PIFcamp s11 e01: God of Light [Energy Awareness workshop]


//For now, this entry is being edited continuously, adjusting itself to the PIFcraft timetable and following encounters within the community. Current versions are noted in the square brackets at the end of the title.

First PIFcraft log entry will focus on writings, dialogues and participants’ projects which can (for starters, at least) be summed up in the following set: off-grid, low-tech, self-host.

Part 1: Off-grid

//A report will follow on Bernhard Rasinger‘s intro workshop on energy awareness and solar power. One of his PIFprojects is setting up an off-grid solar-powered network for the camp.

Listen to the Energy Awareness workshop jingle ft. Karel Gott & Darinka‘s Fang das Licht:

Bernhard’s Energy Awareness workshop. Photo: Katja Goljat


For the past 11 years, the village of Soča (located in the Triglav National Park) has been providing PIFcampers with infrastructure, space and natural phenomena. Although the week-long communities that form each camp connect with the environment, try their best to take care of it, and generally just immensely appreciate it, there’s no denying that bringing 50+ extra persons (not to mention all of the sound- and light-emitting devices) to a village of 140 inhabitants, is a shock. There are several ways to monitor (and then find ways to diminish) our impact, such as calculating power consumption, understanding which (re)sources the energy is coming from, and setting up off-grid systems that are more in tune with their surroundings.

Bernhard started monitoring PIFcamp’s power consumption last year. Here are some of his findings:


//How can we reduce these? But also: how does that compare with the kilowatt hours we use in our ordinary lives? And what are the experiences of those of us living off-grid?

Next installments:
Part 2: Low-tech
Part 3: Self-host

What we’re reading, researching, listening to:
– (re)programming – Strategies for Self-Regeneration (free) | authors: Marta Peirano and guests, edited by: Janez Fakin Janša, published by: Aksioma (Ljubljana, 2022)
– Artists Running Data Centers (CC-BY-SA 4.0) | edited by: Davide Bevilacqua, published by: sevus.at (Linz, 2024)
– Low-tech Magazine | about the mag
– Permacomputing | community
– Solar Protocol: Exploring Energy-Centered Design | authors: Tega Brain, Alex Nathanson, Benedetta Piantella (LIMITS ’22, 2022)
– A Feminist Server Manifesto (Peer Production License) | about
– Distributed Web of Care | about

We’ll continue adding items to the above list as we go. If you have a suggestion, let us know on PIFcamp grounds or send an e-mail to katja[at]ljudmila[dot]org.

PIFresidency: Flavours of transformation

This summer, we’re excited to welcome Austrian artist and food experience designer Fransisca Tan to PIFresidency. During her stay, she will lead a series of workshops exploring the intersections of food, art, and identity. Rooted in both personal and collective experience, the series treats food not only as sustenance but as a medium of artistic expression.

The residency will focus on community-oriented food practices, drawing connections between the rituals of food preparation and the creative process. Activities will unfold through field explorations, intimate research sessions, hands-on workshops, and will culminate in a final presentation, inviting participants to reflect on food not just as sustenance, but as a material for making, a metaphor for change, and a shared cultural language. During her residency several experimental workshops are planned in the degraded landscapes of Krater, a creative laboratory in a construction pit in Ljubljana, and during PIFcamp, in the pristine nature of upper Soča valley.

First in the series of workshops will happen on Friday, 25th July, 5PM @Krater, Ljubljana
So, If you’re a PIFcamper arriving on Friday in Ljubljana or passing through that day, join us for a session with Francisca! You can let us know by writing at: delavnice@projekt-atol.si

Link to the event: Food & Childhood: How to explore the spring of life through food?

Second Session – Monday, 28th July @PIFcamp, Soča
The series of workshops will continue at PIFcamp with a sensory introduction session: Sensory meditation with breakfast items – a gentle start of the day and a deep dive into taste, memory, and presence.

Later in August, the series returns to Ljubljana for more workshops open to all – stay tuned and folow the website here: Event series: Flavours of transformation

Sinfonía biótica: Inter-species creative ecosystems by Fernando Fernández

Sinfonía Biótica is an inter-species creative ecosystem. An investigation into the physical and electromagnetic bodies of other organisms, plants and fungi. A network of sensors connected to a database that monitors environmental data and its relationship with the vital signs of organisms.

An open community of people interested in learning more about other forms of life and in developing artistic projects with this information with the aim of raising awareness about the complexity and importance of respecting and caring for these organisms.
 
All this information feeds into Sinfonía biótica VR, a virtual reality experience in which human beings and non-animal organisms -such as plants and fungi- collaborate in the creation of an interactive audiovisual piece.

Each of these organisms within the symphony, based on the data generated by their electrical impulses, movements and sounds, will interpret a part of the bio data sound composition. The movements and interactions of the performer will be added to the unique and unrepeatable collaborative piece as another instrument.

Sinfonía biótica is a project based on multiple types of information collected from different living beings. On the one hand, we record the physical bodies of the tree and its environment using photogrammetry 
techniques and radiance fields. On the other hand, we collect data from the electrical impulses of the plants and soon also from their environment (temperature, humidity, electroconductivity). We treat this data in a way that allows us to represent both the physical appearance and part of their inner workings to create the digital personality of each one of them.

PHYSICAL BODIES
On one hand, we digitise the physical body of organisms using photogrammetry and Gaussian splatting techniques. After processing and cleaning, we can use these point clouds in Blender, Unreal Engine with the LumaAI plugin or TouchDesigner.

ELECTRICAL DATA FROM PLANTS
Biodata – Symbioware
It is an open-source hardware technological device, designed by Sam Cusumano, from Electricity for Progress, based on Arduino ESP-32 that allows us to amplify the electrical signals of living beings.
By connecting its electrodes to plants or fungi, we can receive fluctuations in their electrical impulses and convert them into sounds, projections, changes in lights, etc.

How does it work?
– Small changes in electrical conductivity are measured between electrodes and fed into a programmable microcontroller.
– The changes are detected by calculations of means and standard deviations that light up LEDs and produce MIDI notes and control changes.
– The circuit used to detect biological galvanic conductance is based on a 555 timer configured as an astable multivibrator, similar to a simple lie detector.

The exploration and practice of Biodata Sonification can allow a student, musician, scientist or florist to listen to the secret life of plants, and understand how their tools work!

More information:
https://sinfoniabiotica.xyz
https://molinolab.org
https:/b1tdreamer.xyz

FIREFLY

Matjaž Pogačnik and Jakob Lavrič are developing a project that explores the organization of autonomous, self-sustaining systems. The work is inspired by firefly synchronization, a natural phenomenon in which fireflies coordinate their light pulses, and aims to recreate this behavior using simple electronic units.

The project involves the design of artificial “fireflies”, a small electronic devices equipped with a light source, internal timer, speaker, and an infrared (IR) communication interface. Each unit can detect signals from nearby fireflies and respond by adjusting its own behavior.

The fireflies interact with one another and are capable of complete synchronization. At the same time, they perform mutual data transmission, which can be observed, heard, and configured. This allows real-time insight into how the system self-organizes: how signals propagate, how synchronization emerges, and how information flows through the network.

References:
Mirollo, R. E., & Strogatz, S. H. (1990). Synchronization of Pulse-Coupled Biological Oscillators. SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, 50(6), 1645-1662. Synchronization of Pulse-Coupled Biological Oscillators Renato E. Mirollo; Steven H. Strogatz SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematic

Lewis, S. M., & Cratsley, C. K. (2008). Flash Signal Evolution, Mate Choice, and Predation in Fireflies. Annual Review of Entomology, 53, 293-321. Access PDF via Sci-Hub

Glitching images through pixel sorting

During PIFcamp, Simon Goričar will continue experimenting in the field of pixel sorting, a set of techniques for creating glitchy images (more generally known as glitch art). His early explorations have shown intriguing seeds of promise. He wishes to build improved tools and explore pixel sorting methods, both as a way of obtaining even more interesting results, as well as a way of removing dependence on proprietary tools.

The project has several goals:
– to discover and document various ways of pixel sorting that more commonly give pleasant and good results,
– to build a Rust library for creative image effects using pixel sorting, which will be eventually open-sourced,
– to capture a wide array of source material, focused mostly on nature and structures around PIFcamp, and
– to put to the test alternative ways of post-processing and combining pixel sorting outputs using open-source image editors.

Simon Goričar is primarily a software engineer, but also an aspiring musician and, more recently, a music live-coder who has appeared a few times at local from-scratch sessions in Ljubljana this year. With a passion for open source, open data, and “software-for-good” as a means of disentangling oneself from tech giants, he hopes to build software as a means of improving quality of life.

When not actively engaged in his project or hiking around with a camera, he will undoubtedly be inquisitively wandering around PIFcamp and trying to learn as much as possible. Hopefully some evening live coding jams will calm his spirit!

Embodied Synthesisers by Diana Alina Serbanescu

I often think with the body—sometimes alone, sometimes with others—trying to sense where movement begins and where it becomes something else. A gesture, a sound, a signal. Sometimes I wonder: what does it mean to feel a sound before you hear it?

At this year’s PIFcamp, Diana will be continuing a thread from last year’s workshop Negotiation of Agency, Points of Contact, where she explored how bodies negotiate control and connection. This year, that exploration will shift into sound.

Her focus will be on what she calls embodied synthesizers: simple, wearable sound-making devices designed for the body or for two performers to share. Her goal isn’t to create precise instruments, but to open up new ways of listening to movement – and new ways of moving through sound.

She will be experimenting with different ways bodies might generate sound. What happens when a stretch of fabric triggers a frequency shift? Or when a brush of skin closes a conductive loop, and a tone responds to touch? Can sound arise from the space between people, from the tension or timing of a gesture, rather than from a knob on the machine?

Some of the configurations are very simple: an accelerometer worn on the wrist, a soft sensor stitched into a stretch of fabric, imagined as a connective tissue between two bodies, a tiny speaker buzzing against the ribs. The idea isn’t to build perfect instruments, but to create fragile, relational systems – ones that only make sense when moved through, together.

Previous experimentation in this direction available here: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/303774830