Releases from our 99 Anonymous project in collaboration with the Enough Records Netlabel keep coming out. Mixtapes 2 and 3 are now available. An open call for new works refocusing on SOPA / PIPA / ACTA / #pl118 has also been launched.
On the 25 and 26 January, AZ Labs showcased some projects at the library of Vila Verde. This showcase was the first step in a series of iniatives promoted by Casa do Conhecimento in Vila Verde in colaboration with Audiência Zero. 500 students from local schools were brought to a secret room in the municipal library to discover creative, artistic and open source applications of technology we had setup to show them.
The response from the students, teachers and organizing comittee was great and we look forward to colaborate some more with the people of Vila Verde in the near future!
In total we showcased 7 projects.
Drawdio – An esoteric electronic instrument invented by some folks at MIT exploring the conductivity of graffite on paper or just common water. The user closes the electronic circuit through touch, triggering sound through a small speaker. Showcased by Ricardo Lobo and João Gonçalves.
GroundSpines Graffiti – The laser tagging prototype developed at xDA, inspired by the GRL laser tag system. This project was originally developed by Tiago Serra, Tony Gonçalves and Victor Martins to beautify abandoned buildings in Coimbra. Showcased by Pedro Salgado.
RC Micro Machines – Originally developed through a sprint session with people from the different AZ Labs, maintained by Nuno Barros, Ricardo Lobo, João Gonçalves and Pedro Salgado. Showcased by Nuno Barros.
AnonMirror – An interactive installation about social activism in our society. Made by Filipe Cruz using OpenFrameworks, Kinect and a wrapper developed by Victor Martins.
MakerBot – Ricardo Lobo showcased and did some live maintenance fixes on “Catarina”, one of the two AZ Labs Cupcake Makerbots we have. Printing some whistles and showing Thingieverse.
New Picasso – A kinect controlled robot that paints the floor. Users wave their hands in front of the kinect to send commands through Arduino to the servo motors of the robot. Project by Guilherme Martins, Pedro Salgado and João Gonçalves.
Teleforma – Project by Ricardo Lobo, João Gonçalves and Mécia Sá dealing with the relationship that people have with speech and conversation. The project is based on a mechanical physical interface that allows two users to translate visually the form of their speech.
The AZ Labs residency at Espaço do Tempo in Montemor-o-Novo is sadly over for now. Folks have been working hard to finish things up for the proto exhibition of projects we had on Saturday.
A few projects were shelved or abandoned for different reasons. Not stable enough, not enough time, no right materials, not enough beer. In the end were left with 9 projects.
AR Cubes – André Sier developed a few experiments with cubes glued with printed augmented reality fiducial markers. Different markers trigger different effects. You can play with them to make different combinations of objects and lines interacting with each other.
Tracking Head – Tiago Serra, Andrea Inocêncio and Mauricio Martins worked on a manequin head rescued during a dumpster diving session. They equipped a box with IR leds and use a camera with filters to track the movement of the box. With these values they send rotation information to a servo motor equiped in the base of the manequin head. The same values are also sent to a software that selects a corresponding angle photo which is projected in the manequin. This system makes the freaky manequin head rotate in the direction of the object.
Talking Head – Next to the Tracking Head we have a speaker box equipped wih an arduino, an ir receiver and a wave shield. When the box handled by the user aims at the speaker box it triggers random samples from a sample pool, giving the illusion that the head itself is talking. Mauricio, André, Filipe, João and Rita worked on this project.
Tracking Boids – The floor of the Tracking Head space is covered with small light spots flying around. These boids, programmed by André Sier may look like random disco lights on first glance but when someone moves into the camera they flock towards the user.
Micro CNC – Tiago Rorke had been working on a Micro CNC project, pieces printed with the Makerbot. Tereza Cardoso gave him a hand making a project out of it by taking photos of the attenders of the residency, downgrading them to vector format and having the micro cnc sketch them. They are drawn on the walls of the residency itself, along with qr code linking to video interviews talking about each persons involvement with the different projects.
Paint Video Signals – Andrea Inocêncio recorded some short videos of red blue and black paint being applied to different mediums (water, paper, table). Filipe Cruz did a little processing sketch to extract midi values from a grid of pixels in the video and send them to reaktor. Some generative sound tests were recorded and mixed into a video dvd.
Blip Blop Blir Boxes – André Sier and Mauricio Martins worked on a few small boxes packed with an Arduino, IR sensors, LEDs and speakers. Boxes pointing to each other make the LEDs change their color. A third box pointed to the previous boxes makes them give out some blips and blops sounds.
“O mundo é em cada instante o que ele não pode não ser.” – A project conceived by Patricia Proença consisting of a hand drawn animation of a tree growing being projected into a wall. The animation is triggered when a watering can equiped with a cellphone is tilted into an alien plant object. Tiago Serra gave her a hand with the technical implementation.
Trailchi – Guilherme Cartaxo and Sónia Malaquias been working for while on their project involving long exposions to tai chi sessions performed in the dark with a sword and suit equipped with 12 LEDs. The captured animations makes some beautiful light trails art. Also helps analyse the motion of the session.
Day three is already upon us at the AZ Labs Residency. Folks still happily hacking away day and night.
Run to the local chinese store brought back some hackable goodies like colorful balls, a giant rubik’s cube and some wooden boxes. Andrea Inocêncio was assigned to drilling duty after finishing up with the manequin head. Ricardo Webbens left behind his radio location arduino circuit prototypes for me to test.
César Coelho took the time to learn some new software stuff. Tiago Serra is currently trying to make the kinect and the arduino talk with each other and make some annoying sinus sounds. André Sier spent the afternoon hacking with Mauricio Martins programming the arduinos with ir detection to give some random blips and blops.
Tiago Rorke is almost finished with printing and sanding the hardware of his revolutionary Micro CNC. Ricardo Lobo tried desperatly to get the other Makerbot working. Pedro Ângelo seccluded himself to code some kinect stuff for Play With Fire. Filipe Cruz spent some time testing new versions of kinect libraries and random iPad development.
Ivo Andrade dropped by to enhance his project of the boy sitting on a metal cube. Patricia Proença sketched some concept art. Other folks were also walking around looking busy and discussing ideas. 7 more days to go.
AZ Labs are back in residency at Montemor-o-Novo. This time we are trying to have a connecting theme for the creative technology hacking insanity. The plan for the next 10 days is to brainstorm, conceptualize and prototype project ideas for tangible objects that can interact with each other and the environment.
We have folks attending with all sorts of backgrounds: computer science, plastic arts, performance arts, electronics, industrial fabrication, graphic design, sound design, statistics, sociology. We barely had time to introduce ourselves to the first timers and new ideas are already brewing. Plans for infrared communication. Augmented reality environments. Radio signal triangulations. LED boards and cubes. Multiple kinect abuse. Let us wait and see into what these ideas will mature into.
Right now it’s 2 am, some folks already went to sleep while others are hard at work on personal projects. Using one of our Makerbots is printing parts to build a Micro CNC. Trying to get the larger CNC working again. Hacking malfunctioning audio adaptors to create contact microphones. Implementing some tangible interaction with the kinect. Testing out some things with Arduinos. Failing to install ofxPTAM. The list goes on.
True hacking knows no sleep.
A Audiência Zero vai realizar mais uma residência artística multidisciplinar em O Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-Novo), entre os dias 14 a 22 de Janeiro.
Nesta edição, teremos uma novidade 
Enquanto nas edições anteriores os participantes eram convidados a desenvolver qualquer tipo de projecto, individual ou colectivamente, nas áreas de electrónica, computação física, instalações interactivas, etc., este ano propomos também um objectivo comum: o desenvolvimento de interacções tangíveis, através da construção de objectos e espaços interactivos capazes de demonstrar que um objecto pode causar interacções distintas em espaços distintos. A ideia é fazer com que cada objecto a desenvolver interaja de forma diferenciada nos espaços criados, ou que os objectos interajam entre eles próprios.
Deixamos aqui alguns exemplos de ideias a abordar.
Imagine um objecto a ser levado para determinado espaço onde está uma luz robotizada. Quando o objecto é “reconhecido” no espaço, a luz robotizada passa a seguir a pessoa que o carrega. Se o objecto for dado a outra pessoa, passa então ela a ser seguida pela luz.
É possível desenvolver outras interacções semelhantes, por exemplo:
Podem ser desenvolvidas diversas narrativas – artísticas, didácticas, de “gaming”, etc.
Para o desenvolvimento destes objectos e espaços, propõem-se vários tipos de tecnologias:
Serão disponibilizados (a título de empréstimo) computadores, Arduínos, sensores e material electrónico, projectores de vídeo, sistemas de áudio, etc. para uso exlusivo no local da residência e durante o período de desenvolvimento dos projectos.
A residência é destinada aos actuais membros da rede AZ Labs ou a quem se identifique com o ojectivo proposto e tenha interesse em conhecer o trabalho por nós desenvolvido. Os interessados na residência devem manifestar o seu interesse e inscreverem-se com a maior brevidade possível através do FORMULÁRIO DE INSCRIÇÃO para garantir lugar. As vagas na residência estão limitadas a 15.
Todos os participantes desfrutam de alojamento, pequeno almoço e almoço durante o período da residência.
Residência AZ Janeiro 2012
Coordenação: altLab – Lisbon’s Hackerspace
Datas: 14 a 22 janeiro de 2012
Local: O Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-Novo)
Inscrições Abertas – FORMULÁRIO DE INSCRIÇÃO
Between 14 and 22 January 2012 O Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-Novo) in collaboration with Audiência Zero is organizing another multi-disciplinary artistic residency.
During the previous editions the residents were invited to develop any kind of project, collectively or individually, in the areas of electronics, physical computation, interactive instalation, etc. In this edition we will have a new concept. We propose to develop projects with a common goal, tangible interaction, through the construction of objects and interactive spaces where the same object can interact in different ways. Or objects can interact among themselfs.
Here are a few example ideas, open for reuse.
Imagine an object being carried to a certain space where there is a robotized light source. When the object is recognized as entered the space the robotized light will follow the person carrying it. If the object is given to another person, they become the target of the light.
It’s possible to develop other similar interactions such as:
Different narratives can be developed – artistic, educational, gaming, etc.
For the developmnet of these objects and spaces, several technologies are proposed.
The residency is open to current members of the AZ Labs network or anyone who identifies with the proposed objective.
Interested artists and hackers must register as soon as possible using our SUBMISSION FORM.
The residency is limited to 15 attenders only.
All participants have free lodging, breakfast and lunch during the residency period.
Residência AZ Janeiro 2012
Coordination: altLab – Lisbon’s Hackerspace
When: 14 ~ 22 january 2012
Where: O Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-Novo)
O Laboratório de Criação Digital é membro de uma rede nacional de espaços de criação e experimentação com tecnologia coordenada pela associação cultural Audiência Zero, do qual fazem igualmente parte o altLab em Lisboa (www.altlab.org) e o xDA em Coimbra (www.xdatelier.org).
Anualmente esta rede de laboratórios organiza um encontro dos seus criadores, de forma a possibilitar a troca de conhecimento e experiências a nível nacional. O encontro funciona como uma sessão de laboratório onde se criam equipas com membros de todo o país.
As actividades que integram o encontro são: mostra de projectos, apresentação de trabalhos e investigações, workshops e palestras. O respectivo programa será divulgado atempadamente.
Coordenador: Ricardo Lobo
Público: Geral, Criadores, Artistas
Participantes: 30 (max)
Início: 17 Dezembro 2011
Fim: 18 Dezembro 2011
Horário: 10h00-24h00
Local: LCD / CAAA
Inscrição: Gratuito
As inscrições nesta actividades encontram-se abertas
Alexandre Valinho Gigas > literatura/artes performativas
Atelier de Santos / Pedro Costa > arquitectura
Carlos Barradas > fotografia
Duplo Network / Francisco Marta > design de comunicação
José Paulo Reis >arte digital
José Pedro Sousa > arquitectura
Laura Jorge e Patrícia Alecrim / Projecto Utopia > design de comunicação
Márcia Gaudêncio > design gráfico
Marco Moura > ilustração
MAVAA > arquitectura
Miguel Neiva / ColorADD > design de comunicação
Pedro Santos > arquitectura / design gráfico
Pedro Vilas-Boas+Cátia Oliveira > design / illustration / music video
Rui Fernandes+Licínio Faim / D-Solution > arquitectura
Sister’s Project > design de moda
USenses > new technologies / urban design
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=162999213795094&ref=ts
We’re back in AZResidency in Montemor o Novo with our friends from LCD and Altlab finishing up some projects for the Algoritmos Criativos exhibit opening this friday, please show up.
Meanwhile we support the Occupy Wall Street movement by including some F.A.T.ness into our website.
Don’t forget to register yourself in our upcoming workshops!
