Guerilla Science are renowned for their playful exploration of science, challenging negative misconceptions and creating experiences that help more people discover the unimaginable realities science reveals to us. They do this through an array of creative approaches including installations, film screenings, musical performances and games. We are so thrilled to be working with them! :)

The project is being sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Much like our previous tea party at the V&A in September the work will be out for you to interact with and a few of the artists will also be there to discuss their work with you. The event begins at 6:30pm and will finish at 8:30pm. For a refresher of what you can expect in the showcase check out our Chi-TEK page!

It is also the third installment of the Watermans International Festival of Digital Art 2012, with a seminar entitled ‘New Media art and illusion: physical interaction & perception’ which falls in-line with the opening of Michele Barker’s & Anna Munster’s installation HokusPokus, also happening at Watermans today! For more details please read here, and for info on how to get to Watermans, please look at their contact page.

Below are a couple of piccies of the showcase at Watermans, for more please check out our Facebook page – there will also be more added later after the party :)

Mika Satomi’s Suicidal Teapot 

Rain Ashford’s Teapotty!

Installing the showcase

Beginners guide to the LilyPad Arduino for wearable technology.

Join our one day introduction to the LilyPad Arduino and get your garments interactive!

During the course of the day you will be introduced to the basics of soft circuitry, some basic electronics, Arduino software, programming, and reading a sensor.
At the end of the day you will have a functioning interactive patch, which you can sew onto a garment, bag or cushion cover.

PLEASE BRING WITH YOU:

• A piece of fancy fabric of your choice –  it is best to use something non-stretchy and stiff, something like cotton or canvas.
• If you want to bring your own laptop, please make sure you have installed the latest Arduino Software on it.
• A USB to mini-USB  (you are bound to have one somewhere, we thought best not to buy more ;)

Fee:

£75 +  booking fee - Includes discounted LilyPad Arduino 
This includes the LilyPad Arduino, LilyPad Battery Holder and FTDI board.

or

£35 +  booking fee - Not including LilyPad Arduino 
This is for those who do not require a LilyPad Arduino Kit as above – There will not be spares to borrow unfortunately, please make sure you have one for the workshop if you purchase this ticket.

When

April 14th 2012
10am – 5pm

Where

SPACE
129—131 MARE STREET
LONDON E8 3RH

Tutor

Sophie McDonald is a creative technology workshop developer and educator, delivering workshops for clients such as V&A, Barbican and Maker Faire. Sophie is an artist, developer, producer and co-founder of sketchPatch , an online computer-programming playground for coders, artists and designers – and newbies! :)

This is a women only workshop.

Sign up HERE

This workshop is kindly supported by

15 of the most inspired technologically modified teapots in the world will be on display in all their interactive glory at Watermans Gallery from 26 March to 22 April 2012.

Stay tuned for party details….

Embroidered Digital Commons (EDC) is currently in residency at Furtherfield until April 28 2012, when MzTEK will host the regular Saturday workshop, contributing the first techi elements to the EDC embroidery patches using soft circuitry.

Come and contribute to the epic collective EDC project this Saturday 28 April, by embroidering text from ‘A Concise Lexicon of/for the Digital Commons’. We invite women to come and join us and learn some of the basics to soft circuits, adding switches and lights to your embroidered patches. This is a free workshop, but your embroidery work will become part of the collective Embroidered Digital Commons project.

When:

Saturday April 28  12pm – 3pm

Where:

Furtherfield Gallery
McKenzie Pavilion
Finsbury Park, London, N4 2NQ

Rescension 2010.

The Embroidered Digital Commons is a collectively stitched version of ‘A Concise Lexicon of/for the Digital Commons’ by the Raqs Media Collective (2003). The project seeks to hand-embroider the whole lexicon, term by term, through workshops and events as a practical way of close-reading and discussing the text and its current meaning.

The EDC is a distributed embroidery exploring collective work and ownership. EDC is part of the Open Source Embroidery project by curator and artists Ele Carpenter. Her practice investigates specific socio-political cultural contexts in collaboration with artists, makers, amateurs and experts. She is a lecturer in Curating at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Since 2005 Ele has facilitated the Open Source Embroidery project using embroidery and code as a tool to investigate the language and ethics of participatory production and distribution. The Open Source Embroidery exhibition (Furtherfield, 2008; BildMuseet Umeå Sweden, 2009; Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, 2010) presented work by over 30 artists, including the finished Html Patchwork now on display at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.  Ele is currently facilitating the ‘Embroidered Digital Commons’ a distributed embroidery exploring collective work and ownership 2008 – 2013.

Meanwhile, thank you for making 2011 such a fantastic year!

C4CC is a new initiative in collaboration for London. It’s a pilot project and a prototype for a bigger idea. They are bringing together leading and innovative researchers from London’s universities and colleges, creative industry practitioners and freelancers, SMEs and students.

Feel free to pop in on Friday mornings for Tuttle, a friendly networking event.

G.Hack is an art and technology lab for women at Queen Mary University of London. They are participating artists in the Chi-TEK project, and have developed an interactive table for sound mapping tea houses across London.

This workshop will teach basic techniques involved in the construction of an interactive table top, using infrared sensors. It will also teach basic sound recording and editing, the basics of soldering components, as well as covering simple programming for the interactive table using Processing, MaxMsp and reacTIVision software.

G.Hack – Teapot – Sound Mapping London Tea Houses from MAT_OPEN on Vimeo.

What to bring with you (if you can)…

Participants are required to bring their own laptops, and if possible with preinstalled sound editing software, Processing, reacTIVision and MaxMsp (demo licence is fully functional for 30 days) and if you have it, sound recording equipment. All materials for making sensors will be provided.

When:

November 19th 2011

10.30am – 4.30pm

Where:

SPACE
129 -131 Mare St
London E8 3RH    - MAP

Booking

This is a women only workshop
Tickets are £25
Register here: https://mztek.eventwax.com/t-hack-with-ghack

This Chi-TEK workshop project is supported by

MzTEK has teamed up with AKA the castle to present an open hardware hack workshop as part of Moving Forest London2012 initiative by AKA the castle.

MzTEK is hosting a two day open hardware hack workshop focusing on modifying/remodelling /hacking recycled hardware for generating revolting noise, based on the Chip Tune Marching Band workshop for creating a portably powered sound circuit.

Planning for Moving Forest’s citywide insurgency acts with updated moving antennas replacing moving tree branches, these workshops also strategize a massive mobilization of london urbanites as part of Moving Forest’s distributed performance for London summer 2012.

Moving Forest is a 12 hour, five act, visual, sonic, digital, electronic and urban performance collectively realized by AKA the castle, a temporal performance troupe bringing together visual artists, writers, soundists, silk threaders, codedecoders, macromikro, boombox mass, mobile agents, wifi fielders and urbanites. 12 hours of sonic, coded action map an imaginary Castle and camouflage forest revolt onto a given modern day metropolis.

Moving Forest  was first presented at Transmediale.08 in Berlin.

The partners for Moving Forest London workshop development are MA Interactive Media & Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, Furtherfield, Space, Digital Programmes, V&A.

Please bring your own devices and tools to modify/remodel/hack, there will be a £10 pound workshop fee to cover the sound making electronic supplies.

WHEN

Take part in a one or two day workshop session 26 & 27 November.
11am to 5pm, November 26,  Saturday
11am to 5pm, November 27,  Sunday

SIGN UP

This is a women only workshop. £10 on the door to cover basic noise making kit.

Please sign up on the Moving Forest hack wiki to take part in one or two day workshop sessions or write to now@movingforest.net

WHERE

SPACE
129-131 MARE STREET
LONDON E8 3RH
+44(0)20 8525 4330

Musique concrète (“concrete music” or “real music”) utilises sound as a compositional resource in unusual ways. The material does not have to be exclusively derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as “musical” (melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo and so on).

A full day exploring experimental sound and composition.

Explore the history of Musique concrète, and create your very own masterpiece in a day. Learn the basics of simple recording techniques, and then test your skills on a group sound walk.

Back at the studio you will learn to transfer your material to computer and edit it using Audacity, into a short music composition. Using basic compositional methods and processing.

Bring your own recording device and headphones, such as a dictaphone, small handheld recorder or phone.

This workshop is lead by Leslie Deere, an artist working with sound. Her work can currently be heard at Kew Gardens, where she has two sound installations running daily. Leslie comes from a performing arts background in dance and has been inspired by Merce Cunningham and John Cage. She has a BA in Sonic Arts and an MA in Communication Art & Design from the Royal College of Art.

 Where

SPACE
129—131 MARE STREET
LONDON E8 3RH

When

Decmber 10th 2011
10.30am – 4.30pm

Register

This workshop if £25.
As usual, this is a women only workshop.

SIGN UP HERE: https://mztek.eventwax.com/musique-concrte

The instructions be downloaded here.

Most of the materials you can find at any haberdashery. The conductive thread and fabric can be found online, we ordered ours for the workshop from Mindsets.

MzTEK invites you to our Geekout – a session which encourages you to work on your own tech projects in a peer to peer environment, share your ideas and most of all, tinker!

If you require one, please bring your own laptop as well as any materials for pieces you’re working on. We’ll have solder irons, glue guns, some components and also learning materials from previous workshops. There will be a couple of tutored exercises, including an introduction to SketchPatch and how to make your own Soft Circuit Voodoo Doll.

We would like to thank Barry’s Lounge for sponsoring our Geekout :)

What to bring with you (if you can)…

Your own laptop

When:

October 27th 2011

8:00pm – 11:00pm

Where:

Hosted by Hub Westminster
1st floor New Zealand House
80 Haymarket
London
SW1Y 4TE   -   MAP

Booking

This is a women only session
Tickets for the fayre are free and can be booked here

Create LED light patterns or program your own PACMAN-like game.

This fabulous workshop covers how to use the basic electronic components (switch, potentiometer, resistor, capacitor etc) and introduce how to control a micro-controller, Atmega 168 using the open-source Arduino software.

In this workshop you will create your own lighting patterns, such as texts and images and also develop a simple game, using a bespoke pre-designed led-matrix circuit.

Check out this example video of the DIY PACMAN game

Where & When

5 November – 10am  - 4.30pm

V&A Museum Sackler Centre, South Kensington, London

Prerequisites

- a power supply (output: 12V, over 1A): Yes! Finally something to do with all those old phone chargers! Please check your power chargers for a mobile phone, a computer or other electronic devices.

No prior computer programming experience is needed.

To Register

As usual, this is a women only workshop.  All bookings to be made through the V&A.
Tickets are £80 or £64 concession
Please call 020 7942 2211 to book or sign up through the web site.

The Instructor

This fantastic workshop will be lead by Eunjoo Shin, www.ejoo.org, www.comms.me Eunjoo Shin, an artist, explores interaction design, sound and public installation. Her art works have been featured in many venues, including FILE festival 2009 in Sao Paulo, Peadhead at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in New York and Seoul Art Center in Seoul. Her work, Vocal Trio was selected as one of the best interaction desgins by the Korean Federation of Design Associations, and published in the design yearbook, CREATIO 2009.

HAPPY ADA LOVELACE DAY LOVE!

A day of introductory techy workshops for women

MzTEK has teamed up with our friends at School of Everything to bring you a day of techy tinkering.

Workshops include Shiver My Tea Cups, Make-a-Mic & Soft Circuit Ghosts. The day will be structured for you to chose 3x 1hour 30mins workshops to attend throughout day. Spend the day picking up skills in Arduino, soldering, noise making, sensors & more!

No experience necessary – just enthusiasm for tech, and tea!

This workshop is part of the MzTEK project Chi-TEK, a celebration of women working in arts and technology, and offers a tongue in cheek take on what women can really achieve around a kitchen table.

Soft Circuit Voodoo Doll from Becky Stewart on Vimeo.

Bring with you…

Your favourite teacup and saucer
If you have a laptop, please bring along with you.
If you have an Arduino, bringing this will mean you can take your work away with you.

The Instructors:

Katrin Baumgarten is a recent graduate from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. Her projects revolve around human-technology-interaction and explore future possibilities within technology and art. katrinbaumgarten.de

Julie Freeman explores relationships between science, technology and nature and how we perceive and interact with them. Julie recently became a TED Fellow 2011.  translatingnature.org

Becky Stewart from MzTEK currently runs her own company, Codasign as researcher, designer and consultant for digital music installations.

Cost:

Standard ticket £65.
MzTEK Special buy 1 ticket and get a second half price – bring a friend! – enter this promo code when registering: 241.5  NOTE: you will need to add the code on the registration form, before you get to the ticket options.
This is a women only workshop. Booking Essential.

BOOK HERE NOW!

To book, go to mztek.eventwax.com/chi-tek-workshop-fest

Location:

School of Everything  Limehouse Town Hall  646 Commercial Road  London E14 7HA

For more info or any questions, please feel free to get in touch at info@mztek.org

The Chi-TEK project is supported by

Modified / Hacked / Enhanced tea pots by a roster of brilliant women makers:

Join us on Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 September for a digital tea party, where you can see the teapots in full working order, alongside a delicious assortment of tea and cake.

The Chi-TEK Tea Party at the V&A Digital Design Weekend / London Design Festival 2011

Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 September 2011

11:00 – 16:30

Tea, cake, and a brilliant display of hacked / modified tea pots.

Celebrate the talent and innovation women bring to arts and technology.  Come join MzTEK in a weekend of tea & cake, tinkering, play, and an electric showcase of interactive teapots.

This event is free.

The Tea Party is a fun, surprising showcase of tea pots specially hacked, modified, and redesigned by 20 leading women designers, artists, and technologists.  Read more about the artists.

Then, join us on 24 & 25 September during London Design Festival and Digital Weekend at the Victoria & Albert Museum, where we will throw a very unusual type of tea party in the gardens.  More details on that to come.

Meantime, checkout a destructive teapot  from designer Mika Satomi (of KOBAKANT).  Then head on over to artist Rain Ashford’s Flickr for a sneak peek at TeaPotty.

We can’t wait to set these up this week for display!

See whats coming up next in our events calendar…

Tine Bech’s The Lightpot

Shu Lea’s Stormy Weather Teapot

Shu Lea found this yellow Tetley teapot laying quietly among vintage silver Morrocan teapots in the cupboard at the home of madame Rokia Ben Brahim, a 93 year old Algerian woman working all her life as a cleaning lady in Paris. Inside is soldered a Vive la Resistance aka NanoSmano Sajica , a mini circuit with an oscillator and a resistive gas sensor. It produces sound responding to touch and breath.

Artemis Papageorgiou’s This Is Not A Teapot

This Is Not A Teapot is inspired by the semiotics of language used in the homonym painting of Magritte (Ceci n’est pas une pipe).  You can read more about Artemis’s project on her website at http://artemispapageorgiou.wordpress.com

Mika Satomi’s Self-destructing Teapot

Mika’s teapot constantly hits itself with nails, and is on the verge of self destructing. See the tea pot in action here.

Anna Dumitriu’s Biohacked Tea Cosy

Read more about Anna’s experience of making her Biohacked Tea Cosy for Chi-TEK here.