TOOLKIT FESTIVAL 2014 - COMPOSITIONAL PHASES

WORKSHOP

26-27-28 SEPTEMBER - Venice

Toolkit Festival presents an educational program: 3 workshops will take place on the 26, 27 and 28 of september 2014. The workshops will focus on multimedia practise and new technologies used in contemporary art.

The 3-days courses will take place simoultaneously in Venice, they will last 3 days and they will allow to investigate both theoretical and practical paths.

They will be held by tutors with a strong experience in the respective fields of research: interactive and digital scenogaphy (Martin Romeo), multidisciplnary connections between art and science and augmented reality (Luca Pozzi), sound-design (Andrea Santini).

The three workshops focus on three different fields of research, but they have a common purpose, which is to get the participants to learn specific tools in order to be able to create a personal artistic project.

On the final day there will be a collective moment, opened to public, in which the concrete results of the courses will be shown, in order to open critical and dynamic discussion about digital and interactive art, and to stimolate the exchange of experience among the differents facets in the multimedia research.

WORKSHOP 1 : Realizing images

CONCEPT

The workshop provides the tools needed to build a project based on the use of multimedia (interactive sceneries, audiovisual performances, projection mapping, body tracking, etc..). It will deal with the phases and the problems of the construction of the process, from production to staging, to be able to create your own artistic work. The workshop examines both the theoretical and the practical aspects of the realisation of an interactice dance show, theatre piece or artistic installation. The aim of the course is to get to undertsand the main differences among these different artistic practices, that's to say: the methodology and the timing used to combine differents elements involved in the performance (body, music, image).

PROGRAM

Presentation of the software VVVV, learning of its functions and of the basic characterictics which will be used during the lessons. Participants will learn how to programme in real time, starting from the connection of several webcams, in order to map and modify the environment with the

movements of the body, to make the space interactive.

Referring to the personal experience of each participant, we will find out situations for the projects, to learn a concrete strategy for the realization of a personal interactive project.

We will learn how to use the Kinect device camera, to connect the virtual to the real, identification of the human skeleton, identification of its movements in the space, use of the infrared.

Participants will be given all the notions in order to understand the operation to create a connection with the image.

The image follows, reacts and re-enacts the movements of the body, depending on its own changement, and also on the parameters that the artist-director have set in the software.

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SOFTWARE AND TOOLS

VVVV

REQUIREMENTS

You have to bring your own computer with Mac or Windows system; you have to download the VVVV software (from the website vvvv.org).

TUTOR

Martìn Romeo

WORKSHOP 2 : The messages of gravity . Fascinations about the meaning of the term network between art, theoretical physics and new technologies

CONCEPT

Primarily designed as an overview of very little explored themes in "visual fields" such as Quantum Gravity Electrodynamics, Entanglement, Tunneling Effect, String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity, the workshop will provide the imaginative basis which can help overcome the stereotypes linked to a Euclidean conception of the universe. We will deal with dimensionally augmented reality, which is contradictory, because actions occur simultaneously in several places and time, rather than proceeding linearly, performs unsettling jumps.

PROGRAM

Step 1: Overview Theoretical Physics (The Elegant Universe DVD - The Fabric of the Cosmos) + conversation about E.Abbott ‘s “Flatland: A Romance of Many dimensions” in a contemporary way.

Step 2: Exploring the visual arts (Example research: Luca Pozzi).

Step 3: Museum visit in Venice (and Biennale of architecture) to apply augmented reality exercises in front of the works of the past. Collective conversation based on images collected with smart phones and other devices.

SOFTWARE AND TOOLS

Laptop, Smartphone, Tablet, audio recorder

REQUIREMENTS

Transversal vision, with particular curiosity for interdisciplinary scientific field.

Language: english (intermediate).

TUTOR

Luca Pozzi

WORKSHOP 3 : Reinventing the sound. Introduction to audio programming in Pure Data

CONCEPT

This introductory workshop is intended to provide the basis for the programming of tools, systems and applications for audio and interactive sound design, using the software Pure Data. Musicians, sound designers, DJs and performers can invent original ways to generate and control the sound of their productions and live performances, for example using body movements, objects, or sensors that become integral part of their music performance. With the integration of theoretical and practical knowledge, at the end of the workshop, the participants will be able to design and develop simple 'music' systems by using a range of hardware and software solutions , even low cost. The workshop will stimulate the participants to use the resources available in the web in a critical, creative and innovative way . It will take into account both the artistic and aesthetic-expressive functions and the different contexts and types of participants to the project.

PROGRAM

Step 1: General Introduction to the programming environment Pure Data and analysis of some examples followed by group discussion.

Steps 2 and 3: Design and development of a simple sound system in Pure Data accompanied by critical reflection about usability and creative-expressive validity of the project.

SOFTWARE AND TOOLS

PureData

REQUIREMENTS

Good knowledge of Windows or Mac operating systems and familiarity in production or musical performance with the computer. Participants will use their own computer (operating system Mac or Windows), and it is advisable to pre-install the latest version of Pure Data available free at the site

(http://puredata.info/). Other specific requirements concerning hardware and software will be discussed during the workshop, depending on the projects to be developed.

TUTOR

Andrea Santini

Information:

PERIOD:

26 september 2014 (11:00 – 18:00)

27 september 2014 (11:00 – 18:00)

28 september 2014 (11:00 – 18:00)

VENUE

Officina delle Zattere, Venice

LANGUAGES:

italian and english

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS

Min. 5 / Max. 10 people for each workshop.

PRICE FOR ONE WORKSHOP

100€

DEADLINE

22 september 2014

SUBSCRIPTION AND INFORMATION

mail to : longhi.lucia@gmail.com

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