Cocíclo – workshop | Alexandre Castonguay
Cocíclo
In this performative workshop, the participants will assemble an electronic circuit that translates Carbon Monoxide (CO) concentrations into audible sound. The design consists of an Esp8266 based circuit, a CO sensor and a piezo element that enables the sonification, geolocalisation and visualisation of collected data on a community map. The project mixes artistic, environmental and social concerns and adheres to the design principles of open hardware and software: Everyone is invited to learn how the electronics and the code functions in order to be able to modify it.
The workshop occurs over 5 hours in which the operations of the circuit and the code will be explained while assembling the circuit. The instructions will cover the basics of the esp8266 wireless chip, it’s interface with a mobile application for the geolocalisation and the visualisation on a map server.
The group will then ride or walk in order to experience a ‘situationist dérive’ that transforms our understanding of the city and collects a lasting reminder of our paths in Bergen. Participants are invited to keep their Cocíclos in order to continue building a collective map online where a growing community of users can access the contaminants’ variations over time.
BIO
Alexandre Castonguay
http://artengine.ca/acastonguay/
Independent, Eastern Bloc, UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal), Artengine
Recent projects, Cocíclo and Agit P.O.V., extend community based-practices by exploring the intersection of social concerns, critical actions in public spaces and the cultural development of software and hardware. They open up the creative process by inviting the participants to take an active role in the creation of the work, through the form of collective experiences and workshops geared to deepen the understanding of the technological, creative and critical aspects of the work. The performative workshops seek to counter the contemporary experiences of disembodied, commercial and abstracted relationships to our data and personal experiences.
Castonguay’s work has been shown widely in Canada and abroad, among others: Transmediale (Berlin), New Media Beijing as well as numerous exhibitions in Paris, New York and Mexico. Agit P.O.V. has been shown in over 10 cities around the globe. He is a founding member of Artengine, an artist-run center dedicated to the investigation of the digital arts. His work is represented in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Montreal Contemporary art Museum, the Montreal Fine Arts Museum, Quebec’s National Museum of Fine Arts, the Canada Council’s Art Bank museum, the National Museum of Contemporary Photography as well as private collections.
