Unleashed weekend event oraganised with Vincent Van Uffelen
Venue: Apiary Studios, London
Dates: 25th – 26th of June 2011
A weekend of collaborative co-exploration of long known or newly to be discovered aspects of media art. Unleashed which was held at Apiary Studios in East London provided the opportunity for artists to host or participate on a range of artistic research projects. To kick start new or refine existing ideas, meet other interested parties, and engage in valuable exchange of knowledge, critique, and experiences.
About
Mixing the City – David Strang & Andy Prior
Participants in the workshop are invited to create content for use in the bespoke Quicktime WebJay (QTWJ) environment, using field recording techniques and video capture within the surrounding area. You will explore a range of field recording techniques and abstract video capture, using various sonic arts and video arts methods, to create A/V rhythms which are then manipulated/controlled within QTWJ. The recorded material will be added to a database and will continue to be used by any QTWJ workshops/users in the future. This content will then be used by the participants within QTWJ to create a live performance of sound and visuals at the end of the day.
http://www.davidstrang.co.uk, http://x2.i-dat.org/~ap/2010PhD
Computational Crystallomancy – Stephen Fortune
This workshop brings the occult methods of crystal gazing into proximity with the DIY entry point to ubiquitous computing. This workshop will combine the arduino and psychological experiments for discerning trance states. The arduino is the amateur-enthusiast avenue into sensor aware environments. Those psychological experiments used bodily traces to determine the subjects inner state of mind. Both will be combined to see what data sampling all elements of the crystallomancy circuit can tell us about the computational modelling of reality that ubiquitous computing entails.
This project is at it’s conceptual inception and is looking for people who are interested in how reality can be made sensible to computers and those who would have an interest is seeing how intuitive practices like crystal gazing reconcile with the rational & cognitive disposition of computational culture. Introductory arduino (input feeds) and processing data feeds will be explored.
http://thereisnowetware.wordpress.com
Bodies in Communication – Deep Media Research
Deep Media Research develops simple prototypes to explore the vast field of infra-verbal bodily communication. In our workshop we will explore how we can use sensors to measure signals of our body and actuators to make those signals perceivable by others. We’ll make use of simple electronics, the Arduino microcontroller, and some code and are looking for beginners and intermediates who want to be introduced into body sensing (galvanic skin response, pulse, …), experiment with actuators and/or help to develop the project further.
http://deepmediaresearch.org
Optical Sound – Dominick Allen
Optical Sound will be a practical, hands on workshop building and exploring optical microphones (devices that turn fluctuations in light into sound) for use in field recordings, performances etc. Everybody attending the workshop will have the chance to build their own optical microphone which they can take away with them for a small donation. The workshop will be followed by an audio-visual performance to explore the possibilities of these microphones. Everybody is welcome and no previous experience of electronics is necessary
Performing Screen – Madi Boyd
This project in progress is to create a robotic puppet like screen which will interact with the film projected onto it in order to create an intense dialogue. The screen will be composed, eventually, of hundreds of small independently moving parts. The parts will be controlled by servos so that they move in all directions in an organic but choreographed formation. They will appear to react to and be sculpted by the film. This performative dialogue between the projection and the screen will extend into a tussle in their attempts to shape each other, creating a new dynamic form in the process.
This project is at the concept/experimental stage and invite interested artist and technicians to partake researching several aspects needed to complete this work. These include: materials which will be able to move effectively, materials which reflect and absorb light in varying amounts, programming/controlling up to 80+ servo motors.
http://www.madiboyd.com