readysaltedcode

tech playground and a sprinkling of VR

Genevieve Smith-Nunes — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 14:20:24 +0000

As part of our on going work with the amazing charity Aik Saath we ran a tech playground workshop. What is a tech playground you might ask? Well, think of it like a sweet shop or a buffet of all things techie and wonderful.

The one day event took place at YESS in the centre of Slough. We started with a bit of App controlled car using AppShed and Arduino moving on to Pi-Top and physical computing not forgetting the amazing use of Sonic-Pi. We finished the day off with some CoSpaces and VR coding. It was some much fun for everyone. Can’t wait for the Easter events when will take all this just that little bit further.

#dadlihack

Genevieve Smith-Nunes — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 11:07:03 +0000

As part of OceanGeneration #dadlihack weekend looking at how technology can help with disaster preparedness and relief.

weekend hackathon

Working on behalf of FireTechCamp to run teen computer science workshops for schools in Antigua. It was an amazing experience for everyone involved. The differences in curricula around the world is fascinating. In England with the national curriculum introducing the subject at K-12 is somewhat different to Antigua and the Caribbean regional in general. The main introduction of the computing /computer science is around grade 10. Some schools are introducing the subject earlier and there are out of school programs at places like iLab.

The students and there teachers were a pleasure to teach, their first time coding with Scratch, Ruby and Python. Nothing beats some LEDs and music with the use of physical computing with the amazing Sonic-Pi. We ran 2 x Three All Day workshops with 22 -30 kids in each group using Pi-Top CEED as the hardware for the workshop programme. This pilot programme took place in Antigua January 2018. Can’t wait for the next phase in Summer 2018.

[pain]Byte Live & VR

Genevieve Smith-Nunes — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 19:39:37 +0000

What an amazing Sunday evening.

pain]byte – Chronic pain and the invisible world of pain. Pain as a system. What it means to be in pain everyday in an unforgiving world. How technology can bring a drug relief (biomedical engineering).

We were joined by exploratory scientist and researcher Dr Rabia Khan who will give insight into how AI (artificial intelligence) and data are being used in the development of new drugs, including those used for pain. We were able to create two distinct pieces for [pain]Byte: The ballet and the accompanying VR experience that looked at VR as storytelling in the world of chronic pain.

[pain]Byte is the 3rd ballet and we used this opportunity to bring to light the issues and challenges of an invisible disability to audiences. The R&D of the biometric data and the VR experience in order to present data that was informed by and in response to the human body. We are not for profit organisation, providing innovative digital computer science STEAM focused education & curriculum opportunities including workshops, training and produce data driven dance performance to highlight, engage and encourage people into loving computer science education.

painbyte VR from Genevieve Smith-Nunes on Vimeo.

Off to Budapest ScratchBUD2017

Genevieve Smith-Nunes — Fri, 01 Sep 2017 13:27:35 +0000

We are really excited as Genevieve gave a keynote at #ScratchBUD2017 on our datadrivendance project and specifically spoke about [pain]byte. #ScratchBUD2017.

Scratch Conference 2017 in Budapest powered by @EPAM August 24-25, 2017

The 2017 Scratch Conference is a unique opportunity to meet other Scratch educators from around the world, learn from one another, and be inspired to grow and share your coding experience.

Scratch BDX workshop Light it up with Crumble

Genevieve Smith-Nunes — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 13:14:44 +0000

A delivered a workshop at the international Scratch conference in Bordeaux (2017)

I love using the crumble board with all ages of students. The board becomes the enabler for the projects and not the centre piece. It has a very simple and clean interface programmed with “scratch” like blocks. We have made disco lights, miniture faire ground rides, drag cars and even motorised lego Creepers.

Global Movements dance, data & cultural tolerance

Genevieve Smith-Nunes — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 12:02:51 +0000

The Gallery @ The Curve

Sat 22 Apr to Wed 31 May 2017

A mixture of dance and visual arts, this project was initiated by the young people working with Aik Saath. Running from January to March 2017, with the help from us at ReadySaltedCode, this project created a piece of visual art, mapping different dances that represent Slough’s diverse communities.

Slough’s Global Movements is the first project of its kind to map the body movements of dancers from different cultures- an initiative well-suited to the most diverse town in the UK outside London. Locally-based dance groups signed up, including experts in bhangra, Apna Virsa; Datchet Border Morris and street dancers, EBC Warriors.

An exhibition, showcasing the results of the project in the Curve on 22th April – 31 May 2017.

Wearables & Biometric data

Genevieve Smith-Nunes — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 11:06:35 +0000

One of the challenges when working with students is ensuring that their personal data is completely safe. For this reason we are using live data in for the ballet and sharing only stored data from the choreographer who is over 18. The variety of sensors, boards and programming languages enable to project to be accessed by students of all ages and interests. From controlling LEDs in primary school through to the #biometric data and #VR development

Classical Ballet & VR Storytelling (paper)

Genevieve Smith-Nunes — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 10:58:53 +0000

Abstract: for EVA- London 2017

Our initial stage paper focuses on the Virtual Reality (VR) experience of the [pain]Byte ballet. The live and VR experience debut October 1st 2017, as part of the Brighton digital festival. Specifically, the development of the VR environment to compliment live performance by using the same choreography to create a option capture element of the VR story telling experience. Reviewing Virtual & Alternative reality gaming & storytelling works and the use of VR for chronic pain management (Chen, Win). Does the VR experience compare to that of the live theatre for the audience?

The main. purpose of the pieces links to how “we” present ourselves online, these better or veiled versions of ourselves. For chronic pain sufferers this can be daily activity in the real world. The paper concludes by identifying some future directions for the research project.

The Ballet: [pain]Byte is a data driven dance classical ballet performance and VR (virtual reality) experience. [pain]Byte, is about chronic pain and biomedical engineering, in particular the use of implanted technology – neuromodulation (Al-Kaisey et al). Using data as a medium for storytelling, what it means to be in chronic pain. The live augmented theatre and VR experience research focuses on how an audience’s exposure and understanding are impacted by the difference mediums used for [pain]byte.

Graphical Web Conference 2016

Genevieve Smith-Nunes — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 09:28:07 +0000

It was an honour to be part of the Graphical Web Conference 2016 @METoffice in Exeter.

The Graphical Web 2016

Kinect & Protocols

The Graphical Web is an annual, global conference that showcases the many new open source technologies available for presenting visual information on the web. The conference showcases best practice, new opportunities and future directions in the fast-changing world of web graphics and will appeal to a variety of professionals throughout the technology, data visualisation and graphics industries.

The Graphical Web 2016 is being organised by the Met Office, and hosted at its global headquarters in Exeter, UK. The event will be of interest to a broad range of attendees, including, but not limited to, graphics professionals, browser developers, data journalists, and students, anyone keen to explore the potential of graphical web technology to enrich communication, data sharing and storytelling.

The event includes conference sessions with keynote talks from industry experts, as well as training sessions and workshops on the latest graphics technologies and techniques. Sessions will be available for complete beginners through to experienced professionals.

http://2016.graphicalweb.org/

BDF16 TENSE – a digital discourse on PAIN

Genevieve Smith-Nunes — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 11:00:31 +0000

An evening of Digital artists and producers, Sarah Pickthall and Genevieve Smith-Nunes, curated an evening of installations with Jon Adams and Rachel Bagshaw, and presentations by Genevieve Smith-Nunes, Howard Hardiman and Clare Plumley at the Lighthouse on 26 September

Clare Plumely

Is it possible to encourage interference, disrupt a faulty pain system and extend sensory experience via visual language/immersive environments? How might we challenge the perception and experience of pain though play, shift the focus to sensation? Clare has a chronic pain condition and as a result of this have developed heightened sensory responses to her environs and to my internal physiological activity. Instead of trying to block pain as it arrives she has learned to go into it, explore it’s fluctuations, challenge any sense that it might be fixed. she uses sound, shape, texture to transform the experience of pain into sensation, it’s an internal sensory system, like a sort of self-taught synesthesia.

She presented a paper entitled: “Brain in Pain: body mapping, pain visualisation and mapping the invisible’ at a research workshop at ‘Electronic Visualisation in the Arts’ Conference in London in July 2014.(1) During the presentation http://www.slideshare.net/clareplumley/brain-in-pain (2) she talked about the signalling system of a brain in pain, ‘brain and pain maps’, ideas of induced synesthesia and brain plasticity. Wonndered whether we might explore the idea of sensory orchestration, neuroplasticity and the phantom or virtual body to patients through the use of technology and looked at the work of artists who are using technology to explore different models of embodiment.

Howard Hardiman started out hand-drawing the graphic novel Badger. He now publishes his books online using Twine software, for telling interactive, non-linear stories. His research-based arts practice began when he interviewed male escorts in London and created the comic, The Lengths. He initially did pen and ink drawings but as The Lengths developed, Howard shifted to drawing using Manga Studio software and a Wacom tablet. People who experience chronic pain are advised to meditate, to bring awareness to the body, which Howard says would perhaps work “if my body was not so hostile to me”.

This on going discussion of what is pain, how it presents and how it limits the individual is one not to be forgotten.