Openlab Workshops’ mission is to use open source and free software tools and knowledge to both inspire and enable creativity. Since 2009 we’ve developed and taught over 24 workshops in such areas as Programming for artists, Processing for designers, Interactive lighting, Livecoding, Arduino, and Sound generation and analysis.

Technology Will Save Us is Hackney based alternative education space and haberdashery for technology. We believe in lowering the barrier of entry to technology to enable people to produce and not just consume technology.

For Kinetica this year, Openlab Workshops is pleased to partner with our friends from Technology Will Save Us to offer three fun filled days of drop-in workshops. We welcome everyone from artists, and designers to students, professionals, tinkerers and families. Join us to build lighting fixtures that respond to the world around us, or magically make music out of simple electronic circuitry. If you already have a project or idea and want to know how to bring it to life, enter our contest and win an opportunity to get personalised feedback from our professional panel of experts.

All workshops will include friendly instructions from our lovely facilitators and all the kit you need to make something and take it home with you when you leave.

OpenLab Workshops:
About us: http://openlabworkshops.org/about/

Technology Will Save Us:
http://www.technologywilsaveus.org
http://learn.plankman.com

Workshops:

The Art of Soldering (1 hr sessions, every hour from 11am-7pm, Friday-Sunday. Advance booking not necessary, please pay at the front desk).
Drop into one of our hourly soldering sessions and learn how to make music out of simple electronic circuitry. We provide all the electronics, parts and guidance you need to learn basic soldering while building a sound and light toy.
Level: Ages 9 and up, all skill levels (because: soldering irons are too hot for small fingers.)
Cost: £12/10 for individuals with group rates available (includes kit of parts to make an sound making instrument for you to take home)

Synth Sounds of Circuits (2 hr sessions, 12pm & 4pm, Friday-Sunday. Advance booking recommended or pay at the front desk on the day)
Using basic circuitry, we will create some sound-making machines to impress your friends and astound your enemies. Does not involve soldering. We provide an exploratory kit of electronic parts, sensors and expert guidance. You provide both yourself and your creativity. Result: sonic cacophony for people of all abilities.
Level: All ages and skills (warning: Small parts are suitable for younger kids who might eat them.)
Cost: £18/15 for individuals with group rates available (includes kit of sound-making electronics and a snazzy booklet for you to take home)

Interactive Lighting with DMX and Arduino (2 hr session, 2pm Friday-Sunday. Advance booking recommended)
Fancy sending ripples of light shimmering through your bedroom, or building an stylishly interactive chandelier to impress dinner guests? Do all that and more using the DMX Arduino shield from this workshop and an open source Arduino device, combined with some off-the-shelf lighting fixtures. Good for designers, architects, VJs, and others who appreciate some responsive lighting.
Level: Ages 15 and up. Some basic familiarity with programming required.
Cost: £34/28 (includes special DMX Arduino shield kit for you to take home)
Requires: a laptop with Arduino downloaded (http://arduino.cc). Arduino Uno kits recommended.

Experts’ Surgery (Saturday Night Event)
Do you have an idea for an interactive art project, but need some guidance as to how to pull it off? Are you immobilised by all of the options and technical possibilities? Propose a project to us for a chance to participate in a very small group session with our panel of top interactive artists. We pick a selection of the best proposals and invite their authors to come present their projects to our experts for some personal assistance.
Cost: £10 entry fee to submit a proposal, free to watch the event.

To book: email reserve@openlabworkshops.org

We’re very pleased to announce our new schedule of workshops for early 2011!  For starters, we’re offering three multi-week workshops on the ever-popular topic of Interactive Lighting, a new foray into 3D Animation, and an update on the classic introduction to Processing & Arduino. All workshops will take place form 7-9:30PM at SPACE STUDIOS, 129—131 Mare Street, London E8 3RH.  More details and a payment like is below, or if you’d like more information, would like a concession rate, or would rther pay via bank transfer or some other method, please email us at reserve@openlabworkshops.org.

Also, we’ll soon be announcing a weekend of workshops at London’s premiere digital art fair, the Kinetica Art Fair, coming up February 4-6, 2011! Keep up to date with us via the email list (link above) , Twitter feed, or right here on the blog.

Workshops for January to March 2011:

1) SOLD OUT! Make your own Interactive Lighting Artwork with Daniel Hirschmann (using Arduino and DMX).

Hands-on strategies for controlling lighting in art, architecture, and beyond.

There has been an explosion of LED lighting installations and interactive technologies in the art world recently. This is inspiring artists and designers to use interactive elements in their own light-based works. If you’re equally inspired, this course is for you.

By demonstrating methods and technologies for using existing interactive systems, this course will help you create your own responsive light art works. Using the open source Arduino as our platform, we will:

• Cover the DMX lighting control standard in depth
• Offer strategies for building responsive lighting systems
• Use off-the-shelf controllable DMX fixtures
• Explore a variety of sensors

By the end of the course, you will produce your own interactive lighting project.

Level: Mixed beginner. Very basic familiarity with any kind of programming is recommended.
Cost: £165 (includes most required equipment)
Schedule: 5 x 2.5 hr sessions on Wednesdays starting January 19th, with a one-week break for Kinetica

2) CANCELED – 3D Animation using Processing with Olivier Ruellet and Evan Raskob

The basic concepts and techniques of 3D animation, presented in Processing.

This course is for people wishing to push their animation practice using free, open source software.  During the course, we will:

• Cover the practical aspects of handling 3D data and transformations
• Explore procedural methods of animation
• Get to grips with 3D-related concepts and methods (3D coordinates, cameras, lights, shapes, movement)
• Apply all of this to a project of your choice

Level: Intermediate. Basic experience of Processing necessary.
Cost: £85
Schedule: 4  x 2.5 hrs sessions on Tuesdays starting February 8th

3) SOLD OUT! Introduction to Processing and Arduino with Evan Raskob (more info & schedule)

Hands-on starter kit for anyone interested in interactive art

This course is for complete beginners who have an interest in the possibilities of interactive art. We will introduce how to create interactive art using both computers (screens and projection) and hardware (sensors, motors, servos, LEDs).

We will use the free, open source software Processing for computer graphics, the open source hardware platform Arduino and the Firmata library to create our own physical devices that control light, sound, and video.  By the end of the course, the goal is to create a device that interacts with the physical world.

Level: Beginner. No experience necessary.
Cost: £85
Schedule: 4 x 2.5 hrs sessions on Tuesdays starting March 1st