• The workshop runs July 21-25, 10 AM-4 PM (Lecture 10-12, lunch break 12-1, lab session with instructor support 1-4)
• CNMAT is located at 1750 Arch Street, Berkeley, CA
• Instructor: Adrian Freed with Syuzi Pakhchyan, Yotam Mann, Jeff Lubow, Andy Schmeder, Michael Zbyszynski
• Fee: $800 (includes lab fee)
• Class is now FULL: Click the Sign up link above to add yourself to the waiting list.

Prerequisites

None. All knowledge, skills and materials required are integrated into the class. Just bring your curiosity and your favorite way to take notes.

Audience

• Artists exploring new possibilities in interactive media in an integrated hands-on and technical way
• Musicians augmenting traditional instruments with new sensors
• Teachers developing interaction arts curriculum
• Engineers, computer scientists, or product designers interested in exploring artistic outlets for their talents and collaborating with performers and composers

Special Emphasis

New fiber and malleable materials including conductive fabrics, piezoresistive fabrics, conductive heatshrink tubing, carbon fiber etc. Recently-developed rapid-prototyping techniques using these new materals will be shared. This is your chance to get your hands on all those hard-to-find fabrics and materials.

Introduction

This workshop offers a hands-on survey of sensors, sensor interfaces and integration software and hardware for use in musical performance, dance, video, sound and art installations. Students will explore sensor systems from CNMAT’s extensive library (and ones they bring to share) integrating them in a range of sound, image and motion synthesis systems. muilti-touch and many-touch systems will be explored.

We will survey core sensor types including: resistive, position, inertial, capacitive, RF, ultrasound, magnetic and optical. We will explore the major sensor integration systems, e.g., Make Controller Kit, Arduino (Freeduino, Lilypad, Orangutan, Boarduini, RBBA etc), CUI, and the latest uOSC, and how to adapt existing sensors such as the Nintendo Wii controllers. During the laboratory sessions we will build complete instruments and art pieces by using the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol as glue between sensor data and synthesis patches in PD and Max/MSP/Jitter. Sample programs for these environments will be provided to test and calibrate the sensor projects and contextualize them in viable artistic contexts. Students will have hands on experience with innovative sensor systems being presented at NIME 2008.

The practical core of the workshop will be complemented by inspiring guest presentations from leading developers and performers of sensor based music and art.

Format

Daily 10am to 4pm. Short morning presentations and demonstrations and late morning and afternoon supervised lab sessions. There will be plenty of scope for discussions and private access to instructors for guidance and mentoring. Participants are welcome to join the CNMAT Max/MSP night school participants for the special event on the evening of the last day (friday)

Materials and Tools

Course fee includes lab fee and materials you can keep after the class. It will be helpful to have a reasonably modern laptop (Windows or Mac) with a USB port to test devices and create complete systems. Bluetooth will be required for some sensors which can be readily added to an older laptop that doesn’t have bluetooth support with a $10 dongle. You are welcome to bring any art-making software/hardware you already use.

Syllabus and Questions

A more detailed syllabus is a available. This will be refined over the coming month to integrate new sensor technologies and the specific interests of participants. Please address questions about the content of the course to adrian [at] cnmat [dot] berkeley [dot] edu.

Housing

For information on housing, contact the UC Berkeley Summer Visitor Housing office for information on availability of rooms on campus: (510) 642-4444