When Moogfest announced it was coming to Durham, partnering with the event was a no-brainer for Smashing Boxes. It’s a world class festival planted firmly at the nexus of music, technology and art. Together we’ve developed a Webby-nominated website that's baked in Substrate, a generative digital experience for the musically inclined.Being passionate promoters of next generation technologies, we're pleased to support Moogfest by hosting a series of IoT and VR workshops at our Durham office. If you’re registered for Moogfest, sign up, come on by and have a beer on us. Here’s the full schedule:
Musician, designer, artist, fan — join us to find out about creating in a virtual reality environment. Armstrong and Ham quickly get you up to speed on the current state of VR and lead you in a hands-on exercise. Over the course of this workshop, participants prototype content using a simple physical kit and then experience their designs in 3D using an Oculus Rift. The workshop concludes with ideas for adding music and motion to your own VR creation. Find out what the buzz is really about through this practical workshop and lively follow-up discussion.Facilitated by Derek Ham and Helen Armstrong from NCSU’s College of Design.
Learn how to combine electronics with textiles to create unique wearable devices. Lauren DiMonte (NCSU Libraries) teaches you how to sew a circuit, and how to work with lights, switches and sounds. Hence, you'll design and develop your own wearable project. Throughout this session, you'll gain practical knowledge about electronics prototyping, learn the basics of sewing by hand, and get hands-on experience working with conductive thread and electronic components.Beginners are encouraged. No experience with electronics is required. Some experience with hand sewing may be helpful.Facilitated by NCSU Libraries Fellow Lauren Di Monte.
The Internet of Things is an exciting confluence of hardware, software, and the Web. Radically low-cost WiFi and Bluetooth chips and easy-to-learn development platforms make it possible for anyone to start building connected devices with broad possibilities including smart homes, citizen science, consumer products, interactive art, and more.Discuss the possibilities and methods of working with the IoT in this workshop, and get started with with a simple microcontroller-based project using the open-source Arduino platform, which is widely used and supported in the Maker community.What ideas do you have for connecting a physical "thing" to your smartphone, or to data feeds like the weather, the price of gold, or your favorite celebrity's Twitter? The IoT has great potential for the Moogfest community as an infrastructural "glue" that can connect electronic music and art to the Web in new and creative ways.Some programming or Arduino experience is appreciated, but not required. All technology needed will be provided.Facilitated by NCSU Libraries’ Adam Rogers.Interested in having Smashing Boxes facilitate a workshop for your team? Contact us now!
