Greg Niemeyer

Dream and Machine

Course Description
There is something magical about machines that seem to know where they are, what time it is, and which way you hold them. Our seminar will explore the basics of electronic machines and their potential to make art through interaction. In the course of a week, we will learn how to program an electronic chip, how to make it control other machines, and how to make it sense its environment. We will start by taking apart an electronic kitchen clock and changing the way it runs. As a final project, we will build custom clocks that show time passing in novel ways you invent. Prerequisites for this workshop are willingness to work in teams, ability to use a Macintosh computer, and motivation to connect electronics with other forms of art. Tools we use include the soldering iron, the Arduino microprocessor, light and temperature sensors, LED lights, clock and stepper motors.

For more information about me and the projects I work on, visit one of my current projects at http://www.blackcloud.org.

Artist's Biography
Born in Switzerland in 1967, Greg Niemeyer studied Classics and Photography. He started working with new media when he arrived in the Bay Area in 1992 and he received his MFA from Stanford University in New Media in 1997. At the same time, he founded the Stanford University Digital Art Center, which he directed until 2001, when he was appointed at UC Berkeley as Assistant Professor for New Media. At UC Berkeley, he is involved in the development of the Center for New Media, focusing on the critical analysis of the impact of new media on human experiences.

His creative work focuses on the mediation between humans as individuals and humans as a collective through technological means, and emphasizes playful responses to technology. His most recognized projects were Gravity (Cooper Union, NYC, 1997), PING (SFMOMA, 2001), Oxygen Flute, with Chris Chafe (SJMA, 2002), Organum (Pacific Film Archive, 2003), Ping 2.0 (Paris, La Villette Numerique, 2004), Organum Playtest (2005), and Good Morning Flowers (SFIFF 2006, Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt, 2006) and of course, with Joe McKay, the Balance Game (Cairo 2007, London, 2007). His current project, the Black Cloud, an Alternate Reality Game, is funded by the MacArthur Digital Learning Initiative.