Tags: Electronics
Alex May CAS Talk, Crystal Radio Workshop
Posted: Sun, 15 Mar 2015 18:04
Interact Labs started its spring CAS speaker programme on Wednesday with a talk from artist Alex May. The 20+ audience was treated to an interesting talk from Alex about his creative practice that has included programming, VJing, projection mapping and robotics. We hope to upload a video of the talk soon, for now you can view pictures here. Alex's website can be found at www.alexmayarts.co.uk. Keep an eye our for details of April speaker, who we will be announcing shortly.
We also hosted our first workshop of the year on Saturday. Our "Make a Crystal Radio" workshop was scheduled to tie in with the Julian Oliver exhibition in the Phoenix Cube Gallery. The attendees were able to build a crystal radio from scratch and learnt a bit of radio theory along the way. Read a workshop report here. Again, keep an eye on the Interact Labs website for details of future workshops.
Creat-A-Con February 2015
Posted: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 19:46
Creat-A-Con was a one-day Creative Technology organised by Jason Boomer of SideFest. It took place in the Queens Building at DMU in Leicester on the 21st February 2015. Exhibitors included Leicester Hackspace, Creative Manifesto, Starbase Leicester and Interact Labs. Over 500 people attended the event.
Interact and Interact Labs brought a range of art and technology exhibits along for people to play with.
Our Robot Arm always goes down well, and was joined at this event by a new Edison Mini Robot. This is a great little learning 'bot that is also great value for money.
Our WaterColourBot suffered a little in transport and was not performing at its best, but people still liked it. The 3D Printer also suffered a little, but was eventually set-up to produce a steady stream of whistles for people (mostly children) to take away. For many attendees it was the first time that they had seen a 3D printer in action.
We brought some DIY Virtual Reality headsets along too. However, we also had the Oculus Rift on loan to Starbase and in the end settled on encouraging people have a go with that instead. Reports were that the queue didn't die down all day.
Finally, we seem to have found a new star - the Arduino-powered Jamm Jar computer. This is a new project by Sean Clark that features a neoPixel LED ring, Arduino micro-controller, switch and rechargeable battery, all placed in a glass jam jar (see some pictures here). He has been using this device in workshops and is looking to develop it further as part of a new series of artworks. Attendees seemed to be fascinated by them and enjoyed the LED lighting patterns it produced.
Despite the odd technical problem, it was a great day. SideFest brought a very impressive audience to the event and the DMU student volunteers (and the non-DMU ones too) were incredibly helpful. We're already looking forward to the next one!
See our pictures from the event here on Flickr.
Creat-A-Con is Almost Here!
Posted: Mon, 09 Feb 2015 12:22
Creat-A-Con will be coming to Leicester on the 21st February at the Queens Building at De Montfort University. This free event aims to inspire young people in the key S.T.E.M. areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
Interact Labs will be at the event demonstrating:
- The Edison robot and our robot arm
- The WaterColourBot drawing machine
- Scratch programming on the Raspberry Pi
- Our 3D printer
- DIY Virtual Reality headsets
Plus we will be making Arduino-powered interactive lights for use at the MyOptik Festival on the 28th February and testing the wireless video system we are making for the Image is the Servent event on the 27th February.
As if that isn't enough, we will also be showing the Creative Manifesto LED video wall.
Come and be creative with digital technology.
Creative Manifesto LED Video Wall
Posted: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 18:51
If you've visited the Lab over the past few months you will have noticed that its been somewhat 'busy'. The set-up for the Interact exhibition at LCB Depot in September was based there, same for Esther Rolinson's exhibition at Phoenix, the Affective Digital Histories video booth was there for a while and, most noticeably, Creative Manifesto have been using it to build their LED video screen.
Watching the Creative Manifesto project take shape has been fascinating. The group was successful in getting Arts Council funding to design and build a 24 panel video screen that could be use to showcase local artists' work. The screen was constructed using LED 'pixel strings', Fadecandy controllers and some cleverly modified plastic greenhouse panels. Members of Creative Manifesto have been using Interact Labs to make the screen - and also tapping in to our electronics and programming expertise.
The first outing of the screen was on Sunday night as part of the Light The Night festival in Leicester's Cultural Quarter. It was installed in the window of the Exchange Bar and looked amazing. The public was clearly impressed, with large crowds watching the animations on screen and taking photographs.
The screen will be installed at Exchange for a week or so, so there is plenty of time to go and have a look in the evenings. Pictures from the Light The Night event can be found here on Flickr. There is a video of the screen here on YouTube.
We will be publishing full construction details for the project on this website soon.
Esther Rolinson: Melt, Splinter & Thread
Posted: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 15:58
Interact Labs' Sean Clark has been one of a number of people helping Esther Rolinson to realise her lighting installations Splinter, Thread and Melt this year. It's been an interesting journey and we're happy to see that the work will be going on display at the Phoenix Cube later in the month. Two exhibitions, one containing and Splinter and Thread and the other containing Melt, will be running between 23th October 2014 and 7th January 2015 at Phoenix.
The exhibition press release reads, "Over the past year, with the support of Arts Council England and De Montfort University, she has been developing this body of work through modelling and drawing. She has worked with Sean Clark, Dave Everitt, Luke Woodbury and Graeme Stuart who have assisted with research into the technology and materials and the development of complex lighting behaviours."
Find out more on her website.
Interactive Lighting with Arduino
Posted: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 00:57
Our introduction to Arduino workshops have proven to be very popular this year. For those who want to develop their Arduino skills further, however, we are now looking to run a new Interactive Lighting with Arduino workshop at Interact Labs. This will show you how to wire up and program LED 'pixels' in order to create lighting installations and similar projects. The first workshop is on the 4th October. It's going to be popular, so book now.
