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