Ellentriek #17: Hack your knitting machine with Knitic!

Ellentriek goes textile: liberating knitting machines Saturday 18th May 2013 10am – 6pm Pianofabriek Exhibition space Rue du Fortstraat 35, 1060 Brussels In the eighties and nineties electronic knitting machines were readily available. But it was never a simple task to knit an image, a drawing, photograph, text you designed yourself with it. You could buy premade images on floppies of punch cards. This is all about to change! With Knitic you can connect your computer directly to the knitting machine. knitic Do you have a Brother KH930 or KH940? Do you finally want to do what you want with it? Are you fascinated by open hardware/free software and are you curious to experience this specific way of working and thinking? Or do you, as a hardcore knitter want to see what’s possible when the technological electronics part of the knitting machine has been changed? Or are you just curious to come and test the old knitting machine with a new brain? Come to our workshop of ’Ellentriek goes knitting’ on Saturday the 18th of May. 10-13h We will replace the proprietary brain of your machine. The old one is not broken, it is just disconnected. Under professional guidance we will assemble a few electronic components. The next step is hooking up your computer to the machine and to show you how to work with Knitic (Knitic is hard-and software which is easy to work with). This part of the workshop is also for beginners and people who know nothing about electronics. 14-18h Come and test the new old machines and knit a photograph, text, image.. Who: with Knitic.com (Varvara Guljajeva & Mar Canet) & knitter Claire Williams Please contact us on beforehand if you have a knitting machine to hack, type Brother machine KH 930 KH 940. wendy attttt constantvzw.org. We contact you on the what and how. Ellentriek is organized by De Pianofabriek kunstenwerkplaats & Constant vzw. This workshop is part of the Ruelles project (http://ruelles.constantvzw.org)

Ellentriek Recup@Recyclart

Your copy machine, scanner or mobile phone has broken down and even the second hand shop is no longer interested in getting it fixed for sale. No worry, you can still find interesting bits and parts such as motors, lenses, microphones or amplifiers hidden within. In this workshop you will learn to dismantle broken electronic machinery and to identify the parts still usable for creative ‘re-use’.

Each session focuses on a certain group of electronic devices:

Wednesday 21.11: radio, cassette- dvd-, cd player and answering machine
Saturday 24.11: scanner, printer and copy machine
Wednesday 28.11: digital and analog video cameras, photo cameras, mobile and other phones.

Your can bring along your own electronic stuff and please do not forget your favourite screwdriver and other tools. The older the electronic devices, the better.

Practical info:
Recyclart – Vitrin 17
Ursulinenstraat 17 Rue des Ursulines
15:00 > 18:00
max. 10p per session!
5 euro/session- inscription requiredy (payment in situ): info@recyclart.be / 02 289 00 50
languages: EN-FR-NL

Workshop given by sound engineer Jeroen De Meyer and the low voltage activists of Ellentriek: Wendy, Gregor, Kenny and Jitske.
Ellentriek is an organisation of the Pianofabriek kunstenwerkplaats & Constant vzw.

http://jeroendemeyer.wordpress.com/