- Watch a recording of the class here soon. A link is on the way.
- Curriculum and slides for the class - here. These slides are available with attribution only.
A Little Juju workshop led by Ayodamola Okunseinde and Wiena Lin with an Othernet intro by Dhruv Mehrotra
This month’s Exchange explores the use of technology to serve offline communities.
We start with an intro to the Othernet, a local network based in Bushwick enabling neighbors to browser and create “web” content. Intro given by Eyebeam resident, Dhruv Mehrotra.
Then dive into crafting and coding wifi enabled talismans in a Little Juju workshop led by teaching artist, Ayodamola Okunseinde and Wiena Lin. Little Juju is a virtual and physical interface for facilitating ongoing social interaction and intervention. The Little Juju collection is comprised of a home station (Heart) and wearable “Talismans” that record and respond to the wearer’s behavior and environment via input and output systems of visualization, sonification, haptics, and ancestral divination. Sensor data is shared via the Internet with other Juju collections, thus mapping a network of Little Juju wearers. This activated network supports a novel structure to respond to the shifting global socio-political landscape by facilitating collaborative arts and experiences that grow, change, and sustain modern tribes into the future.
This workshop is ideal for people who want to gain an introduction to the Raspberry pi platform and networked systems. Additionally, individuals interested in exploring creative ways of making meaningful communal sculptural artworks are encouraged to attend.
In this workshop we will be utilizing Raspberry Pi Zero W and Arduino Pro Mini to create a Little Juju Heart device and home network. The Little Juju Heart devices will interact and communicate other Hearts and existing wearable Little Juju Talismans.
In this workshop we will be working with the following:
- Raspberry Pi Zero W
- Arduino Pro Mini
- Node Server
- Sensors
Students will walk away with a deeper understanding of:
- How to setup a Raspberry Pi Zero W
- How to program the Arduino Pro Mini
- How to serially communicate between Raspberry Pi Zero W and Arduino Pro Mini
- How to create a simple network
- How to use sensors for input
- How to use actuators for output
Ayodamola Tanimowo Okunseinde (Ayo) is a Nigerian-American artist and interactive designer living and working in New York. He studied Visual Arts and Philosophy at Rutgers the State University of New Jersey where he earned his B.A. His works range from painting and speculative design to physically interactive works, wearable technology and explorations of Afrofuturism. Okunseinde was the co-founder and creative director of Dissident Display Studios, an award winning studio and art gallery based in Washington DC. As a collaborator with, amongst others, choreographer Maida Withers, Carmen Wong, and Yoko K., Okunseinde has created several interactive performance based works and has performed in several countries including Mexico, Finland, and Croatia. Okunseinde art residency participation includes Finland’s Invitation to Helsinki, IDEO’s Fortnight, New Inc, The Laundromat Project, and Eyebeam’s Creative Residency. Ayodamola holds an MFA in Design and Technology from The New School, Parsons School of Design in New York where he is currently an adjunct faculty member.
Wiena Lin is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer living in Brooklyn, NYC. Wiena works across fine arts and commercial design, striving to create stunning sensory experiences in the physical world by extending the expressiveness of traditional art and design mediums with emerging technology. Their most recent projects include design / strategy for AR, an experiential installation commissioned by the Smithsonian, and a functional system of networked wearables.
Dhruv Mehrotra is an activist and engineer who thinks about networks, power, and policy. He is currently a Researcher at the Risk Econ Lab at New York University where he is working on open-source cellular networks with Saycel. At Eyebeam, he is working on projects that challenge the corporate consolidation of the internet. How can we trust a network that actively seeks to exploit and undermine our interests? His project, the Othernet, is a vision of another type of network – one that exists alongside the internet but serves the community in which it lives.