Six days of intensive recording, mixing, coding, designing, modelling, making and one exhibition later (at Europe's largest multi disciplinary arts venue, no less), we've made it: twelve unique musical instruments made in just over a week.
I, for one, am exhausted (and only marginally better at Processing). I'm sure everyone who has been involved with the project will agree that we are insurmountably proud of what our young people have achieved.
Over the course of a six-day workshop, in conjunction with the Prince's Trust and generously funded by the i.am.angel foundation, Makerversity ran the programme 'Get Started with Product Design' with a group of twelve aspiring young creatives at our home in Somerset House.
Across the week, the workshop introduced the group of 17-25 year olds to a range of musical, electronic and digital making skills and they heard from professionals from across the creative industries and expanded their knowledge of the possibilities for employment within product design.
Their challenge? To produce a unique digital instrument each, using their newly acquired skills that would appear for a one-day exhibition on July 3rd, 'Input > Output', held at the iconic Barbican Centre as part of the programming for Digital Revolution.
...and even typeset exhibition graphics!
Will.i.am came to meet the young people at their exhibition on July 3rd spoke to them about their experience of the workshop and even had a listen to their unique recordings through their Electric-Painted, laser-engraved, MaKey-MaKey programmed, 3D printed objects!
Their work from the programme will be on display at the Barbican, named Input > Output, for the rest of the summer - go and see it!
The Pearson lab was taken over yesterday afternoon, by a small team of hackers from the Pearson group who were joined by a recent graduate of a Centrepoint Charity employability programme, Aimee McDonald, with the aim of producing a cheap ways of integrating tech into the classroom.
Using a few simple and affordable technologies, including a Raspberry Pi, Wiimote and an Infrared pen, the group managed to build an interactive digital whiteboard for a fraction of the price of those bought for schools.
This weekend, on Saturday 28th June, we hosted General Assembly's Assembled Education, a day packed with of talks from experts on the future and development of education.
Leading the Innovation Charge, the latest event from Women in Wireless - a nonprofit organisation that empowers and develops female leaders in mobile and digital media - was held in the Pearson Lab last night.
Image from Women in Wireless via Twitter
A great crowd turned out to listen to a panel of speakers share their views on innovation. The panel comprised of Diana Stepner, VP Innovation Partnerships & Developer Relations at Pearson, Sarah Watson, Group Mobile Manager from the NET-A-PORTER Group, Liz Whitney, Business Director of ustwo, Roberta Lucca, CEO of WonderLuk, Sally Turner-Hopkins, Founder of Angel Academe and panel chair, Russell Buckley, Government Advisor, Angel Investor and Mentor.
This week, we begin our 5-day workshop 'Get Started with Product Design', a collaborative project between Makerversity and the Prince's Trust.
After our taster day last Tuesday, we selected twelve aspiring young people - all aged 17-25 and come from varied skill and experience levels - interested in furthering their skills and learning more about digital making. Today, we set out on our challenge to record, design and build twelve digital musical instruments in one week.
Introducing the Dream Team
Alex Morrison, Brian Sannoh, Christine Hewitt, Christine Katerere, Christopher Adam, Hannah Buller, Jake De Freitas, Nathan White, Nathaniel Momodu, Mansur Rahman, Rodel Bernabe and Zachary Brockbank.
Keep an eye out for these guys! Next week, on July 3rd, they will be exhibiting their outcomes at the Barbican Centre as part of the programming for Digital Revolution! Incredible!
Today, a group of aspiring young people came to Makerversity for a taster day of the Prince's Trust's 'Get Started with Product Design' programme.
After an introduction to and a tour of Makerversity, the group had a go at laser cutting and 3D modelling and spoke to some of our members about their work and routes into design.
The week-long course will take them through the whole design process and will feature sessions led by some of our Makerversity members! The workshop starts next Monday, 23rd June. Really excited to have them back!
How will emerging technologies and innovation impact the future of education? #edtech