Week 1 Evan gave a lecture in cellular automata (via a long wiki page on http://wiki.openlabworkshops.org), generative art, “biological” creatures rendered in digital-mechanical form, and went over the original proposal for the project.  Then, we introduced ourselves to each other and had a getting-to-know-you session which eventually ended in a small session at the local pub, the Cat and Mutton at the top of Broadway Market.  Before that, we expressed our preferences for the 4 “teams” we’d vow loyalty towards over the course of these 8 weeks – an “embedded systems” team responsible for microcrontrollers and hardware, including sensors; a “design” team responsible for overall design including sketches, user scenarios, storyboards, etc.; a “materials” team composed of hands-on artists with practical experience responsible for the actual physical building of the devices, and choosing the materials to build it out of; and a “web” team to take charge of communication with the greater world outside the project team, including coordinating Twitter, the project blog, and .

Week 2 we got down to discussions, via our brand-new forum at http://forums.openlabworkshops.org.  After a brief re-introduction of the project concept, that of “digital husbandry” and cellular automata writ large in a physical installation using smart cultures that communicate, love, live, and potentially die, we started working out the details of what we’d do over the next 7 weeks.

The original plan was to divide up into 3 teams – design, embedded systems (lets call it “hardware” for now) and materials, then have each brainstorm independently, bringing everything together at the end in a mass discussion form different points of view.  What made more sense, as we looked at people’s strengths and expertise, was to divide up into 2 teams that could tackle the problem from two different (and possibly opposing) perspectives – a “conceptual design” team working on a high conceptual level, working out issues of artistic intention, human interaction, as well as the conceptual relationship between the different parts;  on the other “side” sits a more practical-minded hardware-focused team responsible for looking at the problem of communication, interaction, and ecosystems from the view of what is possible with sensors, microcontrollers, and related techniques.

As the facilitator / project manager, I flitted between both groups to get them started and keep discussions on track.  Both teams, start out sprouting a dense forest of ideas and concepts and discussion from our original conceptual seed.

The design team looked carefully at the relationship between the creatures and humans, and between the creatures and their environment.  To sum up from their notes, they first started out simply with “robots that talk to each other” and looking at the interaction between them: feeding, sleeping, procreating, being lonely, loving each other, even boredom.  Without care, they die; left to themselves, they cooperate with one another; overstimulated, they grow apathetic and, bored, even to the point of dying.   This follows closely the basic concept of Conway’s simple cellular automata, his “Game of Life.”

A theme arose about anthropology vs. husbandry – watching these creatures and trying to figure them out from a distance without disturbing them, versus taking a hands-on, directly intentional approach to guiding their evolution.  Captivity versus “The Wild.”  Nature versus Nurture.  Ecology or Evolution.  Here is where the discussion entered moral territory, where we could explore our ideas on which one was, for lack of a better term, “better” in our minds, and whether or not that was a fair, or even defensible, point of view.   Is it a questions of “purity” and “contamination?”

“Please don’t feed the machine” writes Elvia in her notes.

“Robots should communicate with one another foremost and then how the audience interacts with them can be considered the emergent behaviour of the system” writes Gustavo.

Either way, the “cellular” machines could have their own behaviour when people were not around, as well as their own language for communicating with one another.  Soon the creatures would organize themselves into neighborhoods of those nearby, following the age-old urban pattern.

There was some discussion as to whether this light-and-sound-based language would be understandable to humans at all. Either way, the creature would use Twitter and possibly other Internet mediums to broadcast out thoughts and desires whenever they felt necessary.   “Language as virus” – our language or interaction can spread amongst them, and they can contaminate us right back.

The hardware team started on similar conceptual territory, of course wanting to tackle the main issues first, but I gently prodded them towards more of a hardware-design focus as the discussion wound on.  We looked at what sensors were available (and affordable) and what experience we’d had between the group of us with using them.

We came up with a laundry list of techniques and hardware, some of which would make interesting experiments:

Wireless
Photocells
RFID
Infrared
Twitter
Color sensors
Part of a system
Compass
Tilt switch
Solar powered water pumps
Temp sensors
Capacitive sensors
Microwave motion detector – how much movement
Sound impact sensor – clap patterns

vibrating motors for when held
Tricolor LEDs

What’s more, we expanded on the idea of simple single creatures to look at “tribes” and mother/child relationships:

Motherships and babies? Reproduction? Could “babies” be sensors? Would “mothers” protect them?

Are there tribes that emit different sounds, different colors?

Many questions that will need some discussion/resolution at the next session.

Some tasks for next week:
- Nominate forum moderators
- Customize forum
- Choose WordPress template, install, customize

Call for Participants!

First, we’ve slashed the price – now £20 for the whole day, and we’re giving away 6 free tickets to the first 6 people who contact us!

What sort of device can you make, activated by only a single, simple button?  Openlab Workshops and Cybersonica, in partnership with the AND Festival challenge your minimalist interactive design skills.

This Manchester workshop will take place at Cornerhouse from 11am-5pm on this MONDAY OCTOBER 4 at a cost of £45 £20, 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!  Please email us to book, or with any questions.

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.

Doodle 3 by Martin Schneider

Hi gang,

Our last Processing course was so successful that we have been scrambling to schedule another one to accommodate all of you who couldn’t get into the current run.  Now, we’re happy to announce that we will be running another 5-week introductory Processing workshop at the lovely organic pub, gallery, and performance space called The Flea Pit, on Columbia Rd. near Shoreditch and the top of Brick Lane.  Workshops will take place on 5 Tuesday nights from 7-9PM, starting March 9th Tues March 2nd and ending April 13th (skipping April 6th) March 30th.

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 two sessions on basic methods of working with code, general workflow, and feeling your way around the Processing environment, then focus more on project ideas and specific technologies such as sensors, 3D, OSC, and video.  We will be flexible based on the needs of the people attending.

This will be a small workshop, so please reserve soon!   The cost will be £130 for the entire 5-week course, paid upfront.  You  will need to bring a laptop, preferably with Processing installed (very easy to do!).  Please email reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve spot.

The class will be taught by resident Processing guru Evan Raskob and a few special guest lecturers.

Happy coding!

ol-wkshp-fluxus-puredyne-20, originally uploaded by da mad pixelist.

Finally, pictures from the last workshop: http://www.flickr.com/photos/madpixelist/sets/72157622543164404/ !!!

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~= Workshop #6: Special Daniel vs. Daniel Edition ~=~=~=

When: Thursday 15 October, from 6pm-9:30pm
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: £15 for the entire night, or per workshop (see below).
How to pay: At the door, or via Paypal to be guaranteed a space.  Please email or Paypal to reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve a space in any workshop.

Schedule:

6PM: Simulating and Sonifying Natural Systems with Daniel Jones – £10
An increasingly popular practice in digital arts is creating sonic representations of dynamical systems — simulating natural phenomena such as insect swarms, tree growth, wind turbulence and neural networks, and translating such phenomena into sound, to create organic, dynamic audio-visual works. Working from a *basic knowledge* of the Java-based Processing environment, Daniel Jones explains how to create such a simulation and subsequently connect it to the open-source SuperCollider synthesis engine, providing a valuable addition to a digital artist’s toolkit.

Requirements:

• Processing (from http://processing.org/download/)

7:45PM: Introduction to Arduino: Microcontrollers, LEDs, Sensors, and You! with Daniel Hirschmann – £10
Newly-minted Goldsmiths’ lecturer Daniel introduces you to the Arduino as a platform for prototyping physical & digital interactive objects, installation, and things.  We will cover the programming environment, some basic electronics, and learn how to make sensors do stuff to lights.

Requirements:

• laptop computer with Arduino downloaded and installed.  Go through the Getting Started guide on the website.
• An Arduino Microcontroller platform.  These can be bought from Tinker.it.  If needed, a few will be on hand for use, or for sale.  Please let us know by email (see above) whether you’re interested in buying one on the day.
• Breadboard, hook-up wire, switches, LEDs, Potentiometers, Infrared Rangers, Ultrasonic rangers, FSR’s, other sensors…  If you don’t know what these are, DON’T worry!  We’ll have some available to use during the intro.  If you DO know what these are, and you have a them – bring them along and we can help you wire them up!

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~= Workshop #7: Programming is More than Just Words ~=~=~=

When: Tuesday 20 October, from 6pm-10:00pm
Where: The Roebuck pub (upstairs room), 50 Great Dover Street, SE1 4YG
Nearest transport: 5, 133, 343, 21 buses, Borough Tube (Northern line)
About 8 minute walk from London Bridge Station (Northern and Jubilee tube, rail, and bus station: 48, 47, 149 buses)

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).  There will be a few spaces for people who show up on the night.  Please email reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve a space in any workshop.

Schedule:

6PM: Processing Beginners’ Workshop with Evan Raskob – £10

You’ve heard Evan’s intro workshops and been slightly terrified by the advanced stuff (it’s ok to admit it).  So bring your basic questions and project ideas, and Evan will work thorough them to everyone’s benefit.  Or, if people are feeling quiet, he will go through some of his endless bag o’ tricks, including OSC and MIDI.

7:45PM: Understanding Sound and Music by Programming Computers with S. Jagannathan – £10

Session 1 (of 2): Building a music tuner program.

Your very own accurate musical instrument tuner spanning the entire audio range to tune any instrument.  Several tuning schemes supported including roll your own.  About 50% of the workshop/talk will have computer sound & music ideas – these will be programming language agnostic – in a format that musicians without any prior programming background but with an interest in computer music can understand. PD, max/msp, SuperCollider, etc. users will benefit from looking into that primal black box of sound generators!

Requirements:

• Basic knowledge of C – variables, loops, conditionals, basic pointers. (if you have done programming in the past it should be fairly straightforward.)
• Computer with the ability to compile and run C programs linked to portaudio libraries.

~=~=~=~For More Information~=~=~=~
See our entire Fall / Winter schedule on http://openlabworkshops.org

Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/openlabworkshop

You can also keep up with all Openlab events, performances, workshops, etc. on our low-traffic email list: http://lists.pawfal.org/listinfo.cgi/openlab-announce-pawfal.org

Openlab, the London-based open source art and technology collective, presents an on-going series of in-depth workshops exploring creating and hacking media using free software and tools.  Workshops will include both beginner and advanced instruction in such software as PureData, Processing, and SuperCollider, as well as using the microcontroller Arduino, Android programming, general sound hardware hacking, and more.  For less than the cost of the cinema, you can gain some valuable skills using free software!

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When: Tuesday 22 September, from 6pm-10:30pm

Where: The Roebuck pub (upstairs room), 50 Great Dover Street, SE1 4YG

Nearest transport: 5, 133, 343, 21 buses, Borough Tube (Northern line)
About 8 minute walk from London Bridge Station (Northern and Jubilee tube, rail, and bus station: 48, 47, 149 buses)

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).  There will be a few spaces for people who show up on the night.  Please email reserve@openlabworkshops.org to reserve a space in any workshop.

1) Using Pure:dyne – A Free Audio and Video Toolkit with
Rob Canning and Claude Heiland-Allen – £10

Rob and Claude introduce you to Pure:dyne, an operating system designed for media artists, providing a complete set of tools for realtime audio and video processing.  Pure:dyne is a live distribution, you don’t need to install anything. Simply boot your computer using the live CD or USB stick and you’re ready to start using software such as Pure Data, Supercollider, Icecast, Csound, Fluxus, Processing, Arduino and much much more.  We will provide Pure:dyne on CD and USB stick for purchase or for (free) copying, no experience required.

More info:
Article from Create Digital Motion
http://code.goto10.org/projects/puredyne/

2) Animation and Livecoding through Fluxus with Dave Griffiths and Evan Raskob- £10

In this workshop you will find out about the emerging art form of
livecoding and learn how to write simple scripts to create animations in
3D space. You will be introduced to scheme programming language and how
to use it to build shapes and animate them. No previous programming
experience required.

Please install fluxus prior to the workshop, which you can find here:
http://www.pawfal.org/fluxus/packages/
(Note: We will bring CDs of Pure:dyne and Fluxus for people)

Windows version not recommended at present due to instability, an
alternative is to use a bootable CD linux distro such as this one:
https://devel.goto10.org/puredyne

More info: http://www.pawfal.org/fluxus/

~=~=~=~For More Information~=~=~=~

See our entire Fall / Winter schedule here.

Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/openlabworkshop

You can also keep up with all Openlab events, performances, workshops, etc. on our low-traffic email list: http://lists.pawfal.org/listinfo.cgi/openlab-announce-pawfal.org