I haven’t been properly sick in years! but I currently have a proper cold and spent a good chunk of the last couple days in bed, with brief respites to keep an eye on work and play a little WoW classic (I’ve been sucked in by a friend who SAYS he wants to use it as an opportunity to write a computer vision bot but so far all we did was kill a bunch of wendigos). anyway if u want to play WoW classic w/ me, we’re using this vanilla project.
NEW CONCEPT ALERT!
inspired by new fbook group member Brad, would u all be interested in a question-of-the-week type thing, to come out on a different day of the week? u can message me something that’s bugging u, and if I can’t answer it myself I can pose it to the community (incl. anonymously if u’d prefer it). you can shoot me an email or just reply in the comments to this post if u’d be into reading that sort of thing or if u have a q to get me started.
resource roundup!
this twitter thread has so many badical examples of weird UI! if ur feeling 90s nostalgic after watching the new Rocko’s Modern Life movie, this is a good place to lose some time and get inspired for your next project:
here’s a guide on setting up a private online identity with an anonymous email and a virtual phone by @geminiimatt. it’s a work in progress, but it’s worth checking out if you’re working on something sensitive where you still need to be able to communicate easily with important contacts.
there’s an overly complicated script on my site that makes the little computer dude bounce around the screen. here’s a much simpler CSS approach to the same problem. I really like the blob effect in the last example and want to come up with some excuse to use that with a client, lol.
Adafruit has a new Circuit Playground Express learning guide to show you how to emulate mouse behavior for your own personal painting assistant to help you draw those perfect curves and circles. very cute and worth a look!
opportunities!
teaching is a great way to reinforce your own practice (cement what you know, find new inspiration, think about what you do from a new perspective, etc.) and it’s also a great way to connect with community and expand the reach of what you do (art isn’t enough!!). if you’ve been looking for an opportunity to give it a try, POWRPLNT has an open call for volunteer teaching artists. this is as much of an opportunity for you to connect with a great community and strengthen your teaching experience as it is to share your skills. check it out and consider applying here!
as a part of Inter/setions 2019, Queen Mary University of London is hosting an Unuseless Music Design Hackathon from November 8-9, with applications due by September 8. does spending 2 days trying to make the silliest and most subversive musical design sound fun to you? you can learn more here!
the call for the 2019 Hackaday Prize is open until August 25! this is a worldwide hardware design contest focused on product development. so what makes a good entry? you can learn more and submit your project here.
House of Electronic Arts Basel and the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology of the Zurich University of the Arts have an open call for artists for a residency and production program. they’re looking for a European artist or artists who are interested in learning how to work with their Immersive Lab, a unique sound and video space, and produce a new work for it. submissions are due by September 22, and you can learn more here.
the Sundance Institute has an open call for their 2020 New Frontier Story Lab. they’re looking for artists who are developing interactive, immersive, or experimental projects that aim to create rich and resonant experiences for audiences. the deadline is Oct 1, so get going! more info here.
📅 upcoming events!
tonight! Aug 20! CASUL! Mexico City, Mexico: if I am not too sick I am gonna be at this one! this talk by Ramon Amaro will be on the role of race, ethnicity, and human difference in neural networks. Amaro has worked as an assistant editor for the SAGE open access journal Big Data & Society; a quality design engineer for General Motors; and programs manager for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). this looks like a good one! more info here.
Weds, Aug 21! CENTRO diseño! Mexico City, Mexico: this free event will dig in on the idea of data as a curatorial tool, with Mexico as a case study. is there a place for data visualization to serve as an alternative for low-budget educational exhibitions? I’m gonna try to check this one out personally if I am not still sniffling, so if u see me say hi! RSVP on Eventbrite. you’ll need to show an ID and your Eventbrite QR code to enter the building so don’t forget to RSVP!
Fri, Aug 23! Jam Handy! Detroit, MI USA: the School for Poetic Computation and Detroit-based practitioners are having an evening of presentations. SFPC is organizing a summer session in Detroit, and this event will be a great way to explore what will be going on. “What would it look like to cultivate a more caring and imaginative kind of tech for ourselves and each other?” sounds like a great conversation starter for this program. you can RSVP for this free event here.
Sept 9-13! School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe! Berlin, Germany: here’s a week-long workshop from School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe designed to get you working in VR with no prior experience necessary. all of the software that will be used is free, so you just need to bring a laptop. learn more and get tix (including a discounted rate for students) here.
Weds, Sept 11! Covent Garden! London, UK: LDC and INTERLACED are teaming up for a panel discussion on the crossovers between fashion and gaming for London Fashion Week. early bird tix are already sold out! but you can get regular admission on Eventbrite.
Sept 16-21! Berlin, Germany: Citizens of Evidence: Independent Investigations for Change is a conference of the Disruption Network Lab this September in Berlin. the conference itself is the 20-21, in conjunction with a workshop presented by School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe on using technology to investigate injustice. this looks really good, and I’m secretly trying to come up with excuses to attend. you can learn more here.
Sat, Sept 21! Triangle Arts Association! Brooklyn, NY USA: the Tech Learning Collective will be debuting a new workshop to teach you how to run your own server! it’s a 1-day intensive course particularly geared towards DIY spaces that might want to provide alternative infrastructures to their communities. tix are $150, with a discounted rate of $99 for queer and femme folks. if I was in NYC in Sept I’d be here for sure (as always, TLC has rolling admissions, so maybe I’ll get lucky with a future session when I’m back in NYC later in the fall)! this looks like some great knowledge to have if digital independence and community organizing is important to you. you can learn more here.
just for lulz!
git-blame-someone-else is a script you totally shouldn’t use on a production build just to blame someone else for your lazy coding. unless u really want to….
*~housekeeping~*
as always, submit to the open artist call if you have anything in the works that you are excited about! I swear I’m actually going to read through them and start pinging people (lol). and if you have an event or opportunity to promote (anywhere), please send me all the details. the next newsletter will cover the week of August 26 to September 1, but I’m happy to promote events further in the future as well and keep them on the calendar.
