WHEN: 19–21 November 2021; 17:30–20:00

WHERE: Kino Šiška (Komuna), Trg prekomorskih brigad 3, 1000 Ljubljana

REGISTER AT: delavnica@ljudmila.org (until Tue, Nov 16)

WHAT YOU NEED: Computer, headphones, the (open source) software program Inkscape. You will get a (free trial) of the Max application BeamShaper during the workshop, which you can also freely use afterwards.

Participants must fulfil RVT requirements!

About the workshop

During the workshop, we'll learn how to program and use a laser projector. The focus will be on using this DIY approach, based on controlling the laser with audio signals, for light graffiti or outdoor artistic interventions. You'll be able to try them out yourself and project your creations in public spaces.

In the theoretical part of the workshop, we'll first get familiar with laser practices on outdoor spaces (from artistic installations and activist graffiti to mapping and movable screens) and various (both hardware and software) approaches with an emphasis on freeware and open source solutions. Afterwards, we'll present the equipment for controlling lasers with audio signals and the application BeamShaper, which was created especially for the needs of the workshop in the Max programming environment. BeamShaper allows us to project and process vector graphics (text, logotypes, etc.) and freehand drawings. Because it is based on drawing with audio signals, everything that we see, we can also hear.

The practical part of the workshop will include programming the laser, preparing the material in the applications BeamShaper and Inkscape and projecting the results with a laser projector. We'll create different modules in BeamShaper for designing and processing visual material according to your creative desires. Then in a guerrilla action using a van and lasers, we'll project our finished creations on public spaces.

Photos

Photo: Katja Goljat (1) / Kaja Brezočnik (2-5)

About the mentor

Tadej Droljc (b. 1981) is a Slovenian interdisciplinary artist and creative coder who works in the field of electronic music, computer-generated audiovisual composition and other forms of intermedia art. His recent work is focusing at what he calls a pluralistic approach to real-time audiovisual composition, where various hierarchies between sound and image co-exist inside individual compositions.

For his recent work Tadej was awarded the Lumen Prize Student Award, Dennis Smalley scholarship in electroacoustic music and he won the Most Promising Video Artist prize at Madatac. A work from his collaborative project Synspecies won the Edigma Semibreve award and was shortlisted for the Lumen Prize in category moving image.

Tadej performed and exhibited his works at the festivals or galleries around the globe such as Ars Electronica, L.E.V. Festival, Brighton Digital Festival, Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes, Semibreve, Galerija Kapelica, Madatac or Athens Digital Arts Festival among others. With project Synspecies he also became a part of the ENCAC – European Network for Contemporary AV Creation. Currently, he is collaborating with Ars Electronica’s Futurelab on the project Immersify.

He is a doctoral researcher in audiovisual composition at the Centre for Research in New Music (CeReNeM, UK) under the mentorship of dr. Alexander Harker and prof. Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (with support of scholarship from Slovenian Ministry of Culture). Tadej’s PhD research is about audiovisual composition based on non-hierarchical real-time relationships between music, sound and physically-based 3D animation. At the University of Huddersfield he also teaches music modules Computer Composition and Desktop Music Production.

Production: Ljudmila, Laboratory for Science and Art and Projekt ATOL Institute

Co-producer: Kino Šiška

Workshop supported by: the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the Municipality of Ljubljana – Department for Culture & EASTN-DC.