Knowledge
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Eliott Sound Products | Website | Australian Engineer focused on Audio electronics, a lot of good and well written articles |
| The Art of Electronics | Book | The Book on anything electronics. A very good read, but expensive! Ask me in person if you want to read it. |
| Small Signal Audio Design | Book | A very good book with a ton of circuits for audio applications. Even more expensive. Ask me in person if you want to read it. |
| HFBK SDIY Wiki | Website | Wiki of the HFBK SDIY-Project, collected knowledge on modular synthesizers |
| HFBK SDIY Repo | Website | Gitlab Repository of the HFBK SDIY Project, multiple Synth- and Audio Related Projects |
| Institut für Telenautik | Website | Homepage of the Ulf Freyhoff’s Mixed Media Lab (R210 Le) |
| Computerei | Website | Homepage of Tilo Kremer’s Computerei Lab (R243) |
| Unity | Website | Website and Resources related to the course Interactive 3D with Unity |
| Louis Rossmann | Youtube Channel | A grumpy NYC electronics repair guy focused on Apple products shows how it is done |
| EEVBlog | Youtube Channel | A famous Austrialian Youtube Channel with some good content and interesting recommendations for cheap tools |
Circuit and PCB-Design
There are many software packages that help with the creation and planing of schematics, as well as the translation of this schematic into a PCB that can be sent of to manufacturing. While this fabrication process might seem cumbersome and a bit luxurious, soldering a PCB is usually much less error prone and time efficient than wiring something by hand.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Horizon-EDA | A modern Open-Source Software that can be used to draw schematics, layout PCBs and export them in a format suitable for fabrication. In Comparison with KiCAD this offers a more streamlined UI and more modern features, while the parts library is still smaller. Prefered choice of the workshop. |
| KiCAD | The traditional Open-Source EDA (Electronic Design Automation) Software. Has a huge parts library, sadly parts managment and UI are anything but modern |
| LibrePCB | Another Open-Source EDA software worth looking into |
| Fritzing | A good software for beginners and people who don’t want to manufacture PCBs |
Electronics Simulation
Often it makes sense to simulate a circuit before going of an buying the parts. This can help safe time, money and nerves.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| CircuitJS | A simple realtime browser-based circuit simulator. While it might not be 100% accurate in all cases, it helps to get a quick feeling for most circuits |
| LTSpice | A free (but not open source) circuit simulator with a very old school interface. But it allows for very accurate simulations if the right models are used |
Media Theory
| Format | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Video/Youtube | Walter Benjamins Media Theory | A video introduction to Walter Benjamin’s ideas on media and reproduction. |
| Text/PDF | Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction | Benjamin’s seminal essay exploring how mechanical reproduction affects the aura of art. |
| Video/Youtube | Marshal McLuhan | Overview of McLuhan’s media theory, including concepts like “the medium is the message.” |
| Video/Youtube | The Medium is the Message – BBC Interview with Marshall McLuhan (1977) | A historical BBC interview where McLuhan explains his famous media aphorism. |
| Video/Youtube | Jean Baudrillard: Hyper Reality – An Introduction to Baudrillard | Introductory video on Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality and simulation. |
| Text/PDF | Jean Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulations | Key text outlining Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra and simulation. |
| Text/PDF | Stuart Hall – Encoding/Decoding | Hall’s influential model explaining how media messages are produced and interpreted. |
| Text/PDF | Hans Magnus Enzensberger – Constituents of a Theory of the Media (1970) | A Marxist media theory classic examining the emancipatory potential of media technologies. |
| Text/PDF | John Berger – Ways of Seeing (Book) | A classic text introducing critical approaches to visual culture and representation. |
| Video/Youtube | John Berger – Ways of Seeing (BBC Series, Episode 1) | The first episode of the BBC adaptation of Berger’s book, engaging with how we interpret images. |
| Text/PDF | Raymond Williams – Television: Technology and Cultural Form (excerpt) | A foundational critique on how television as a medium shapes culture and society. |
| Text/PDF | Donna Haraway – A Cyborg Manifesto (1985) | A foundational feminist and posthumanist text exploring the merging of humans and technology. |
| Text/PDF | Lev Manovich – The Language of New Media (excerpt) | A modern analysis of digital media and its aesthetics, blending media theory with software studies. |
| Text/PDF | Vilém Flusser – Towards a Philosophy of Photography (excerpt) | Explores how photography reshapes perception, communication, and culture. |
| Text/PDF | Jussi Parikka – What is Media Archaeology? (excerpt) | Introduces a method for studying obsolete or forgotten media forms and their cultural significance. |
| Text/PDF | Nick Couldry – Media, Society, World (excerpt) | Examines how media practices shape the social world in the digital age. |
| Video/Youtube | CrashCourse – Media Literacy | An accessible introduction to media literacy and the critical consumption of media. |
| Video/Youtube | Nerdwriter – How the News Uses Graphic Design to Brainwash You | A critique of visual techniques in news broadcasting that influence perception. |
| Youtube Channel | Every Frame a Painting | Video essays analyzing film form and visual storytelling in cinema. |
| Interactive Web | MIT OpenCourseWare – Media Theory and Practice | Free university-level course including readings, assignments, and frameworks. |
| Podcast | The Media Theory Podcast | Conversations with scholars on foundational and contemporary issues in media theory. |
| Podcast | Thinking Allowed – Media Sociology Episodes (BBC) | Academic discussions on media and society from a sociological perspective. |
Media Theory – Internet
| Format | Name and Link | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Text/PDF | Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari – Introduction to A Thousand Plateaus (Rhizome) | Foundational concept describing non-hierarchical, decentralized structures like the internet. |
| Text/PDF | Alexander Galloway – Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization (Excerpt) | Examines how internet protocols embody power and control in networked environments. |
| Text/PDF | Tiziana Terranova – Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age (Excerpt) | A critical look at the cultural and political implications of networked digital life. |
| Text/PDF | Wendy Chun – Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics (Excerpt) | Explores how internet freedom is entangled with systems of control, surveillance, and identity. |
| Video/Youtube | An Introduction to Platform Capitalism | Overview of how digital platforms commodify data and shape media ecosystems. |
| Podcast | Theory & Philosophy – Deleuze and Guattari on Rhizomes | A clear explanation of rhizome theory and its relevance to media and the internet. |
Media Technology – General
| Format | Name and Link | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Text/PDF | Lev Manovich – What is Digital Cinema? | Explores the shift from traditional film to digital media, blending theory with technology. |
| Interactive Web | Khan Academy – Pixar in a Box | Behind-the-scenes look at animation and media production from Pixar, covering tech and theory. |
| Text/PDF | Lisa Gitelman – Always Already New (Excerpt) | A historical look at “new” media technologies and how they’re socially constructed. |
| Podcast | The Vergecast – Media and Tech Episodes | Weekly podcast discussing developments in media, tech platforms, and hardware. |
Light & Optics
| Format | Name and Link | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Text/PDF | Sean Cubitt – The Practice of Light (Excerpt) | A historical and aesthetic study of light as medium in visual culture, from fire to fiber optics. |
| Text/PDF | Vilém Flusser – Gestures (Photography & Lighting) | Reflections on the act of photographing and the cultural gesture of manipulating light. |
| Text/PDF | Jacques Rancière – The Future of the Image (Excerpt) | Explores how images function, questioning visibility, light, and representation in contemporary media. |
| Text/PDF | Laura Mulvey – Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema | A key feminist theory text analyzing how cinematic lighting and gaze construct meaning and power. |
| Video/Youtube | Lighting Basics – Aputure | Beginner-friendly guide to three-point lighting and cinematic techniques using LEDs. |
| Video/Youtube | Basics of Light for Photography – The Slanted Lens | Practical tutorial on the properties of light and how they affect photographic exposure. |
| Interactive Web | ETC Lighting Control Tutorials | Interactive console training focused on stage and architectural lighting systems. |
| Text/PDF | John Berger – Ways of Seeing (Excerpt) | Foundational text on how vision, light, and context shape interpretation of visual media. |
| Interactive Web | Filmmaker’s Guide to Lighting – No Film School | Resource hub for filmmakers with guides on natural and artificial lighting for cinematic effects. |
Sound & Audio Technology
| Format | Name and Link | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Text/PDF | R. Murray Schafer – The Soundscape (Excerpt) | Foundational text in acoustic ecology and the cultural shaping of sonic environments. |
| Text/PDF | Luigi Russolo – The Art of Noises (Futurist Manifesto) | 1913 futurist manifesto advocating for noise as a new musical language in the age of machines. |
| Text/PDF | Pierre Schaeffer – In Search of a Concrete Music (Excerpt) | Originator of musique concrète; explores sound manipulation and acousmatic listening. |
| Text/PDF | Maryanne Amacher – Selected Writings | Explorations into psychoacoustics, spatial sound, and the perception of media through the body. |
| Video/Youtube | How Microphones Work – Shure | Explains different microphone types and applications in media production. |
| Text/PDF | Curtis Roads – Microsound (Excerpt) | Theory and practice of granular synthesis and microsound composition. |
| Text/PDF | Pauline Oliveros – Deep Listening (Excerpt) | A practice-based approach to sound awareness, perception, and improvisational performance. |
| Interactive Web | Dolby Institute – Sound Design for Storytelling | Educational hub with case studies and insights into immersive and narrative sound design. |
| Podcast | Twenty Thousand Hertz | Podcast exploring the hidden impact of sound, sound design, and audio technology in everyday life. |
Interactive Arts
| Format | Name and Link | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Text/PDF | Chris Salter – Entangled (Excerpt) | Investigates how media artists work with sensors, bodies, and environments in complex, performative systems. |
| Text/PDF | Branden Hookway – Interface (Excerpt) | Philosophical and architectural exploration of the interface as a site of control, relation, and transformation. |
| Text/PDF | Roy Ascott – Behaviourist Art and the Cybernetic Vision (1966) | Early cybernetic theory applied to interactive art, shifting focus from object to behavior and feedback. |
| Text/PDF | Myriam Lefkowitz – Scores for Somatic Attention (PDF download) | Site-specific, participatory, and sensory-driven approaches to performance and embodied interfaces. |
| Video/Youtube | What is Haptics? – Future Interfaces Group | Accessible primer on how touch-based interfaces work and where they’re headed. |
| Text/PDF | Olia Lialina – Turing Complete User (Excerpt) | A critical take on interactivity and agency in the digital user interface. |
| Interactive Web | Unity Learn – VR Development Pathway | Hands-on curriculum for building immersive, interactive media environments using Unity. |
| Interactive Web | MIT Media Lab – Tangible Media Group | Research archive showcasing experimental, body-centric, and haptic interface design in art and science. |