ThingsHappening

From DorkbotLondon

Last years: ThingsHappening07

Workshops, talks and other stuff will be listed here.

Presentations / demos

• Ben Goldacre has offered to talk about bad science and maybe dismantle another quack device
• alex m will likely show his latest software for turning words into music
• I'm preparing new stuff and hope I will be able to present...Katiushka and Geoff
• jag will likely show developments to his software synth 'din' since dorkcamp 2007.
• jag, Robert_A, Geri M. and Evan (?) performing some mixed up sounds!
• Sarah A is offering an Edison phonograph demo, with live recording onto a wax cylinder (ideal if there's a powercut) - see below

Workshops and other activities

Put your workshop below...

• How about watching a dorky film on Saturday night? Any suggestions?
  • maybe 'Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey?' I've got the DVD (Robert_A)
  • or Real Genius! sadly, I don't have it though(Helena S)
  • I have a stash of rare, extremely dorky shorts (I'm talking about films here - not apparel) if anyone is interested. Various gems, mainly 50s/60s Cold War experiments, nuclear bunkers, early computer weirdness and so on - for instance a man with serious glasses talking about 'The Tank' which is some kind of ARPANET-style oddity. Might be good material of last resort (Sarah A)
  • How about an Ealing comedy - I have lots of these, but I was particularly thinking of [|The Titchfield Thunderbolt] or [The Man in the White Suit] Tallpaul
    • Hey! I've always wanted to see The Man in the White Suit! PeterMc

• What about a JAM? A mega, circuit bent jam? Do you have any amplification, electrics spare for that kind of thing, under cover of rain?

(Fari b)

• I'd like to do a workshop called "Movement for Dorks." Been taking a bunch of movement classes this year in pursuit of a more interesting presence during performances than just 'that girl frowning at the tiny screen on her camera making cool pictures on the video screen.' It's been really fun! I'll lead people through a bunch of simple movement exercises and might even teach some basic voice technique if there's interest. We'll need to figure out some creative ways to make some noise anyway, right? What about this for a tagline: The future of Dance is Dork ... ?(Helena S)
  • I'm really up for this... (alex m)
  • I am willing to have a stab (Iain S)
  • Notorious dancer is here to serve (Yoshi)
  • I probably need this! (Annie)
• Stephanie S. indicates willingness to do a workshop on historical dance -- a dance form that has notation that looks like this should be of interest ! (Robert_A assisting)

• Oh, and Izzy would be sad if I didn't do a little cocktail mixology lesson too. (Maybe before the movement workshop???) There's a 'vintage cocktail' craze hitting my friends in the USA. Would be fun to try some out, but would need folks to pitch in with different special spirits. Post here if interested and if there's a particular type of booze you might be able to bring or are curious to find an interesting cocktail recipe for. (Helena S)
  • i'm up for bringing a bottle -- maybe draw up a list and people can say what they're bringing?
  • Just updated the "booze" subhead under "WHAT WE NEED" check out list there and comment. (Helena/Lena S)
  • Shame, Holly man can't take booze. (Yoshi)
    • That's OK, I make a mean "mocktail" (Lena)

• Microcontroller workshop again. I still have some Picaxe (http://www.picaxe.co.uk) chips left over from last year. Rather than do a "microcontrollers from scratch" workshop (would take too long) I'm thinking of doing a microcontroller taster session. Bentley Copse is a really nice dense wood. I thought that having a set of microcontrollers with lights and sounders scattered throughout the wood would be attractive. Each person could program her/his own pattern and place them in the wood. (Alex Z.)

• Arduino tryout/troubleshoot. Have you got an Arduino project on the go? Want to learn how to do something specific with it (actuators, etc)? Want to see what the Arduino is all about? Bring your project along and we can work through it. I can't afford to supply Arduinos for everyone, so bring one along if you want to have a play with it. I can guide you through the beginnings. You might just want to look over someone's shoulder to get a feel for what's going on. The Arduino is available in London: look at (http://tinker.it/ukstore/). I will also bring some that you can buy from me during the weekend. (Alex Z.)
  • The Australian Adrian will be coming to the camp from China, and is offering to bring some cheap arduinos. I (alex m) asked him how much 20 would be turned out to be too late for this

• thought I might run a "Micro Scrapheap Challenge". Bring a load of old electronic junk and challenge people to build something useful/interesting out of them. Not sure whether to have an official team activity or just individual attempts. Also not sure whether to have a specific objective or just define the challenge as to achieve the "most interesting" result. Thoughts anyone? Could possibly be combined with the Picaxe/Arduino stuff if people are really keen (Iain S)
  • could also overlap with the instrument making workshop below perhaps? :) (alex m)
  • Junk CD,DVD player (internal drive / car CD) would be most useful to tinker for its motor, audio amp for experiment with

  Micro controller etc.  To control old printer's stepper motor is bit more interesting.  (Yoshi)

• • some parts of broken cassette player, power supply, some other random electronix
  • we'll bring as much varied broken electronic junk as we can fit in the car (Annie)
• I'd like an informal instrument-making workshop, whether it's making sticks to bang together, or shakers, or tuned tubes or whatever. I don't have any skills or knowledge in this area, just enthusiasm... I think Robert A knows more
  • I am fiddling with some long bolts and washers that make great sounds and en masse (orchestra style) would be even better - that could contribute to this. (julief)
• For anyone interested in going 100% unplugged: I'm going to bring along an Edison phonograph and horns and make a wax cylinder recording of some of Dorkbot activities - then play it back around the campfire (assuming it doesn't melt). I have a couple of blanks here - 2 minutes each - but if I can gather up some more blanks by Saturday, I could also run a workshop for interested parties - one where you can learn tomake a recording then take your masterpiece away with you. Also, I wondered about some kind of through-the-ages jam where a live instrument is recorded on an Edison which is captured on a reel-to-reel tape, then recorded on a CD, put on an ipod then shoved on the internet (Sarah A).
• I'll bring my Max/MSP controlled bells and xbee bits and pieces and various other things and do some live music on them, if anyone's interested. I'm not much good with xbee but can throw a signal between two computers with them so perhaps they could be incorporated in someone else's thing to make a little call-and-response device through the woods - maybe one with bells on it (Sarah A)

• Sarah P (and Julie f) are planning a night Moth walk with light screen and wine ropes (moths love them).

• Aneeta will join us again for another "origins of programming" workshop -- knitting for beginners.
  • Aneeta, I can bring some extra wool, and could perhaps team up and do crochet for beginners too? -- will try and get a selection of large hooks. (Annie)
• I'll bring a couple of theremins along, plus a couple of sets of earphones, and give anyone interested a lesson. Same goes for saw (Sarah A).

• Another round of live human patching: Human_Patching_Live_Coding!

• workshop to play (neo) indian classical music on din (http://code.google.com/p/din) by jag

• Greenman will run a workshop on Tarot for Programmers. Tarot is simply a symbolic language with a fixed instruction set. When the symbols are combined in a certain order, and a set of variables are input, you your operations and produce an output.
  • This sounds intriguing - I have a spare set or two I will bring (Annie)

Schedule (draft)

Friday

• 1pm - arrive and set things up
• 7pm - food

Saturday

• earlier - breakfast (some cornflakes, milk and soya milk will be provided, otherwise bring your own)
• 10:30am - start workshops, etc
• 1pm - food
• 2pm - more workshop time
• 7pm - food
• 8pm - talks/demos/presentations/performances
• 11pm - film?

Sunday

• earlier - breakfast (some cornflakes, milk and soya milk will be provided, otherwise bring your own)
• 10:30am - start workshops, etc
• 1pm - food
• 2pm - more workshop time
• 4pm - talks/demos/presentations
• 7pm - food
• 9pm - THE BURN

Monday

• clean up, pack up and leave