount for your one-button device.
Space is limited! We also have concession rates available. Please email us with any questions.
Reserving a Spot
To reserve a spot, please email reserve@openlabworkshops.org and provide us with your name and a short description of yourself (what you do, what you are interested in, anything else you’d like us to know). We’ll send you back a confirmation of your place and payment information.
Press Release
Cybersonica and Openlab Workshops with the Abandon Normal Devices (AND) Festival, Manchester, UK, ask:
What kind of device would you build that is activated solely by the push of a single button?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LONDON and MANCHESTER, UK, August 24, 2010: From September through October 2010, open source software educator Openlab Workshops and digital arts organisation Cybersonica challenge anyone interested in makings things for themselves to conceive, design and build a device with a single button input. What this device actually does once its button is pressed is entirely up to them.
In a world where our interaction with technology is dominated by qwerty keyboards, multi-functional hand-held devices, motion-detection controllers and touch screens what becomes of the lowly, single button? Openlab and Cybersonica’s One Button Challenge uses this physical and creative boundary to inspire inventiveness from simplicity.
This October, Openlab Workshops and Cybersonica present a One Button Challenge as part of the AND (Abandon Normal Devices) Festival in Manchester. In the run-up to the event, they are offering both a 5 week workshop in London at (and supported by) SPACE Studios and an intensive workshop in Manchester on how to design and build your own One Button Device. Both workshops culminate in an ‘interventionist’ display of one button objects starting October 5 in Manchester, throughout the conference hub and its environs. An online blog will document the progress of the workshops their final, public outcome.
The first workshop series will take place weekly on Wednesday nights, from September 1st until September 29th, 2010 at the media lab in SPACE Studios, 129 Mare St, Hackney, London.
The second workshop series will take place at Cornerhouse in Manchester from 11am-5pm on October 5 and 11am-5pm at FabLab, also in Manchester.
One Button Challenge is inspired by One Button Objects – a collection of playful interactive circuit-based creations presented at the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA), SF, 12 March 2010 and co-curated by Heather Kelley from Kokoromi (kokoromi.org) and Peter Kirn from Create Digital Music (createdigitalmusic.com) and Create Digital Motion (createdigitalmotion.com).
One Button Challenge is part of a season of collaborative activity organised jointly by Cybersonica and Openlab Workshops which also includes Make It Yourself – an exhibition of inventive Arduino and DIY electronic-circuitry projects to accompany the major solo exhibition Recorders by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer at Manchester Art Gallery between 18 September 2010 to 30 January 2011.
Openlab Workshops (http://openlabworkshops.org) are London’s leading independent organizer of workshops in art and technology using free software. Since 2009 they fulfill the need for practical education about digital art and technology by providing workshops focusing on open source and free software, with its idealistic emphasis on transparency, knowledge-sharing, and international collaboration. Workshops are developed and taught by working artists and media practitioners, giving participants access to direct, practical experience. Topics include: programming for artists and designers, interactive lighting, and sound design.
Cybersonica (http://www.cybersonica.org) is an annual celebration of electronic music, sonic art and audiovisual experimentation. Now in its eighth year, their rolling schedule of collaborative events and projects are a key destination for anyone interested in the theory and practice of how new technologies are shaping and changing the way musicians, digital artists, audiovisualisers and creative software developers make and present their work. Cybersonica’s programming brings together a vibrant community of sonic and audiovisual innovation, nurtures new talent and showcases the freshest and latest work in the field.
Abandon Normal Devices (AND) (http://www.andfestival.org.uk) is a cross-regional festival of new cinema and digital culture that spills from screens and galleries into the streets and imaginations of the Northwest. During 01- 07 October 2010 AND ventures into Manchester and Cheshire – investigating how normality is closely intertwined with the constructing and collapsing of identities. Expect cinematic shenanigans, installations, online projects, work in public spaces, debates, workshops and live events.
Contact: Evan Raskob (info@openlabworkshops.org) or Lewis Sykes (lewis@cybersonica.org) for more information.
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This 2-day workshop will take place on Tuesday 6 & 13 April at 
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