Please note: some of these workshops take place at co:Lab studio/gallery.
CV Sunday at co:Lab
Share a patch/Learn a patch
Nanotopia plan to have some of the following out on a table: Moog Subharmonicon, DFAM, juiced up Minitaur and some Moms hanging out with Make Noise, Erica Synths, Teenage engineering Pocket Operators, Nanotopian Midi Bio-Sonification modules and who knows!?
Bring your gear!
2pm – 6pm
BYOAmp
Insect Spreading workshop
Learn how to spread moths/butterflies and beetles. Thursday evening, February 28. Class starts at 7pm
In this class, students will learn about basic insect preparation. We will discuss harvesting and drying specimen, rehydrating dried specimen, and in class we will practice handling techniques, spreading, mounting, the nuances of posing, display, and maintenance. An assortment of ethically sourced insects; Beetles, moths and butterflies, in various sizes, shapes, and colours will be provided. Students will learn how to put together and maintain their own rehydration chamber, things to check for during all stages of the process to ensure a clean and successful end product, and tips for gentle handling. We will also cover how to select museum quality materials for displays. Students receive 1 Riker mount (or similar) for their specimen, 1 set of insect pins & 2 insects.
As always, all specimen are ethically sourced. We will be reviewing the origins of the insects used in class, how students can ethically and legally source specimen, and suggested, reputable suppliers.
Students go home with their own prepared insects, one Riker mount (or similar) display, the pinning/spreading board made during class, resource list as well as 1 set of insect pins and the knowledge to create their own pieces in the future. It is recommended students bring a small bag or box or display case to transport their pieces.
Sculpting with Mycelium workshop.
Sculpting with Mycelium: working with environmentally friendly, renewable materials
Tuesday evening, starting March 5th, 7pm-9pm.
Bio-materials are grown over several days, participants meet up every 5th or 6th evening after the first start-up date to check on their Mycelium’s growth and sculpt or desiccate their forms! $60/pp includes:
1 round planter growth form
1 bag of Hemp substrate inoculated with Mycelium
Sculpting mix
Nitrile gloves
Particulate masks
Mycelium food
Instructions
This workshop includes everything you need to grow a round planter, as well as hand-sculpt a small form plus, a full bag of substrate inoculated with mycelium! Suggestions on how to grow other forms or grow onto various armatures (3D printed, hand knit/crocheted) is discussed.
Evening 1: we start with an introduction and demonstrate how the growth materials works, as well as discuss Mycelium; what it is, its benefits to us and our environment. Then everyone feeds their Mycelium and leaves them to rest in a safe, cozy dark place until the next workshop evening!
Evening 2: WOW look how you’ve grown! Your Mycelium has grown and consumed its substrate. Now we gently, yet firmly work with our Mycelium through sculpting with special media and/or using forms to grow our planters!
After forming/sculpting the Mycelium is again placed into a dark, cozy space where it can happily grow to fill or cover our structures!
Evening 3: Your planter/sculpture is ready for desiccation and use! Everyone unpacks their forms, weighs them and then we bake them until they weigh approximately 35% less then pre-desiccated weight. Participants also have the option to dry their forms at home. Once dried students can plant lovely succulents, cactus, or use their forms as sculptures or packing materials and marvel over nature!
Organic tea, coffee and snacks will be offered during workshop evenings.
Mycelium= the mass of interwoven filamentous hyphae that forms especially the vegetative portion of the thallus of a fungus and is often submerged in another body (as of soil or organic matter or the tissues of a host) aka mushroom roots
Artist-instructor Tosca Teran works with Mycelium collaboratively –
creating the Midnight Mushroom Music Podcast.
This year (2019) Tosca and Andrei (together forming Nanotopia) are offering workshops making Bio-Sonification Modules out of their shared studio space, Interaccess.org, UofT and abroad.
Personal: www.toscateran.com
Tosca was recently interviewed by, Ecovative Designs. Check out the
interview here, https://ecovativedesign.com/blog/178
Tosca was one of 4 artists recommended and awarded a 3-month residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art in the Ontario Science Centre studio. The residency starts March 15th, 2019. Check out her website for information concerning this amazing collaboration and forming of The Alien Agencies Collective.
Nanotopian Midi Bio-Sonification Module building workshop!
Saturday and Sunday, Feb 23/24 1-4pm $95/pp includes full kit, instructions, solderless bread-boarding intro. 
Collaborate sonically with the non-human organisms around you. In this workshop, you will learn how to build a Nanotopian MIDI Bio-sonification Module. Listen to the sounds of the organisms around you (such as your plants!), how it responds to your presence, and see how it really feels!
Participants receive step by step guidance to build their own MIDI Bio-Sonification Module and how the device works. Once kits are built participants are shown how to change Midi scales/channels, LED brightness and more with Arduino. We will discuss MIDI and how it works. Once the modules are completed, participants place electrodes onto plants, fungi, themselves or each other and listen to their Bio-data through Ableton Live, Animoog, Model 15 or similar digital music apps and analogue synths) creating a MIDI Bio-Sonification Symphony!
Please note: This is not a Soldering 101 course. It is very important participants know how to solder. Recommended class if you do not know how: https://interaccess.org/workshop/2018/dec/making-art-electronics
Please purchase one of our fully built modules in the instance you do not know how to solder. They can be found here.
Metal working mash-up:
Casting using the Lost Wax process & lo-tech methods:
Trinley Dorje: Microcosm of The Earth Series.
