December 2012 Meeting

Jessica Westbrook and Adam Trowbridge:
free and open source textBook/toolKit for art foundations

Jessica Westbrook and Adam Trowbridge, who collaborate as Channel TWo, gave a presentation and initiated a discussion on the topics raised by their project free and open source textBook/toolKit for art foundations, for which they were recently awarded a Rhizome commission.

November 2012 Meeting

2012 Mobile Processing Conference

Mobile Processing is a yearly conference hosted by the UIC Innovation Center in support of Chicago's creative and development communities. The 2012 conference, held from November 2-4 2012, focused on the Android and JavaScript modes of Processing 2.0.

October 2012 Meeting

** Sam Thongrong's excellent presentation materials from the October meeting can be found here.

September 2012 Meeting

August 2012 Meeting

June 2012 Meeting

May 2012 Meeting

Details from the May 2012 meeting of Processing Chicago:

Brett Ian Balogh
Brett Ian Balogh, artist and faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology, presented recent methods of exploring/mapping wireless networks and other electromagnetic phenomena.







Liz Neely
Liz Neely, director of Digital Information and Access at The Art Institute of Chicago, presented her Twitter dress (#TFF) that sings and flaps when she receives a tweet--and talked about the process of creating it. More about this piece can be found here.





Joshua Albers
UIC New Media Arts MFA candidate Joshua Albers presented some past work and a new project based on Arduino, Processing, and Android that creates wearable data collection systems. The presentation is here.





Alex Betts
Alex Betts, senior research programmer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, performed an iOS puppet show and talking in depth about working with C++ for iOS development. The presentation is here.

April 2012 Meeting

Details from the April 2012 meeting of Processing Chicago:

Brittany Ransom
2011 UIC New Media Arts MFA graduate and adjunct faculty member Brittany Ransom presented her latest work, which uses networked accelerometers and a Lilypad Arduino to generate multichannel audio from butterly pupa. Presentation materials are zip'd here.





Christopher Furman
Artist and UIC New Media Arts adjunct faculty member Christopher Furman discussed several of his latest pieces, and demoed various servos and controllers for use in kinectic sculpture. Info on Chris's work is here.





Jakub Misterka and Ty Cobb
EVL Research Experience Undergraduates Ty Cobb and Jakub Misterka gave a talk on working with iOS and Objective-C, and demoed a simple iPad synthesizer app. The code is here.





Victor Mateevitsi
EVL PhD student and research assistant Victor Mateevitsi gave a tutorial on transitioning from Processing to openFrameworks, providing examples of the similarities between each environment.

March 2012 Meeting

Details from the March 2012 meeting of Processing Chicago:

The March 2012 meeting of Processing Chicago featured presentations on Processing, reacTIVision, jQuery, visualizing GPS data and developing Android apps. Below are links to PDFs and/or source code:

Thirsty World
UIC graphic design MFA candidate Matt Wizinsky presented his interactive work, "Thirsty World." Using Processing, reacTIVision, ultraviolet ink, a webcam and an ultraviolet light, users can navigate through both printed and video content. More info can be found here.

Animating With jQuery
Computer science MS candidate and EVL research assistant Paul Grenning taught a workshop on animating web content with jQuery. Several techniques were covered, e.g. collapsing and exploding divs. All workshop materials are linked in a zip file here.

Data Portraits
Maria Schleppi and Paul Hertz presented their project, "Data Portraits" (done in collaboration with Gordon Kummel, David Pena and Jennifer Martinez). This work uses GPS data and the dynamic nature of interpersonal relationships between humans to paint data in various ways in various environments. The presenatation (PDF) is linked here. More info can be found here.

Luxury Permissions by Schlesinger's Best
UIC New Media Arts MFA candidate Chaz Evans presented his series of Android applications, "Luxury Permissions." Using Processing, Evans created the "2011 fall line of luxury applications produced by Schlesinger's Best. Courtesy of generous support from the Greyfriar's Ladies Auxilliary Board." The presenatation (PDF) is linked here. Download one or all of the apps here.

February 2012 Meeting

Details from the February 2012 meeting of Processing Chicago:

The first meeting of Processing Chicago was a great success, with ~50 attendees. The presentations ranged from building a wearable EMF detector to a wind-controlled, telematic Arduino project. Below are links to PDFs and/or source code from several of the presentations.

Stereoscopic Display Test Pattern
EVL graduate student and research assistant Brad McGinnis discussed various types of stereoscopic 3d, and methods for detecting ghosting (or "cross talk") in stereoscopic displays. He demonstrated the Weissman pattern he created with Processing that enables evaluation of ghosting in interlaced sterescopic displays. The Weissman pattern image can be found here.

Getting Started with Supercollider and Processing
EVL artist and researcher JD Pirtle gave a tutorial on getting started with Supercollider, and how to interact with Supercollider using Processing. Beginning with the basics of the structure of Supercollider and introductory sound synthesis and routing, JD then discussed techniques for using a Processing sketch to communicate with Supercollider via OSC (Open Sound Control). The source code (zip file) for the presenatation can be found here.

Homebrew Embedded Systems: OpenGL for the Sony PlayStation 3
Alex Betts, senior research programmer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, presented RSXGL, the OpenGL library he created for a rooted Sony Playstation. Alex discussed the various stages of this project, including the major accomplishments and future goals. The PDF of the presentation can be found here.

Wearable EMF detector
UIC Art History PhD and New Media Arts MFA candidate Tiffany Funk presented her wearable electromagnetic field (EMF) detector, which uses a Lilypad Arduino. The device allows users to navigate spaces while monitoring EMF levels, facilitating the measurement of exposure and energy consumption. A PDF of the presenatation is linked here.

Networked Arduinos
Researcher Brenda Lopez and research assistant Paolo Guerra from EVL's Learning Technologies Group presented their recent work, a telematic Arduino project that utilizes a wind sensor and two networked Arduinos. By blowing into the wind sensor on one end, the user moves a small car on a track at the other end.

DIY Variable Voltage Power Supply
EVL PhD student and research assistant Victor Mateevitsi gave a tutorial on making a simple, yet effective variable voltage power supply. This device regulates power supplies by constraining the voltage to a specifc level. A PDF of the tutorial is linked here.

Arduino with an MP3 trigger via serial communication
New Media Arts MFA candidate and EVL research assistant Jon Chambers presented his recent work using an Arduino with an MP3 trigger. This device enables the embedding of triggerable audio into small environments where a computer would be impractical, such as in a sculpture. A PDF of the talk is here