This workshop encompasses the idea of intersecting science and art through soft-circuits and wearables, by sniffing and sonifying the invisible electromagnetic fields that surround our bodies. During three-days of hands-on prototyping with e-textile materials  - such as different conductive fabrics and yarns, handcrafting techniques and digital fabrication techniques participants will familiarize themselves with fractal antennas - antennas which use fractal geometry to maximize their bandwidth which are capable of sensing HAM radio, FM and AM bandwidth, satellite communication, PAN, RF and wifi signals depending on the antenna material and tuning; and will construct their own amplifier circuits to tap into the hidden EMFs and RFs. The aim of this workshop is to introduce the participants in the world of soft-circuitry, while exploring ideas of bodies, human perception, sonification and handmade artefacts through sonification of radio communications.

Workshop duration: 9 hours (3 hours per day)

Calendar
Day 1
Introduction to EMFs, fractal antennas and reference projects
Introduction to the materials that we will use to create our wearable EMF detectors
Hands-on: prototyping the textile circuits

Day 2
Hands-on: making the fractal antennas
Software defined radio demo/testing of the fractal antennas

Day 3
Finalizing the wearable detectors
Testing the wearables - indoors and outdoors