DIY Instrument Making & Hacking

How can an electronic system be used as an interface of experimental enquiry?
Can you create an expressive interface for playing electronic music?
What is the importance of networks (humans) and decentralized knowledge in relation to technology?

How do you feel about DIY instruments, sensors, and controllers? This is a workshop open to musicians and aspiring hackers of all skill levels and disciplines, utilizing technology or not.

Onassis Stegi invites artists, musicians, sound engineers, designers and programmers in a three-day hackathon to collaboratively create new instruments and sounds, and explore new ways to make music.

Selected participants will have the opportunity to build new instruments and create their own compositions, and new ways to make music, noise & sound. The outcome of the workshop will be presented to the public on the last day through an open performance by the participants.

The workshop will be held in English; full attendance is required for all three days.

Apply now and until Thursday 20 December 2018, 12:00. The number of participants is limited.

Participation cost: €20 (will be paid after the confirmation of participation).

The participation fee contributes to the cost of materials for the instruments that the participants will create as well as for snacks and drinks for the duration of the workshop.

Applicants will be notified about their participation by 5 January 2019.

PROGRAM

Friday 11 January
18.00-21.00 | Welcome and short presentations by the mentors

Saturday 12 January
10.00-22.00 | Making & Hacking with the mentors

Sunday 13 January
10.00-17.00 | Making, Hacking, Composing
17.00-19.00 | Open performance

Credits

Mentors: Enrico Bertelli (UK), Alexandros Drymonitis (GR), Tina Dolinšek (SL), John Richards (UK, De Montfort University), Max Wainwright (Sweden) and Tara Pattenden (UK, in partnership with Music Hackspace).
Organized by: Heracles Papatheodorou, Dora Vougiouka
The event is part of the Interfaces project co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.

Alexandros Drymonitis is a musician (MMus graduate of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam), active in the field of experimental electronic music and noise. His musical practice focuses on the texture of sound and noise, exploring the borders of control, with form as a main goal. His educational aim is to provide acquired knowledge on multimedia programming. He has collaborated with various artists from different art disciplines, plus several ensembles, either interdisciplinary or music ensembles. He is currently a member of Medea Electronique and a collaborator of the ARTéfacts Ensemble. He has taught the guitar at the Music School of Amsterdam and “Philippos Nakas” Conservatory in Athens, and electronic music programming at “Musical Praxis” Conservatory in Athens. He is currently a freelancer in the field of electronic music and multimedia programming. He is the author of the book “Digital Electronics for Musicians”, published by Apress. http://drymonitis.me/

Enrico Bertelli: “It all started in Venice 2003, after my first university exam. I got a good mark and found the Erasmus scholarship application; so I moved to Wales; Repatriated for a BA in Music, Cinema and Theater, and a Percussion degree at the Conservatoire, before embracing the cold Welsh weather again for an MA in Performance Studies. Soon after, York was home to my PhD in performance and electronics, before packing my life in a car towards London. But I was in Belfast, ordering pizza when an e-mail popped in, with a grant that sparked the idea of Conductive Music. From two staff and five schools, we work with 70+ schools, 4,000 students yearly. I am so happy to have presented our project to 30+ universities and schools in Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, New Zealand, Russia and throughout Europe. Maker Movement, Open Source, Legacy, Music Technology and STEAM are the keywords of our manifesto, thanks to which we take apart, destroy, hack and rebuild, any piece of art or technology, that we can touch!” www.conductivemusic.uk

John Richards explores the idea of Dirty Electronics that focuses on shared experiences, ritual, gesture, touch and social interaction. He is primarily concerned with the performance of large-group electronic music and DIY electronics, and the idea of creating music inside electronics. His work also pushes the boundaries between performance art, electronics, and graphic design and is transdisciplinary as well as having a socio-political dimension. Dirty Electronics has been commissioned to create sound devices for various arts organizations and festivals and has released a series of hand-held synths on Mute Records. www.dirtyelectronics.org

Max Wainwright makes experimental electronic and acoustic music, involving free improvisation, adapting to complex systems, and making & using terrible instruments. He does solo and collaborative performances, installations, sculpture, radio pieces, chamber composition, video work and more. As an artist, he is concerned with states of flux and how useless or broken objects can be sounded. He likes to engage audiences and things in conversation, creating instruments, trading, donating or receiving things, and performing on these. www.maxwainwright.com, www.dirtyelectronics.org

Tina Dolinšek is Ljubljana (Slovenia) based new-media art producer, curator and cultural facilitator. She wrote for several Slovene media (Radio Student, Tribuna, Delo), mainly about culture, society, new media art and technology and contributed articles to Culture.si portal, the online encyclopedia of culture in Slovenia. From 2013-2018 she was a producer, curator and head coordinator of education and art activities at Ljudmila, Art and Science Laboratory. During that period she organized and curated more than 70 art events, exhibitions, festivals, workshops, AV performances and started various DIY communities and platforms. She initiated a art-tech-research platform or a ”summer hacking camp” PIFcamp in 2015 and have been running it since then. As a member of experimental AV group Theremidi Orchestra she was participating at over 50 events, hosted numerous workshops on experimental DIY instruments building and performed at various venues and festivals around Europe (Spektrum, Berlin; Piksel festival, Bergen, Liwoli Linz, PoolLoop, Zurich...) and US (Eyebeam, New York). www.pif.camp, www.ljudmila.org, www.projekt-atol.si

John Richards explores the idea of Dirty Electronics that focuses on shared experiences, ritual, gesture, touch and social interaction. He is primarily concerned with the performance of large-group electronic music and DIY electronics, and the idea of creating music inside electronics. His work also pushes the boundaries between performance art, electronics, and graphic design and is transdisciplinary as well as having a socio-political dimension. Dirty Electronics has been commissioned to create sound devices for various arts organizations and festivals and has released a series of hand-held synths on Mute Records. e Lerango Drone, Noisy Bstrd and the Grim Beeper. She performs solo as Phantom Chips as well as performing in Body Vice, the Fckn Bstrds and Goodiepal and Pals. www.phantomchips.com
The workshop of Tara Pattenden happens with the support of Music Hackspace.