The Chicory
610 S Peters St, New Orleans, LA 70130
MATERIALS FEE: $35
There’s all kinds of weird little sounds hidden in objects around us – humming lamps, groaning chairs, singing cactuses. We’ll explore a number of nontraditional techniques for finding and evoking sound from physical objects. We’ll build a bunch of sensors and transducers like contact microphones and magnetic pickups, and use them to discover hidden sounds in the built environment around us. Then we’ll create small sculptural objects and machines to generate and shape these sounds in new ways.
SKILL LEVEL: Intro
• Introduction to sound in odd places
• Build various kinds of sensors and transducers (including optional easy soldering – a good excuse to learn to solder if you haven’t already!)
• Try out our new sensors on everything we can reach
• Make new sound objects to get more control over the sounds we can create
• Record and remix sound from our new creations
HARDWARE TO BRING:
• Attendees may want to bring a laptop to record and remix sounds, and a USB audio interface if you have one, but neither is required.
• Attendees may also want to bring small instruments or objects like wind-up toys, kitchen utensils, anything you’d like to explore for hidden sounds.
• If you have portable audio and recording equipment your welcome to bring it as well, but it’s not necessary.
SOFTWARE TO BRING:
• If you don’t have audio software on your laptop, it’s recommend to install Audacity, a free open-source audio editor audacityteam.org
MATERIALS FEE: None.
Do you want to make a microcontroller-based installation or exhibit without having nests of wires or having to design your own PCBs? So did we! That’s why we, the Cultural Technology Development Lab, made the Museduino – a stable pin-extending environment that allows for long distances between the main board and I/0. At our university lab, we make exhibits for museums, libraries, and national parks – so tech works best if it’s open-source, modular, and inexpensive.
Museduino is an open-source electronic exhibit development kit that addresses the deployment of large footprint microcontroller-based systems. Using CAT5 cables, it allows for the stable extension of sensors and actuators. It’s designed to work with 10 of the most popular microcontrollers. The main Museduino shield fits with any Arduino Uno compatible shield, and connects to “satellite boards” via Cat5 connections. Satellites extend the pins, accept external power up to 15V (or can get 5V from the main shield), and can be up to 100 ft (30 meters) from the main microcontroller. “Smorgasboard” satellites can be daisy chained together for more pins & more distance! External power boards should be used at the end of a line.
In this workshop, we’ll develop prototypes that extend the functionality of an Arduino Uno up to 100 feet, allowing for large-footprint stability without a drop in data or voltage.
SKILL LEVEL: Intermediate / Advanced
The workshop will be most useful for people who have some experience with Arduino or even Pi, or have worked with microcontrollers. However, anyone who is curious about the potential applications of Museduino, or has ideas for large footprint projects is welcome to register.
• Introduction to the Museduino, open source hardware, and Arduino Uno form factor
• Demonstration of functionality, with various sensors (i.e photocells, buttons, IR sensors, capacitive touch) and actuators (i.e LEDs, neopixels, servo and DC motors, high voltage output)
• Break in to groups for hands-on experience
• Develop ideas and strategies for proofs of concepts/prototypes
• Work on/troubleshoot and document proofs of concept/prototypes
• Discuss next steps, show Git files and encourage user development of version 3.5
HARDWARE TO BRING:
• All attendees should bring a laptop (any operating system) with USB input (or adaptor), and a power supply.
SOFTWARE TO BRING:
• Arduino IDE current version (tested on your machine as certain OSX have had incompatibility with the new Arduino IDE) arduino.cc/en/Main/Software (for PC/iOS is fine)
MATERIALS FEE: None.
Are you interested in creating real-time interactions with sensors, cameras, depth sensors, gaming controllers, or microphones? Machine learning can be a great tool for giving such inputs control over animation, sounds, robots, game engines, or other systems you’ve built. Machine learning makes it possible to build complex interactions that are difficult or impossible to create using only programming; machine learning also makes it possible for non-programmers to build and customize systems, and for programmers to build things more quickly.
In this workshop, you’ll get a hands-on introduction to using machine learning for designing new interactive art, music, games, and other real-time systems. We’ll be using the Wekinator, a free and cross-platform software tool that connects to a wide variety of existing hardware and software (e.g., Arduino, Unity 3D, Max/MSP, PD, Ableton, openFrameworks, Processing, Kinect, Bitalino, …). We’ll teach you the basics of a few standard machine learning techniques and help you get started hacking with machine learning on your own projects.
We’ll talk about how to use machine learning to work more effectively with sensors, audio, and video data, and to build expressive & embodied interactions. You don’t need any prior machine learning knowledge (though you’ll still learn a lot even if you’ve previously studied machine learning in a more conventional context!). We’ll combine lectures and discussion with plenty of hands-on hacking. We’ll be using the Wekinator software to hook up game controllers, sensors, webcams, and microphones to interact with sound, animation, game engines, actuators, and other creative gear.
SKILL LEVEL: Intro / Intermediate / Advanced
The workshop will be most useful for people who can do a bit of coding in some environment (e.g., Processing, openFrameworks). But people who don’t do any programming will still be able to fully participate, as we have plenty of off-the-shelf examples which can be run without coding.
• Introduction: What is machine learning?
• Intro to classification + hands-on experimentation with classification for gesture and activity recognition
• Intro to regression + hands-on experimentation with regression for creating expressive, continuous controllers
• Intro to temporal modeling + hands-on experimentation with temporal modeling for spotting actions and events
• Finish with open-ended experimentation, hacking, and discussion
HARDWARE TO BRING:
• All attendees should bring a laptop (any operating system).
• Optionally, attendees can also bring input devices such as those listed at Wekinator.org/examples (e.g., Leap Motion, Arduino + sensors, joysticks, mobile phone with touchOSC, …).
• Attendees may also want to bring software/hardware they might want to control with machine learning (e.g., Arduino with motors; Max/MSP, Unity, Processing, openFrameworks, …)
SOFTWARE TO BRING:
• Install Wekinator from wekinator.org/downloads
• Make sure it runs! If not, install the most recent version of Java for your operating system.
• If you’re a Processing programmer, install the Processing code “Quick Start Pack” from Wekinator.org/examples/#Quick_Start_Pack. Follow the instructions at this Youtube How to run Wekinator examples in Processing Video to install the Processing libraries for OSC and video if you don’t already have these.
• Or if you’re not a Processing programmer, install the “Quick Start Pack” for your operating system at Wekinator.org/examples/#Quick_Start_Pack. Run the executable in Inputs/Simple_Mouse_DraggedObject_2Inputs/ and make sure you see a green box on a black screen. If you don’t, please download the “last resort” examples from Wekinator.org/examples/#Quick_Start_Pack.
Get your badge and get into the action! We’ll have an evening filled with attendee show-and-tell, the EXPO and great conversation.
The Chicory
610 S Peters St, New Orleans, LA 70130
Show & Tell is where we give the stage (and projector) to attendees. Check it out and find out what your co-attendees are up to. You’ll be surprised. We took sign ups in advance and all slots are full. Here’s the line up for round one:
1. Justin Gitlin
2. Sonia Li
3. James Hughes
4. Chang Liu
5. David Maples
6. Jeffrey Bryant
7. Jessie Contour
8. Chris Jordan
9. Victoria Gibson
10. David Wicks
Alternate in event of a no-show:
*Chris Riebschlager
Show & Tell is where we give the stage (and projector) to attendees. Check it out and find out what your co-attendees are up to. You’ll be surprised. We took sign ups in advance and all slots are full. Here’s the line up for round two:
1. Si Ping Lim
2. Yves Peitzner
3. Adam Carnes
4. Molly Schwartz
5. David Sullivan
6. Jingying Jiang
7. Josh Vekhter
8. Jason Toy
9. Laurie Frick
10. Dave Rife
Alternate in event of a no-show:
*Michael Hill
1436 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd, New Orleans, LA 70113
What if healthy, fresh food could be a free public good, and not just an expensive commodity? In litigious New York City where most everything is for sale, “Swale” is a 5,000 square-foot floating park and edible landscape made of perennial plants. It traversed the waterways in 2016, serving approximately 500 people a day. Swale began on the water because in New York it’s illegal to grow and pick food on public land. With Swale, we want to reinforce water as a commons, and work towards fresh food as a commons too.
Systems like Deep Dream that use machine learning to autonomously generate new media content have received a lot of attention recently. But how can machine learning actually function as a tool that aids human artists, musicians, and interaction designers achieve their own aims? In this talk, I’ll discuss my own work using machine learning to enable new types of creative interactions between people and machines.
We will present findings from “User Agreement,” a research-based art exhibition that seeks to identify technologies of peace—images, actions, and language that function as tools invented to resolve conflict, focus collective effort, and establish peace. Through a process of reverse engineering (dismantling, analyzing, and re-contextualizing) these technologies, we build new tools as art forms.
Presenting recent projects in data visualization, interactive public art and political activism.
In your badge holder, there is a ticket for the early or late performance. Leave your badge at home, bring your ticket and wear your button. We’ll see you there!
The Marigny Opera House
725 St Ferdinand St, New Orleans, LA 70117
Oracles is an exploration of mysterious artifacts, adopted mythologies, and the incomprehensible information that teases mankind from just outside our reach. It investigates our relationship to the past, present, and future in a performance that combines live music, projection / lighting design and interactive technology to create a unified piece of multimedia theatre.
In your badge holder, there is a ticket for the early or late performance. Leave your badge at home, bring your ticket and wear your button. We’ll see you there!
The Marigny Opera House
725 St Ferdinand St, New Orleans, LA 70117
Oracles is an exploration of mysterious artifacts, adopted mythologies, and the incomprehensible information that teases mankind from just outside our reach. It investigates our relationship to the past, present, and future in a performance that combines live music, projection / lighting design and interactive technology to create a unified piece of multimedia theatre.
1436 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd, New Orleans, LA 70113
This talk will cover the inception to the current state of art collective New Orleans Airlift’s locally loved and internationally celebrated project The Music Box – an experiment in Musical Architecture.
The project is also an experiment in radical collaboration and the presenters will talk about the challenges, but moreover, the incredible value of working together to build a larger whole – in this case a village of harmonizing musical houses. We will also talk about where the project is going now and how to be involved.
This talk considers machines for producing culture, and cultures of interactive machinery.
Emily and Theo of Design I/O will talk about designing interactive installations that support open play, where visitors are given the tools and space to integrate their own imagination and creativity into the experience and make it something wholly their own.
Emily and Theo will present several new installations, all united by a strong focus on this concept of open play. Diving deep into the technical and conceptual challenges that were faced, they will talk about their trial-and-error early experiments and often meandering process they take from initial concept to final installation.
*Bring your INSTINT badge to get in, and your ID to appease the bartenders.
The Civic Theater
510 O’Keefe Ave, New Orleans, LA 70113
I’ll be covering projects with concept and a radical effort to deconstruct the framework of post-architectural illusory space that transgress the normal boundaries of the viewing experience. These works set out to transform the conventional flat cinema projection screen into a three dimensional kinetic and architectonic space of visualisation by using contemporary algorithms, data and light as a material.
This state of complacency actually presents an opportunity wide open: we can “hack” these worn-out experiences and figure out what surreal/awesome things they can do.
In my work as a designer, I try to better understand how things work so that I might demonstrate their surprising capabilities hidden in plain sight. However, lo-fi research methods are also being used in [what would traditionally be considered] high-tech fields. Using strategies like origami, engineering labs are also seeking ways to make complex problems tangible—to open then up to physical intuition.
By engaging abstractions tangibly, we often find surprising possibilities hidden in plain view.
