TALKOO08 iMAL - Hybrid Objects

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Workshop in electronic interventions

iMAL, Bussels, June 2008

During the first week of June 2008 iMAL arranged a workshop in electronic interventions in the city of Brussels. Originally we had planned to explore the use of wireless technologies like ZigBee as a way to transmit information between different devices that would then operate actions in the environment.

However, the workshop participants drove the contents of the workshop towards a completely different direction. We started experimenting with sound production from Arduino boards, tried different ways of amplifying our digitally generated sound, created small stereo samplers out of old PET bottles and went on a tour sound-infecting different parts of the old town.

Personally I learned a lot about actions with sound in the open space (open as in "no ceilings"). We need to make further research into cheap moveable battery driven amplification systems. We need to look for ways to synch the instruments (here is where the wireless communication will turn very useful), and we need to perform a lot.

I also learned that we need to be even more punk. We got attacked by the painters at Brussels' main square for "not being art" and kicked out of the opera house "because there was a concert going on" ... we, intrusive performers of the world, need to teach ourselves how to lose fear ... we need to be more punk (or punker)!

My basic documentation for this project consists in a bunch of photographs, a Gameboy Advance Application for Linux and MacIntel but also for Windows and a lot of open source code (the sound files are original by Jimi Hertz). Very soon I will also publish an open source hardware schematic that should help other performers interested in following the work where we stopped it.

Long Life Manneken Pis!