Month: November 2022

Gravel

Malte Steiner (aka Notstandskomitee)

Malte Steiner (aka Notstandskomitee) performs the first concert with his new open source live coding system Gravel. A first beta of the software will be out during Piksel, latest by the end of this year. It offers synthesized and sampled instruments controlled by the expressive Gravel language which can generate complex evolving patterns with little code. The sound engine is backed by Csound which is compiled into Gravel as a library.

Malte Steiner (born 1970) is a German media artist, electronic musician and composer. He started creating electronic music and visual art around 1983, developing his own vision of the interdisciplinary Gesamtkunstwerk. First exhibitions already in 1983. In 1986 Steiner took a course in electro-acoustic music in Lüneburg by H.W. Erdmann and gave his first concerts in the following years, e. g. in Germany, France and Belgium, and started 1987 to release his music on cassette, later on vinyl, CD and online.

In 1998 he began to create electronic art and installations and additionally in 2003 several netart projects including a collaborative visual networking environment, shown in the Java museum in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Besides diverse music projects Steiner is also involved in several open source projects and has done lectures, radio features and workshops. Artist-In-Residency i.E. in Open City (La Ciudad Abierta) Of Ritoque, Chile 2011 or together with Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen in Ii, Finland 2018.

2018 he relocated to Aalborg, Denmark and started in 2019 with the work on the new art project The Big Crash, art for the pending burst of the real estate bubble, reflecting on the housing crisis and gentrification. Art pieces are based on data which a software by Steiner harvest from online real estate ads. For instance images were segmented with the help of a Machine Learning algorithm and the resulting fragments were used for actual 3D printed objects but also in VR. Physical exhibitions of The Big Crash have been in Aarhus and Aalborg, Denmark and Bergen, Norway. The VR part has been shown i.E. at the Sound Campus exhibition of Kunstuniversität Linz at Ars Electronica 2020, at the ICMC 2021 conference, in the digital section of KP22 exhibition Aarhus 2022 and Rencontres Internationales Paris 2022.

Also in 2019 he started the conceptional phase of the project absolute power, macht + ohnmacht and painted first paintings. This project reflects on power structures and their mechanisms in politics and society.

Taper, An Online Magazine for Tiny Computational Poems

Nick Montfort

Taper is an online literary magazine at http://taper.badquar.to. The magazine is now in its eighth issue and publishes tiny, stand-alone computational poems. They are tiny in that they occupy no more than a few kilobytes — the limit has been 2KB for several issues. They are stand-alone in that all you need is what is the single Web page of the poem; no Google fonts or connections to other APIs are involved. They are computational in that they are made of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, taking the form of interactive games and text generators among other things. They are poems in a broad sense, with many of the works featured not being in any human language. And they are all free software, available under an all-permissive license for study, sharing, and reuse. By publishing this twice-yearly magazine, edited by an independent collective, I hope to encourage people to explore language and literary art, and its intersection with computing, in new ways.

Nick Montfort is a poet and artist who uses computation as his main medium and seeks to uncover how computing and language are entangled with each other and with culture. His computer-generated books include #! and Golem. His digital projects include the collaborations The Deletionist and Sea and Spar Between. Montfort also studies creative computing. MIT Press has published his The New Media Reader, Twisty Little Passages, The Future, and Exploratory Programming for the Arts and Humanities. He directs a lab/studio, The Trope Tank, and is professor of digital media at MIT. He lives in New York City.

Creative PCB-design Workshop

Creatives, designers, painters welcome! No previous knowledge in electronics or circuit design is needed.

As a creative design / drawing workshop we want to explore how creativity can be use to make unique designs of fuctional electronic circuits. We also will discuss what means Open Hardware and why sharing detailed instructions can lead to a diversity of personal designs and improving the accessibility for DIY electronics workshops.

In this creative drawing workshop, we will learn the most basic introduction to read schematics of electronics circuits, and how to implement it as a functional PCB (Printer Circuit Board) where all the connections are drawn in copper. We will learn what are footprints of components and what are the different “layers” for preparing a PCB design for manufacturing (in China factory of DIY home etching).

This workshop also serves for re-thinking the diy-CAD methodology (do-it-yourself Children Aided Design) and applying it to the fork of the peepsy, based on the Continuity Tester by David Johnson-Davies. The peepsy circuit is based on the ATTINY85 functions as a continuity tester, the famouse “peeps” of every multimeter, that allows you to test if an electric connection is present, testing your aux cables, or debbugging other electronics. And it has a pink LED on it!

What circuit will we do?

The example circuit is based on the peepsy, by Michael Egger (a.n.y.m.a.) and it has even a practical function as a continuity tester, the most useful tool to test if a connection is present, in a cable or on a circuit. It’s the “peep” that is one of the functions of all multimeters, and usually the one we use the most! The circuit is very simple, 1 capacitor, 2 resistors, 1 LED, a buzzer to make the “beep”, a coin battery holder and an µ-controller (the Attiny85). Due to the special software on the attiny, it will “sleep” all the time, and only use a little electricity when testing, so the battery last almost forever!

All the materials will be available on site, pen and paper, colors, footprints.

https://www.hackteria.org/wiki/Diy-CAD#Workshops

Marc R. Dusseiller

Dr. Marc R. Dusseiller is a transdisciplinary scholar, lecturer for micro- and nanotechnology, cultural facilitator and artist. He performs DIY (do-it-yourself) workshops in lo-fi electronics and synths, hardware hacking for citizen science and DIY microscopy. He also loves coconuts. He was co-organizing Dock18, Room for Mediacultures, diy* festival (Zürich, Switzerland), KIBLIX 2011 (Maribor, Slovenia), workshops for artists, schools and children as the former president (2008-12) of the Swiss Mechatronic Art Society, SGMK and co-founder of the new Hackerspace collective Bitwäscherei (2020) in Zürich. He has worked as guest faculty and mentor at various schools, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IN), UCSB (USA) and in Switzerland, FHNW, HEAD, ETHZ. In collaboration with Kapelica Gallery, he has started the BioTehna Lab in Ljubljana (2012 – 2013), an open platform for interdisciplinary and artistic research on life sciences. Currently, he is developing means to perform bio- and nanotechnology research and dissemination, Hackteria | Open Source Biological Art, in a DIY / DIWO fashion in kitchens, ateliers and in the Majority World. He was the co-organizer of the different editions of HackteriaLab 2010 – 2020 Zürich, Romainmotier, Bangalore, Yogyakarta and Klöntal, Okinawa and collaborated on the organisation of the BioFabbing Convergence, 2017, in Geneva and the Gathering for Open Science Hardware, GOSH! 2016, Geneva & 2018, in Shenzhen.

Open Wave-Receiver

Shortwave Collective

Building Open Wave-Receivers enables DIY communications reception, and allows anyone to freely listen to the broad spectrum of radio waves around us. All you need are a few easy-to-procure supplies and, if you want to try it, a neighborhood fence or other receptive antenna proxy.

Why a fence? Antennas are necessary for radios to receive signals, and many things can be antennas. Fences can make great, and very long, antennas! Other materials can work well too; even a tent peg can become a useful part of a radio. Open Wave-Receivers allow us to explore the relationship between different combinations of materials, antennas, and radio waves, creating a new technology literacy, a new medium for artistic expression, and a new way to explore the airwaves in our communities.

We have found making Open Wave-Receivers to be a fun adventure. The ability to use simple scraps to create variety and personalization in each radio makes this a great maker project for anyone wanting to play with radio.

Shortwave Collective is an international, feminist artist group established in May 2020, interested in the creative use of radio. We meet regularly to discuss feminist approaches to amatuer radio and the radio spectrum as artistic material, sharing resources, considering DIY approaches and inclusive structures. Members include Alyssa Moxley, Georgia Muenster, Brigitte Hart, Kate Donovan, Maria Papadomanolaki, Sally Applin, Lisa Hall, Sasha Engelmann, Franchesca Casauay, and Hannah Kemp-Welch

I make music and videos with statistics software.

MusikeR

I make cheesy music and with animated videos in statistics software. To do this, I write music composition libraries or extensions for these various softwares. It works just like any other electronic music, but it’s funnier when you use statistics software. I’ll show some examples mostly in R, explain how they work, and recount some things I have learned about humanity through this endeavor.

MusikeR

My favorite activity is sleeping, and after that I enjoy pointless things like scalable astrology, children’s songs, and data-driven music.

ShadowPlay

Dan Wilcox

ShadowPlay is an exploration of the architecture and light in outdoor spaces through sound. Using a bicycle-mounted smartphone as a brightness sensor and a bluetooth speaker, the mottled patterns of light and shadow become the musical score as one rides along city streets.

The project is realized as an open source iOS application which uses one of the device’s cameras as a brightness sensor. Custom audio scenes generate live sound in response to the changes between light and shadow detected by the smartphone. You can even create your own sound scenes using the Pure Data computer music environment.

Dan Wilcox is an artist, engineer, musician, and performer who combines live musical performance techniques with experimental electronics and software for the exploration of new expression. He grew up in the Rocket City, and has performed in Europe, Asia, and around the US with his one man band cyborg performance project, robotcowboy.

Digital Culture & Cyborg Bodies

Idun Isdrake

Through a counter tactic perspective, with planetary accountability, Isdrake’s work and research prototype diverse human computer interfaces and narratives, aiming to limit bias in the development of new technologies and science (fiction). This includes working with datasets for AI systems, diverse narrative design, testing environment friendly solutions for powering and disposing of used technologies, as well as proposing inclusive interfaces.
The presentation will include Isdrake’s process for work with diverse and accessible design, and demo of a few of their art works.
The demos will mainly focus on implanted interfaces based on Near Field Communication technology (NFC. Isdrake has a couple of audiovisual experiences linked from its body, some developed with other organic or inorganic entities. Creating an endosymbiotic relationship between human flesh and other entities, an intimate dialogue only accessible through consent. Games, music and other expressions can be communicated through body modification, a human practice with ancient history, often connected to identity expression but also trauma and oppression. Embodied technologies and digital art as a voice for the silenced voices and disabled bodies, is one of the strongest motivations behind this work. The format is best live in a room, with soundsystem and projectors, where the audience can come close to see and demystify the hardware, and have a dialogue with the artists. Depending on budget and resources the demo can include a video installation. Research documentation https://imperceptible.space/

Idun Isdrake is a game designer, film, stage and transmedia director, moving in the inbetweens and unknowns, hacking forced power structures. Inclusion and diversity is at the core of its productions, ranging from computer games linked from its body, to film noir and landscape photography. Isdrake is the founder of Swedens first game and transmedia lab, The Collaboratory, as well as first game art gallery, Epic Unidragon. Their work includes many years of building a better infrastructure for digital culture in Sweden and globally, in dialogue with communities in hacker labs,  makerspaces, museums, libraries, the EU Commission, academia and various industries. Currently Isdrake is doing PhD research at Concordia University Tiohtià:ke/Montréal.

What to make [electronic] art about in 2022 and beyond?

Since the enthusiastic adoption of electronic technologies that characterised the electronic and new media art scene in the 1990s, several factors have crept in that changed the game for good and continue to do so. Open source technologies and the related ecosystem of forums, tutorials and downloadable knowledge is one. Another one is the increasingly heavy presence of climate crisis in all aspects of civilisation including the arts. Paul Granjon will will give an overview of his trajectory, from enthusiasm for early robotic art to contemplating the joys and challenges of off-grid living as an art practice.

Paul Granjon is interested in the co-evolution of humans and machines, imagining solutions for alternative futures and sharing his experience of creative technologies. He has been making robots and other machines for exhibitions and performances since 1996. Granjon’s work became known for a trademark combination of humour and serious questions, delivered with absurd machines that made use of recycled components. His Sexed Robots were exhibited in the Welsh Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2005. He performs and exhibits internationally. He regularly delivers Wrekshops, public events where participants are invited to take apart electronic waste and build temporary new machines from the bits they find. Granjon’s current work is driven by an ecologist, low-tech and participatory agenda. He teaches Fine-Art in Cardiff School of Art and Design, UK.

PERFORMING ARTS WORKSHOPS PROGRAM

Performing Arts Workshop program: electronics and free/libre technologies applied to the performing arts.

Piksels basic idea is that artists, across disciplines, should have control over their own production. Therefore, tools like free software / open hardware are seen as best suited to this. Internationally, Piksel is perhaps one of the important meeting place for players in this field.

After 20 years of existence, the Piksel Festival has shown a variety of performing arts pieces exploring creativetily interaction with sound synthesis, lights or video through pressure sensitive sensors and body movements. In collaboratin with Bergen Dansesenter, this program intends to facilitate performers, choreographers, actors, artistic directors, the integration of digital tools on their shows as a way to develop new dialogues with the audiences.

The program includes 2 workshops: Soft Control and body actuation by Afroditi Psarra with the collaboration of Tingyi Jiang, and, memoryMechanics by Karen Eide Bøen, Mads Høbye, Lise Aagaard Knudsen, Maja Fagerberg Ranten and Troels Andreasen. Both working with Artifical Intelligence trained to proccess natural language or AI as a place to play with memories.

PROGRAM

18th – 12-13h memoryMechanics by Karen Eide Bøen, Mads Høbye, Lise Aagaard Knudsen, Maja Fagerberg Ranten and Troels Andreasen @BIT Teatergarajsen, Strandgaten 205.

19th – 10-13h Soft Control and body actuation by Afroditi Psarra with the collaboration of Tingyi Jiang @Bergen Dansesenter.

All workshops are free

To participate send an email to: piksel22(at)piksel(dot)no

Soft Control and body actuation
Soft Control and body actuation
November 19, 2022 10:00 am
memoryMechanics
memoryMechanics
November 18, 2022 12:00 pm

Live collaborative radio with Mezcal

August Black

Mezcal is a web app for collaborative sound and live transmission that I have been prototyping and building in collaboration with https://wavefarm.org and multiple artists (such as Anna Friz https://nicelittlestatic.com/, Betsey Biggs https://www.betseybiggs.org/, and Peter Courtemanche http://absolutevalueofnoise.ca/?now).  In this 1 hour workshop, I give an overview of the software, its design intentions and practical implementations, and then split the group up into sections to create a live experimental radio session on-site. (note: this software is not YET free software, but lives in the web as a free service for free cultural institutions such as radio libre in Medellín, Colombia https://red.radiolibre.cc/ and Sound Camp in the UK https://soundtent.org/, among others)
https://august.black/mezcal/

August Black is a hybrid practitioner of art, design and engineering. He makes experimental spatial and acoustic situations, often by building his own technological artifacts and instruments in hardware and software. His past work focused on live networked audio, mixing FM radio with user input through online software. His current interests span the fields of the philosophy of technology, software studies, techno-politics, peer-to-peer networking and AI/machine learning. In the past, he’s been a member of arts organizations such as the ORF Kunstradio and the Ars Electronica Futurelab, as well as a former member of the engineering team at Cycling ‘74, makers of Max/MSP. He has shown works at festivals and venues such as Ars Electronica Festival, Dutch Electronic Arts Festival, Wave Farm, Transmediale, Pixelache, LA Freewaves, Piksel Festival, Polar Circuit and the Tasmanian Museum of Art, among others.He earned a BFA at Syracuse University and was an NSF IGERT Fellow at UC Santa Barbara, where he completed an MS and PhD. He’s taught media and art classes at UC Santa Barbara, University of San Francisco and CU Boulder, where he serves as Assistant Professor of Critical Media Practices.

https://august.black