Instrument

Once upon a time, interaction was three-dimensional and physical— think knobs, buttons and dials. In the last decade or so, we've put touchscreens on nearly everything, digitizing interactions and relegating them to two-dimensional screen space and the purview of interaction and graphic designers.

We are about to undergo another paradigm change in computing and will need to shift expectations around design, materiality and experience. Breaking away from screen-based interactions is not going to be easy, but it will be an opportunity for designers of different disciplines to collaborate in a new and immersive space.

As a young girl, Alysha Naples wanted to be an astronaut, a dinosaur or a Solid Gold dancer. Instead, she studied graphic design, moved to San Francisco (Method, Blurb and HP Labs) and became obsessed with interaction and experience. Until recently, she was Magic Leap’s Senior Director of User Experience and Interaction, a position which felt a lot like she’s was going back to kindergarten and getting a PhD at the same time.

Join us for Beyond the Screen. August 31 at Instrument HQ. Doors open at 5:30pm, talk starts at 6:00pm.

** If you have never been to a meetup by this group or are curious what we do, this is going to be a doozy of an event. You should come. **

C.A.R.D.S. (Code Art Reproducible Design Scripts) is a project by and for PDX Creative Coders.

A dozen members of this group have gathered to work on this generative art project over a six week time period. On June 24th, their work will be released as limited edition prints.

In addition to an overview of the project from Chris Adams and John Brown, three of the participating artists will talk about their work and the process.

Work will be available to purchase for $10, so please bring cash if you're interested in purchasing.

If you'll recall, at the last S&T, we got to experience some OpenGL timelapse in large form, a couple of people showed off their amazing pieces that were in the uncontext. show at the Diode Gallery, and we saw the world premiere of plin.co, a modern version of Plinko.

It's a new year, and we're going to get it started right.

Chris Adams is a software developer working in the political space at ActBlue, an occasional software artist, and an obsessive book collector.

His interests in digital art and book collecting periodically collide, grinding his brain to a halt. After years of working through this morass, he’s got thoughts enough to fill a talk & therapy session on the physical potentials of generative art. Let’s discuss!

Generative Things: What happens when algorithms get physical?

So you have a generative art project and you’ve chosen a single generated image for an art print. Now where is the essence of your project? What is the relationship of that print to your algorithm? Artists that work with generative processes have a problematic relationship with traditional means of production and distribution of art products. What solutions do we have, apart from bolting an iPad to the wall?

Community Presentations

As always, we're looking to you, the community and members of the group, to present a project or give a short talk. If you have something to show and/or tell (and I know you do), please use this sign-up form. You could present:

• a short case study for a finished product

• an interactive work you've been jamming on 

• a work in progress that you are excited about and want to get feedback on

• lessons learned from a past project 

• anything you want! This is your group! 

New to public speaking or nervous about giving a talk? We're here to help. Send us a message and we can help to craft the amazing presentation inside of you.

At the last Show & Tell, we were treated to some great presentations. You could be transformed into a cartoon character, we were entranced with a generative music video, we saw two glitch art implementations in two different mediums, and got deep with how to best work in cross discipline situations (details in the comments). What a night!

We're always looking to you, the community and members of the group, to present a project or give a short talk.

Let's get together again and made some art!

After the success of the TUIO Jams, we're going to try the same format for a different project.

uncontext., for the uninitiated, is a community art project that creates streams of constantly changing data that is publicly accessible. When you create something that uses the data as it streams live, it will move and update to the same heartbeat that is moving and updating every other creation using the data. So at the end of the day, we'll have a series of experiments and projects that are all pulsing to the same beat.

I'll even be releasing a new data stream at this event! When you attend, you can create in any way that makes sense to you:

• Javascript/CSS/in the browser experiences
• Processing and/or p5.js
• PixelPusher (we'll have some you can play with!)
• Unity
• Bring your Arduino or Pi or Tessel
• Anything that can connect to the internet!

The space is, as always, provided by the ineffable Instrument. We'll have coffee and lunch will be provided by the wonderful team at Codepen, as well as some swag both from sponsors and also generated and printed at the event!

If you want a quick intro to uncontext., here's a video of a 15 minute introduction presentation crammed into 5 minutes from a couple months ago.

Send John Brown a message if you have any questions!

Last time people shared their autonomous RC cars, projector mapped plinko, football field sized drawings, video synthesizers, and ultra low power embedded wireless sensors!  With all of these great projects we couldn't wait to get another event on the calendar.

This time we will have more exciting things to see, and with the added bonus of a guest speaker to close the night.

As always, thank you to Instrument for providing the amazing space, and for sponsoring the refreshments.  A reminder that they are hiring people who are a great fit for this group.  Please check out their careers page and follow them on twitter @Instrument.

Josh Michaels is an independent app developer and software artist working under the name Jetson Creative ( jetsoncreative.com ). Josh builds apps primarily for the iPad, iPhone, and Mac. 

His interactive time-lapse applications Magic Window, Earthlapse, and Tahoe Blue have been downloaded over a million times as well as being featured in commercials by Apple. 

Josh is the creator and curator of the Future/Canvas iPad Art Show (futurecanvas.net) and has recently opened the Diode Gallery for Electronic Art (diodegallery.com) to help expand the presence of electronic art in Portland. 

For more information see joshjet.com. 

Schedule

• 6pm : doors open

• 7pm - 8pm : presentations

• 8 - 8:30pm : Finding the Intersection, with Josh Michaels

• 9pm, end.

Presentations

If you would like to present a project or a short talk please use this sign up form.  We really appreciate everyone participating, it is what makes this group so great.

Over the past few months we've shared many beers and pizzas while learning about campaign finance as it relates to data science and user design.

Our Design Team has been hard at work transforming all of our R&D from the Behind the Curtain Project into our final production model.

Get ready for a Blitzkreig of Hackathons as we get ever closer to unveiling a new way to understand influence and elections. (You know, with like, actual facts?)

Moving forward, we're assembling our best teams for the final build stage.

Come to our Hack Oregon Community Summit, Thursday May 22 @Instrument 6-8pm where you can meet the team leaders, learn the build plan, and join a team!

We'll also be demo-ing our front end design and giving a short talk on some of the insights that drove our strategy--- to include revelations about how normal people feel about interacting with two mysterious subjects like politics and data.

If you are thinking about joining a team, here's what we are looking for:

Data Science Team (seeking 4 members)

Spatial Data Team (seeking 5 members)

Data Viz Team (seeking 3 members)

Super Activist Team (seeking 5 members non-technical OK)

RSVP for beer and pizza count: hackoregonsummit.eventbrite.come

Hack Oregon's "Behind the Curtain" campaign finance visualization is continuing to build momentum, and we're inviting anyone who is curious to come collaborate with us.

This week's build session will focus on implementing visualizations for a local candidate dashboard.

We've also fleshed out a wire frame to give more agency to front-end the front-end team.

FYI: the dataset is deep and nuanced super compelling-- some people find it a little addictive. If it's your first time, think about joining us Wednesday @RonToms for our #Beerpatioathon to get a head start on intro conversation.

Look forward to seeing you,

RSVP @hackoregon

Zach Archer

The Hypnolamp

Using LEDs and an Arduino, Zach converted a simple lamp into a hypnotic work of art. Knobs and sensors were added to control the animation and colors. Zach will reveal the HypnoLamp's secrets, and discuss the creative process, interactivity, and the coming revolution in home lighting.

Zach is a developer who focuses on interactive media and installations. He lives in Portland.

Drew McIntyre

The Art of Breaking Video: Observations, Insights & Instabilities.

Why stop at Speak n' Spells and Nintendos? Big Pauper employees an obscure arsenal of hand-modified electronics to sculpt multimedia installations, sound design & glitch visuals. Glitch video production will be the matter at hand this evening as Pauper shares the methods & the madness behind modifying video equipment, personal computers and video gaming hardware. Should be good fun!!

Big Pauper is a multimedia artist, producer & mad scientist of sorts living here in Portland, OR. He works as part of the circuit bent sound-art collective Folktek. He also breaks video gear for a living under the enterprise Big Pauper Modified Circuitry. He also just released a multimedia EP you should hear/view: http://www.djpz.com/unnecessary_human_enterprise_ep/

OpenDork

An open-mic session for those looking to show off a project, ask a question, solicit help, or incite collaboration. Please limit to 5 minutes.