Author: malina

The OctoSens is a community project formed by a group of music and technology enthusiasts who, under the guidance of Vaclav Peloušek (Bastl Instruments), are combining different perspectives while developing an interface that will enable the simultaneous use of different sensors to synthesise sound and control other devices.

OctoSens

Development of a multi-sensorial synthesizer is a part of Projekt Atol and konS platform AIR programme.

Sensors and music

Musicians are always searching for new ways of creating and modifying sound. The development of new technologies and their accessibility have propelled and enabled use of sensors in sound design. However, the great variety of different sensors and lack of practical interfaces often requires a grasp on advanced technological knowledge or compels the artists to buy expensive specialised equipment; both requirements can hinder the creative process.

We decided to find solutions to this problem which would allow artists to use a great number of different sensors in an easy and intuitive way in order to modify sound. Under the guidance of Vaclav Peloušek (Bastl instruments) we have collectively designed a device and named it OctoSens.

What is OctoSens?

Having 4 analog and two digital inputs for external sensors, as well as two touchpads, the OctoSens offers 8 different ways of altering the desired parameters of sound. A built-in microphone, two tactile sensors and a digital synthesizer integrated in the microcontroller enable us to use OctoSens individually without external sensors and other instruments. We can simply connect the OctoSens to a speaker and start creating. We can use the information detected by the sensors to control volume, pitch, filter frequency and other parameters of the integrated digital synthesizer. Artists who already have other instruments, synthesizers and effects could use the OctoSens to connect to their existing gear and multiply its functionality: OctoSens can output different Cv/gate signals and create MIDI information, which can be used to control multiple external devices simultaneously. OctoSens will conform to Eurorack format so that synth-enthusiasts could incorporate it into their Eurorack setup, however, an individual enclosure for those who prefer to use it as a stand-alone device, will be available as well. It will be compatible with the popular microcontrollers Arduino micro and Teensy 3.2 which means that it will be accessible to a wide circle of DIY enthusiasts to further increase its functionality with their own code.

Practical example of the use of OctoSens

So, would you like to adjust the tempo of the song to fit your heartbeat, adapt the volume according to light and control the pitch with the movement of your body? All you have to do, is connect a heart-beat sensor and a light sensor to the analog inputs of the OctoSens and a gyroscope to one of the digital inputs. By pressing the multifunction buttons, we can map the connected sensors to the desired parameters of the integrated synth and use the rotary knobs to calibrate the sensors to a level, ideal for modulating the sound in a musical way.

The objective of the OctoSens project

OctoSens will be an innovative and a competitive product on the quickly evolving market of electronic instruments. At the same time, it will exist in the form of a DIY workshop that will enable its participants to learn exactly how the sensors work and become more knowledgeable on sound synthesis as well as the basics of electronics.

The goal of this project is not solely the process of product development and sale, but it is foremost an effort of creating a community that brings together different generations, providing an interdisciplinary environment that offers an invaluable exchange of knowledge between professional engineers, artists, students of different fields and audio-electronics enthusiasts.

Anna Carreras, Marta Verde and Mónica Rikić want to develop an artistic intervention or interactive device, mixing code, electronics, visuals and nature. In their own separate artistic practice they mainly work with randomness, complexity and robotics. They are planning on putting all their expertise together and have fun creating a new artistic collaboration from scratch on site.

Conceptually, their proposal seeks the nature of machines from speculative fiction. Through the prototyping of autonomous micro systems, they want to talk about the freedom of machines and the search for their own essence far from human projection, technological development and its obsession on imposing an artificial intelligence to it, understanding AI as the search of an improved human copy.

To search for this “Mechanical Nature”, they want to use their personal research on different non-human complex systems: how they are generated, organised, regulated, and hierarchised. Also, experiment with the different possibilities of the simple movements of the micro robots made by motors and other small electronic components, individually and as a group. They will try to create behaviour patterns for these self-sufficient mechanical organisms inspired by insects, plants, wind, clouds, water, any non-human data we can get inspired from, and let them flow. They also intend to use different materials found in nature to combine them with the small electronic components and microcontrollers and generate these ecosystems.

The process of creating them would be as follows:
– Selection and observation of a specific aspect of nature
– Experimentation of the patterns regarding the mechanical application of them
– Experimentation with natural materials in conjunction with technological ones
– Flow of matter and energy within the ecosystem: how some beings depend on each other within that world, how they relate and communicate with each other and with the environment.

The elements and materials they will use to create ecosystems will be: low voltage micro motors, small sensors and actuators (such as LEDs, mp3 players, photoresistors, electromagnets), organic materials (like woods, leaves, moss, stones, water – in different forms- , flowers, seeds).

Micro – Stories is an Art & Fungi Project by Irina Antonets.

How do mushrooms speak through/interact/play with us?
Since my childhood, I’ve been fascinated by bizarre and beautiful world of fungi. The more I learn about them, the more obsessed I get! I’m collecting and analysing mushroom stories from all around the world, and then planning to create series of artworks based on those micro-stories AND microscopic research that I’m going to be conducting while in the camp.
Each story is unique and individual, each of us perceives fungi through our own personal perspective. At the same time, the more stories I receive the more I see how all of them are creating one sophisticated and fascinating structure which reminds me of mycelium connections under the ground.
Feel free to join me, collect, and take a closer look at fungi. Or maybe you would like to share your fungi story with me? You’re pretty free to say what you want or what comes to your mind about mushrooms but in case you need a little guidance here are the questions you might want to answer:

• Why do you love fungi? How did they influence you?
• How mushrooms are perceived in your country/culture?
• What was your first encounter with fungi?
• What can we learn from mushrooms?
• What’s the most fascinating thing about fungi?

The idea is to use the new 360 video filming techniques and embrace them with inspiration and the essence of eco cinema. To emerge the viewer into the emerald experience of flowing down one of the most beautiful rivers in Europe, the river Soča. Amidst Triglavski national park, the river is flowing with its own pace and rhythm. A 360 camera is submerged under the water to give the viewer a unique experience. The result will be an immersive poetic journey through the never-seen river landscape.

Miha Godec graduated in 2014 from the Academy of Arts of the University of Nova Gorica, and soon after began his professional career as a photographer. During his studies, he upgraded his knowledge at the Portuguese school ESAD (College of Art and Design). In addition to his photographic and artistic practices, he is also a lecturer for photography and virtual reality, while he independently conducts regular educational, scientific, and artistic workshops. In his artistic practice Godec, who works at the intersection of art, science, and new technologies, focuses on the development of new media projects, in which he researches the consequences of anthropogenic impact on aquatic ecosystems, experimenting with water acquisition, purification and researching the sonification properties of water.

Calling all meme enthusiasts and circuit designers who will be attending PIFcamp! There will be an open, on-going DIY meme project where campers can design functional circuits that look like popular memes & etch their designs onto copper PCB boards – courtesy of the PIFcamp acid etching station & project leader Maggie Kane. This will be a very DIY and not so serious operation – so feel free to share ideas or favourite memes if you can’t assist directly with the designs or etching processes. If you are interested in learning how the process of acid etching PCBs works, you can also hang out with Maggie while they design and etch some of the circuit meme designs they’ve been prototyping before camp.

If you have any questions or would like to reach out before camp, hit Maggie Kane up on Instagram to say hello – @streetcat.media !!

## SPEED BREW BEER HACK

Experimentation, maths, science, tech geekery and data collection that is only possible by drinking lots of beer… All this makes brewing the perfect hobby for the hacker! Hackers make great homebrewers! 

In this workshop you will learn how to brew a beer and get all the information you need to know to get started making beer at home. You will learn about equipment, recipe design, cooking processes, sanitation, water chemistry, fermentation, packaging and tasting,  and of course the open source technologies to help you brew!

A Pale Ale takes about one month from grain to glass, but in this workshop we will attempt to create a beer in five days! With the help of some Norwegian farmhouse yeast we hope to have a hazy New England style IPA on tap and ready for everyone to enjoy by the close of PIFcamp party. This is our challenge!

The workshop will be conducted over two days. The first, on the evening of day one, will be 5 hours in duration. We will cook beer into the night (with plenty of downtime where you can get back to your own projects). The next section will be on the penultimate morning of the camp when we will explore the magic of getting the bubbles into the beer and packaging it ready for drinking the next evening!

In the true hacker spirit, this workshop will only use free and open source software which we might also contribute a few bug-fixes for :)

When?
August  8 | 17:00 – 22:00
August 13 | 08:00 – 10:00

Brewing and Fermentation workshop is a Zavod Rizoma project led by Rob Canning, assisted by Meta Živa Canning and Monika Pocrnjić. 

Doctor Rhythm 110 (DR-110) was the last completely analog rhythm machine made by Roland. It was released under its subsidiary company BOSS in 1983. The sound is completely analog and somehow comparable to its TR-808 predecessor, and the sequencer is digital. The performance of digital devices at the time was very limited compared to today, and it’s the same with the functionality of the DR-110: excellent analog sounds can’t be formed into more complex rhythms. Therefore Dr. Rhythm needs a new brain!

Mitja Cerkvenik created an interface with a very powerful STM32 brain of the H7 family, for connecting the Launchpad mini and DR-110 together. With the help of the Launchpad, rhythms will be introduced to the new brain, which will send rhythmic pulses to the DR-110. The procedure on Doctor Rhythm will be very invasive. The Voicing Board will remain original, and the CPU Board and chassis will be discarded.

Once the Doctor Rhythm patient is undergoing the surgery, it will be a great opportunity for an additional procedure: replacing certain resistors with potentiometers and adding capacitors on the Voicing Board. These modifications will add sound design capabilities that the DR-110 did not originally have.

The operation will be performed by Mitja Cerkevnik aka jesusonecstasy.

Wavescope, the lighting project by Janez Grošelj, deals with an abstracted visualization of lightwaves as a phenomenon that can transfer energy, light, sound and information through space. The specificity of various forms of waves, all kinds of oscillations around a stable equilibrium are reflected, in spite being generally omnipresent, in the fact that they are unavailable and inaccessible to human senses. The wavescope thus attempts to bring the viewer closer to the invisible world: a set of light rings arranged in space creates a lighting abstraction whose purpose is to raise and stimulate human awareness and admiration of this interesting phenomenon through a simple but visually effective form.

The projects was developed as part of Lightning Guerrilla Festival.

It was the mid 19th century, when a relatively young physicist from Versailles tried to impress the ladies of his entourage by attaching two tiny mirrors to tuning forks and drawing knotlike shapes with light against the wall. The dames of his time were hardly impressed.

Little did the physicist know that in the 21st century he would be regarded as a vector synthesis nerd.

His name was Jules Antoine Lissajous and to this day he ceases to impress and influence audiovisual artists with his findings, the Lissajous figures. 

At this years PIFcamp Bernhard Rasinger and Václav Peloušek will worship Monsieur Lissajous and rebuild the principle of his original contraption. They will treasure his legacy by developing a laser projector based on deflection mirrors attached to any speaker cones. Join them on the quest of revealing the beauty of two signals in harmony and participate in this community projects on developing a DIY kit, set of instructions (tutorial) and a workshop.

The idea project is part of Hyper Global/Hyper Local exchange, supported by MAX (Makers’ eXchange), a pilot policy project, co-funded by the European Union.

At PIFcamp, beepblip (Ida Hiršenfelder) is going on an expedition to the vast universe of retrofuturist sound with the extensive construction of a do-it-yourself analogue synthesizer —The Music from Outer Space Sound Lab ULTIMATE. The synth contains all the basic and some extended building blocks for modular synthesis. The project is a tribute to the legacy of the late Ray Wilson, who generously shared his circuits and knowledge with the DIY and DIWO community, while maintaining the ethics of non-commercial and attributed work. He published a detailed description of the Music from Outer Space Sound Lab ULTIMATE construction from soldering to calibration. During PIFcamp, we will follow in his footsteps and try to venture into a retro analogue sound nebulae.

With surgical precision, calibration and selection of rare and accurate electronic elements the synth contains threemusically punctual voltage controlled oscillators (VCO), white noise generator, active mixer, voltage controlled low voltage filter (LP VCF), voltage controlled amplifier (VCA), attack release envelope generator (AR Env Gen), two low frequency oscillators (LFO), repeat gate generator, sample & hold and attenuator bank.

In times when projections for the future are becoming increasingly dystopian, when time has shrunk to the immediate reality, which is doubtful in itself, I wonder what kind of projections a retrofuturist sound will produce combined with an idyllic natural environment along the emerald green Soča river. Retrofuturism is not nostalgic, but requires a reassessment of technological development.

“By assembling modules, source elements, and elements for treating sound (oscillators, generators, and transformers), by arranging micro intervals, the synthesizer makes audible the sound process itself, the production of that process, and puts us in contact with still other elements beyond sound matter. … The synthesizer, with its operation of consistency, has taken the place of the ground in a priori synthetic judgment: its synthesis is of the molecular and the cosmic, material and force, not form and matter, Grund and territory. … to make thought travel, make it mobile, make it a force of the Cosmos (in the same way as one makes sound travel).”
— Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia