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Come and make a cute Chatbot that talks back! This course is an introduction to soft-circuits and E-textiles, and basics of electronics for wearable technology.

Using conductive materials for basic soft-circuit interaction techniques, the workshop will hack and embed a recordable device into your Chatbot, playing back Chatbot chatter.

Price:

£80, concessions £64

When:

Saturday 4th May 10.30pm – 5pm

Where:

The V&A Digital Studio, Sackler Centre
Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL

Sign up Here!

Back by seriously popular demand…

This workshop will show you how to programme a real-time graphical visualisation using live Twitter data.

You will create your visualization using Processing. Processing is an open source programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) built for the electronic arts and visual design communities. You can download Processing here: http://processing.org/download/

You will need your code to communicate with the Twitter API to retrieve tweets and information about users and their connections.  To avoid running into bandwidth limitation problems, you must authenticate using your own Twitter account details. Please create a Twitter account before the workshop if you do not already have one.

We will cover the basic principles of Processing, working with pre-existing example code to highlight how it functions and the type of visuals you might want to create.

You will design your Processing sketch using Twitter4J, a java library for the Twitter API.  We will the look at how to install and use the Twitter4J library and cover some of the queries that it supports to give you an idea of the type of information you can extract from the Twitter API.

By the end of this workshop you will know how to produce a simple visualization using Twitter that will change in real time, and think about how you can incorporate an element of user interaction or simply display information in an illuminating or aesthetically pleasing way.

What you will need to do in advance of this workshop

Download Processing: http://processing.org/download
Create a Twitter account: http://www.twitter.com

Who?

Shauna Concannon,  a literary studies grad turned electrical engineer, Shauna swapped Samuel Beckett for Alan Turing, taking up a PhD in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary in the University of London.

When:

18th May ‘2013 11.30am – 4pm

Where?

SPACE 129—131 MARE STREET LONDON E8 3RH

Only £35!!!  This is a women only workshop. :) Sign Up!

Generously supported by

MzTEK’s Beat box t-shirt from the Hacked Human Orchestra at London Music Hackspace

MzTEK and the Music Hackspace invite all you techie women (and women who want to get techie) to join us for a one day workshop where you will learn to make one of the instruments from the project, the Beatbox t-shirt!

This last summer we worked with Guerilla Science, and KOBAKANT to bring a fantastic Hacked Human Orchestra to Wilderness and Shambala festivals, making wearable instruments with festival-goers that created the most awesome music ever!

Creating soft circuits with conductive fabric, conductive thread and an array of electronic components, people turned their t-shirts into synthesizers, screechers and recorders.

On this occasion the Beatbox t-shirt arrives to the London Music Hackspace, a place for artists, innovators, entrepreneurs and hobbyists passionate about music and technology.

In this workshop we will hack a small re-recordable devise, discard the hard wires and replace them with conductive fabric and thread, and learn e-textile techniques to make soft circuit buttons to embed the devise into a t-shirt or textile. We will provide a standard t-shirt, but feel free to bring a fabric patch, hat or bag etc, to use instead.

This would make a funky Xmas prezzie!

This workshop is perfect for someone wanting to learn the basics of how to create a soft circuit, but also for those wanting to work with electronics in a slightly different way. T-shirts will be provided but please feel free to bring along your own garment to adorn as well!

For more information about our adventures with Hacked Human Orchestra over the summer please check out: http://www.mztek.org/programs/hacked-human-orchestra/

When?

Sunday 16th December 11:00am – 4:30pm

Where?

Music Hackspace, Unit 30. Cremer Business Centre. 37 Cremer Street. London E2 8HD

£50 + £1.60 booking fee – standard ticket

£80 + £1.60 booking fee – 2 people discounted ticket (saving of £10 for each person!)

SIGN UP HERE

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.

As part of the Natural Circuits Barbican weekender MzTEK will be running 6x 2 hour workshops throughout the weekend, so come and make your t-shirt for FREE!

This summer we designed three wearable instruments for a collaboration with Guerilla Science to create the Hacked Human Orchestra. Come make your beatbox t-shirt this weekend and join the phenomenon that is the Hacked Human Orchestra!

You will find us in the main foyer near the canteen from 10am – 6pm Saturday and Sunday.