We’re happy to announce another Introductory Processing workshops plus two shiny new workshops running at the lovely and well-outfitted SPACE Studios, this April to June: one aimed at creating interactive lighting installations using Arduino, LEDs, and DMX, and another where we explore using Processing to visualize data, learning some techniques of data sorting and visualization along the way.

Interactive Lighting With Arduino

First, we’re offering a new workshop from Arduino and interactive design guru Daniel Hirschmann:

With the ubiquity of LED lighting installations, artists and designers are looking at ways of introducing interactive elements to light based works. This class is intended to demonstrate methods and technologies to interface and create one’s own responsive light art works. Using the open source Arduino as our platform, over the course of 5 weeks, participants will learn how to use sensor information to effect their light pieces. By using various electronic components and techniques we will demonstrate how to expand the outputs of the Arduino. We will cover the DMX lighting control standard in depth – offering strategies for building responsive lighting systems with off the shelf DMX controllable fixtures. By the end of the class, participants will produce their own interactive lighting project.

Taking place on 4 consecutive Monday nights from 6:30-9:30PM at SPACE from April 26 to May 17 inclusive, with a final open workshop session on June 7.  The cost will be £160, paid upfront, unless you make other arrangements with us.  The cost includes a custom circuit board and electronic components necessary for the workshop.
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Intermediate Processing: Visualizing Data

Dry as the title may sound, this workshop will be an inspiring tour of projects using data in art and design, and the techniques behind them.  Visualizing data is a great way to learn more about Processing and what’s possible with software and visuals, because let’s face it, most of what we do in the digital world is taking data from one source (e.g. temperature, twitter messages, the daily length of your toenails) and converting it to another form (e.g. a bar graph).  In a scant 4 weeks, you will learn:

1. How to use data to create interesting visual imagery
2. What XML is and why it is useful
3. How to load and save data files (in a variety of formats)
4. How to represent data as code (object-oriented programming)
5. Basic math skills for dealing with data (mean, mode, median, etc)

Taking place on 3 consecutive Thursday nights from 7:15-9:15PM at SPACE from April 29 to May 20.  For those who have taken the introductory Processing course, or with basic exposure to programming (loops, variables, arrays).  You will need to bring a laptop, preferably with Processing installed (free download).   The cost will be £75, paid upfront, unless you make other arrangements with us.

Introductory Processing for Everyone

The course itself will be a relaxed but project-focused introduction to Processing and interactive art and design in general.  We will spend the bulk of the first three sessions on basic methods of working with code, general workflow, and feeling your way around the Processing environment, along the way building some small projects and gaining inspiration from art, design, and technologies such as Wii remotes, RFID, OSC, video, and more.  The material is flexible, based on the needs and wishes of the people attending.

Taking place on 5 consecutive Thursday nights from 7:15 – 9:15PM at SPACE from May 27 until June 24.

This will be a small workshop, so please reserve soon!   The cost will be £125 for the entire 5-week course, paid upfront, unless you make other arrangements with us.

Finally…

Please email reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve spot in any workshop!

All workshops take place at SPACE Studios, in Hackney, at 129 – 131 Mare St, Hackney E8 3RH

Nearest transport: London Fields (5 mins by rail from Liverpool St.), Bethnal Green (tube), various buses – please see http://www.spacestudios.org.uk/contact/SPACE/ for full details

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When: Thursday 17 September, from 6pm-10:30pm

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: £12 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 reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve a space in any workshop.

1) Markup for Mortals: HTML and Web Design with
Jake Rayson – £8

For beginners who are interested in learning about how to write content for blogs and web sites but who aren’t very techie. Understand what makes a web page by using the easy-to-learn and easy-to-read Markdown markup language. If you can write an email, then you can write HTML!

2) Processing for Visual Artists: Sonic Visuals with Evan Raskob – £8
For beginners to intermediates with basic experience using Processing or Java.  In this session we look at the Minim library and how to make visuals that respond to sound.  The session will cover installing a Processing library (Minim comes with Processing!), a quick overview of Minim, what the heck is an FFT, and various techniques that pixelist PixelPusher uses to make things flash on screen to various types of music & noise.

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See our entire Fall / Winter schedule here.

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