“Sonifying frequencies” Vol. 2

The open-source electromagnetic spectrum listening device workshop is happening again!

Elektrosluch Mini City is a DIY kit of Elektrosluch, an open-source device for electromagnetic listening. It allows one to discover sonic worlds of electromagnetic fields, surrounding our every step. Just plug your headphones & explore. Concept & electronics were developed by Jonáš Gruska.

Elektrosluch Mini kit is easy to assemble ans it’s a very good start to pick up your basic soldering skills and start reading a schematic. Bernhard Rasinger will guide you through the workshop. Be sure to bring headphones with a TRS connector!

The Sound of Rocks: Speculating on Future Geologies

Martina M. Yáñez’s project is an ongoing research endeavor, diving deep into the connections between art, our planet, and the more-than-human elements that shape our world. In her work, she explores the intricate links between sound, rocks, time, and memory.

Central to the project is a speculation: imagining a rock created not by nature, but by artificial means. How would such a “geological dislocation” a rock fundamentally out of place in terms of its origin force us to rethink history and nature itself?

For Martina, sound plays a crucial role. She sees it as a way to both speculatively translate the materiality of rocks and to uncover their hidden histories, delving into the intricate connections binding sound, geological formations, the passage of time, and collective memory.

During her time at the camp, a geological-inspired study will take center stage. She plans to scan the shape and sound of diverse rocks, carefully chosen from different geological eras and formations. These scans won’t just be raw data; they’ll merge into what Martina calls an archive of future geologies. Essentially, she’s proposing the creation of a multimodal archive of fictional sedimentation, a speculative exercise where alternative pasts and geological futures blend together, inviting us to imagine new narratives for our planet.

Vytautas Bikauskas: WEBPIT 3.0 to 4.0

The WEBPIT project by Vytautas Bikauskas explores the creative possibilities of wireless (WLAN) and portable networks that operate off-grid. Its latest version, WEBPIT 3.0, is a portable system featuring a crank generator, a printed circuit board (PCB), and a microcontroller. This system creates a WLAN and hosts a local server, allowing users to connect and read HTML poetry for as long as someone is manually cranking the generator.

When showing the work to others, Vytautas noticed that users frequently broke the generator. This experience (while repairing) prompted him to reflect on the importance of designing with failure and maintenance in mind. Therefore, he plans to run a workshop focused on making repair kit prototypes and broadening the discussion on the significance and necessity of repair practices in media art. He also aims to draw attention to the sometimes neglected questions of power access and consumption, especially for on-grid media works. Finally, he intends to further experiment with interactive poetry designed for minimal resources and implementable on an ESP32 microcontroller.

More-than-human entanglements

How can designers and artists meaningfully engage with more-than-human contexts? How
do we avoid superficial conclusions and instead uncover situated relationships? How might
we navigate the intricate entanglements of humans, non-human organisms, materials,
technologies, and other phenomena without getting lost?

Tamara Lašič Jurković is an interdisciplinary designer, researcher, and teaching assistant. She works at the intersection of design theory, regeneration, and posthumanist perspectives. At PIFcamp, she will collaborate with Lovro Vehovar, a biologist, herbalist, and certified permaculture planner, to further develop a method for entanglement mapping. This method helps identify human and non-human entities within a specific context, analyze their interrelations, and visualize them. Such detailed mapping enables the discovery of challenges and opportunities for design and artistic interventions that would be overlooked by conventional design research methods.

Building on Arturo Escobar’s concept of relationality, Bruno Latour’s Actor-network theory
and the principles of permaculture, Tamara and Lovro will explore the surroundings of PIFcamp, experiment with different approaches for investigating the more-than-human interrelations and hopefully
gather some inspiring insights for future projects!

Meteorite: A DIY Tool for Sound and IoT by Stefano Manconi

Meteorite is a DIY prototype designed for exploring the possibilities of networks and IoT applications within sound, music, and new media art practices.

The prototype is based around the ESP8266, an inexpensive SoC (Systen-on-a-Chip) with built-in WiFi which costs about the price of a coffee and can be programmed through the friendly Arduino environment. By collecting codes, schematics and well-documented examples, the goal is to design a device which can be used by artists, students and makers to develop their creations.

During PIFcamp, Stefano will focus on refining the user interface and experimenting with applications involving sensors and environmental data. The project’s outcomes will also contribute to his Master’s degree.

Project by Stefano Manconi
Photo by Chiara Carredda

Application for 11th PIFcamp are open!

Open call for the 11th edition of PIFcamp is out! You can find all the information on how to apply in the APPLY HERE section.

Catch the early bird price by applying until March 16th. Open call will be open until 13th of April.

Applications are extended until 18 April!

Since we are making slight changes in the participation, we kindly ask you to read the description on the webpage or in the form.

We are looking forward to your applications!

The Emergent Synchrony

Can a group of people, animals, or even robots in a given environment achieve coordinated behavior without external coordination or control?

Julia Múgica will work on a project that deals with the intriguing concept of collective behavior. Her focus will be on the emergence of synchronization, which showcases how this phenomenon goes beyond individual actions and emphasizes the importance of self-organization through local interactions. To illustrate this phenomenon, Julia plans to employ various approaches, including particle systems to create live-coded visuals and generate textures using noise algorithms.

Additionally, she will collaborate with Alicia Champlin on an investigation related to potential synchronization in the heartbeats of individuals entering Blaž Pavlica’s dome. Lastly, in collaboration with Lina Bautista and Iván Paz, they aim to build a set of small swarm robots known as “the kilobots”. These robots were developed in 2012 and will be programmed to perform collective algorithms, further highlighting the idea of emergent synchrony.

For more information about Julia Múgica Gallart’s project, visit her video presentation on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZCm2rcF2Yk

Stones and physical computing

For this year’s PIFcamp Jelisa Weber will be working on a project with a focus on engraving stone materials like boulders and river pebbles with a half-automatic milling process. The search for suitable stones and surfaces for engraving will serve as preparation and also as a small survey, documented in pictures. These images, or any images resulting from this process, are then re-engraved on the stones.

Using a handled milling device controlled by an Arduino, the images are going to be translated pixel row by pixel row into darker and brighter areas. Leaving a mark in the history of the ever-changing minerals.

Drawing from her prior experience in a similar project, where she combined an Arduino with a tattoo machine, in order to „print“ images with it. Jelisa sees this as an opportunity to transition from Processing (free graphical library and integrated development environment) to Python, elevating the image-processing script’s potential to new heights.

Field Oscillator

Oriol Pares is a New Media Artist specialized in the use of technology as an explorative tool for communication. During this year, he started building his first DIY synthesizer project with a sensor able to track galvanic changes on a living matter. He intends to bring that instrument and continue his exploration, connected to the vibrant and special landscape surrounding the camp.

And, If there are any fellow oscillator enthusiasts at PIFcamp wanting to join, try, out or even collaborate, the next part of the Field Oscillator instrument may not be that far away. ;)