race it break it fix it ²

Abstract:
In diesem Fachmodul bauen wir einfache Prototypen von elektrisch angetriebenen Vehikeln für den Waren- und Personentransport. Der Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf der Umsetzung einer eigenen Idee und der Programmierung der Antriebs- und Steuerungskomponenten. Dazu gliedert sich das Fachmodul in drei Teile:

- dem Bau eines Fahrzeugs zum Transport einer Person ohne eigenen Antrieb
- den Bau eines funkferngesteuerten Fahrzeugs zum Transport einer Getränkekiste
- den Bau eines motorisierten Fahrzeugs für den Transport einer Person

Zum Abschluss jedes Teils wird eine gemeinsame Bewertung aller Vehikel nach verschiedenen Kriterien und ein Rennen zur Ermittlung des Siegerteams durchgeführt.

Ablauf:
Um uns ins Thema zu katapultieren werden wir uns in den ersten zwei Wochen im Rahmen eines Designsprints dem Bau von Seifenkistenfunktionsmodellen zuwenden. Diese Phase wird von mehreren Treffen pro Woche und intensiver Werkstatt-Arbeit geprägt sein.

Anschließend (nach dem 1. Mai) lernt ihr, moderne BLDC-Radnabenmotoren mit Arduino Mikrocontrollern anzusteuern. Dazu wird jedes Team ein einfaches funkgesteuertes Funktionsmodell bauen, das eine Nutzlast von 20 kg transportieren kann. In diesem Abschnitt soll das Design nur durch die Funktion bestimmt werden.

Im letzten Teil wird aus den gewonnenen Erkenntnissen ein Vehikel für den Personen- oder Warentransport konstruiert. Der Schwerpunkt liegt darauf, eine eigene Idee zu den Eigenschaften des Fahrzeugs hinsichtlich Konstruktion, Fahrdynamik und Steuerung umzusetzen.

Anmerkungen:

Alle Teams erhalten für die Dauer des Semesters ein Set bestehend aus zwei Arduino Mikrocontrollern, zwei 2.4 GHz Funkmodulen, diversen Kleinteilen und einem handelsüblichen Hoverboard, aus dem gemeinsam die Antriebstechnik (zwei 8,5 Zoll Radnabenmotoren mit je 300 Watt, Akku, Elektronik) entnommen wird.

Als Kompensation für die intensive Modellbauphase zu Beginn des Semesters ist der Ablauf des Fachmoduls so gestaltet, dass ihr es bereits in den letzten Wochen vor Ende der Vorlesungszeit abschließen könnt. Dies wird euch im Gegenzug auch Raum dafür geben, euch in der Phase vor der Summaery ganz auf das Projektmodul zu fokussieren.

Zum Abschluss des Semesters findet auf dem Campus ein Rennen mit allen Vehikeln statt, inklusive Sekt, Konfetti und Pokale.

Timm Burkhardt, Daniel Scheidler

Sommer 23

Fachmodul

VVZ

Outplaying the Videogame

Content:
Game developers, especially of triple-A-productions, tend to immersive world building. Given the financial means of this industry, there is no real competition to companies like Ubisoft, From Software or CD Project Red in the public sector. In their economically successful open-world games players find themselves enveloped by intuitive interfaces, embedded in many technological features, participating in seamless fictional, spatial experiences. But are those experiences really that seamless?

With concrete game examples, play sessions and theoretical inputs we will discuss the role of embodiment in video games and shed light on the political and social dimensions of loosing yourself in Video game worlds. Ultimately, participants will be able to develop their own strategies to use the video game form as an artistic material. With techniques of counter-play the workshop aims at uncovering the web of relations a video game lays around players; and also helps to understand how the materiality of the video game comes to live.

Structure:
This course is supported by Department of Research at Bauhaus-University Weimar and is part of a Fellowship for a "Forschungswerkstatt" dedicated to finding an experimental framework for a laboratory with its own methods, rules and documentation formats. Therefore, we invite every participant to be a researcher in our team throughout the semester. The focus of the course is not about learning new software and technology, but rather about thinking together how specific software and technology might change social interaction in the present and future.

Thus, we expect self-motivated work and active participation in the course. To complete the course, it is mandatory to submit a project at the end of the semester that will contribute to our collective research. How participants will approach their final submission methodologically or which discourses are contextualized, is completely up to each person. We welcome all sorts of documentation formats, be it audio- and/or visual works in any form or purely written essays.

In the first session of the block module, we will present several case studies that participants can incorporate in their own work by the end of the semester. These case studies will also form the basis for discussion in the course. During the sessions, participants are not only exposed to different discourses, but also participate in hands-on group tasks, such as gaming sessions or testing different interfaces for interacting with digital matter.

Another goal of our mobile laboratory is to travel and visit other groups and institutions. Participants are invited to visit other events that will be announced during the semester. These events will happen between Weimar, Leipzig and possibly other places in Europe.

Jörg Brinkmann

Sommer 23

Fachmodul

VVZ

Headbutting the Metaverse

Content:
What does it mean to have a bodily interface to virtual socialisation spaces? You might have heard about VRChat or other massive multiplayer online role playing games; The creators and endorsers of these realms are essentially selling it on the foundation of building stronger connections to other people, achieving perfection, and finding beauty ideals that don't exist in the non-virtual world.

Ironically, these are all aspects of life that virtual reality might take away from us in the future, so it’s important to discuss the impact that they will have on our society.

In order to experience such a Metaverse, we will slip into the role of a flaneur, strolling through the bits and bytes of VRchat, discussing topics like new physicality, infinite scales of virtual connection, bodily interfaces and the nature of human interaction.

Structure:
This course is supported by Department of Research at Bauhaus-University Weimar and is part of a Fellowship for a ”Forschungswerkstatt” dedicated to finding an experimental framework for a laboratory with its own methods, rules and documentation formats. Therefore, we invite every participant to be a researcher in our team throughout the semester. The focus of the course is not about learning new software and technology, but rather about thinking together how specific software and technology might change social interaction in the present and future.

Thus, we expect self-motivated work and active participation in the course. To complete the course, it is mandatory to submit a project at the end of the semester that will contribute to our collective research. How participants will approach their final submission methodologically or which discourses are contextualized, is completely up to each person. We welcome all sorts of documentation formats, be it audio- and/or visual works in any form or purely written essays.

In the first session of the block module, we will present several case studies that participants can incorporate in their own work by the end of the semester. These case studies will also form the basis for discussion in the course. During the sessions, participants are not only exposed to different discourses, but also participate in hands-on group tasks, such as gaming sessions or testing different interfaces for interacting with digital matter.

Another goal of our mobile laboratory is to travel and visit other groups and institutions. Participants are invited to visit other events that will be announced during the semester. These events will happen between Weimar, Leipzig and possibly other places in Europe.

Jörg Brinkmann

Sommer 23

Fachmodul

VVZ

Physical Computing II: Energy Harvesting

Energy harvesting is the process by which ambient energy, derived from external sources, is captured and stored for use. It encompasses a nebulous collection of energy forms including light, fluid motion (wind, water current), temperature gradients, and vibrations. Contemporary concerns concerning climate change have brought increasing attention to cleaner processes of electricity production in commercial applications, but the technical nature of this topic has hindered it’s integration into many artistic and other creative practices.

Combining presentations, discussions on the history of relevant projects, and a series of hands-on technical exercises, this course will shine a different light on energy harvesting and provide a practical context in which to power small-scale artistic projects that can operated indefinitely and independently from the power grid.

Topics include physical computing, interface design, practical components of hardware design, and embedded programming. This is a student-driven course and topics will be determined by the interests/needs of the class.

Brian Clark

Sommer 23

Fachmodul

VVZ

PostCompost

What happens when an area enters a state of self-abandonment, the boundaries and frameworks collapse, cultures go wild? What processes of decay and growth follow the loss of control and how can we position ourselves and develop empathy?

In the project module »PostCompost« we dedicate ourselves to the ecosystem of an industrial wasteland, which is currently in the process of renaturation / succession, and investigate its conditions, layers and possible developments.

Students from different disciplines form an artistic research group that sets out on a speculative expedition through the area of the former EOW site in Oberweimar. We draw inspiration from the approaches of various scientific disciplines, incorporate them into our own experiments, and subject them to critical reflection. We focus on documenting the existing as well as on new processes of development and growth. We test digital and analog techniques of viewing, listening, making visible, collecting, digging, monitoring, archiving, ordering, identifying, linking, interpreting, transforming and extrapolating. We do not see ourselves as external observers, but as empathetic co-creators and actors of the ecosystem. Our goal is the fragmentary description and development of a place on different temporal levels, where »natural« processes and the legacies of »human civilization processes« directly confront each other.

Our weekly meetings take place mainly on the site of the former EOW complex in Oberweimar. Here we offer introductions to strategies and techniques from the fields of biology and DIY electronics / data processing. We deal with relevant artistic and theoretical positions as well as with the historical context of the site. Field trips and workshops are planned, results of the project module will be presented in the context of Summaery 2023.

Students from all disciplines are welcome. Prerequisites for participation are an interest in working outdoors and a willingness to engage with the site outside of weekly meetings. No prior technical experience is necessary.

Please send applications with a short motivation letter (4-5 sentences) by mail till 09.04.23 to christian.doeller@uni-weimar.de.

Ursula Damm, Christian Doeller, Klaus Fritze

Sommer 23

Projektmodul

VVZ

DIY Electronics Lab

- Open Lab format / additional offer
- place for tinkering and solving problems together
- open for students from all classes and disciplines
- introduction + acces

Regular meetings Wednesday, 14:00 – 16:00 @ Bauhausstr. 15, Basement

First Open Lab April 26, 14:00

Introductions christian.doeller@uni-weimar.de -> name, mat.no., email

Christian Doeller

Sommer 23

Offene Werkstatt

Photosynthesis and I

The Photosynthesis and I course is designed to explore the phenomenon of photosynthesis and its importance to organisms, including ourselves. The goal of the course is to develop an artistic project in which photosynthetic organisms could interact with humans. The questions we will try to answer are: How does light affect different photosynthetic organisms? How can single-celled organisms interact with us humans?

Two photosynthetic organisms will be available for the experiments in the class: the unicellular alga Euglena gracilis and the cyanobacteria Nostoc, also known as blue-green algae. As we will cultivate and experiment with the organisms, we will develop small interactive art projects. During the class we will also have time to discuss media art and look at art projects that use algae as part of an artwork.

Part of the course is a workshop Growing, Forming and Living (with) Microalgae with biologist Johann Bauerfeind, scheduled for 04/12/2023, 04/13/2023.

If selected, the finished projects will become part of the international conference organized in Summer in Weimar and also Ars Electronica festival in Linz.

It is expected that the developed projects will be documented in detail in the GMU wiki.

Mindaugas Gapsevicius

Sommer 23

Fachmodul

VVZ

BioArt Forum

The BioArt Forum will continue in the summer semester with an irregular series of workshops and lectures designed to provide students with knowledge that cannot be taught in regular courses. The list of workshops was proposed by Bauhaus University students and faculty and is intended to raise awareness of living organisms. The workshops include both theoretical and practical exercises to understand the functioning of organisms and their sensory system. Students will learn to examine microorganisms as they look at them, and to build and use simple tools to grow and analyze organisms.

The BioArt form is designed to allow participation as needed. Registration for the module is not needed but it will guarantee a place. Students will receive ECTS for attending two workshops, documenting them, and developing ideas for future projects.

The workshops will be delivered by international scholars and artists. For more information, please see the announcements and/or attend the introductory session during the first week of the semester.

Scheduled workshops

04/12/2023, 04/13/2023 - Growing, Shaping and Living (with) Microalgae with biologist Johann Bauerfeind.

28.04.2023, 29.04.2023 - DNA analysis with molecular biologis

Julian Chollet 20.05.2023, 21.05.2023 - Nanopore sequencing with safety engineer Lisa Thalheim

Mindaugas Gapsevicius

Sommer 23

Fachmodul

VVZ

Bauhaus Gamesfabrik II

"Bauhaus Gamesfabrik II" is an interdisciplinary project between students of the faculty of Media and Art & Design. This year it will be a practical journey into Gamedevelopment (also analogue Game formats).

Students of the department of Art & Design should bring in their knowledge in storytelling, illustration, animation, 3d-modelling or sounddesign.

Bewerbung nur mit Portfolio und Motivationsschreiben bis zum 09.4.23an: gianluca.pandolfo@uni-weimar.de

Wolfgang Kissel, Charles Wüthrich, Gianluca Pandolfo

Sommer 23

Projektmodul

VVZ

Tools for Visual Research Second guessing the interface between analogue and digital instruments

What do tools mean for design? Which ones do we use? How do we use them? What limitations do they have, what functions do we want? In this course we will deal with the creation of our own design tools and systematics in an open-ended and experimental way. Analogue tools, materials, generative thinking, creative coding: Systems: Analogue and digital. Transforming input into output. Systematic experimentation. Space for visual Instruments. Extracting a pool of outputs underlying an algorithm in words or in code.

First we explore the analog, how can we generate output through self-made tools and systematics? Next we explore the digital: how can we collect, connect, sort, combine and reinterpret the analog output.

One course, two tools: analog generation and digital systematization. We will focus on the generation of pools and the meaning of tools.

This semester's "Space for Visual Research"-Course consists of two approaches, two im(plementations and two teaching- methods by Lena Weber and Tamara Knapp.

Tamara Knapp, Lena Weber

Sommer 23

Fachmodul

VVZ

AI beyond mystification

Due to constant metaphorization, the public debate on "artificial intelligence" is separated from its technological reality and is lost between speculation, PR campaigns, and personal opinions.

The seminar aims to differentiate the underlying discursive fields and define terms derived from their technical context without creating new tropes.

Therefore ”AI beyond mystification” focuses on the theoretical and practical foundations of "Artificial Intelligence" and explores the subfields of Machine Learning by penetrating its ”black box” and deriving the terms directly from the technical spheres of knowledge (textbooks, papers, and programs). This knowledge, that emerges from statistics (data science) and network technology (the internet of things and cloud-computing), which always tries to keep itself "up to date" and thus strips away any historicity, gets recontextualized and transferred into different theoretical discourses (Philosophy of technology and critical theory). The course imparts both technically sound knowledge and philosophical reflection on the same. Thereby, no static discourses are set, but technology itself is understood as an operative-rational reality, which is not least expressed in the constitution of media in relation to the human subject.

With such technologies, it is possible to create media environments or digital milieus that are highly user-specific. This digital milieus separate its user from the outer world, in the sense of ramifications and references, and keep him/her isolated in a homogeneous information structure.

An analysis of pure media artifacts such as image, sound, text, etc. without illuminating the technological ideas behind them is thus of little use since these pursue a purely ideological purpose, leading to a surveillance capitalism. Therefore, the seminar follows the subject's relationship to the self-shifting media fields, which directly affect his/her behavior, exterior, and position, leading to the reconstitution of his/her communication.

To understand this novel form of media generation, an ontology is needed which does not constitute the relevant fields of discourse, in the form of a common critique of technology. In contrast, the Seminar will expose the formal and static structures, to an open, pluralistic discourse which, while remaining argumentatively coherent in itself, does not lead to a dogmatic point of view.

Alexander König

Sommer 23

Wissenschaftsmodul

VVZ

Experimental Interaction Environments

We will create a interactive Audio-Visual Installation with the Software „Touchdesigner”, that will be shown in the form of an event at the end of the semester. The sound component is on an equal footing with the video and was developed in a constant dialogue between the artists. Therefore musicians are very welcome in this seminar! The dramaturgy follows a clear line and combines numerous abstract forms of visualization and programming. The seminar will use the state-of-the-art technology of „Lernraum.Bauhaus” in a creative and experimental way.

How to apply:
1. Send a motivational letter by to: alexander.koenig@uni-weimar.de
2. Enroll in Bison
3. You will be contacted by the administration if you got a place in the seminar

Alexander König

Sommer 23

Fachmodul

VVZ

Art in the times of surveillance capitalism – Understanding machine learning video-classification

The topic of AI is discussed in the media in terms of artificial consciousness, while the actual machine-learning applications have long been an integral part of the success of IT giants. To understand this technology, it is essential to understand the principles of modern network architecture and its data structure and transmission. The course will take a practical approach to this topic and then lead into an informed discussion that will go beyond the opinions of "gift book philosophers".
The course gives an introduction to machine learning and its programming in Python using Nvidia Jetson Nano Computers set up as a Cloud-Cluster, which we set up in the seminar.

Example for a subject of discussion: Sentiment Analysis
There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition of emotions. But for sure they cannot be measured like temperature or height. They heavily differ individually through complex cultural, political, and historical influences.
So keep in mind that, by using such technology without any layer of reflection and critique, you transport reductionistic behavioral ideas that are the reason for discrimination and the disadvantage of people that don't fall within the statistical norm of such machine learning systems.
Content:
Every student will be provided with a NvidiaJetson Nano Developer Kit, from the university (as a rental). https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetson-nano-developer-kit
You get a basic understanding of:
- Linux operating system - Network structures - Video processing (OpenCV and ffmpeg)
- machine learning (basic models) - classification with neural networks
optional (advanced):
- docker containers
Though the general outline of the seminar is fixed, certain topics can be adapted to the demands of the projects and the wishes of the students.
Programming knowledge in Python is mandatory.
The aim of the course is to gain a critical understanding of machine learning and its application. The course focuses on the analysis of the classification of video streams and their classification.
Another central topic is cloud infrastructures and the so-called "edge computing" or "Internet of Things", which together with machine learning, form an almost all-encompassing set of tools for data collection that is beyond any (state) control. The course is therefore also suitable for those who are interested in a critical examination of "AI".

How to apply:
1. Send a motivational letter by to: alexander.koenig@uni-weimar.de
2. Enroll in Bison
3. You will be contacted by the administration if you got a place in the seminar

Alexander König

Sommer 23

Fachmodul

VVZ

pyfyi (Python For Your Interest)

The module pyfyi (Python For Your Interest) teaches the basics of programming for artists and designers using the universal programming language Python. After a short general introduction to programming, a range of concrete applications is presented: Data Visualization, Physical Computing, Generative Art & Design, Poetry, Working with Images, Web Applications, Scripting in Blender, Glyphs or TouchDesigner....

From this, individual objectives are defined in relation to one's own interests. Since this is a course for programming beginners, the goals should not be set too high.

In the course of the seminar the own progress will be presented in the class, so that all can participate in the various application possibilities of programming.

Mattis Kuhn

Sommer 23

Fachmodul

VVZ

Syntax Error

During the project "Syntax Error" we will deal with the basic properties of shapes, generative shapes and their typographic interpretation. Based on the investigation and development of programs and systems, we will analyze shape languages in their relationships of proportion, regularities and potential ways of combination, in order to be able to typographically contextualize our own shape syntax. This will result in a visual analysis, study and interpretation of shapes, which deals with an individual topic. To generate the shapes we will work with the universal programming language Python and develop our own rule-based systems. We will learn the basics of programming for this in the course of the seminar.

The medium of the project depends on the individual shape system and its intention, but a typographic application (editorial design, poster, etc.) is recommended.

Mattis Kuhn, Marcel Saidov

Sommer 23

Projektmodul

VVZ

Paper, Ink and Electronics

Printed Electronics can turn everyday objects into interfaces for the digital world.

We will use screen printing with conductive ink to print our own designs on paper, leather, or glass and use them as buttons or slider with the help of microcontrollers such as the Arduino.

This way we create objects which serve as input devices for digital functionalities. We will first take a look at the basic qualities and possibilities of printed electronics, as well as the characteristics of the tools we are going to use. Here we focus on the screen printing methos and the concept of capacitive sensing with Arduino.

Students will design their own objects which we will print on and connect to an Arduino within the course. Another focus will be on the production of sensors and simple means of energy harvesting..

Clemens Wegener

Sommer 23

Fachmodul

VVZ