Wd8 - Center of the World

On Wednesday, March 26, 2008 we had the first session to create tv transmitters for the next installation at Wd8. We had a meeting in a small kitchen somewhere in Šiška, Ljubljana with a simple map and a lot of small pieces to solder together. The map that we used for soldering the transmitters can be found here.

	These are all the parts you need to create 5 transmitters. Really! The total costs for these parts was just 14 euro!!
	And of course you need some cables and solder. And also the plates to fix them on. And glue, very important! The paper below the cables shows the schematic with detailed manual to build.
	Here we are, concentrated while soldering the parts together. It took us just one hour to create 3 transmitters.
	This is the finished transmitter. We connected it just like it is here on the photo and it really works! We were receiving the distorted signal sent from the computer on the old analog television. So much fun!

Wd8 and Art Center Slovenia

From October 2003 until September 2005 Oskar and I were regular guests at the Art Center in Prekmurje, Slovenia. Art Center Sredisce, located in a rural area directly on the border of Slovenia and Hungary, has been an important inspiration for the Wd8 initiative.

In May 2005, 3 years old Oskar created a sculpture of a house with long metal sticks that he had found at Art Center. Now, in March 2008, almost 3 years later, he found some metal sticks at Wd8 and immediately used them to create a sculpture. This time he created a huge text, for visitors from above, to view from the sky.

Links:
>> Oskar's sculpture at Art Center
>> Art Center Slovenia

Pig in the Pigsty

The pig has moved back into the pigsty. After its trip to Graz in November 2007 it stayed indoors with us during winter. But today we moved it back outside into the pigsty. It wasn't happy at first to move back out, but once it was inside the pigsty again it smiled at us just like before.

The surveillance camera, that is still working, already since September last year, was closely observing the event.

Crash Keyboard Poetry Workshop

Today it was the Crash Keyboard Poetry Workshop at the Rdeče Zore Festival in Ljubljana. There was a pile of old keyboards and a lot of screwdrivers waiting for us in the Info Shop above Menza at Metelkova. After an interesting presentation from R.G. Gözüm about e-waste we started taking the keyboards apart. We were supposed to create statements using the old keys from the keyboards, but I didn't get much further than putting the letters 'WD8' together. Here they are on a keyboard with a Turkish keyboard layout.

Rdeče Zore

The Wd8 Team is in Ljubljana these days, hanging out at the Rdeče Zore festival. Today we joined the car-repair workshop in Menza. It was very nice, but only in Slovene, so after about 1,5 hours we left the workshop and walked into town. We ended up in Kiberpipa playing with the ancient computers in the small computer museum that they have set up in a corner. Among the computers in their collection are several that I remember, that I have used myself many years ago. One of the computers that is exhibited there, is an Amstrad Schneider, very similar to the one on which I had my first experiences with programming. Here is a photo of the screen of the fully functional machine, showing the date 1985. Tomorrow we will join the crash keyboard poetry workshop at Rdeče Zore, turning old computer keyboards into poetry. More info about Rdeče Zore is at http://rdecezore.blogspot.com/

Spring

Today was the first day that we were eating outside on the terrace. After the really warm February, today again was a beautiful spring day. For tomorrow snow is expected and winter will be here... But winter or spring, the beginning of March will be the start of the regular news updates again. We have been working very hard all winter and a lot of new projects are planned for 2008. So keep checking back for updates or subscribe to the blog atom feed.