Also speaking was curator Douglas Dodd from the V&A, who discussed the  Digital Pioneers exhibition and some quite interesting facts about the history of making art with computers (think long before Photoshop, Kraftwerk, etc.)

And lucky for us, we were able to snag a nifty copy of the beautiful exhibition book—a first entry in the MzTEK library (and god willing not the last!)

Thanks Mr. Dodd and the folks at Furtherfield!

We’re conducting a survey to strengthen our programs and research what you want, what your experience with us has been, and what you want to learn!

Take a moment (weeeee moment) and fill out our survey to help us in our quest for awesomeness.

Love, MzTEK

What a long, fun day! We started with interactive designer and tutor Daniel Hirschmann by exploring electricity, the basics of circuit building (and those of use who attended Iain’s awesome Basic Electronics workshop were in the know).

Then we moved onto some programming in Arduino and getting the board to respond to stimuli and output feedback in our serial port.

Finally, we put it all together, building circuits, working with analog and digital writes and reads, playing with force resistors, light sensors, buttons, etc.

For anyone who is not familiar with all of the above, any step can be a big hurdle (let alone combining programming & circuitry in one go.)

If you attended the workshop and would like to review or revisit anything we did, Daniel will be posting notes to the workshop on his site, or you can email us for circuit images (close ups!) and code.

Special thanks to SPACE for their support and donating their fantastic front media lab.

XO, MzTEK

Supported by SPACE.

Coming up in a few week’s time : our next exciting workshop.  This time, interactive expert Daniel Hirschmann takes us through an introduction to Arduino and how to get started programming and setting up basic interactive elements.  We’ll cover the basic circuitry, programming Arduino, and users various sensors and components.

The kick-off to a series of Arduino-based workshops, this first one will get you situated using fun sensors, lights, and components.

Sign up quickly as spaces are limited!  Sign up for the event now!

Arduino starter kits are available at Oomlout.com.  Pre-order your kit today, if you would like to be able to work with your own Arduino and take your project home with you.  Extra kit will be available at the workshop to borrow (and possibly purchase) for the course, if you don’t bring your own.

Please contact us if you have any questions

MzTEK: women artists, techies and tinkerers from MAT10 on Vimeo.

Catch up soon!

Tutor Iain Sharp, a lecky pro, will guide you through the basics of how to get electricity to do what you want using a basic circuit that includes some pencil draw components.

The day will focus on how electronics work and will include experiments that demonstrate what different components do. We will use a breadboard to build the circuit, so a lot less soldering than in previous workshops!

Take a look at Iain’s demo video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igXh4fMqVCA

Priority booking for women/girl participants open now. Registration open to all on 13th Jan 2010.

SOLD OUT!

Come and join Julie Freeman introducing the technicalities of her latest work in the next MzTEK P2P show ‘n’ tell.

Julie recently returned from ISEA (International Symposium of Electronic Arts) in Belfast at the end of August, where she showed the piece Specious Dialogue III.

Specious Dialogue III consists of a pair of movable, sculptural concrete forms that house wireless audio playback systems. Mounted on pairs of swivel castors the forms are designed to be played with – pushed, rolled, kicked and shoved around the exhibition space. They are physical audio curiosities with personality.
Julie will be discussing the story of the work from the initial commission through to version 3.  She will talk about how she built it from sourcing and constructing the concrete forms, to the writing of the Max>/MSP patch as well as the development of the piece through the sound recording and editing. She will be accompanied by sound producer Dan Grigson (Grantby) who will give hands-on hints and tips on voice-over recording, editing and formating.

http://www.translatingnature.org/2009/specious-dialogue-iii/

Specious Dialogue was commissioned by Cybersonica for Soundwaves 07 and has been shown in London, Luxembourg, Dublin and Limerick.

December 3rd, 6pm - 8pm
Space,  129 - 131 Mare St, Hackney, London, E8 3RH
How to get there… http://www.spacestudios.org.uk/contact/SPACE/
Please feel free to bring refreshments

MzTEK is going to Watermans for the day to see the Power of 8 exhibition, and to talk with Anab Jain, the designer and filmmaker who conceived of, and initiated the project.

We welcome any women interested to come and join us for the morning at Watermans, and then we’ll go for a pub lunch after to chew the fat/cud, and generally have a nice afternoon.

The power of 8 is collaborative project, 8 people from different walks of life work together to build a public conversation about their individual aspirations for a desirable future.

For the past few years, Anab has worked on speculative projects around emerging technologies, to encourage debate on the different possible futures that may happen. As a designer, this genre of design fiction aims to impact our current day concepts by enabling us to think of directions in which our collective future is shaped

Check out powerof8.org.uk for more details on the project.

Please RSVP by signing up here…
http://mztek.eventwax.com/power-of-8–watermans

Let us know if you fancy joining us and we can arrange meeting there or at Waterloo, info@mztek.org

When/where etc…

27th September, 11.30am onwards…

Watermans
40 High Street
Brentford TW8 0DS

watermans.org.uk

How to get here
Bus 65, 237, 267, and N9 all stop outside Watermans
Tube: South Ealing (Piccadilly) and Gunnersbury (District) at about 1 mile
Train: Kew Bridge & Brentfort (trains from Waterloo and Hounslow) are a 10 minute walk

Thank everyone who made SOLARBOTS such a fun day!

Check out the pics from the SOLARBOTS workshop here!

make your own solar powered robot bugs!

12th September,  11am - 5pm,
at SPACE, 129-131 Mare Street, London E8 3RH.
£15

Calling all beginner tinkerers - come and learn how to make your own solar powered robot bug from scratch. All components are provided for you to complete your very own solarbot bug to take home with you at the end of the day.  All you need is fabric, feathers and stick on eyes or anything else you need to pimp up your bot! The workshop is aimed at beginners, but all are welcome for a fun day out.

The workshop will be lead by artist Varvara Guljajeva, originally from Estonia, she is currently living and working in Linz, Austria. http://varvarag.cdrews.de/

SIGN UP HERE NOW!

Priority booking will go to women/girl participants, bookings will be open to all on 27th August.

Please get in touch if you require any creche facilities.

For more info email us at info@mztek.org

Supported by SPACE, 129-131 Mare Street, Hackney, London E8 3RH
And with the generous support of Fritz at PagerMotors.com

RSVP soon—Get it while it’s hot!  Space for 15 participants and a 20% reduction fee for tickets purchased before July 12.

Bring your own Arduino, or borrow one from us.  Let us know if you need one, however. You may also purchase a beginner kit at oomlout.com.

|| ABOUT THE WORKSHOP ||

MzTEK presents: Sinful Machines with Seaweed Studio
July 25 & 2006, 11am - 5pm
at [ SPACE ] 129-131 Mare Street, Hackney, London E8 3RH

Sinful machines is a workshop which is part of a project exploring the delicate relationship between man, machines and sins. How is a sin defined? In the original sense of the word, to sin means to ‘err’ or miss the mark, but modern definitions associate it with violations of a morality.  What happens when 7 deadly sins and social sins manifest themselves within machines?

Throughout the weekend, we will take you through the design and creation of your own interactive ’sinful machine’ using Arduino and components such as sensors, lights, motors, mp3 players and more.

Perfect for complete beginners and those with intermediate knowledge Arduino skills, we welcome people of all age and gender. For those who are stuck for ideas, we will also prepare a few examples to show on the day to inspire and help you through your project concept.

If you have any concerns about your ability to attend as you have children and need someone to mind them, don’t hesitate to speak to us about having a creche in [SPACE]’s courtyard.

RSVP to info@mztek.org

£65, includes lunch both days.  £45 special if you register before July 12.
Bring your own Arduino or borrow one from us
Supported by [ SPACE ]

Following from her excellent ‘make music with your hair’ workshop at Eclectic Tech Carnival (/ETC) in Umea, Sweden, Joan is up for doing it again for MzTEK.  Check out the blog post I wrote on the workshop at /ETC for an idea of what it in-tales (ha ha!)

RSVP to info@mztek.org for workshop location, Shoreditch area.

Joan Healy is in town to perform Becoming a Franz West TONIGHT (wed 24th) at Shunt

Artemis led us through a great 3 hour P2P sesh on Arduinos and sensors. We learned:

- how to make a circuit using the Arduino, a breadboard, and some wires
- how to make a little LED light blink using the above, plus a wee bit of easy programming
- using buttons to open and close circuits
- using potentiometers (mouthful there) to dim/brighten LEDs.

It was awesome, and I’m really looking forward to our upcoming workshops now.  I’ll post some pics below.

Getting an LED to light up with a button

Artemis helping us along

She’s a PC too…

Now let’s try the blue one!

A toolbox for tinkering.

Sonia and Sophie, showing off their work. It works! It really works!

And in case you lost your notes, ladies, I have Artemis’s sketches too.  For whatever reason, WordPress has rotated them, so just turn your head 90 degrees counter-clockwise.

This Wednesday 24th June from 7-9pm
Location:
Leon restaurant, 12 Ludgate Circus, London EC4M 7LQ

Map

Jim Prevett will present

Power Up art- A short history of technology and art.
Technology has difficult relationship with art. it has a history of challenging the status quo and potentially democratising art. Gradually challenging technologies tend to become integrated into the art gallery structure. This will briefly show some of the pioneering works leading through from ink to telecommunications .

Jim Prevett studied Fine Art (Sculpture) at Sheffield Hallam University in 1999. He works with prevett & mcArthur who have exhibited across the UK and internationally including ‘Echo City’ at the British Pavilion for Venice Biennale of Architecture 2006, The Perfect Real at King Street Arts Centre and ‘His life is full of miracles…’ videotech at Site Gallery Sheffield. Jim ran the arts programme for Access Space in Sheffield for 2 years establishing a residency programme and producing LOSS Livecode, a festival of ‘livecoding’ audio. Access Space is the UK’s first recycled technology medialab, using open source software to invigorate old computers and creativity using computers. Jim has worked with Encounters community based arts organisation in Sheffield and as part of New Dust.

Jim currently works as the Emergent Technologies Producer at SPACE media in Hackney, where he runs programmes such as the PermaCultures series of residencies and workshops and FutureTV youth media development. He is an Associate Lecturer on the undergraduate Fine Art (media) course at at Sheffield Hallam University. Jim lives and works in London and Sheffield.

This Wednesday 17th June from 7-9pm
Location:
Leon restaurant, Bankside, 7 Canvey Street (Behind the Tate Modern) London, SE1 9AN See MAP

The Open Source Embroidery project was initiated by Ele Carpenter in 2005. The project has grown to support and facilitate a range of artists practice investigating the relationship between programming for embroidery and computing. It’s based on the common characteristics of needlework crafts and open source computer programming: gendered obsessive attention to detail; shared social process of development; and a transparency of process and product. Open Source Embroidery is a socially engaged art project developed through workshops and an email list: os-embroidery@googlegroups.com There are also groups on Facebook and Flickr.

Ele’s blog Ele Weekend documents the project and posts information about current workshops and exhibitions.

Ele Carpenter is an independent curator and researcher based in Umea in Northeast Sweden, Newcastle upon Tyne and London, UK. She is currently undertaking a Research Fellowship at HUMlab in affiliation with the BildMuseet at the University of Umea, Sweden. Her curatorial practice responds to specific socio-political cultural contexts in collaboration with individuals, groups and organisations. Her life-long interest in the relationship between creativity and political action, has been influenced by her formative years at Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp and on Cruisewatch. Fleeing the polarities of activism to join the art-world, she has continuously interrogated the relationship between cultural and political change through curatorial creative practice. Her research has written, curatorial and creative outcomes including mapping, embroidery, and research projects on this website.

Ele recieved her PhD on the relationship between politicised socially engaged art and new media art, with CRUMB at the University of Sunderland in 2008. She has a Post Graduate Diploma in Art Gallery & Museum Studies from the University of Manchester (1996), and undertook her BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Leeds Metropolitan University (1993).

First we made the mic by wiring up a mono jack to a piezo,

then we gaffered (naturally) the piezo to a tin can.

Then we pulled out our own hair, suffering for our art, and fixed it across the tin can. Then we plugged them into an eff off great amp and blew the roof off of HUMLab! Actually it sounded quite sweets at times and we managed to get a harmony (of sorts) coming from the speakers, but that might have just been feedback.

That workshop was run by a cool artists from Dublin, Joan Healy. As it happens she will be performing at Shunt in London 23rd - 27th June and she said she’d be well up for doing a workshop for MzTEK while she’s in town.  SWEET!!!!  I’ll sort that out when i get back, but email info@mztek.org if your interested.

L8as!

it all strated with a group called Gender Changers. If you wondering what a gender changer is, its one of these…

So, Eclectic Tech Carnival has been on for three days now. I have been to heaps of workshops, from animating dolls with motors to wearable technology, Open Source discussions to making microphones for musical instruments that use human hair as strings!!!!! (actually sounds better than wire or nylon)

Here are some pics from workshops so far…

This was the wearable tech workshop i went to. Kyveli gave a really nice intro some cool tricks to making cheap and discrete power supplies to all your fancy wearable tech needs. Check this out…

I made a cool bracelet that used surface mount LED’s soldered to metal beads, one side sewn to a conductive material and the other left loose to make a connection as you move around, so it kind of sparkled…

The fabric was already conductive, and the weave being in one direction meant i could make a circuit from it. I just had to sew some more conductive thread from the battery to the fabric, and then across a bit from the positive and negative points (making sure they didn’t cross over) to make the circuit the right width for the LED’s. The LED’s then acted like an on off switch when they made contact with the opposite part of the circuit running down the weave of the fabric… if that makes sense?

OK… more to come very soon…

Kit: If you have your own Arduino starter kit, or Arduino and sensors, bring them so you can follow along with your own tools.  You can buy them online in advance if you don’t have them.

Or, if you’re simply interested in the tech, you’re welcome to look on!

We recommend buying one in advance if you want to be able to take home what you’ve made and use it in your own projects, and in our upcoming workshops.