Automata Tinkering Workshop – January 2021

An online workshop for artists, makers and educators, where you’ll learn about the world of automata – playful, humorous kinetic sculptures.

About this Event

UPDATE: This event is sold out. To be informed about future running please join our Makers mailing list.

Our Automata Tinkering Workshop combines art and engineering.

Six 2-hour sessions on Tuesdays from 19th Jan – 23rd Feb 2021

4-6 pm in UK (8-10am PST, 5-7pm in Europe)

This workshop is suitable for all abilities as long as you are prepared to develop your own creative ideas and experiment with us. 

It is perfect for you if:

• You want to find out more about automata, who makes them and how they are built
• You are an educator who wants to inspire adults and children with tinkering or STEAM activities
• You are a practicing artist who wants to experiment with building kinetic sculptures
• You work on personal projects in your spare time and want to add a new medium for expression
• You are interested in engaging with a group of practitioners in different fields

We generally limit the age to 16 years old+ though exceptions can be made where appropriate. 

You will need 

• a computer with a good internet connection, 
• a place to work (kitchen table, workshop, garage) 
• the ability to procure a set of common household materials from a provided list. 

Kit components, prototype materials and a copy of our book, Cabaret Mechanical Movement, will be mailed to you before the course of workshops commences. 

Ryan Jenkins from Wonderful Idea Co. will serve as the instructor for the course and along with a crew of educators, artists, and surprise guests, he will guide participants through the workshops. We’ll engage with automata artists, examine Cabaret Mechanical Theatre creations and all get the chance to build our own kinetic sculptures. By the end of the workshop, students will have worked with a variety of mediums, learned about some of the practical elements and built several automata prototypes.

Course Outline

The workshop will be conducted in spoken English with audiovisual materials such as slides, examples and video. All classes will be held over Zoom. 

The course is being delivered as a real-time class, where participants and facilitators will interact live. The maximum number of participants will be 18, to ensure a low facilitator to participant ratio. You can expect some personalised attention and interaction. 

We will not be recording the sessions for later viewing but in the future we expect to release materials for non-realtime learning.

19th Jan 2021 – Week One

Welcome and Introductions – What is automata? – History of CMT

Practical Session with Ryan Jenkins: Cranky Contraptions

26th Jan 2021 – Week Two

Mechanical Movements – Engineering Principles – Materiality 

Practical Session with Stephen Guy: Cardboard Automata

2nd Feb 2021 – Week Three 

Artist Inspiration – Connecting to Social Issues – Storytelling 

Pre-recorded exclusive interview with Paul Spooner Ryan Jenkins of Wonderful Idea Co. about working practice and current projects.

Practical Session with Sarah Alexander: Introducing CMT Automata Tinkering Kit

9th Feb 2021 – Week Four 

Art and Science of Automata – Adding technology to Kinetic Sculptures 

Practical Session: Circuits, Switches and Motorized Automata

16th Feb 2021 – Week Five 

Automata in different contexts – Facilitating Automata workshops 

Best Practices for Tinkering Facilitators – Roundtable Discussion 

Practical Session: Personal Automata Exploration 

23rd Feb 2021 – Week Six

Experimental extensions – Adding computation/programming – Taking it Further

Practical Session: Personal Automata Exploration 

Group debrief and reflection about next steps. 

About our course facilitator Wonderful Idea Co:

Wonderful Idea Co. is a creative design studio founded by Ryan Jenkins and Nicole Catrett that develops resources to support the exploration of art science and technology through making and tinkering founded in 2017. They have led workshops around the world for hundreds of creative educators.

https://wonderfulidea.co

Learning Online:

This workshop has been adapted to function in the current covid-19 moment of experimentation with online teaching and learning. While not the primary focus of the workshop, the session will be a chance for participants to see a model of hands-on tinkering workshop in a virtual setting. 

Price:  Early Bird until 18th October 2020 £275.00

Full Price until 4th January 2021 £325.00

Sold out! You can book your place using the button below or via the workshop Eventbrite page.

Registration closes 4th January 2021 to allow for materials to be sent to participants. 

We will be offering a limited number of partial scholarships for those in need of a fee reduction. We are especially interested in participants who come from non traditional backgrounds and/or who work with underrepresented audiences. 

You can apply for a scholarship by emailing sarah@cabaret.co.uk and letting us know how much tuition support you would need with a short description of why you are interested in attending. We regret that we will not be able to offer a fee reduction to everyone but hope to pursue other funding options for future online/in-person sessions.