MIDI Scrapyard Challenge
Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Katherine Moriwaki
When: 19th January 2007, 9am-8pm
Where: Distance Lab, Horizon Scotland, Forres, Moray
In partnership with Urban Learning Space
This MIDI Scrapyard Challenge Workshop was ran jointly with Distance Lab at their premises. The workshop was an intensive, one-day workshop in which participants built simple electronic projects (both digital and analog inputs) out of found or discarded "junk" such as old electronics, clothing, furniture, outdated computer equipment, appliances, turntables, monitors, gadgets. The Scrapyard Challenge showed how easy it is to re-use technology and make it serve a new purpose. Participants in this workshop experienced what it is like to tinker with electronics, and were encouraged to think about the design of open systems, platforms and tools that allow the user to put these to a new use. The ultimate aim of the Challenge was to encourage an open and collaborative space for creative ideas and hands-on prototyping.
So far the workshops have been held 14 times in 6 countries with 3 different themes. This Scrapyard version included a mini workshop where participants build simple drawing robots or "DrawBots" with small, inexpensive motors, batteries, and drawing markers that can also be connected to a Serial or MIDI interface. At the end of the day, the workshop participants held a small performance concert, where they demonstrated and presented their creations together as a group.
Workshop Leader
Jonah Brucker-Cohen
Jonah Brucker-Cohen is a researcher, artist, and R and D OpenLab Fellow at Eyebeam in NYC. He is also currently completing his Ph.D. as an HEA MMRP (Multimedia Research Programme) fellow in the Disruptive Design Team of the Networking and Telecommunications Research Group (NTRG), Trinity College Dublin. He was also a Research Fellow in the Human Connectedness Group at Media Lab Europe. He received a Masters from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU and was an Interval Research Fellow. His work and thesis focuses on the theme of "Deconstructing Networks" which includes projects that attempt to critically challenge and subvert accepted perceptions of network interaction and experience. He is co-founder of the Dublin Art and Technology Association (DATA Group) and a recipient of the ARANEUM Prize sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Art, Science and Technology and Fundacion ARCO. His writing has appeared in numerous international publications including WIRED Magazine, Rhizome.org and GIZMODO, and his work has been shown at events such as DEAF (03,04), Art Futura (04), SIGGRAPH (00,05), UBICOMP (02,03,04), CHI (04,06) Transmediale (02,04), ISEA (02,04,06), Institute of Contemporary Art in London (04), Whitney Museum of American Art's ArtPort (03), Ars Electronica (02,04), and the ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art (04-5).
Katherine Moriwaki
Katherine Moriwaki is an artist and researcher investigating clothing and accessories as the active conduit through which people create network relationships in public space. After receiving her Masters degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Katherine co-developed and taught the ground-breaking collaboration studio "Fashionable Technology" at Parson's School of Design. Currently a Ph.D. Candidate in the Networks and Telecommunications Research Group at Trinity College Dublin, her work has appeared in IEEE Spectrum Magazine, and numerous festivals and conferences including numer.02 at Centre Georges Pompidou (02), Break 2.2 (03), Ubicomp (03,04), eculture fair (03),Transmediale (04), CHI (04), ISEA (04), and Ars Electronica (04). She is a 2004 recipient of the Araneum Prize from the Spanish Ministry for Science and Technology and Fundacion ARCO.
Organised and managed by Distance Lab with support from Urban Learning Space.
