In the ‘blog’

TALK: MzTEK & The Power of 8

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

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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

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September 27, 2009 11:30 amtoOctober 27, 2009 2:30 pm

WORKSHOP: SolarBots

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

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Thank everyone who made SOLARBOTS such a fun day!

Check out the pics from the SOLARBOTS workshop here!

bugeyes

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

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September 12, 2009
11:00 amto5:00 pm

WORKSHOP: Sinful Machines

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Here you go, a fantastic workshop led by the creative gals at Seaweed Studios, in the tricked out front media studio at [ SPACE ].

sinful-machines-flyer-correct

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 ]
darkbglogo

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July 25, 2009toJuly 26, 2009

Tinkerbelles & Arduinorama Mammas

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

So, we had a blast last Saturday tinkering on Arduinos for the first time (well, for most of us), at [ SPACE ].

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

arduino-with-button

Artemis helping us along

gathered around artemis

She’s a PC too…

caroline helping

Now let’s try the blue one!

arduino and led light

A toolbox for tinkering.

the toolbox

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

sonia and sophie

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.

p10107821

p1010781

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MzTEK @ /ETC - wearble tech workshop

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

This year there are two Eclectic Tech Carnival’s, and I’m at the one going on in HUMLab, in Umea, very far north of Sweden with 24hr day light!!!

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

mini-gender-changer-11400097-s

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…
wearables_workshop

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…

key_batterypack

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…

soldering-smled
wearable_bracelet

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…

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