Workshops/CoreMemoryMarathon

64 bits of Crafted Memory

Unravel the Code IV - Core Memory Marathon

What kind of memories can can be stored in 64 bits? Who knows! For this group of Digital Craftsmen, the memory is all in the making.

For the fourth consecutive year of Unravel the Code, students of Baltimore’s Maryland Institute College of Art,and students of the Digital Craft programme at the Willem de Kooning Academy will join forces in Rotterdam for a week of lectures, workshops, and exchange. The workshop challenge for this years group of collaborators is perhaps the most ambitious: to literally craft computational memory. The type of memory to be made is a curious and obsolete mid-20th century technology where computation and weaving handwork intersect. Called Magnetic Core Memory, the principle behind the technology relies on an array of woven bead-like rings (cores) that can be magnetised in either a clockwise or counter clockwise direction. Thus, enabeling each core a binary differentiation (readable/writable as either a 1 or 0).

The goal of the workshop is to build from scratch two complete and working memory systems. The participants with be split into four groups, each with a ‘core’ task. The Drivers will build the driving hardware to send and sense electrical its pulses; the Etchers will create copper print plates that will serve for the circuitry and carrier of the magnetic memory; the Weavers will sew together the magnetic rings that will carry and store data, and the Dreamers will speculate the revival of core memory by exploring its artistic application.

Aside from the practical experience of building computational memory, the peculiarities of the medium will also bring other stories to discuss. From a distructive reading process can draw some parallels to contemporary concepts of human “working memory”, to the mere marvel that hand woven beads-on-threads ran some of the worlds first super computers. Considering that a standard USB stick can hold a billion or more bits of data and there that there is no guarantee that the reading and writing of the the core memory will be without failure, the practical functions will have to be displaced by more poetic matter. Nonetheless it will be a more then memorable experience.

Pre-Marathon Meeting

Anna Brancaccio abrancaccio@mica.edu Arthur Boer 0882827@hr.nl
Caroline Kim ckim02@mica.edu Boris Smeenk 0884964@hr.nl
Catie Buhler cbuhler@mica.edu Brice Ammar Khodja 0918590@hr.nl
Emma Whitlock ewhitlock@mica.edu Carly Muller 0880287@hr.nl
Esther Kim ekim05@mica.edu Emma Rijk & Eun Yang Lee 0880287@hr.nl 0918584@hr.nl
Jake O'Hagan johagan@mica.edu Floor Steinz 0866254@hr.nl
Katie Rose krose@mica.edu Judith vd Heiden 0864247@hr.nl
Kevin Cook kcook01@mica.edu Julia Rahliff 0918589@hr.nl
Linka Lin llin01@mica.edu Kars vd Heuvel 0884935@hr.nl
Mai Toyoshima mtoyoshima@mica.edu Kelly Fober 0838573@hr.nl
Ryan Griffin rgriffin01@mica.edu Lars Noback 0884935@hr.nl
Sanskruta Chakravarthy schakravarthy@mica.edu Laura Egger-Karlegger & Laura Lang 0918622@hr.nl 0918624@hr.nl
Stella Lee slee14@mica.edu Leontien van Hattem 0884174@hr.nl
Akane Bessho abessho@mica.edu Lisa Vermeer 0875522@hr.nl
Ece Hoboo Maevanwy Mcavoy 0918617@hr.nl
Hieu Tran htran@mica.edu Marjolein Stassen 0879333@hr.nl
Hitesh Singhal hsinghal@mica.edu Stijn v Aardenne 0883885@hr.nl
Jake Lazovick jlazovick@mica.edu Max Kowalski 0880569@hr.nl
Maya Ragazzo mragazzo@mica.edu Meike Brand 0883201@hr.nl
Ran Zheng rzheng@mica.edu Nora Mabrouki 0877573@hr.nl
Sarah Whelton swhelton@mica.edu Pascalle deJager 0884310@hr.nl
Selina Doroshenko sdoroshenko@mica.edu Pip Passchier 0880524@hr.nl
Sydney Spann sspann@mica.edu Rens van Pinxteren 0877294@hr.nl
Yinan Wang ywang01@mica.edu Stan Haanappel 0877946@hr.nl Yu Sheng ysheng@mica.edu Zina Burgers 0877294@hr.nl

Memory Marathon Presentations

• Slide 1: A memorable photograph of your past.

(That fits under the title “ the moment I knew what I wanted to do”)

• Slide 2: What do you make?

(Tell us in one image and one slide about creative background)

• Slide 3: What is your topic of interest?

(Explain a past/current Q9 project topic or what you wish to research in Q10)

• Slide 4: What is your medium?

(Explain what materials and tools you wish to use)

Side 5: What is your question?

Schedule (to be updated / subject to change)

Wednesday October 14 – Sharing Interests / Sharing Approaches

12:00-12:30 – Welcoming participants

12:30 – 13:30 Student Presentations MICA 13:30 – 13:45 Coffee Break 13:45 – 14:45 Student Presentations WDKA

15:00 – 17:30 Mini Rotterdam Excursion 17:30 – 18:15 Core Memory Marathon Briefing 18:15 – 19:00 Writing on the wiki

19:30 – Dinner & Drinks

Thursday October 15 – Core Memory Marathon

9:30 – 10:00 Recapping workshop challenge / division into groups - The Drivers – Building driving hardware - The Etchers – Etching bead and sensing sheilds - The Weavers – Weaving magnetic cores -The Dreamers – Exploring the artistic applications of core memory

10:00 – 18:00 – Soldering, Etching, Weaving, Sketching Marathon

18:00 – 19:00 – Regrouping, bringing parts together and making/writing the memory 19:00-19:30 – Reviving obsolete memory – presenting possible applications of core memory 19:30-20:00 – Moment of truth – reading the memory

Friday October 16

10:00 – 12:00 – Reflection on the workshop, Future collaboration (i.e. sinterklass surprise), presentation to visiting MICA faculty?