Nicolas Collins

Laboratorio di hardware hacking

Laboratorio pratico con Nicolas Collins su “Hardware Hacking” ovvero l’arte di costruire strumenti musicali elettronici a partire da materiali consumati.

PROGRAMMA

Assuming no technical background whatsoever, this workshop guides the participants through a series of sound-producing electronic construction projects, from making simple contact microphones, to “bending” toys:

Victorian Oscillator (speaker + battery = oscillator)
Radio Cracklebox. Turn a radio into a touch synthesizer
Make a contact mike
Make a coil pickup
tape heads
Then we can finish up with circuit bending toys if people bring them.

Participants should bring the following supplies:

• A portable, battery-powered radio or boombox, with appropriate batteries. Make sure it works! It should be cheap enough that you won’t be too angry if it never works again. The AM band is more important than FM, but it doesn’t matter if the radio picks up both. It should have analog tuning (i.e., a dial) rather than digital presets or scan buttons. Larger radios are easier to work with than tiny ones, and older ones always sound better than new ones. It should have a built-in speaker, not just a headphone jack. And most importantly: IT MUST BE BATTERY POWERED! Beware: an alarm clock radio with a built-in “backup battery” is not suitable, since it requires AC power to function as a radio.

• If we are Circuit Bending: Two or more battery powered, sound-producing toys, with appropriate batteries. As with the radio, select a toy that is expendable, not too tiny, and has a built-in speaker. A toy that makes sound is preferable to a mute one, and sampled sounds (like voices, animal sounds or instruments) are more useful than simple beeps. The more buttons and switches the better, generally speaking, although musical keyboards often have limited potential for interesting modification. Toys manufactured in the last 10 years are un-hackable – please try to find older, used toys. And, of course: THEY MUST BE BATTERY POWERED!
• One or more raw loudspeakers of any size (just the speaker, not enclosed in a cabinet/box).
• Three nine-volt batteries.
• A small piece of corroded or rough-surfaced scrap metal.
• A soldering iron (lightweight, fine point).
• Hand tools (diagonal cutters, wire strippers, a knife, etc.).

Optional:
• an expendable cassette player of some sort (Walkman, boombox, etc.)
• a battery-powered mini-guitar amplifier or other personal monitoring system.

Nicolas Collins è stato negli anni 90 direttore artistico del prestigioso centro di ricerca olandese STEIM, è capo redattore del Leonardo Music Journal e insegnante presso la Scuola dell’ Art Institute of Chicago, è attivo da anni come compositore e performer al fianco di personaggi come Peter Cusack, John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Jim O’Rourke, Ben Neill, Kato Hideki, Shelley Hirsch e molti altri.
È inoltre l’autore del celeberrimo “Handmade electronic music”, testo di riferimento assoluto per tutti gli appassionati di circuit bending e di elettronica musicale fai da te.
http://www.nicolascollins.com/

Il laboratorio si svolge in formato intensivo, dalle ore 13 alle 19 di venerdì 25 maggio 2012.
Il costo per ogni partecipante è di 75 euro.

Happy hackers ora tocca a voi!