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Educational Opportunities

School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe

School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe presents a 5-wk online class exploring soft wearables and biological textiles.
About this event
Can soft technology expand the ways our bodies sense and interact with the environment?

/ Five-week Live* Online class begins 27. October ends 24. November

/ Every Wednesday, 6pm-8pm, CET

/ Small class of participants

Course Description

Coded Biophilia is a workshop designed to learn basics of soft wearables and the exploration of biological textiles.

During the workshop, students will explore the potential of bacterial cellulose for textile futures in terms of growing living materials and creating speculative scenarios for second skins, sensors, and adaptive responsive structures. Learning new methods of making sensory surfaces for wearables and to envision how biotechnology and new materials will shape our environment. At the end of the workshop, students will be able to identify state-of-the-art soft wearable and bio-textiles applications.

Technology is getting closer and closer to our skin. What we wear today will soon be forgotten and replaced with biological technologies that are not only changing and challenging the way we consume and experience design and fashion, but also how we relate to and work with nature instead of against it.

At this crucial point, as we tumble towards bio collapse; ensued by our growth-obsessed culture and unsustainable models for living, the challenge and responsibility of contemporary designers, thinkers and researchers is to lead with awareness and sensibility towards both the planet and its people. We have a responsibility to create a space for dialogue and a framework for reflection, to inspire innovation that will disrupt our current fatal model. Through Coded Biophilia and within this space, we have the opportunity to re-think the relationship between technology, design and society.

Course Outline

Week 1: Introductions

This first week will be a chance for the group to get to know each other, introduce your work and interests as well as getting to know more about Giulia’s practise. There will be an introduction workshop, and an input & output group exercise to get the class started.

Week 2: Bio-textiles

The second week will be learning all about bio-textiles and getting to try out some methods for creating your own. This will be followed by a group brainstorming and then coupling up for projects.

Week 3: Soft Sensors

This week will focus on learning about soft sensors followed by a hands-on session to make some of our own. The group will continue to share ideas and brainstorm for projects.

Week 4: Open Source

This week will look into open-source methods as well as creating some DIY recipes/tutorials to try out.

Week 5: Presentations

During the final week, the group will share and present the recipes and tutorials along with a working prototype created during the class, feeding ideas and reflections back to each other to conclude our time together.

sliding scale between  €187.64 – €321.32

 Coded Biophilia

Berlin Drawing Room

Format: In-person classes at different museums

with artist-instructor G Caruso

Learn about art and art history by studying the masterpieces on display at the Berlin state museums, opening another dimension to your sketchbook practice. The museum artworks come alive as we make studies and learn techniques with the guidance of classically trained artist G Caruso. G provides step by step technical demonstrations, revealing subtle secrets hidden within the process behind the artworks.

Each class has a specific focus and we will work from specifically selected artworks. In this way, the museum experience can go from overwhelming to intimate, as you develop unique relationships through your drawing practice with individual artworks and artists. Instead of spending 10 seconds in front of 200 paintings, spend two hours getting know how just one artwork really works and what it has to offer you for your own practice.

Remember, “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” (Picasso)

Class 1: Pergamonmuseum: Drapery
Saturday, October 2
12:00 – 14:00 ( Bodestraße 1-3, 10178 Berlin)

Class 2: Alte Nationale Galerie: Hands and Feet
Saturday, October 16
12:00 – 14:00 (Bodestraße 1-3, 10178 Berlin)

Class 3: Gemäldegalerie: Portrait 
Saturday, October 30
12:00 – 14:00 (Matthäikirchplatz, 10785 Berlin)

Class 4: Altes Museum: Figure in Contrapposto
Saturday, November 13
12:00 – 14:00 (Bodestraße 1-3, 10178 Berlin)

Class 5: Bode Museum: Figure in Movement
Saturday, November 27
12:00 – 14:00 (Am Kupfergraben, entrance at the Monbijou bridge, 10117 Berlin)


Workshop Bundle: 5x classes
Oct 2, Oct 16, Oct 30, Nov 13, Nov 27
Cost: 130€

Individual Class
Cost: 30€ per class

Museum Sketching Workshop (In-Person)

with G Caruso

G Caruso will guide you through the process of using gouache to do color studies and location sketches in your sketchbook. Through detailed step by step demos and individual tutoring. In the workshop you will learn tips and tricks on rendering landscape features such as water, architecture, plants and trees, and other subjects like still life or figures efficiently and expressively

You will learn:

- From start to finish, how to create a quick painting in gouache.
- How to use the opaque medium of gouache to enhance your sketches
- How to choose and mix colors
- Painting with Gouache


Gouache is a painting medium very close to watercolor, in fact if you already have a watercolor palette, you just need to buy a tube of white and you’re ready to go! The difference between gouache and watercolor is mainly the fact that gouache is opaque and allows more rework and layering than the unforgiving watercolor. Gouache could be a comforting interlude before getting back to your watercolor practice or a valuable tool for creating studies for future oil or acrylic paintings.

Sketchbook Practice Workshops Series
This workshop is part of the year-round workshop series Sketchbook Practice. See scheduled modules for the entire year HERE. Join at the start of any module!

 

Our Online Workshop Format
- Livestreaming classes take place via online video conference (using Zoom). The instructor conducts live demos with step-by-step instruction so that you can work together in real time. You also have the opportunity to ask questions and get feedback during class time.
- We keep class sizes small and the atmosphere is interactive and supportive.
- Finish exercises or practice at your own pace, at home, outside of class time.
- Receive individual feedback on your completed work and exchange comments and questions with the instructor and your fellow workshop participants in an encouraging environment.
- Find supplemental material and watch the progress of other participants by visiting the workshop - - Dropbox folder in between classes.
- Recordings from each week’s livestreaming session are available in case you miss a class or want to review a demo.


Sketchbook Practice: Gouache
November 1, 2021 – December 6, 2021
6x Monday from 6-8 pm CET
(6pm in Berlin, 12pm in New York, 9am in San Francisco, 5pm in London)

Online

Cost: 180 Euros
(includes 19% VAT)

Sketchbook Practice: Gouache quantity
1

Sketchbook Practice: Gouache (Online0)

with Mira O’Brien (Berlin Drawing Room Founding Director)
Watercolor

Learn watercolor techniques while we visit the beautiful and bizarre fungi kingdom during this online workshop. As the fruiting bodies (mushrooms) of the fungi emerge in the fall taking surprising and varied forms, Mira will collect and photograph new specimens every week for the class. We will create botanical style watercolor paintings using photographic references and you will also be encouraged to collect your own specimens if you wish.

Mycology
The workshop will also include contributions by professional biologist and mycologist Maria Marrow, providing insight into mushroom identification and their contribution to forest ecology. While mycology as a science won’t be the primary focus of this workshop, learning about our specimens will add depth to our observational painting. Maria Morrow is a botany professor at College of the Redwoods in California where she teaches a mushroom ID and ecology course and she is VP of the local mycology club.

What to expect:

- Learn intro and advanced watercolor techniques that can be applied to mushrooms as well as other subject matter.
- Learn how to mix the complex organic colors associated with mushrooms, while also learning some color theory.
- Learn about botanical illustration composition.
- See examples from the history of botanical and fungi illustration. Learn about some key artists.
- Learn basic mushroom anatomy and fascinating stories about mushrooms and fungi.

The drawings and painting made in this workshop are more like the field notes kept in the sketch books of Naturalists than the highly polished illustrations found in a botany textbook. These recordings are just as much about the subjective process of observation as they are about the recording of scientific data. Techniques will include line drawing with watercolor tea wash, building up layers with watercolor washes, adding detail with special watercolor effects and paying close attention to oft-overlooked subjects!

November 2 – November 23 2021
4 x Tuesdays livestreaming from 6 – 8 pm CET
(6pm in Berlin, 12pm in New York, 9am in San Francisco, 5pm in London)

Fungi Botanical Watercolor Workshop (online)

with G Caruso

Learn traditional figurative painting techniques with your choice of acrylic, oil or gouache paint. 

Opaque painting is the art technique that allows for the most stunning realism. How were the Renaissance masters able to paint such lifelike human forms? Bodies with weight, faces with subtle expressions, muscles with motion. We will explore the fundamental techniques, from structure to glazing, that make this physicality rendered through paint possible. 

We will look at the work of old masters to learn how to render and paint the human body, from skin color to fingers and muscles.

Join the incredible journey of figurative painting and become part of art history. Figurative painting currently enjoys a lively revival in contemporary art. This fresh wave of figurative art explores identity, media representation, our relationship with technology, amongst other topics. But a common thread amongst the most highly acclaimed artists is always a connection and acknowledgement of art history. 

This workshop is a wonderful way to begin your own exploration of figurative painting, by gaining a solid foundation in traditional techniques in a contemporary context. 

Topics Covered:

- Skin tone: color mixing, palette and shading
- Brushstrokes quality, direction and shaping
- Small details and the importance of shadow points and highlights


Figure: Painting Techniques
November 4, 2021 – December 2, 2021

5x Thursdays 6-8 CET Online

(6pm in Berlin, 12pm in New York, 9am in San Francisco, 5pm in London)

Cost: 160 Euros
(includes 19%VAT)

Figure Series: Painting Techniques (Online)

The main premise of this intensive full weekend course in oil painting is the technical and conceptual development of the Still life.

 If you ever had a question “Can it be a still-life? How do I move forward on this painting?", this is the class that will help you. We will cover exactly how to progress from start to finish. Following an organized and clear procedure is an essential part of painting. The objective of the course is to learn a logical, step-by-step process to still-life. 

Topics covered include the Composition, Objects Construction, Perspective, Light and Color Theory, and materials for painting. Students will work from life set up, we will arrange together a still-life from different objects, or personal objects selected by the student. With short introduction on study of historic and contemporary painting methodologies with emphasis on exploration on some masterpieces of Chardin, Henri Matisse, etc.

"What would Chardin paint on a Wednesday morning in Berlin?”

Format: An in-person class at the Berlin Drawing Room Studio with Mira O’Brien

An Experiential Process
Paint botanical watercolors in a small group setting with a focus on individual feedback. Each studio class will have a specific theme centered on the specimens collected by Mira. Drawing and painting from observation, we will immerse ourselves in the experiential nature of this process.

Beautiful and Unexpected Specimens
For each class, Mira will create a beautiful presentation of natural specimens. You can choose your own specimen from the collection to draw from. The specimens will focus around a seasonal theme such as “medicinal weeds”, forest mushrooms, fall foliage, etc…

All experience levels are welcome.
Instead of the step-by-step paint along format of Mira’s Online Botanical Watercolor Workshops, these studio classes will focus on individual feedback. Mira will present examples from her own work, and historical botanical artists, to give technical direction to the class theme. Based on each participant’s experience level and interests, Mira will suggest specific approaches and provide one on one demonstrations.

These studio sessions are a great supplement to ongoing Online Botanical Watercolor Workshop Series as a well as a great introduction to Mira and the Berlin Drawing Room for anyone curious about joining for a longer course.

Supplies: All the basic supplies to get started are available at the studio. If you have your own set of watercolors, brushes and paper you are highly recommended to bring them. Bring a mask and a warm sweater – we will be keeping the window open.

Botanical Watercolor Studio Class Dates:
September 12, 11-13:00
October 10, 11-13:00
November 14, 11-13:00
Check back for more dates… if individual classes sell out due to the small group size and there is more interest an additional time slot can be added. contact@berlindrawingroom.com
Covid-19 Update: This workshop will take place indoors with a maximum group size of 6 people. All current safety guidelines will be followed. Bring proof of vaccination, recovery or negative test.

Location: Berlin Drawing Room Studio. Wrangelstrasse 31a, 10997 Berlin-Kreuzberg.

Botanical Watercolor Studio Class

Learn technology online while exploring who you are and what you care about with like-minded humans! Come join us for our Fall Semester at School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe, a Berlin-based school founded in 2014. Topics include:

#touch #care #machinelearning #audiovisuals #3D #speculativefutures #designingsociety #UX #UI #interactivetechnology #transhackfeminism #IoT #connecteddevices #designfiction #voiceinterfaces #wearables #biotextiles #generativeart #artisttoolkit #apocalypse #electromagnetism #coils #hardware #datapractice #physicaldata #moresoon

Fall Semester at School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe

DAAD

DAAD scholarships offer graduates the opportunity to continue their education in Germany with a postgraduate or continuing course of study. The scholarships also promote the exchange of experience and networking amongst colleagues.

Who can apply?
Foreign applicants who have gained a first university degree in the fields of Fine Art, Design, Visual Communication and Film at the latest by the time they commence their scholarship-supported study programme.

In this study programme, you can complete:

-a Master's degree course/postgraduate degree course leading to a final qualification, or
-a complementary course without degree (not an undergraduate course) at a state or state-recognised German university of your choice.

This programme only funds projects in the artistic and creative area. Other DAAD scholarship programmes are available for applicants from the field of History of Art or Art Studies or for artists with a scientific project.

DAAD Study Scholarships | Postgraduate Studies Scholarships

Berlin School of Drawing

Berlin School of Drawing ( born as Berlin Drawing ) has been founded in 2012.
Since than, we are regularly offering weekly classes and weekend workshops, developing a growing artists community. Following our classes, students have time to practice and learn through a strong program based on the tuition of basics and advanced knowledge on drawing, panting, life drawing, illustration, sculpture, printing and more. Along with technical skills, lessons focus on art history and the development of visual art during history.

The weekly appointment with the untutored life drawing sessions is now established and a reference for sketchers in the area and from other parts of town. Poses can go normally from 2 to 20/30 minutes.
Lessons are conducted in English ( we speak also German )

CHECK THE PROGRAM ON THE WEBSITE!