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Workshop Series


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Registration is now open for the InterAccess Interactive Art Workshop Series: Party Like it's $19.99!

InterAccess's Interactive Art Workshop Series provides artists with the tools needed to begin exploring the creative uses of technology. Participants gain a solid technical foundation for realizing their artistic vision. Our workshops demonstrate how a computer can communicate with and integrate visuals, audio and electronics. InterAccess emphasizes production strategies for artworks that take place in real space and real time, including performance, interactive installation, audio, video, and kinetic or robotic sculpture and installation.

Contact
To register, You MUST contact Jennifer Cherniack at jennifer[dot]cherniack[at]interaccess[dot]org to reserve a spot, or call her at 416 599 7206 ex 25. Fees are to be paid in CASH, CHEQUE or through PAYPAL (click here) only. Please note: InterAccess reserves the right to cancel or reschedule workshops with a full refund.

HarbourKIDS Geek Out!- Beetle Robot Workshop with InterAccess

InterAccess Electricity Lab
Date: Sunday and Monday, October 12-13, 2008, 2:45pm - 3:45pm (both days)
Cost: FREE!
Instructor: The talented and fabulous Laura Paolini
Location: Marilyn Brewer Community Space, 235 Queens Quay West

Start ‘em early with electricity! InterAccess partners up with the Harbourfront centre to offer these free and youth oriented workshops. In this workshop, make a robot from the top of a peanut butter jar! We’ll show you how to add switches, motors and batteries! For more information, please go to: http://harbourfrontcentre.com/harbourkids/

HarbourKIDS Geek Out!- Turkey Tails Aglow

Date: Sunday and Monday, October 12-13, 2008, 11am-5pm (drop in, both days)
Cost: FREE!
Instructor: The talented and fabulous Laura Paolini
Location: Marilyn Brewer Community Space, 235 Queens Quay West

Start ‘em early with electricity! InterAccess partners up with the Harbourfront centre to offer these free and youth oriented workshops. In this workshop, colour a turkey or cornucopia design, then take it to the “lighting station” to learn how to light it up with LED lights! For more information, please go to: http://harbourfrontcentre.com/harbourkids/

Starting from Zero and One: Understanding new media in context

Date: Thursday, October 30, 7-10pm
Cost: $20 (members) $30 (non members)
Instructors: Co-taught by Dana Samuel, Director/Curator, InterAccess and Mark Schilling, Studio Art Professor and Art Historian (OCAD)

Learn about the history and importance of electronic and new media art with InterAccess’s Director/Curator, and her favourite Art Study-Buddy (and former-roommate!) In this seminar-based course, participants will learn about the origins and early practices of electronic art, and contemporary counterparts. Starting from a grounding in early 20th century avant-garde, and moving through minimalism and fluxus movements, various origins and inspirations will be examined and discussed alongside the development of post-WWII computer science. Conceptualism, “systems” art and post-modernism provide a grounding for both “relational aesthetics” and “postproduction” in the 80s ad 90s, alongside post-cold war internet expansions. Trivia, audio-visual examples and short, fun exercises provide the setting for discussions on why electronic art and new media matter within the vast canon of art history. This is considered part 1 of a 2-part course.

From One to One Hundred: Up to speed for making new media in context

Date: Thursday, November 6, 7-10pm
Cost: $30 (members) $40 (non members)
Instructors: Co-taught by Rob Cruickshank, InterAccess's resident electronics guru and Mark Schilling, Studio Art Professor and Art Historian (OCAD)

Don’t just think about it, do it, do it, do it! Learn technical approaches to making your ideas come to life, and get helpful feedback on your ideas within a studio setting. In this studio-based course, participants bring their ideas for projects, inspired by the discussion of the previous week. Technical considerations are addressed alongside a setting of critical feedback and assistance for honing concepts and ideas. Learn what specific technologies, practices, workshops and tools you need to realize your ideas, and get a sense of whether you can produce the work yourself, or what benefits collaborations or production assistance from a technical specialist can bring to the table. Most importantly, the “why” of making electronic art is addressed alongside the “how” and “how much.” This is considered part 2 of a 2-part course.

Intro to Visual Computing

Date: Tuesday, November 4, 7-10pm
Cost: $30 (members) $40 (non members)
Instructors: Frank Tsonis (Team MAX/MSP) and Dafydd Hughes (Team Pure Data), together, at last

Visual Computing/Programming (VP) is a programming language where users manipulate graphical elements rather than writing lines of code. This course is designed as an introduction to Visual Programming focusing on the fundamental concepts required before using Max/MSP and Pure Data. We will create simple Max and Pure Data programs and also examine pre-programmed audio and video programs. This is an introductory course serving as a foundation for future Max and Pure Data courses offered at InterAccess.

No Repeat Thursdays (an anti looping workshop)

Date: Thursday, November 13, 7-10pm
Cost: $19.99 plus a free beverage (a hold over from the Party like it’s 1999 series)
Instructor: Carey Dodge

No more loops in galleries! Come to this workshop to find out why. We will explore randomness, algorithms and data generation methods to take the loop out of our time-based electronic art. Together we will make a collective never-the-same-always-different-no-looping piece of art! Will we make a sedentary ocean wave crashing meditation or a head-bending electronic weird out? The workshop will have a sound art slant, but the ideas can be applied to video, electronics or any time-based electronic art that you can imagine.

Intro to Pure Data

Date: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, November 18, 19, 20, 7-10pm both days
Cost: $150 for members; $175 for non-members.
Instructors: Messrs. David McCallum and Dafydd Hughes

Want to make software for your art that behaves the way you want it to? Are you frustrated by the limitations of existing software and keen to create tools to suit your own artistic purposes? Then Pure Data is for you. Pure Data (Pd) is a graphical-based media programming language, similar in use to the well-known program Max/MSP, but free and open source. Pure Data allows artists to interact with the real world through live camera feeds, audio, video, motion sensors and other sources, or create synthesizers and video mixers. Graphical programming is most commonly used in immersive and interactive installations as well as live video mixing/VJ events. Participants learn the basics of audio programming, including sample recording, playback, manipulation and synthesis, and video programming using the "GEM video environment," including video mixing, manipulation and simple 3D rendering. Instructors tailor workshop content to suit the needs of participants as much as possible.

Intro to Sound I: Hear here

Date: Tuesday, November 25, 7-10pm
Cost: $30 (members) $40 (non members)
Instructor: Carey Dodge

What is Sound Art anyway? Wind chimes to 1's and 0's. A journey through the major practices and trends in Sound Art. Acoustic ecology to noise artists, Murray Schafer to Yasunao Tone. We will venture into the world of sound with a specific focus on distinguishing sound art as independent of music. What makes a sound artist tick? Learn about how sound artists have shaped sound as an artistic medium. We've come a long way from banging rocks together! Lots of audio-visual examples including spatial and physical sound. There will be a focus on new media and contemporary practices. This is considered part 1 of a 2-part course.

Intro to Sound II: Hear here, make-hear-better-listen

Date: Tuesday, November 27, 7-10pm
Cost: $45 (members) $60 (non members)
Instructor: Carey Dodge

What's an XLR cable? What's a frequency response curve? $10 000 for a microphone! WTF!!! Together we'll try and make sense of a pile of speakers, amps, mics, cables, circuits, boxes with holes, and other gadgetry we can use to play with sound. The physical stuff of sound production will be the focus of this workshop. Do I need/want to purchase/rent a fancy speaker or can I get away with a cheap disassembled computer speaker? Why use a dynamic mic as opposed to a condenser mic? These questions and more will be discussed and applied. Learn how to make good decisions about hardware for Sound Art. How do we get the most out of what we've got? This is considered part 2 of a 2-part course.

See CNC? Learn CNC. Use CNC.

Date: Saturday, November 29, 12-5pm
Cost: $75 (members) $90 (non members)
Instructor: Jess Brouse

The CNC machine is here! Wanna use it? You gotta learn how first, so take this workshop and get oriented in the art of CNC. The abbreviation CNC stands for computer numerical control, and refers specifically to a computer "controller" that reads G-code instructions and drives a machine tool, a powered mechanical device typically used to fabricate components by the selective removal of material. CNC does numerically directed interpolation of a cutting tool in the work envelope of a machine. The operating parameters of the CNC can be altered via a software load program.


Pay in person with cash or cheque or use paypal here.
All workshops take place in the InterAccess Production Studio
9 Ossington Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M6J 2Y8