Open-Circuit

Experience: Allskill levels are welcome in this workshop from the absolute beginner to theexperienced engineer.

Materials: Allmaterials will be provided but participants are encouraged to bring tools andsupplies of their own if they like.

Age: 18+. Younger participants may be accepted on special request

Schedule: This workshop has 3 parts.

1. Each participant will receive an assembled OMSynth minilab synthesizer prototyping kit. This kit has been designed to allow inventors to quickly and easily build and play with simple sound making circuits. This is achieved by providing all of the general building blocks they will need such as a power supply and audio amplifier. The inventor can then put their focus into exploring sound making circuitry rather than struggling with all of the important but ultimately unexciting support circuits. 

2. Build a simple light controlled noise generator. This stage is in introduction to how the OMSynth MiniLab works and how just a few components can be used to start making sound. In this stage we will cover the basics of electricity and oscillator operation.

3. Design your own sound circuit using logic chips and op amps. We will go over a variety of simple circuits that can be combined and tweaked to design a custom instrument we will also discuss electrical theory as well as electrical component behavior in more depth.

FEATURES: 3 channel audio mixer 1 Watt audio amplifier and built in speaker and ¼” audio output jack 5 modular potentiometers 3 modular DPDT latching pushbuttons Circuit prototyping area

POWER: The power regulator section of the Miniab provides a + & – 5VDC power supply from a single 9 volt battery or wall supply. This power supply level allows for classic analog designs, logic circuits and modern microprocessors to operate on the same voltage. The primary goal is to allow the integration of analog and binary chips such as operational amplifiers and CMOS logic chips.

SOUND: A small amp and speaker are provided that is primarily intended for prototyping purposes but is plenty loud enough for personal use. An unamplified signal is available from a 1/4″ audio jack. Plugging into this jack deactivates the amplifier.

"Dirch Blewn resides in the playful, the exploration. with no formal musical training due to an over enthusiastic elder sister on clarinet he has adopted a focussed, experimental approach using bent electronics, homemade devices, ciat lonbarde instruments, 1/4' tape manipulations, effects pedals and mastering onto compact cassette."

Very pleased to have Ciat-Lonbarde represented as Peter B's designs :- part sculpture / part synthesiser truly are some of the most unusual, mystifying and exciting instruments out there!!! 

Music, stage and associated rituals are examined in less obvious ways and sometimes may even seem absurdly self-evident and banal. By using themes such as cultural traditions, pre-modern sound devices and general hedonism, Fluktuation 8 is an installation, upon which thoughts that have apparently just been developed are manifested: heute denken - morgen fertig notes are made and then crossed out again, mistakes are intended to be repeated.

On display from the 23rd - 26th October in the Islington Mill Gallery space Fluktuation 8 culminates in a performance by the Krackisten Orchestra on sunday at 7:30 during an open-day of workshops, presentations and performances.

Tintin Patrone

She describes herself as a performance artist, instrument maker and—using a label she has
adopted from the experimental musician and performance artist Frieder Butzmann (b. 1954) —‘noisemakista’. Her performances and installations include elements from Fluxus, Punk and Futurism. Another important inspiration that informs her artistic practice is the culture of associations and clubs.

www.tintinpatrone.com

Nils Knott
 & Daniel van Eendenburg

While his solo stuff is all about creatures and building storytelling installations for them Nils Kott never misses a chance to collaborate with colleagues from other disciplines.

With Daniel van Eendenburg he founded a fourweek lasting festival called Gewuchs that took place in Hamburg/ germany for the second time this year.
Music met growing constructions there and was ment to develop.
Over thirty people co-operated.

www.nilsknott.de

Krachkisten Orchestra

The Krachkisten Orchestra produces improvised electric sounds with selfmade analog instruments.
In addition to gigs at Hamburg’s Golem and Golden Pudel clubs, the orchestra, which was founded
in 2009, has toured Germany and Europe. In the past few years, various artists’ initiatives such as the French performance art network dimanche rouge and the Belgian project for performative art sign 6 invited the Krachkisten Orchester to Paris, Brussels, and Helsinki; machine raum, a Danish platform for video art and digital culture, brought the ensemble to the Vejle Kunstmuseum. 2014 they took part at the 4th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art.


Over the 10 years since starting BugBrand, beginning with the touchy chaos of the Weevils, moving through the development of a whole modular system and continuing today with an array of standalone generators & processors, Tom has shown himself to be one of the most distinct and playful voices in the new wave of analogue audio design.

The kits have been kindly donated by Thonk (Synth DIY kit specialists from Brighton)

A modular and DIY approach characterizes Peter Edwards’ work. Edwards is keen on destabilizing preconceptions of role and function as well as dissolving the barriers between producer and consumer. Particularly to this end, he employs the practice of electronics hacking and circuit-bending of common technologies to illustrate that function need not be dictated to the end user.

This multi-sensory experience is created using multiple electronic circuits called NovaDrones. An open source electronic kit, the NovaDrone creates aural and visual oscillations that can converge into chaotic harmonic sequences. Edwards invites musicians, builders and hackers to modify these kits and experiment with the NovaDrone's ability to create and replicate drone oscillations and environments. More information on the project can be found 

This is how things come to life. A breadboard with a maze of resistors, wires pots and parts. Robs well thought out designs get the final touch in this phase. It is a constant stream of tweaking component values, listening, comparing sounds and discussing possibilities.

Rob is like a chef de Cuisine, spicing up the design for a maximum audible pleasure.

There is one convenient advantage to cooking though - if you add to much 'salt', you can easily fix it with a different value of you component.

The assemblage of the kits, that came out of the breadboard-phase, is easy and straightforward, with sheets to organise the parts and plans for placing them on the circuit-boards.

Then the soldering begins! Don't worry if you don't know how, Rob and Joker help everybody patiently, give crash courses in soldering and answer questions.

Three o’clock. The first wails, noises and squeezes echo through the room – some of the Benjolins are finished! Other boards still need more quality time with the soldering iron, some even beyond six o’clock, when Rob gives a lecture about the thoughts and theory behind the Benjolin. But thanks to Joker’s indefatigable help everyone leaves with a working noise box in their bags.