Weise7: in/compatible workshops

Teacher: Servando Barreiro
Schedule: 20-21 February, from 15pm to 21pm (2 days)
Required skills: None
Required materials: Found hardware/electronics
Group: 15-20 people
Participation: Free

Description:
There is a certain pleasure in opening devices for the first time and taking a look as to what's inside. In almost all cases - even when the product seems to be dead, broken or merely obsolete - many of the parts inside are fully functional..

In this intensive workshop students will learn to open and 'read' different kinds of known electronics products. Then, they will be taught the basic steps and tools necessary to be able to make a unique new device.

Furthermore, students will be learn to use their creations to trigger actions on a computer - and even control devices from the computer - thanks to a small pre-programmed open-hardware microcontroller with "ready to go" multiplatform, open-source software.

Day-1

presentations / introduction.
Examples of classic "hackable devices"
Electricity: Alternate current, Direct current,
Basic concepts: Intensity, voltage, resistance (ohm's law)
basic safety rules..
Public Dissection / screening of some pre-opened unscrew-friendly devices.
the "discrete component" layer: resistors, capacitors, transistors, diodes, coils, transformers & more..
Unscrewing "party"

Day-2

Deeper analysis into our personal chosen devices
Soldering: howto..
cables, switches, buttons, potentiometers, battery packs..
the "getting started" set of tools: Screwdriver, plyers, scissors, short tester, soldering iron, helping hands, crocodiles,
Extended set: Oscilloscope, regulated power supply, multimeter..
Computer interaction: input/output, warnings..

Workshop page

sign-up here (workshop is over)

Weise7: the in/compatible Laboratorium is an experimental workspace set up as an exchange between an artist and engineer run studio space and the Labor Berlin Studiogallerei at Der Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

During transmediale 2012, Weise7 presented four different in/compatible themes which are being made manifest through exhibited installations, objects and devices.

Now, the laboratorium transforms into a "moratorium": in this phase, part of the Labor Berlin space will be closed off to the public, and the four themes will extend into longer workshops carried out in the Weise7 studio space.

The workshops will have a feedback to the Labor Berlin space as well and the process will be concluded with a finissage. At this finissage, an artefact will be presented that functions as a networked archive publication of all the in/compatible Laboratorium activities.

Teachers: Danja Vasiliev and Gordan Savicic
Schedule: 10-11 March, from 16pm to 20pm (2 days)
Required skills: Inventiveness
Required materials: Laptop/PC (x86), USB-stick
Group: 10-12 people
Participation: Free

Description:
Computer Operating Systems impose many rules and dogmas onto ordinary users; OS became an inescapable device of our control-driven everyday-life environment. Known as an 'Open Source OS', Ubuntu still imposes desktop-like experience and workframes, effectively limiting our freedoms - all in a fashion very similar to the one of a proprietary (non Open Source or 'closed') Operating System.

As a follow-up to their adventurous undertaking in conceiving 120 different Ubuntu distributions, Danja Vasiliev and Gordan Savicic are showing how to create your own *buntu GNU/Linux distribution.

Participants will learn how to use VirtualBox instances to run multiple operating systems at the same time on one computer. Later we'll discuss in detail how to break apart common user-interface dogmas and showcase how to create your own personally flavored *buntu distribution. The operating system as such becomes the clay in our keyboard-captivated hands; the goal is to create a system fitting particular and/or practical needs, mental feelings, aesthetic requirements and so on.

The work does not stop with the end of the workshop - every participant will walk home with their own ISO image!

120 days of *buntu website

sign-up here (workshop is over)

A series of in/compatible workshops
at Weise7 laboratorium

Teachers: Brendan Howell and Bengt Sjölén
Schedule: 19-20 March, from 16pm to 20pm (2 days)
Required skills: Novice programming experience
Required materials: Laptop
Group: 10 people
Participation: Free

Description:
Paranoid Steganography is an intentionally naive approach to interpreting signals and symbols. It combines the techniques of cryptographic analysis and reverse engineering with the premise that there are secret messages everywhere.

Steganography is the cryptographic technique of hiding secret messages in seemingly innocuous cover messages. These messages can then be sent over public or insecure channels without worrying about interception or incidental eavesdropping. Some common implementations include text hidden in images posted to online forums or spam-like emails where each word represents an encoded character in a sentence.

A paranoid idea is an assumption of relationship between two or more phenomena where there is no substantial evidence of any connection. In this case, the paranoid steganographer takes an arbitrary image, radio signal, sound recording or text and attempts to interpret meaning. As steganography produces seemingly harmless carrier messages in order to avoid suspicion, every innocent message must be assumed to contain potential secrets. Claude Shannon's theory of communication is
thereby reversed, turning noise into signal and vice-versa.

We will begin by examining linguistic and quantitative concepts of communication as well as historical examples of hidden messages and paranoid surveillance techniques. Participants will then develop formal analog processes and simple software to send, receive and interpret hidden messages.

Workshop participants should bring a laptop computer, any operating system is fine. It is not necessary to have extensive programming experience, as we will begin with easily modified examples in Python and use standard image and sound processing software.

sign-up here (workshop is over)

Teachers: Julian Oliver and Danja Vasiliev
Schedule: 26-27 March, from 13pm to 19pm (2 days)
Required skills: Agility.
Required materials: Laptop with ethernet port
Group: 10-15 people
Participation: Free

Description:
Ask anyone how the postal system works and they would give a vaguely correct description. Few however would come close to describing how email, let alone a computer network itself, actually functions. With this lack of knowledge comes a risk; we lack the practical understanding to effectively read the infrastructural and political implications of our increased dependency on this technology.

In this intensive workshop Oliver and Vasiliev will teach low level networking using only command line tools. In doing so, students will learn both how to manipulate computer networks and how they manipulate us.

No prior knowledge of computer networking is required.

A small scale model of the Internet will be created in class for the purposes of study with which we will interact with another self-built local network. By learning about routing, addressing, core protocols, network analysis, network packet capture and dissection, students will become dexterous and empowered users of computer networks..

In the second phase of the workshop students will learn to read network topologies as political control structures, seeing how corporations and governments shape and control the way we use computer networks. Students will learn to study these power structures by tracing the flow of packets as they pass over land and sea. Macro-economic and geostrategic speculations will be made.

Oliver and Vasiliev will provide all students with a LiveUSB operating system complete with tools familiar to both the hacker and network engineer alike. Complete documentation will be provided.

Participating in this workshop requires no prior knowledge of computing or computer networking.

sign-up here (workshop is over)