Micro:bit Workshop
The intermedia workshop will provide participants with an in-depth understanding of contemporary technology, as well as ways of managing/manipulating technology, which has by now become accessible to everyone due to the fast-paced development of computers and smart phones. Most of us are unaware of the potential offered by technologies that surround us; they allow us to connect, at any given moment, into networks with other similar devices, which record values and data from our immediate or distant environment.
The purpose of the workshop is to use creativity to spark an interest in new technologies in all generations, because getting to know technology allows us to become more aware of both the positive and the negative impacts caused by its overwhelming progress and increasing accessibility. At the same time, the workshop provides an insight into new patterns of creative understanding, production, and manipulation of various tools, regardless of the fact what these tools are intended or designed to do. Participants will learn that in order to be creative, technology requires management and control as well, rather than just our responding to it or being a silent observer. The workshop will consist of an introductory part explaining the basics of microcontrollers, and a presentation of computer and mobile applications for programming and communicating with a microcontroller. The creative part of the workshop will include a concrete use of devices with a software app (interface), to enable real-time light- and sound responses produced by the participants.
BridA/Tom Kerševan, Sendi Mango, Jurij Pavlica is a collective made up of graduates from the Venice Academy of Fine Arts, formed in 1996 during their university years. The group that produces artwork across a wide spectrum of contemporary artistic practices exhibits both locally and internationally, and has participated in numerous international residency programs, workshops and seminars. BridA's works have been purchased for a score of international contemporary art collections. In 2015 they received the highest award of the Municipality of Nova Gorica, the France Bevk Prize, commemorating 20 years of their successful activity; in 2018 they received the international Tesla Award. They are recipients of the Iaspis scholarship awarded by the Swedish Ministry of Culture, and Culture Bridges, awarded by the British Council under the EU.