»Circuit bending is the creative, chance-based customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as low-voltage, battery-powered guitar effects, children’s toys and digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators.«

Beyond traditional ways of learning electronics this course teaches basic ideas and intuitions for dealing with sound by modifying existing circuits. Participants of this course have to bring their own low voltage devices. Especially suitable are typically battery powered music toys (toy pianos, toy drums etc.) that can be found cheaply on flea markets or on the internet.

In this course students can learn about the basics of electronic circuits and gain an overview about the different possibilities of how to use electronics in their artistic practise. We learn about the different electronic components and equipment, and we step through simple basic circuit blocks that can be reused in all kinds of projects. We will compare different approaches (analog vs digital) and gain an understanding about the different ways of solving problems (analog circuits, CMOS logic, microcontrollers like Arduino, single board computers like Raspberry Pi).

Because it is the goal of this course to teach basic knowledge, no prior experience is expected.

How can digital objects, animations and scenes be combined with filmic picturesin a convincing manner? This is the question we will tackle in this advanced course using the open source software Blender. We will have a look at how to (re-)create realistic lighting and shaders on the computer, how to modify or extend film sets digitally using techniques of motion tracking and compositing and talk about what to look out for when planning VFX-shots in general.

To take part in this course students are required to:

• have knowledge in the usage of Blender (e.g. by taking part in the Blender
  introductory course by Julia Bonge (geb. Beier))
• bring a laptop with a current version of Blender (please test if your machine is
  actually capable of running it)
• have basic knowledge in the usage of cameras and film equipment

The practise of aleatory (from latin aleatorius “belonging to the player”, alea “dice, risk, chance”) as it exists in music, art and literature is understood as the deliberate use of non-systematic operations with a unpredictable, often random result.

Goal of the course is to enable students to use their own computers as a tool for the production of aleatoric text and language. The learned skills can not only be used for text, but can also be applied to the creation of acoustic or visual objects. To achieve this we will use the programming language Python to read texts from files or the web in an automated fashion (webscraping) and use these texts as the base for further processes.

Programming is an abstract topic and three days are not much to learn it. To utilize the time it students are recommended to look at the basics of the language beforehand on their own terms (there is a ton of tutorial texts and videos online). Questions will be answered via mail.

Required for participation is a laptop (operating system doesn’t matter, as long as it runs Python).

You can watch the three 2,5h lessons as a bbb recording here

Game Engines like Unity enable the creation of interactive realtime artworks which can react on the inputs of viewers, participants or other data streams. The results can be made visible through screens, projectors and VR-glasses; and audible through speakers and headphones.
In this course the creative potentials of this technology should be investigated. On two weekends the basics of the Unity-Editor and the scripting language C3 shall be learned. We will have a look at the import of 3D-objects from different sources (Blender, 3D-Scan, Downloads, …), a look at VR-glasses, interfacing with external hardware, export and presentation.

Goal of the course is primarily to explore the possibilities of game engines beyond their traditional use, to increase the security when dealing with complex technological problems and to create a basis for self guided learning and working. No prior knowledge is assumed – however only rudimentary skills in 3D-modelling will be thought, which is why it is recommended (but not required) to take part in the introductory course for Blender. Students can install the Unity Editor on their own devices (Linux, Mac OS, Windows) for free: store.unity.com/download

Required for participation is a laptop and a 3-button-mouse.

More information on Unity at the HFBK can be found at unity.hfbk.net

»Circuit bending is the creative, chance-based customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as low-voltage, battery-powered guitar effects, children’s toys and digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators.«

Beyond traditional ways of learning electronics this course teaches basic ideas and intuitions for dealing with sound by modifying existing circuits. Participants of this course have to bring their own low voltage devices. Especially suitable are typically battery powered music toys (toy pianos, toy drums etc) that can be found cheaply on flea markets or on the internet.

»Circuit bending is the creative, chance-based customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as low-voltage, battery-powered guitar effects, children’s toys and digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators.«

Beyond traditional ways of learning electronics this course teaches basic ideas and intuitions for dealing with sound by modifying existing circuits. Participants of this course have to bring their own low voltage devices. Especially suitable are typically battery powered music toys (toy pianos, toy drums etc.) that can be found cheaply on flea markets or on the internet.