Holiday Hackshop 2008

If you haven’t yet experienced everyone’s favorite holiday gift-making event, here’s the scoop: For one day and one day only, Eyebeam becomes an all-ages, multi-workshop electronic craft-making fair, with entertainment, decorations and plenty of holiday spirit.

The majority of the workshops are artist-led, free (save for minimal material costs), and you’ll leave with gifts that will far surpass lopsided clay mugs of years past … All in all: A fun, thrifty, edutainment alternative to the trance-and occasionally rage-inducing department-store crawl.

Cost: Free.

Calling all makers, residents, fellows, and friends …

Workshops:

Extreme Weather Snowglobes made of recycled materials
Led by resident Andrea Polli and collaborators Heidi Neilsen and Chuck Varga. All ages.
Material Fee: $5
Time: 1 – 5PM | Jump in any time; information sessions at 1PM, 2PM, 3PM, 4PM

Bright Bike!
Led by senior Fellow Michael Mandiberg
Just in time for the holidays: an opportunity to wrap up your bike with retro-reflective material to make biking NYC far safer. You must bring your own bike to participate! Recommended for ages 12 years and older.
Material Fee: Whole bike: $30 | Material to wrap selected parts of bike: $10

Times
* 1 – 3PM (can accommodate 15 bikes)
* 3:30 – 5:30PM (can accommodate 15 bikes)
* 5:30 – 6PM: Bike Ride/parade with workshop participants to document the effectiveness of the Bright Bike wrapping!

Frankenstein your iPod!
Led by resident Hans-Christoph Steiner and Chris “the Widget” DiMauro
Turn you iPod into something you never imagined possible. We’ll have a stash of old iPods on-hand for harvesting parts, but those interested are advised to bring their trusty iPods with the battery, software or hardware failures. For ages 12 years and older, unless accompanied by an adult.

Material fee: Free: We will have a select number of batteries for a variety of ipod models for purchase at $15 each.

Times
* 1 – 3PM: Frankensteining 101: Hacking your iPod
* 4 – 6PM: Install iPodLinux for making music with PD or Rockbox for playing Doon on your iPod video (can accommodate 10)

Bend it, Shake it Workshop
Led by resident Christina Kral with collaborators Jamie O’Shea, Drayton Hiers and Dan Ribaudo
In this two-part workshop we invite you to hack and bend discarded plastic, battery-run toys to turn them into a potpourri of instruments. As the “Petit Finale”, we’ll be play a score with the hacked instruments inside the Video Womb, a video installation/experience by Christina Kral, Drayton Hiers and Dan Ribaudo. Recommended for all ages, those under 12 years must be accompanied by an adult.

Want to see what we mean?

Bend it, Shake it: http://vimeo.com/2480075

Video Womb: http://vimeo.com/2477876.

Material fee: Free

Times
* 1 – 5PM: Workshop
* 5PM: performance in the video womb

Demonstration: A Reenactment of The Battle of the Pyramids
Led by resident Adrianne Wortzel
Wortzel and her team of interns and volunteers will hack 30+ “Talking Elmo” toys to allow them to move in unison. The team will be hacking away—assembly-line style, but on-hand to discuss the project and answer any questions. All ages welcome.
For more: http://www.adriannewortzel.com/eyebeam/Project

Material fee: Free

Time: 1 – 5PM

Info and a video from past Hackshops:

* 2007: http://eyebeam.org/events/holiday-hackshop-2007

* 2006: http://eyebeam.org/events/holiday-hackshop-2006

* 2005: http://eyebeam.org/events/holiday-hackshop-2005

* Video 2004: http://eyebeam.org/engage/hackshop_04.mov