kegan's blog
The summer workshops schedule has been updated.
We will be offering workshops in sound, video, printing and technology for exhibitions.
As a preview for this week DVD Studio Pro workshop, I put up a short video tutorial on looping DVDs for exhibitions. DVD studio is a complex and powerful program but this tutorial goes through a very simple set of instructions to get your DVD ready for exhibition.
View the video here.
Don’t forget to checkout our upcoming workshops:
This week: DVD Studio Pro Feb. 19 @ 7:30pm
Next week: Web Portfolios using Dreamweaver Feb. 26 @ 7:30pm
Two weeks: Open source software (Its free!) Mar. 5 @ 7:30pm
The semester is almost here and we have our first two workshops of the semester scheduled. As usual workshops are held Thursday evenings at 7:30 in the Grad Lab.
Intro to Flash, Thurs. Jan. 22
This workshop will introduce students to using Adobe’s scriptable animation software Flash. Students will learn the basics of animation and interactivity using this common web technology.
Media Installation, Thurs. Jan. 29
If you are using any kind of technology for your thesis exhibition you should attend this workshop. We will cover a range of topics dealing with using technology during exhibitions. Setting projectors, creating looping DVDs, creating multichannel video installations, adding interactive elements to installations, and how to deal with sound will all be introduced. Also please bring your questions and ideas about exhibitions tech. and we will answer them.
Suggestions
If you have a suggestion for a workshop you can submit it via our website suggestions page. To login use your MICA login and password.
You can now follow the Grad Lab on twitter. We will be posting brief updates about the lab periodically, including workshops, new equipment, and other lab events.
The Graduate Lab now has a reservation system in place so that you can reserve equipment for Graduate Checkout online. For those of you that remember or still use AV Services system it is a copy of that system.
It can be reached by going to http://danube.mica.edu/checkout/
The system is implemented side-by-side the existing AV Services reservation system. That means you will have to be careful to change the department link to "Graduate Lab." For full instructions see the tutorial.
In order to use the new system, you must first come to the Graduate Lab and fill out a Terms and Conditions form similar to the one you sign at AV Service each year. After that we will place you in the system and you can use it to check due dates, fines and make reservations.
We no longer take reservations via gradcheckout@mica.edu but you can still use that address if you have questions or concerns.
Tomorrow night (Thurs. Nov 13) at 7pm: Workshop on using the Arduino microcontroller to control and sense the physical world.
Arduino made it into the most recent issue of Wired magazine.
Build It. Share It. Profit. Can Open Source Hardware Work?
Sensing / Acting workshop
Instructor Sam Sheffield
Who says your artwork has to sit still and be unresponsive to viewers. This workshop will introduce students to microcontrollers, a small computer you can use to detect, motion, heat, light touch or many other things. These devices can also allow you to control movement and talk to more traditional computers to control video, sound or whatever else you would like. In particular we will look at the Arduino microcontroller.
Media Installation
Next Thursday @ 7pm in the Grad Lab
So you spents weeks or months creating video, audio and other multimedia artworks. How do you go about showing it? We will cover some important aspects of display media based work in exhibitions. What equipment is available to you for exhibitions, how to loop a DVD, what if I have more than one screen, projector. How do I deal with sound are all questions we will answer.
The hours for printing, checkout and grad lab TIs are now posted on our hours page.
The new Radiohead video is shot completely without a camera using advanced live action 3D scanners in development at UCLA.
Here is the making of video.
And the finished product.
The idea apparently came from electronic artist and UCLA researcher Aaron Koblin, whose work was featured in Design and the Elastic Mind at MoMA.
This Scientific American post has more details.
We have a much more primitive device available at the lab that can scan small objects (No movement.) If you interested talk to lab coordinator, Kelly Egan.
A new art and technology group has formed in Baltimore: Dorkbot.
Don’t be scared of the name. Originating in New York the group is a meeting of artists, engineers and scientists interested in the crossover of their fields. Currently the group is meets once a month on Tuesdays at the Creative Alliance. The next meeting will be August 19th.
The meetings are mix of formal presentations of various art, science and engineering projects. In addition there is always an open forum at every meeting for impromtu presentations, annoucements and calls for help.
The website can be found at : http://bmoredorkbot.org/