CETI Constellations: Mesmerizing Light Experiences as part of the Portland Winter Light Festival About this event Shimmering Ecologies fantastic experiences shifting between imagined and real, uncanny and marvelous, generative and fragmenting.

In January, a group of artists, technologists, and hackers gathered for a weekend of collaborative creative experiments to bring mesmerizing, quirky, whimsical, and joyful interactive, immersive creations to life.

Join us on the evening of Feb 5 (4pm - 10pmish) for a thrilling show as part of the Portland Winter Light festival. Invite family and friends.

Details (on artists and works) here.

Visitors (and participants) must agree to CETI's Code of Conduct and be properly masked and fully vaccinated.

PSU and CETI will check proof of vaccination (cards) at the door.

Free exhibit showing creative exploration of the absurd and powerful ideas and implications of quantum that transformed our understanding of the universe and our interpretation of reality.

The CETI community of artists, technologists, scientists, engineers, musicians and hackers will gather art-science-tech explorations for collaborative creative experiments to engage with the powerful ideas and implications of quantum science and technology, celebrating 100 years since the initial development of quantum mechanics as part of the International year of Quantum Science and Technology!

Part of the CETI Enchanted Technology Summer 2025

Instructor: Leroy Laush

Saturday, July 19, 2025. 2:00pm -- 4:30pm.

Workshop participants will build a new CETI themed custom designed Punk Synth Console. No experience in soldering is required. This is a great, simple project to learn how to solder!

Prerequisite: None. A willingness to experiment.

Required Materials: We will provide all the required tools to use during the workshp as well as electronics kits for the synth that you may take away.

Instructor: Skye Estes

In this workshop, we will explore TouchDesigner from a beginner’s perspective, with the goal of achieving a level of proficiency with the tool to utilize it in your own artistic explorations.

Materials: Bring a laptop with a free version of TouchDesigner installed (w e have a few to lend in the lab)

Prerequisites: All are welcome.

Saturdays,

Jul 19, Aug 2, Aug 16 2025. 4:00pm - 5:30pm.

Aug 30, Sep 13, Sep 27 2025. 2:00pm -- 3:30pm

CETI Lab at PSU. FMH 218.

A bimonthly gathering for TouchDesigner enthusiasts and experts, to gather, learn, skill-share and experiment together.

Topics for individual dates will be added to teh CETI calendar and the CETI touchdesigner Discord channel

Instructor: Bernardo Pantoja

The workshop will cover the workflow of creating 2D layouts, arranging them in 3D using blender, and exporting for AR experiences.

Each participant will gain the knowledge base to further explore using the techniques, ideas, and workflow from the workshop to create their own AR Dioramas.

Materials: Laptops, cellphones, blender installed, Photoshop (or similar photo editing app), Create Trace account. We will have a few laptops for you to use.

Prerequisites: Experience in photoshop or similar photo editing app.

Part of CETI's Enchanted Technology Summer 2025

Create, publish, and share Augmented Reality tours and content using the Trace platform.

In this hands-on workshop intended for all experience levels, we’ll review some AR fundamentals and build on-demand, location-based experiences covering:

Content creation

Avatars and recordings

Space management

Publishing and hosting

Discovery and viewing

Afterwards, we can create a tour together at PSU, likely outdoors on the Park.

Required Materials: BYO Phone or borrow an iPad from the lab

Prerequisite: All experience levels welcome

Research has shown that natural sounds (birdsong, rain, insects) have beneficial physical, mental, and cognitive health impacts. Starting with this prompt, we hope to (over the next year), collaboratively gather sounds in our environment (natural, built, and human-influenced). We will use these recordings as data for research, for mapping, and for creative installations. And design and implement these research and creative projects together.

In this session, we'll think about what we want to record and why, learn (in about 15 - 30 mins) how to record using various devices and how to share, and brainstorm what we want to research, and analyse and interesting ways to create and tell stories.

Over the course of this participatory science project,

participants will learn to design and implement research projects to gather, tag, analyse, interpret, and visualize data in a variety of ways. We will combine these sound maps with other maps and datasets to find patterns and correlations learning to use more complex data analytic tools like machine learning. we will have collaboratively created a rich dataset as a community resource and built new expertise in designing and implementing impactful research.

Instructor: Skye Estes

In this workshop, we will build fluency on how to create interactive multimedia content. And how one can integrate TouchDesigner in to a workflow with other software (MadMapper, VDMX, etc.) and hardware/devices—projectors, lasers, microcontrollers, MIDI. Building expertise in creating exciting interactive installations.

Materials: Bring a laptop with a free version of TouchDesigner installed (we have a few to lend in the lab)

Prerequisites: An introductory knowledge of touchdesigner

Part of CETI's Enchanted Technology Summer 2025

Part of the CETI Enchanted technology Summer 2025

Instructors: Bernardo Pantoja

Sunday, August 10 2025. 10:30am -- 12:30pm.

A tool for creation, documentation and exploration.The workshop aims to empower participants with the knowledge and skills needed to explore the potential of 360-degree cameras for use in immersive and standard videos as well as a tool for 3D asset creation.

The workshop will be composed of an in-lab talk covering an overview of the 360 camera, filming best practices. . Followed by a hands on exploration of the gear on a short walk near the CETI lab capturing videos and stills.

12:30 pm (optional) Concluding with an overview of the app for post processing and export of media. And applications including, 3D scanning and recording live action. At the end, we will also experiment with our larger 360 camera exploring, streaming and recording live action. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a solid grasp of how to use 360 cameras to enhance their digital projects.

Prerequisite: A curiosity about 360 cameras. Required Materials: We will provide a 360 camera but you are welcome to bring your own if you have one. If you have a laptop, please bring one to save any files captured and created during the course. CETI has a few that can be borrowed during the course.

Building blocks of interactive/smart, connected technology.

Electronic sensors are a bridge between the physical world and digital, detecting and measuring physical phenomena and converting them into electronic signals to trigger an action or response (often with a microcontroller).

Come experiment with and learn about the assortment of sensors available (environment, location, climate, biometric, motion), their use, accuracy, cost, and potential. We will also have a a variety of microcontrollers one can use to use the sensors to control a system.

Materials: We will have all the materials. Bring questions.

Prerequisites: All are welcome.

Part of CETI's Enchanted Technology Summer 2025

Microcontrollers are the building blocks of interactive installations, connected smart tech (iot) and data responsive technology. Come hear about some exciting and impactful projects built with microcontrollers and pcbs. Projects include:

Building Musical Instruments and Installations with Bela Odd control surfaces: Using unconventional sensors for audiovisual performance with a Teensy. Assisted Living Space Monitor: Air Quality, Climate, Security. done with all off-the-shelf parts. Learn about a series of art pieces that uses the ESP32 series of chips to create persistence of vision LED art. I will go over various things I have learned creating these installations, including using ESP-NOW for wireless control, slip rings, and wireless power transmission to create various versions of mesmerizing and dynamic art. A xseries of iao esp32 sensor board prototypes for different scenarios: to transmit data via meshtastic or save data on SD card.

We will have follow up lab hours if you want to learn to make something of your own.

Materials: Bring Your Project if you'd like to share . Prerequisites: Previous experience with microcontrollers and connected tech is helpful.

Part of CETI's Enchanted Technology Summer 2025

Part of the 2025 CETI Enchanted Technology Summer

Instructors: Justin Patrizi

Saturday, August 23 2025, 2024. 2:00pm -- 5:00pm.

Have you ever created something interactive, but weren’t sure how to bring it from your computer screen or breadboarded Arduino to a finished installation that won’t break down? In this workshop, we’ll take a broad look at what it takes to launch an exhibit in a hands-on science museum, build PNW weather-resistant LED art, or keep people from prying apart escape room puzzles. Many examples will be passed around, we will make and break some prototype components, and learn to anticipate where problems might occur to design better.

Prerequisite: Some familiarity with creating installations.

Required Materials: Bring questions and curiousity

Part of CETI's Enchanted Technology Summer 2025

Bring a laptop with KiCAD 9 installed and a mouse, and we’ll take you from knowing nothing about PCBs all the way to generating the files you need to get them made!

Breadboarding, reading schematics, building a PCB, finding footprints for parts, the prototyping process, etc.

Prerequisite: none. A knowledge of circuits is very helpful

Required Materials: laptop with Kicad installed AND a mouse

Learn how to turn your Breadboard into a finished Printed Circuit Board with cutom art

Adding art to PCBs. Learn how to import custom artwork to add to your circuit boards, check out examples from other creators and learn how they were made, generate the files to get them produced, and order your first board with OshPark (coupons provided). This is a continuation of PCB Design 1.

Prerequisite: Part I

Required Materials: laptop with Kicad installed

Part of CETI's Enchanted Technology Summer 2025

Led by Lara Grant and Helen Leigh

Come build and experiment with tools and materials that are used by e-textile practitioners. The hosts will be bringing in a collection of e-textile materials to showcase and will have materials on-hand for use.

Bring a project to work on, come to explore, or make a project onsite, meet future collaborators, and ;earn what the CETI lab has to offer. There will be sewing machines for use and free time for attendees to work on their project, explore, and experiment. Learn what the CETI lab has to offer. If needed, there will be a beginner friendly project available to get you started.

Materials: We will have several examples to share/show. Bring any projects, ideas you have.

Prerequisites/Who is it For: People who are curious about e-textiles are welcomed and we encourage seasoned e-textile and wearable practitioners.

Part of CETI's Enchanted Technology Summer 2025