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

What kind of device can you make that works off a single button?

We are looking for devices that explore the depths of this always useful, sometimes obsessive, sometimes frustratingly opaque, completely ubiquitous, most minimal of interactive Inputs, the lowly button. Make a work of art, a Heath Robinson device, a one button game, a robot – your only constraint is your imagination (plus being limited to using just a single button as input).

Rules:

1. There must be a physical button for people to press.
2. Pressing the button must activate the device in some fashion, whether physically, metaphorically, or intellectually

Devices will be selected by our panel of expert button jockeys for installation in the One Button Devices exhibition at the Brick Box art space in Brixton Market, London.   The installation will run from November 11th until the 18th, with a public opening party on the 11th. We will select as many devices as can fit in the space, so smaller devices with less intensive and complex setups are preferred.

Please send us a document that describes the concept of your device in less than 300 words, with one or more illustrative diagrams or pictures. Please also send us a technical rider that explains the installation requirements of your device such as space needed, health and safety issues, and any equipment you would need to set it up.

A 6 week immersion into making art in a digital age.  Through hands-on workshops, talks, lively discussions, and local gallery and studio trips we explore the current state of digital art and gain some hands-on skills.  We will use free, open source tools such as Processing and Arduino, look into digital color theory, interactive hardware and sensors, and discuss techniques and ideas, with the goal of creating an interactive work of art by the end.

Schedule: Wednesday nights at SPACE Studios in Hackney from 7-9PM starting Oct. 13.

Cost: £120 for 6 weeks (does not include materials such as Arduinos)

Please register at: http://digitalartanalogueworld.eventbrite.com or email us.

Concessions available – please email reserve@openlabworkshops.org for details.

Last one of the year! Going out with a bang.  Third Thursdays workshops return to Space Studios in January, keep your eyes peeled for upcoming events!  Thanks for all your support this year, we couldn’t do this without you.  You are the sunshine in our lives, the wind beneath our wings, the spark in our step, the heat in our fire, the evil metal heart in our bloody-minded killer robot.  See you soon!

http://openlabworkshops.org

When: Thursday 19 November, from 6pm-10:00pm

Where: Space Studios, 129 – 131 Mare St, Hackney E8 3RH

Nearest transport: Bethnal Green (tube), London Fields (Overground), Buses – see http://www.spacestudios.org.uk/contact/SPACE/

Cost: £15 for the entire night, or per workshop (see below).
How to pay: At the door, or via Paypal to be guaranteed a space (limited to 30 people per workshop).  Please email or Paypal reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve a space in any workshop.

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6PM – Graphic Design Using Inkscape with Jake Rayson

Graphic design for the masses!  You know that you need to do that flow chart, wireframe, presentation, or cute portrait of your cat using vector graphics (so you can blow it up to wall size and scare the fur off her back), but you don’t want to plunk down £1000+ for Adobe CS5.  That’s where open source vector graphics program Inkscape comes in.  Jake will take you through the basics, and was nice enough to provide a detailed list of them:

1. Welcome to Inkscape v0.47!
2. Creating images: Bitmap vs. Vector
3. Using images: Print vs. Web
4. Shapes: fill, stroke, transform.
5. The wonder of Bezier Curves.
6. Creating type.
7. Crack Compound Paths.
8. Combining bitmap & vector.
9. Export for Web!

Please download Inkscape from http://inkscape.org/ before the workshop, but if you can’t, then we’ll have some copies laying about.

7:45PM – Animation in Processing with Alias

So you know Processing and/or Flash, now how do you make your pretty graphics move around the screen in ways more interesting than left-to-right and then right-to-left?  Cue Alias and “Animation in Processing.”  In this workshop, we will cover the basics of getting things moving in Processing, starting with simple 2D sprites, moving on to more complex concepts like using tween equations, and finally touching on 3D animation using OpenGL.  This is an intermediate level workshop – a little knowledge of Processing is advisable, but you should be able to pick things up if you are reasonably familiar with the basic concepts.

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