[partsandcrafts] upcoming events and winter/spring schedule
William Macfarlane
I hope that everyone had great holidays. We certainly did! After
more than a month of traveling, it's nice to be back in Brooklyn,
working with kids and making things again.
We have some exciting workshops on a bunch of different topics coming
up this late winter. Parts and Crafts is about hands-on learning,
daring experimentation, interesting failure, and eventual success.
We're about fostering a certain inventive attitude towards the world
-- playing with computers and electronics and weird little tech-art
experiments -- these things are just means to an end. So I'm happy to
say that, in addition to writing software and building circuits in the
coming months, we'll also be cultivating colonies of small, useful and
delicious creatures: brewing beer (for the over-21 crowd) and making
bread and cheese! We hope to continue to offer new and different
topics and tools to explore and play around with. We'd love to hear
more ideas and to hear from more potential collaborators.
In addition to the workshops and classes we're running, I want to draw
a little bit of extra attention to two larger projects that we're
involved in.
Coming up in just a week and a half will be the first Brooklyn
Inventgenuity Festival at the Invisible Dog. This promises to be a
great weekend full of invention, craftsmanship and creativity. BEAM
Camp is putting the whole thing together, and if you're not already
familiar with them, you should check them out -- they run a sleep-away
camp in the woods in New Hampshire where kids collaborate on producing
a large-scale art-piece designed by a team of artists, architects,
designers, or otherwise ingenious folks. Their projects are stunning,
and well-constructed and they give kids a chance to work together to
build something that anyone of any age would be proud of. We'll be
making a small glow in the dark art installation/play/experiment space
with kids and parents who want to help out. There should be a lot
going on!
Later, in April, we'll be building superhero supplies with kids at the
Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company -- www.superherosupplies.com. The
superhero store is run by 826NYC -- www.826nyc.org -- a writing and
literacy tutoring and enrichment center with really cool programs and
an amazing modus operandi. We're super-excited to be a part of the
work that they're doing!
Anyway, here's the list! Please pass it on to anyone who you think it
might interest.
best wishes,
-Will (and the parts and crafts collective)
---
Upcoming Events!
Brooklyn Inventgenuity Festival
when: Saturday, February 20, 11am-5pm
where: The Invisible Dog – 51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11 201
who: kids and parents, all ages
cost: free!
Presented by Beam Camp, a sleepaway summer camp run by incredibly
competent and creative friends of ours, the Brooklyn Inventgenuity
Festival brings kids and their parents together with artists and big
thinkers in a full weekend of hands-on making and building workshops
and demonstrations. Girls and boys aged 6-17 and their parents can
make amazing things out of electricity, fabric, wood, dirt, food and
other materials, join in a signature Beam Camp Project, set individual
and group World Records and learn the art of fixing common household
objects.
For more information, or to register, visit
http://bklyninventgenuityfest.eventbrite.com
Yeast and Mold! (making mozzerella and bread)
when: Saturday, March 13, 1-4
where: the Doorway, 210 23rd Street, #1, Brooklyn, NY
who: all ages
cost: $25,suggested, sliding scale
Yeast and mold! Gluten and fermentation! During this workshop we’ll
make bread, stretch cheese, and learn a bit about culture and bacteria
(why does bread rise? what makes sourdough sour? what happens if you
let the milk in the fridge curdle for too long?) And when we’re done,
we’ll eat the experiment!
Open to kids of all ages – this workshop is clearly not vegan, but you
should probably let us know ahead of time if you have weird food
allergies.
For more information, or to register, visit
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/559606799/
Lights! Sensors! Motors! Computers! (introduction to digital
electronics, aka Arduino 101)
when: 5 Sessions – 3/1 - 3/29, 4:00pm-6:00pm
where: the Doorway, 210 23rd Street, #1, Brooklyn, NY
who: kids, 10ish-15ish
cost: $100 ($20/session), suggested, sliding scale
Using the Arduino, we’ll design and prototype circuits with
breadboards and program them with c, tools commonly used by
professional engineers today, and take the circuits we make and embed
them in “interactive objects”.
From arduino.cc : “Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping
platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s
intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in
creating interactive objects or environments.”
for more information, or to register, visit
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/559622847
Hands-On Electronics (analog circuits 101)
when: 4 sessions – wednesdays, 3/3-3/31, no class on 3/17
who: kids, 9ish-12ish
cost: $100 ($25 per session, including materials) suggested, sliding scale
No one is too young to start mixing art, science, and engineering!
Using the basic components of analog circuits and some simple
mechanical engineering we’ll build a series of fun and interesting
devices – drawing machines, color changing light art, a remote
controlled “bug”, a motion detector. Along the way we’ll familiarize
ourselves with the fundamental principles of electricity and learn to
use the tools we need to build basic circuits.
for more information, or to register, please vist:
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/569627772
Brewing Beer (that you’re proud to give to your sober friends)
when: 3/6, 1:00pm-5:00pm
where: the Doorway, 210 23rd Street, #1, Brooklyn, NY
who: over 21!
cost: $40, suggested, sliding scale
Brewing beer at home is easy to do pretty well and hard to do
perfectly. It provides relatively immediate satisfaction and rewards
patience. Like cooking, it can be both creative and rigorous, and is
usually a little bit of both. We’ll go over all of the basic equipment
you need to start brewing in your home and walk through all of the
steps involved in making a 5 gallon batch. We’ll taste, touch, and
smell everything we can and talk about brewing history and beer
styles. And we’ll sit back, relax, and have a homebrew.
for more information, or to register, visit
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/559629868
Computer Programming 101 (graphics and interactivity)
when: 4/3 and 4/4, 1:00pm-4:00pm
where: the Doorway, 210 23rd Street, #1, Brooklyn, NY
who: kids 10ish-15ish
cost: $50, suggested, sliding scale
Using the Processing program language (a “dialect” of Java), we will
learn about the basic concepts of writing software and computation –
variables, logical control structures (loops, conditionals),
functions, and objects, by playing with and modifying a series of
interesting and fun example programs based exploring graphics and
interactivity.
From processing.org: “Processing is an open source programming
language and environment for people who want to program images,
animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists,
designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and
production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer
programming within a visual context and to serve as a software
sketchbook and professional production tool.”
for more information, or to register, visit
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/559635886
Build Your Own Superhero Supplies!
when: 4 sessions, Wednesdays, April 14-May 5, 6-8 p.m.
where: 826NYC,372 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
who: kids, 10ish-15ish
cost: free, $20 deposit required
Laser blasters! Light sabers! Motion detectors! Superpowers are one
thing, but any self- respecting superhero needs some gadgets on hand
too. We’ll spend four sessions taking things apart and putting them
back together – learning what makes things blink, why motors spin, how
sensors work, why tripwires set off alarms, and designing our very own
superhero equipment to fight the forces of evil. [NOTE: This workshop
will be held at 826NYC and will include a writing component]
Registration for this has not opened yet, but when it does it will be
through 826 at www.826nyc.org/programming/workshops/