Pumping Station: One

Photo by Anne Petersen

Last month we had our inaugural 300 Seconds of Fame, featuring a wild and wooly tour through Peoplehacking (Four Formulae For The Reduction Of Operational Mass or The Engineers’ Guide to Weight Loss), Maker Faire, photographers rights, a RepRap update, and the NEW and IMPROVED solution for HACKERSPACE maintenance: BRAWNDO! (which evidently makes you good at yelling).

Tomorrow we have more great (but short!) performances to enjoy, including some EXTREMELY AWESOME facts about neuroanatomy, fiddling around, an anonymous committee, some digeridooing, arduino radio, and how to renounce your legal rights to your creations.

Read the full monty about 300 Seconds of Fame and what else the night is about via our wiki.

But to really experience the night you have to be there! Or, if you can’t, you get demoted to watching the ustream. SO BE THERE!

I should really lay off the BRAWNDO.

It’s that time of the month again: time to gather together all of the loud things that you have and bring them to Pumping Station: One for an evening of fun!

This Friday, March 12, at 7pm, Pumping Station: One is hosting its monthly Unusual Musical Instrument Jam! We’ll be running it synchronously with i3Detroit again this month. As always, we welcome anything that makes noise…bring your electronics, your toys, your common household items, even your musical instruments if that’s your bag. If it’s loud, we’d love to see and hear it!

The event is open to the public, and free.

[Image by buhny on Flickr, licensed Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.]

Photo by Rubin Starset

We’ve updated our weekly meeting schedule and the third Tuesday of the month is going to be our monthly Open House.  While there’s no official business being conducted anyone should feel free to stop by.  New members and old members alike are encouraged to get certified on all our wonderful tools, talk about projects and build.  If you’ve never visited and you’re interested in seeing the space Tuesdays are the perfect day!  Meet your fellow hackers, discuss projects and join our growing community.  We hope to see you there!

The doors will be open from 7pm until the last member has left.  As usual the space is located at 3354 N Elston, just come through the big red door!

Announcing our brand new Tuesday Night Schedule:

• 1st Tuesday of the month: Monthly Membership Meeting and Board Meeting
• 2nd Tuesday of the month: 300 Seconds of Fame
• 3rd Tuesday of the month: Open House
• 4th Tuesday of the month: Workshop Day (a longer-format talk)
• 5th Tuesday of the month (when it exists): PS: One Pot Luck

All events are open to the public, occur at 3354 N. Elston Ave in Chicago (look for the red door) and start around 8pm, and doors always open at 6pm for schmoozing (use the doorbell if you can’t get in). Read the rest of this entry →

Photo courtesy Anne Petersen

A new new presentation format at Pumping Station: One.

We’ve had lightning talks, and we’ve had a Pecha Kucha night. To push the boundaries of fun and learning cool new things, we’re proud to present 300 Seconds of Fame.

We’re combining our presentation media and borrowing heavily from Noisebridge’s Five Minutes of Fame to create our own version. So now, 2nd Tuesdays of each month at PS:One, you! yes YOU! get to hear your fellow members, geeks, and other associated community-minded people present to whoever wants to show up, but only for 300 seconds apiece.

Basically: you’ve got five minutes. Use it wisely.

Within the time parameters, your 300 seconds can be a presentation, a musical number, a demonstration, a debate, a run-through of a proof of concept, performance art, live circuit bending, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Will it fit into five minutes, be feasible for the space, and be appreciated by an audience? Then go for it.

Questions? Check the 300SoF wiki page.

You can sign up with me (Anne) or Laurie. We’ll start talks at 8, though doors will be open to the public at 7.

2nd Tuesday of each month. Spread the word.

The Unusual Musical Instrument Jam on January 8th was a rousing good time! A loud group of members and guests alike came to the space. People brought instruments both electronic and analog, both traditional and non-traditional…and we made a lot of noise. A big thank you to everyone who came out for the event! A big thanks as well to i3Detroit, who originated the idea and also streamed their cacophony online.

It was so much fun that the Unusual Musical Instrument Jam will now be a monthly event, on the second Friday of every month! So, mark your calendars for February 12 at 7:00pm, bring anything you’d like to play or share, and get ready to jam!

image credit: Gaetan Lee

Guest speakers and mother-son duo Nancy Milnes and Dan Simborg come to PS:One to talk about the technology, promise, and pitfalls of neurofeedback training.

Date: 1/23/2009
Time: 6:00 pm, before the evening’s Hackathon activities

Neurofeedback, or biofeedback with an electroencephalogram(EEG), is a potentially revolutionary technology. You can use it to train your brain for increased focus, improved meditation, and to alleviate various medical conditions. Come early to the Hackathon to learn from two experienced practitioners of neurofeedback:

Nancy Milnes is a licensed clinical social worker with over 25 years experience as a psychotherapist.  in 1999, frustrated with the limits of talk therapy, she began her exploration of neurofeedback.  Along the way, she cured herself of narcolepsy and migraine headaches as well as reduced some of her ADD symptoms.  Nancy has used a variety of systems and approaches and currently combines talk therapy with 2 different kinds of neurofeedback therapy.

Dan Simborg is a sociologist, community organiser, and producer of many artistic events throughout the country.  he took an interest in neurofeedback when his mother “turned him on to it.”  over the years he has seen many advances and changes in the technology and has explored NFB as an effective healing modality.  in 2006, dan went to Victoria, BC, to train under the creators of one of the programs being used by the mother son team.  what he found was an opening of a door into the mind and spirit that surpasses many non-traditional areas of thought.

Our fellow hackers at i3Detroit came up with a great idea: the Unusual Musical Instrument Jam Session. The premise is simple: you come to the hackerspace and bring anything you have that makes noise, whether it was intended for musical purposes or not. You get together with everyone else who has also brought their favourite noise-making objects, and improvise some music together!

They’re hosting this event at their space on the evening of January 8th–and suggested that we do it synchronously with them. So, we shall!

You are invited to join the Pumping Station: One Cacophony Club at 7:00pm on Friday, January 8th for the Unusual Musical Instrument Jam Session! Bring anything you have that makes noise: Arduino concoctions, your voice, circuit-bent toys, traditional instruments, synthesizers–if you can create sound with it, it’s welcome! We’ll jam out, goof off, and show our friends at i3Detroit (as well as each other!) what we can do with objects that may or may not have been designed to make music in the first place.

This event is free, and open to members and guests alike.

(CC licensed image from Collin_Mel on flickr.)

Pumping Station: One has been invited to join a bunch of other local startups this Thursday at Black Rock Bar for a festive meet and greet.  Stop in around 7:00 PM to visit us and all the other great organizations listed below.  Ugly sweaters, as Rule #118 would suggest, are encouraged.

Hosts & Sponsors:

• Windy Citizen
• Centerstage Chicago
• Outside the Loop Radio
• Chicago Carless
• Lake Effect News
• Chicago Foodies
• The Urbanophile
• Backgarage
• Driftglass
• Pumping Station: One
• What’s a Boy to Do
• Windy City Wine Guy
• Fun Sherpa
• Chicago Bar Project
• Making Chicago Home
• Sound CitizenLoud Loop Press
• Chicago Tumbls Too
• Chicago Dining Examiner
• Chicago Culture and Events Examiner
• Exploring Chicago Examiner
• Chicago Cubs Examiner
• Gals Guide
• Buzzflash.comWindy City Watch
• Chi Town Tattler

Rebooting Transistor Thursdays with a “Solder Your Own Freeduino” workshop was a huge success.  Huge thanks to NKCelectronics for helping us track down the package in time for the class.  Starting this Thursday we’re going back to basics.  We’re going to be making home made electronic components the same way Georg Ohm, and Alessandro Volta did when they were exploring electricity in the 1800s.

We’re going to have another solder your own arduino workshop next month for those of you who couldn’t get a ticket.  The next workshop is going to be on a weekend and have some portions tweaked and retooled.  Thanks again to the first group who helped us out with some great feedback for this first dry run.  Stay tuned to the blog for more details.