Workshops
Explore the potential of open collaboration, creativity and web technology for your community or organisation.
Cut, Copy & Paste
WORKSHOPIN-PERSONANALOG
Make zines, posters or simple animations in this hands-on crafting session with analog version control.
skills & experience:
- hands-on experience of version control without a computer
- open licensing and shared authorship
- zine making, quick creative iteration
- designing for remix & remixing the work of others
More info, or run it yourself: Cut, Copy & Paste on Gitlab
Draw Pictures with Code
(& make them move!)
WORKSHOPTUTORIALIN-PERSON/ONLINEDIGITAL
A fun first step into web creation, especially for visually-oriented people.
Available as a web tutorial, or as an interactive workshop
skills & experience:
- understand vector graphics (code) vs raster graphics (pixels)
- web basics, text files & text editors
- SVG shapes, transforms, colors, & coordinate system
- CSS animation: timing, easing, looping
- using an SVG within a web page
Web Animation vs. Rendered Video
PRESENTATIONIN-PERSON/ONLINEDIGITAL
Available as a presentation, or an interactive web tutorial (coming soon!)
Suitable for design agencies, students, or others who may have some experience with making animation as video files (eg. for uploading to Youtube or embedding in a website) but may not yet know much about web animation: animations written in and delivered as code, for the browser to render in real-time on the viewer's device.
skills & experience:
- understand web animation (code) vs rendered video (frames + pixels)
- web basics: what HTML, CSS, SVG & Javascript all do, and how they fit together
- advantages & opportunities of interactive, scalable, adaptable web animation
- performance issues, accessibility and other things to look out for
Bit:Type
by Manufactura Independente
WORKSHOPIN-PERSONANALOG → DIGITAL
A workshop developed by Ana Isabel Carvalho & Ricardo Lafuente from Manufactura Independente, in which a group collaboratively develops a typeface within a few hours. Start with coloring in squares of grid paper, then move online using Gitlab for collaboration, and end up with a working font file of your own typeface.
skills & experience:
- type design basics
- digital type design history
- collaborative workflows
- font software
- open font licensing
Ricardo & Ana are kindred spirits who I've learned a lot from! Like me, they publish their creative workshops and tools for others to use and adapt. If you're in Europe, get in touch with them to host this — they are wonderful. But the workshop being open source allows me to offer in to people here in the South Pacific as well :)
Make a Website!
with Solarpunk Magic Computer Club
WORKSHOPIN-PERSON / ONLINEDIGITAL
An introduction to the basics of making your own web site, and the tools and tech that go into it:
skills & experience:
- text files & text editors
- writing your site with HTML
- styling it with CSS
- drawing pictures with SVG
- putting it online!
This workshop is offered together with Zach Mandeville and Angelica Blevins of Solarpunk Magic Computer Club. It's designed for beginners but can be adapted to different levels, or different technologies. To get an idea of the tone and content of our workshops, check out our digital zines!
Consulting
In addition to workshops & presentations I can provide consulting on specific topics:
Audiovisual / Technology
I have been working in audiovisual media for more than 15 years, and over that time I’ve been delving deeper into the web as a tool, as a medium and a distribution / access method for audiovisual media. The result is a wealth of creative and technical expertise, particularly in animation, video and web technology, but also in audio and design.
Collaboration
My core area of interest is in the collaborative production or adaptation of creative work, especially helping it to occur beyond traditional company structures (such as in community or activist groups, or open source projects). I’ve co-organised international networked events, created illustration remix tools and modular design kits, and hosted co-creation workshops. Along the way I learned about different approaches to shared authorship, incentives for collaboration, and tools for adaptation of creative work.
Open Licensing
I have been working almost exclusively with open licensing over the past decade, I’ve been a project leader and mentor in Mozilla Open Leaders, I spent my Mozilla Fellowship at Creative Commons, and I’m part of many open source communities, so using open licenses comes very naturally to me these days… but I know that isn’t the case for everyone, and it can actually be pretty scary!
I can help you and your organisation understand what open licensing is all about, what benefits and protections it can offer (as well as potential pitfalls), and give you a framework to decide if and when open licensing may be useful for you or your community, and how to implement it for the best chance of success.
For NZ Government departments which are using open licensing under NZGOAL, there may be improvements you can make to the copyright works you release, or the way that you release those works, to make them more re-usable, more adaptable, and more useful to the public.
contact
Want to book or adapt a workshop, or discuss consulting?