By Agnes » 3 Comments
Announcing our new Artist in Residence, Heather Morton. Heather was our monthly featured artist in April, and we welcome her back to the lab for the next 3 months!
Heather has been interested in arts and crafts since childhood, which has turned into a passion for fabric and fibre arts. Her fibre-related endeavors have included costume making, creative crochet, functional sewing and art quilting. Lately she is interested in experimenting with new methods of surface design. As an Artist in Residence at kwartzlab, she is hoping to explore using the laser cutter for more quilting and fabric-related experiments. Heather will also add to the diversity of kwartzlab’s programming by running some workshops in arts and crafts related areas.
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By Agnes » 1 Comment
We warmly welcome Charlotte’s beautiful ceramic tile paintings to the space. You’ve got to see these colours up front and personal. On display at the lab until the end of May. Charlotte will give her artist talk at the Tuesday Open Night on May 21st, beginning at about 8 pm.
Charlotte began her journey into art in the 1970’s creating pen and ink drawings with watercolour inspired by Aubrey Beardsley. In 2003, She attended a tile painting class which provided a whole new outlet for her creativity. Learning to manipulate the paint on a hard surface was challenging initially, but soon proved to provide the variety of expression necessary to keep going with it. She has always be drawn to bold colour contrasts and natural images. Charlotte especially enjoys painting on irregular shaped tiles and sometimes on glass tile as well. Recently, she is experimenting with combining the paint with coloured ink and watercolour on other surfaces such as paper and wood. She is also doing Collage. Branching out into these other mediums has been exciting, drenched in possibility. To quote a dear friend, Bernie Rohde, Art is a Verb.
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Tags: Ceramic Painting
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By Agnes » 3 Comments
Michael Hornyak is a master programmer who has been coding for over 25 years, creating graphics, 3D animation, 3D modeling, user interfaces, websites, sound engineering, music composition, multimedia, and pioneering an evolved virtual reality system that he calls Hyper Interactive Reality, or “HiR” for short.
HiR is a new paradigm in human-computer interaction, it will provide alternative ways to do work and have fun. It is 2D, 3D, 4D and beyond. Control of a computer is possible via motions of the body, voice control, sensors or traditional input devices. HiR is a graphical 3D environment that transforms your computer into an advanced “virtual reality” work-play-place in which your imagination can go wild. Complete control of your media in an outside-the-box kind of way.
Check out a video of Michael’s work in progress here: http://hyperinteractivereality.com/videos/
Michael will be demonstrating his HiR system at our grand re-opening party on Saturday, February 16th during our open house which runs 11am-5pm. And will also be giving a short talk at 1:45pm about his work and his plans for his residency with us, which will conclude at the end of April.
Posted in Announcements, Art Programs, Events | 3 Comments »
By Darcy Casselman » 8 Comments
Starting a new year with a new beginning, Tuesday Open Night will be at our new digs at 33 Kent Ave.
View Larger Map
For more locations details, see our newly updated location page
It’s very much a work in progress—don’t think we have Internet yet—but you’ll get a sneak preview of what Kwartzlab will be in 2013.
Hacky New Year!
Posted in Announcements | 8 Comments »
By Darcy Casselman » 20 Comments
Ben and I just signed a lease for Kwartzlab’s new home for at least the next couple of years.
We’ve discussing the move for weeks and the board just approved the lease agreement today. We’ll be moving over the next month and a bit, with a grand opening sometime in February 2013.
The new building, 33 Kent Ave. in Kitchener, has up until recently been the home of the Pandora Press publishing company and book shop. It’s got a beautiful store front, a shop in the back with a garage door, concrete floors, ventilation and three phase power and it’s got a room upstairs which will make a fantastic clubhouse and lounge. It’s a bit smaller than we’re used to, but we’re working on ways to get all our stuff in there, along with equipment we’re planning on purchasing in the near future.
Pandora is right on the corner of Charles and Kent, steps away from the Iron Horse Trail and a couple blocks from the Ottawa Street iXpress stop. Thousands of people ride and drive by every day, and this is an amazing opportunity for Kwartzlab to become more visible and accessible to the community.
I can’t think of a better home for Kwartzlab: Phase 2.
We wouldn’t have found this place without the help and support of friends we’ve made in the community. The owner and landlord, Christian, is on the board of MT Space, and we were put in touch through through our mutual friend Gabrielle at Treehaus. We’ve also had fantastic support from the City of Kitchener scouting out potential new locations. Many thanks!
Update: I’ve uploaded some photos from our tour of the place last month.
Stay tuned for more exciting announcements in the coming days!
Posted in Announcements | 20 Comments »
By Ben Brown » 1 Comment
Hacky Halloween is back! We’ll be in the Atrium at THEMUSEUM on Saturday October 27th for another day of pumpkin carving and soldering!
Participants are supplied with a free pumpkin to carve, along with a Kwartzlab kick – a programmable electronic kit that you can learn to assemble and solder yourself. The kit is setup to flicker lights just like a candle flame!
Along with the main event, we’ll soon be announcing free workshops happening in early November for Hacky Halloween participants to come into Kwartzlab to hack their kits, brainstorm ideas and more!
Hope to see you there!
Hacky Halloween is open to all ages and is free to attend. THEMUSEUM admission rates still apply to other exhibits.
Posted in Announcements, Events | 1 Comment »
By markp
Three chipKIT “Arduino compatible” development kits and shields arrived from Microchip for the ChipKIT Platform Design Contest.
Information about the chipKIT: http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1406&dDocName=en559601
Information about the contest: http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en_us/promo/chipKIT/
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By Darcy Casselman
At Tuesday Open Night tonight, we’ll have our first regular monthly talk.
Tonight’s talk will be by new member, Alex Mackinnon. Alex says:
…It’s about Arduino, Parallax’s sonic pinger and using the two to collect data and draw map of clear paths in front of the sensor head.
If you’ve ever dreamed about sonar-sensing bat robots or just want to see some cool tech and ask an expert about how it works, join us at TON tonight!
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By Agnes
Curious about the world of needle craft? Come participate in a one-night-only embroidery workshop! As kwartzlab’s current artist-in-residence, I will teach you the basics of hand embroidery. No prior experience required!
ADDED WORKSHOP BONUS: make your own reusable heat transfer patterns using a Silhouette SD machine (its like a Cricut, but way better!). Choose from an existing library of designs, create your own with the Studio software, or bring an existing .dxf file (all objects need to be ungrouped before saving as .dxf)!
Silhouette SD draws the kwartzlab logo on paper with a heat transferable ink pen
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