10x10x10

’10x10x10′, is a Blackletter skills exchange project which followed an open call for 10 people interested in delivering a skill they had to a small group. While the name for the project refers to the ten workshops delivered by ten people over ten weeks, it also alludes to the creation of a new space for the facilitation of knowledge exchange and peer interaction as per Blackletter’s mission. The project includes a range of workshops both online and off, with both practical and experiential outcomes.

1/10: Art_Electric

This workshop concerned energy generation in low-tech art projects. It included generator basics and discussion of how anything that moves can be used to generate electricity. Starting with a quick showcase of “low tech art”. Espying how cheap and simple devices can be exploited to draw spectacular results. The group built an autonomously powered light sculpture and learned how to construct a wind turbine from readily available cheap materials. It took place in the CommonPlace Amateur Projects space through their kind assistance.

2/10: Sound/Audio Drawing

The Sound / Audio drawing workshop with Doris Rohr was a hands on drawing workshop using sounds generated by the group for subject matter and to engage the senses. The workshop was featured in a podcast on thebubble and it took place in the Broadstone XL space through their kind assistance.

3/10: Make a Crystal Radio

In this demonstration taped in the blackletter studio, John Younge describes how to build a simple crystal radio, elaborates on a number of other radio designs, explains the technology involved and offers a short history of it’s use.

4/10: Make a Bat Detector (Halloween Special!)

On Hallowe’en night, artist Anne Kelly leads a group in the construction of an electronic bat detector, handheld devices for discovering bats in the wild. Her attached notes contains support information on bats, sonar and testing the detector. It took place in the CommonPlace Amateur Projects space through their kind assistance.

5/10: Handmade Book Workshop

In her studio in Dublin, Sandi Sexton demonstrates the step-by-step construction of a simple hand-made book. Her basic design as demonstrated allows for the addition of a dvd-sleeve, making the workshop ideal for artists looking for an interesting hand-made approach to documenting their work. The workshop would also be a useful introduction for anyone interested in making artist-books.

6/10: Commons Culture

In his talk, which took place in The Lab and with their kind support, Kevin Flanagan introduced Creative Commons, which is a new alternative form of copyright license. Working from a visual arts context and supporting the presentation with examples of artworks which use these licenses, the talk ended with an engaging discussion.

7/10: Make a Cameraless Film

Dublin-based artist John O’Connell gave a workshop in The Lab with their kind support, which combined a demonstration of ‘cameraless film’ equipment with examples of it’s use through film history. Through painting, drawing and scratching into it’s surface and using a combination of animation techniques the participants had an opportunity to get hands-on with 16mm film. The final results were spliced together and then projected onto the wall to close the event.

8/10: Make a VGA Data Projector

Mel McCann guides Blackletter through the ins and outs of turning an overhead projector and a flat-screen monitor into a digital projector, as part of our 10×10×10 skills exchange workshops. All the bits and pieces needed are explained in the talk.

9/10: [COMING SOON...]Make a stereo microphone [COMING SOON...]

10/10: Using ‘Art Finder’ (with Blackletter.ie) [COMING SOON...]