As part of the V&A Digital Design Weekend, MzTEK will be running an introduction to physical computing with Arduino. In this workhsop, contribute a piece to the interactive art installation. Thin plastics strips will be attached to a small fan, which activates when a shadow is cast over it.

Make your own interactive fern

This Arduino-beginners course will teach you how to control a small fan and to make it interactive by sensing the light in its environment. After a 2 hour workshop you will not only have learned the basics to programming an Arduino and connect electrical components, but also you will have taken part in a collaborative art work, as all the outcomes of the workshop will contribute to a bigger interactive installation.

Workshop by Katrin Baumgarten.

WHEN

Saturday, 21st September 2013
14.00 – 17.00

WHERE

This workshop is part of the V& Digital Weekend at The V&A Digital Studio, Sackler Centre
Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL

Places are limited, this workshop is open to all: SIGN UP HERE

Learn all you need to know to get started for wearable interaction with Radio Frequency ID tags.

RFID tags are used all around us, from your Oyster card to security tags in shops. They are tags that have a unique serial number, which can be read and identified by an RFID reader by placing the tag near the reader.

Using the LilyPad Arduino, you will learn to identify your tags and, based on the tag ID, trigger a different colour light for each tag. We will use soft circuits to embed the LilyPad and RFID tags into a piece of fabric.

All kit provided for you to take home a fully functioning RFID project.  Feel free to bring your project, cushion, soft toy, garment or bag to embed your RFID into.

This would be an ideal for anyone that has attended our LilyPad Arduino Introductory workshop, but is suitable for complete beginners too.

Who

Sara Heitlinger.

 Sara is currently a PhD candidate in Media and Arts Technology, at Queen Mary University of London, where she is researching designing interactive systems to support grassroots urban food growing communities.

Where

SPACE 129—131 MARE STREET LONDON E8 3RH.

When

16th February ‘2013 11.30 – 5pm

Tickets:

£80 including LilyPad Arduino
£50 WTHOUT LilyPad – for those who have their own.

Sign up

This is a women only workshop,  SIGN UP HERE!!!!!

Generously supported by

Back by popular demand!

For all you techie women, join our one day introduction to the LilyPad Arduino and get your garments interactive!

During the course of the day you will be introduced to the basics of soft circuitry, some basic electronics, Arduino software, programming, and reading a sensor. At the end of the day you will have a functioning interactive patch, which you can sew onto a garment, bag or cushion cover.

PLEASE BRING WITH YOU:

A piece of fancy fabric of your choice. It is best to use something non-stretchy and stiff, something like cotton or canvas – perhaps with a ‘Christmassy’ twist? ;)

If you want to bring your own laptop, please make sure you have installed the latest Arduino Software on it.

A USB to mini-USB (you are bound to have one somewhere, we thought best not to buy more ;)

Fee: Including LilyPad Arduino £75 + £1.60 booking fee – This includes the LilyPad Arduino, LilyPad Battery Holder and FTDI board.

Not including LilyPad Arduino £35 + £1.60 booking fee – This is for those who do not require a LilyPad Arduino Kit as above. There will not be spares to borrow unfortunately, please make sure you have one for the workshop if you purchase this ticket.

When:

15th December ‘2012 10am – 5pm

Where:

SPACE, 129—131 Mare Street, London, E8 3RH.

Tutor:

MzTEk’s Sophie McDonald

Sign up here!

If you have any queries, please contact us on info@mztek.org.

Please note that this is a women’s workshop only.

This week not only sees the beginning of the London Design Festival, but also London Fashion Week. To tie in with the latter, The Science Council are launching a new section on their Future Morph website, entitled Fashion & Textiles. The page explores many different areas within this field, from wearable technology, to textiles used for medicine, as well as how science and fashion can work together for a more sustainable world.

The page is also a great for tutors as it contains learning resources as well as an insight into the work which different people are doing in this area so as to inspire students with regards to career choices. If you’re interested in this area, then it’s definitely worth a read!

The Science Council very kindly asked us to contribute towards this section of the site as MzTEK has been doing  a lot of work with soft circuits recently, including the Hacked Human Orchestra project in collaboration with Guerilla Science as well as a variety of workshops.

We have been running classes in the Lilypad Arduino as well as a beginners soft circuit course in which students can create a soft toy with light-up eyes, which you can participate in at the V&A’s Digital Design Weekend this week!

To read our article as well as others in the section, check out the Future Morph website.

MzTEK will be running two workshops at this years Digital Design Weekend at the V&A: Soft Circuit Robots & Introduction to Arduino…

Come and find us in the in the Seminar Room 1, Sackler Centre.

Saturday 22 & Sunday 23 September 2012

Soft Circuit Robots

Saturday 22 September
10.30 – 13.30 or 14.30 – 17.30
Celebrate the Alan Turing Year by creating your own cute soft-circuit chatbot with light-up eyes! Learn how to make crochet chains and buttons with conductive materials.

Sign up here for the Soft Circuit workshop.

Introduction to Arduino

Sunday 23 September
11.00 – 13.00 or 14.30 – 16.30

Learn the basics of interaction design with Arduino, how to use it, applications for creating interactive objects or environments and how to use a simple sensor for basic interaction.

Sign up here for the Intro to Arduino workshop.