Diego and Angelo led a workshop as part of the KIBLIX Festival and the International Computer Arts Festival in Maribor, Slovenia, from November 18th to the 28th, 2010. The workshop resulted in an installation piece which will be exhibited at KIBLA until mid-December. What we didOver the course of ten days, we disassembled old computers, tested computer components, installed Ubuntu (or in the case of some really old motherboards, Xubuntu) on them, designed and built different structures that incorporated plants and computers together, troubleshot algae, and met up and had long discussions with other new media artists articipating in the festival.Here are a few highlights from the resulting installation:
| Who was involved |
2010 : Biomodd [MRBw], Slovenia
Learned so much!
There are so many nice things and new experiences which have been learned in the last Biomodd Workshop in Maribor, Slovenia. Nicely connected technology and nature left a big impression, at least for me :) It was really an intensive 10 days workshop, and I felt really bad for those days which I could not participate. In the beginning I had NO idea about software and hardware. Nothing! But on the first day, we made a lot of computers working, installed Ubuntu and learned how to interact technology and nature. And in following days it was like everything was going so fast and we were productive. At the end, I am (still) very happy for the things we did. Also because it was an nice exchange of... everything! And before I forget - I think we were a great working group, I learned a loooooot from you, guys! And everything went really dynamic also because of that. Now, I am environmentally aware as never ever before. And this is a good thing, I suppose. Impression of Biomodd is still alive in Maribor. When I return to Kibla (our workshop place) I am always happy when I see some plants and computer components lying somewhere... I know that they are still breathing. It was great to work with Angelo, Diego, Nic and the rest of the beloving team; Monika, Spela and Simon. _Marusa |
learning experience or leaving comfortzone
participating @ the biomodd workshop in kibla has been one of my most intense short term learning processes ever. to start from scratch in terms of hardware and software and to actualy build working computers ( without any prior knowledge in this field), computers which take on a kind of personality ( they have to be protected since they lost their hard outer shell). and then to push the interaction with the environment to a higher level. Warmth being a prime resource computers generate in abundance this is the most easily transferred resource to be used by the floral kingdom. Exchange of living quarters, physical manipulation ( simple use of the wind generated by the fans which is a kind of physiotherapy for plants living indoor ), and the hint of computer aided plant growth ( sensorial analysis of light, moisture, minerals etc...) are topics still to be researched in depth. the esthetics of the growth/construction/experiment evolve from a few basic principles shared by all members of the team. the group dynamics experienced during the workshop gives one a good example of cross cultural potentialities. In the end everybody has learned something from everybody and that is a fantastic experience. a happy nic @ kibla @ Maribor @ slovenia / 28 november 2010 |
Workshop: Day 3
Today Nic and Monica have begun the construction of a large tower built out of the metal cases of the computers that were disassembled during the first few days of the workshop. The goal is to create a 4m tall structure that hovers over the entire installation. Each case is positioned on the underlying case in 30 degree angle resulting in a spiraling vertical structure. The tower will house reconfigured computers and plant life, and will serve as a supporting structure for an algae circulation system. This circulation system is planned to run through a large part of the space. The algae that are currently being cultured in Kibla have been in use for a diversity of international art projects since 2002, and are essentially a mix of Belgian, American, Filipino and Slovenian variants of the ubiquitous Chlorella species. They are silent witnesses and represent the accumulation of past experiences with different communities throughout the world. The tower has now been placed in its final position. The next steps are determining where and how to include computer units, and how to integrate plant life, algae, and case modding lighting. |
Workshop: Day 2
It's almost hard to believe that we've only been 2 days into the 10-day workshop and we've accomplished so much, and with so few people!
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Motherboard troubleshooting
We've run into a problem with a particular motherboard (Figure 1; click the images to enlarge). We can't figure out how to power it on because the pins aren't labeled. It's a Fujitsu motherboard, and we found two numbers etched onto the board, w26361 w57 x 03 and w57 z2 04 36. A Google search yielded little to nothing. Figure 1. Motherboard overview We think maybe the power pins are on this set of pins labeled FRONT (Figure 2) but we tried every pair combination and the computer still refused to start. Figure 2. Power pins? Help! | Update: Problem solved. We were completely wrong about the pins. They were located on a completely different part of the motherboard, though it took a few heads put together to piece the puzzle together! |
Workshop: Day 1
The workshop starts today! So we'll probably start off introducing ourselves briefly and our interests in the workshop. I'll talk about the workshop and its overall goals, which are to design biological and digital systems systems that communicate or share resources with each other. I'll introduce Angelo, who'll talk about computer components and a bit about modding. Then we'll do a tour of the workshop space. Then we'll start disassembling parts. Then if we have time before lunch, we'll start designing. |
First day in the new space
Angelo, Nic Geeraert, and I all arrived in KIBLA yesterday. They drove from Belgium; I took a train from Vienna. Today was our first day, and things moved very quickly. We turned a series of platforms into work tables and laid out all our equipment (Nic brought what seems like an unending number of tools, including a drill and a voltimeter (yes!)), computer parts (many brought by Angelo from the St-Niklaas workshop), and a few plant-related stuff, including the Belgian-American-Filipino algae mix. Nic suspended a series of metal rods above the main workshop space; the rods ― as well as part of the work tables ― extend into the adjacent exhibition space, bridging the two. It's looking really good. |
Team Canada/Philippines, go, go, go
Well, "Team Canada/Philippines" is all of one person, but I certainly wish there was more of me to go around, with the amount of work and preparation that I need to do before my flight leaves on Wednesday! I managed to get a hold of two workshop-compatible computers (one running on an Athlon 3000+ and an Intel Celeron 1.80 GHz) courtesy of my roommate, but this means that I have to back up many gigabytes of data before I can start dismantling them and packing up the motherboard and the memory cards. I also need to pick up some infrared LEDs and some conductive thread before I leave. I'm bringing a small toolkit of hardware (a couple of Arduino boards, resistors, capacitors, wires, soldering equipment, ....) The trip is going to be exhausting. Over the next 2.5 weeks, this is what I'll be doing:
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