Lectures will be held on evenings during the week free of charge and be accompanied by an optional hands-on ticketed workshop held on the weekend following. The goal of the lectures is to provide a background and context to the contemporary use of electronics, computing, and biology in the development of neural networks. Each lecture will contain a historical overview of a key topic accompanied by demonstrations and animations. The optional workshops will focus on applying the information and knowledge presented in the lecture through hands on-projects led through slide-show, animation, and direct instruction.
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Lecture 1 - Electricity Basics: A Historical Overview
Monday, March 15, 2010, 6:30 - 9:30pm FREE
Lecture will Cover:
Definition
Etymology
Greeks and Amber
Electrostatics
Electrochemical
Mesopotamian Battery + Electroplating
Voltaic Piles and Spasming Frog Legs
DEMONSTRATION - Batteries from food
Atomic Models and Electromagnetism
DC versus AC
Edison v Tesla
Lights and Vacuum Tubes
Radio and Transistors
Transistorized Computing
Telecommunications
Robotics and Nanotechnology
The intersection of electronics and biology
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Workshop 1 - Circuit Bending: Building Skills for DIY Electronics
Saturday, March 20, 2010, noon - 6pm - $145 total ($100 tuition and $45 materials)
Bent-O Boxes! // Circuit Bendable Sonic Sushi
Build your very own bendable snack-sized sound synthesizer music kit that comes in a bento box project
housing. The circuit is a 1-bit digital sound synthesizer made from simple digital logic chips that has
excellent circuit bending potential. Includes parts for the base sound generator circuit and extras for your
own modifications. Can be used as a stand alone synthesizer module or as an effects pedal!
No experience necessary. The class covers basic kit building skills, how to solder, identifying components,
wiring design and installing knobs and switches. The workshop will begin with a survey of the history of
electronics and all the accidental discoveries up to the art of circuit bending, no-input mixing, and the
reign of the glitch in pop culture. As we build the kit, we'll discuss the analog and digital components
involved, how they work together, and how they can be short circuited, re-routed, and customized.
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Lecture 2 - Audio Electronics: Analog Signals, Effects, Filters
Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 6:30 - 9:30pm FREE
Lecture will Cover:
Simple Audio Systems
Components
Signal Flow
Block Diagrams
Balanced v Unbalalnced
Complex Audio Systems
Recording Studio
Broadcast
Mediation
Transducers
Mics
Piezos
Photocells?
Transistors as Amplifiers
Operational Amplifiers
Signal Sources
Oscillators
Feedback
Filters: AC Circuits and Resistor Capacitor Networks
Delay Effects
Phasing and Chorus Effects
Driving Speakers
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Workshop 2 - Analog Feedback Machines: Amplifiers, Filters and Noise
Saturday, April 3, 2010, noon - 6pm - $125 total ($100 tuition and $25 materials)
Analog is not dead! // Operational Amplifiers: Oscillators, Filters, and Feedback Machines
Though digital electronics dominate the music production scene, and have been employed to augment and
extend just about every acoustic instrument imaginable--- from the cello to the tabla---ANALOG IS NOT
DEAD! From oscillators and filters to authentic distortion, gritty delays, and fluid phasing, analog
electronics are very much alive in the realm of effects and synthesis. A handful of simple components,
concepts and skills will enable you to build your own custom analog instruments and effects.
In the workshop, you will learn about transistors, operational amplifiers, and how to combine them with
various networks of diodes, resistors and capacitors to form simple mixers, distortion effects, filters and
touch controlled feedback machines! This hands on workshop will review the theory behind all of the
components involved. It is centered around the application of knowledge through the construction and
expansion of simple operational amplifier circuits. We will learn the concepts and the skills necessary to
continue exploring the possibility of creating with analog electronics with applications in music, sound art,
and interactive new media art.
No soldering necessary. Beginners welcome but it would be helpful to review the basics (voltage, current,
DC circuits, AC circuits, etc.).
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Lecture 3 - Digital Electronics: Introduction to Discrete Digital
Wednesday, April 7, 2010, 6:30 - 9:30pm FREE
Lecture will Cover:
Mechanical Computers
Switches, punch cards, steam and gears
Binary Counting
Vacuum Tube Computing
Transistors as Switches
Digital Logic
Binary Operations
Transistor-Resistor and Transistor-Transistor
CMOS Logic
DEMONSTRATION: CMOS ICs as building blocks for analog/digital hybrid synthesizers
Oscillators
Mixers
Sequencers
Frequency Dividers
Learning a systems approach to electronic design
How to build your own computer
How MCUs work
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Workshop 3 - CMOS Music: 1-bit chiptunes music without programming
Saturday, April 10, 2010, noon - 6pm - $125 total ($100 tuition and $25 materials)
CMOS Music I // 1-bit chiptunes w/o programming
Learn how to make 1-bit chiptunes music without the hassle of computer programming. This is a musical
introduction to basic electronic concepts through the use of CMOS digital logic chips. From a hand full of
components you will create the world's simplest oscillator and 8 note musical rhythm sequencer. No
soldering necessary, you'll take your project home on your very own solder-less breadboard!
CMOS 4000 series digital logic ICs make it easy for anyone to design and build their own simple analog/
digital hybrid modular synthesizer. Some chips can be turned into oscillators, other can be used to divide
frequencies, with just a handful of resistors, capacitors, diodes, and transistors, these chips can be
configured into custom musical instruments and effects units.
We will look at how to create and oscillator, frequency divider, and sequencer from 3 different chips. In
the process we'll cover basic electronics concepts and skills, explaining each component as it is
introduced. When we're done, you'll have an intricate rhythmic sequencer that produces 1-bit chiptunes
music.
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Lecture 4 - Turning the World into Data: Mediation, Sensors and Sensitive Machines
Wednesday, April 14, 2010, 6:30 - 9:30pm FREE
Lecture will Cover:
Interfacing our machines to the world around them
Sensors
Analog
Pressure, Temp, Sound, Light, Vibration, Motion, Capacitance, etc.
Precision amplifiers
Signal to noise
Digital
Conversion of analog signals into digital data streams
Signal to noise
Measuring vs Feeling
Media Mediation
Technology as a second skin
Extended Sensitivity
Distancing Barrier
Action at a distance and the obfuscation of responsibility
Distributed responsibility and international dimplomacy
The illusion of a global perspective and the disappearance of the local community
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Workshop 4 - Analog Sensors and Simple Analog to Digital Conversion
Saturday, April 17, 2010, noon - 6pm - $135 total ($100 tuition and $25 materials)
Age of Sensitive Machines // Analog Sensors and Simple Machine Control
In this workshop, we will explore the use of analog sensors to extend the "sensitivity" of common
electronics in a way that is subtly subversive and playful. Students are encouraged to bring old switch
operated electronics---fans, blenders, very old TV sets, lamps---any thing when turned on and unplugged
will remain turned on when plugged back in again. The first part of the workshop will cover a hand full of
simple analog sensors and the electronics necessary for getting usable signals from them. Next we will
look at simple analog to digital conversion methods for generating a simple on/off control signal from our
analog sensors. In the second part of the workshop, we will create a relay circuit that will accept an on/
off control signal to control the power to our small electronic appliances. Finally, we will network our
collection of small appliances to create a sensitive cluster of interacting machines.
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Lecture 5 - Networked Systems: Systems theory, Neurobiology, and the Ecology of Electronics
Wednesday, April 28, 2010, 6:30 - 9:30pm FREE
Lecture will Cover:
Artificial Intelligence and the Limitations of Linear Computational Strategies
Systems Theory
Network Theory
Graph Theory
Network Sciences
Neurobiology
Ecology
The Intersection of the arts and sciences
Generative Systems in the Arts
Artificial Intelligence in the Arts
The intersection of complexity theory and emergent arts (DIY)
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Workshop 5 - Building Networked, Generative Systems
Saturday, May 1, 2010, noon - 6pm - $145 total ($100 tuition and $45 materials)
Building Networked, Generative Systems // Robotic Insect Communities
This hands-on workshop will focus on the creation of dynamical and generative systems using simple
electronic components and no computer programming. Students will assemble from kits musical insect-
like robots that communicate using light and sound. Each robot will have adjustable rules that students
can select. When the class is finished constructing a group of robots, they will be set loose on the
workshop floor to interact. We will explore different settings on the robots to explore notions of group
synchronicity, spontaneous mutation, spheres of influence and networked interactivity.
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