Please note that Access Space will open at 3pm next Thursday 28th Feb. We have a MEND*RS COST workshop in the morning and early afternoon.

Scott's residency is called F L I G H T F O R M. He will make a short presentation about his interest in boomerangs this Friday 15th Feb at 3pm. This will be an opportunity to see some of his current boomerang designs and learn a little of the basics of spinning flight.

Check out his website www.redfrogboomerangs.com

For his residency he will be researching the production of boomerangs and other products in Refab Space. These will include auto-rotating gyroscopic sailplanes and gliders. The designs, ideas and experience are derived and developed from Scott’s own small commercial enterprise and current experience as a boomerang designer maker.

Scott is also interested in philosophical objects and the exploration and understanding of three-dimensional form beyond or aside from the traditional perspectives of art and design

There will be an exhibition in Access Space foyer from March 8th.

We welcome back the fabulous Open Platform for a third time.

Performers so far at this random access performance are:

Richard Bolam, Robin Close, Martyn Eggleton, Stuart Faulkner & Susanne Palzer.

RSVP at the Facebook event http://www.facebook.com/events/141493129341898/

• Opening: 5:30pm-8:00pm, Access Space Foyer
• Exhibition: 26th January - 21st February

Puppet makers Emma Powell & Meg Buick created “Refab Cormorant”, an articulated cormorant puppet, during their time as Access Space artists in residence in December 2012. Read more at http://refabcormorant.wordpress.com

Brazilian artist and architect Gabriel Menotti used his 2012 “Urban Fabric” residency at Access Space to ask the question “Would you like to build another Sheffield?” He used Refabspace's rapid prototyping technologies to create a model of an imaginary Cultural Industries Quarter, as a means to foster critical dialogue.

We close at 7pm on Friday 21st Dec and re-open at 11am on Wednesday 2nd Jan 2013

Have a great festive season : )

Puppet makers Emma Powell and Meg Buick are our Refab Space artists in residence for December. They will be creating a new work, probably an animal of some kind, for exhibition in the Foyer in January 2013. We're really looking forward to the result…we have a suspicion it may be a sea bird!!

Check out their residency blog

http://refabcormorant.wordpress.com/

Soldering workshops with Dominic Morrow of Nottingham Hackspace coming soon to Access Space. First Session 1st November 2012, create an electronic musical pencil!

Check out the latest edition of Odd Day News at www.facebook.com/accessspace

Come and join Artists in Residence Vahida Ramujkic and Aviv Kruglanski between 3pm and 6pm in Access Space Foyer as they make an embroidered newspaper based on Sheffield newspaper headlines.The paper is published every other day (hence “Odd Day News”).

www.access-space.org/doku.php?id=events:documentary_embroidery_-_odd_day_news

Tues-Sat until 28th Sept.

We host the fabulous 20×20 2012 exhibition preview this evening Fri 14 Sept.

Everyone is welcome . It's going to be fun.

Please note we are closed to the public all day tomorrow 15 Sept for a workshop.

After two months of random process, research and experimentation, Susanne Palzer is offering a platform to anyone interested in taking part in the final Performance Test of the project.

http://access-space.org/doku.php?id=events:open_platform_open_call_for_contributions_-_technology_without_technology

It's that time of year again!!!

Last year we had a fantastic response and more than 50 artists contributed work!

If you haven't before, it's time you did : )

It's an exhibition anyone can participate in as long as your artwork is 20 inches by 20 inches.

http://access-space.org/doku.php?id=events:20x20_2012_exhibition

Marco Donnarumma is coming down from Edinburgh to give a two day Pd workshop this weekend.

Sorry but there will be no walk in access this Saturday as the place will be full of people making strange and wonderful electronic noises : )

The workshop has been fully booked for some time. If you'd like to see more workshops of this kind please email jake@access-space.org with your suggestions.

Ta!

We are delighted that Juneau Brothers, a music project by Juneau Projects and Joe Welden, will be joining us as artists in residence in July. They'll be here from Tuesday the 10th.

They will be based in Refab Space, our DIY fablab http://www.refab-space.org

Watch out for more details soon!

More info on the artists - http://juneauprojectsaudio.tumblr.com/

This month the people doing strange things with electricity are:

MzTEK/Stretchyboy/Richard Bolam/Iain Sharpe/Leila Johnston

http://dorkbotsheffield.lurk.org

DorkbotSheffield #5 - 7pm-9pm @ Access Space.

This Saturday we have an Arduino Workshop for Women run by MzTEK.

The event is by booking only - there's no walk-in access today, sorry!

MzTEK is a London based organisation which provides a learning community in technology and arts for women.

Thanks to everyone who expressed an interest. This Arduino workshop is full and we hope to run similar events in the near future - please email jake@access-space.org if you have ideas for future events or want more info.

For info on MzTEK and Arduino visit

www.mztek.org www.arduino.cc

We have 3 artist residency opportunities in the Autumn. Deadline for applications 18 June.

More info at: http://www.access-space.org/arts/Refab_Residency_Call.htm

We are delighted that Juneau Brothers, a music project by Juneau Projects and Joe Welden, will be joining us as artists in residence in July.

Watch out for more details soon!

http://juneauprojectsaudio.tumblr.com/

…Tuesday 29th of May!

If you would like to volunteer to help us recycle a mountain of trash technology, give us a ring on 0114 249 5522 or pop into the space and talk to Martyn Eggleton. It's whole day of taking stuff apart, re-using, re-purposing and recycling obsolete computer equipment….and socialising

It is great fun and…..really satisfying (really)!!!

Here's a video of our Mega Recycle Day last year

Access Space is delighted to announce four artist residencies at its recently developed Refab Space - one in July and three from 4th September to 15th December.

We are inviting artists, composers, hackers, designers, engineers and creative technologists to explore emerging artforms and curatorial practise in Refab Space, Access Space's DIY FabLab.

The application deadline for the July residency is Wednesday May 16 and deadline for the Autumn residencies is Monday 18 June.

Further information and application forms:

http://www.access-space.org/arts/Refab_Residency_Call.htm

On 28th April there's an all day Inkscape vector graphics workshop in Access Space.

This event is by booking only - there's no walk-in access today, sorry!

Thanks to everyone who expressed an interest. This Inkscape workshop is full and we hope to run another in the near future.

For info on the vector graphics software and a free download go to www.inkscape.org

Richard Bolam has re-edited his time-lapse video of two days of recycling we did last March, documenting volunteers and staff re-using, re-purposing and recycling obsolete computer equipment.

The video is also on our new Refab Space website www.refab-space.org The Refab Space is a DIY fabrication laboritory which will be ready to go in the Spring this year..

There are currently two free downloadable publications available. Grow Your Own Media Lab - The Graphic Novel, with text by James Wallbank and drawings by Michael Tesh.

COMMONSense, a book of poems, drawings, photos and writing contributed by more than 50 people from an open call for material on the subject of “the commons”

See our publications page.

On 4th February there's an all day Blender 3D workshop in Access Space.

This event is by booking only - there's no walk-in access today, sorry!

Thanks to everyone who expressed an interest. This Blender workshop has been massively over-subscribed and we hope to run another in the near future.

For info on the 3D animation software and a free cross platform download go to www.blender.org

Stretchyboy's Trash-tech interactive game will be at the Frost Fair in the Work Station, there will be a Winter Chess Fest at Access Space and we will be having an open day at the 20×20 Exhibition on the Moor. Why not join us at one or more of the spaces?

We've been installing the 20×20 Exhibition at the White Gallery on the Moor shopping precict in Sheffield today : )

http://tinyurl.com/6ddm8bw

Should be ready for Saturday (26th Nov). If you're in town come and have a look - it's next to Argos.

James Wallbank: 100 Days of Manifestation Chess Project.
4-5pm
Free and open to all.
Refreshments provided!

James recently undertook an artists residency at “Bblackboxx” in Basel, Switzerland. Based in urban parkland, Bblackboxx works with a continually changing constituency of asylum seekers and refugees, temporarily housed in a reception centre nearby. Of diverse nationalities and demographics, these people have pressing needs and anxieties, and are subject to stress, insecurity, poverty, racism and disorientation.

James' contribution to '100 Days of Manifestation' involved participants in setting up a sustained, cascading system of beneficial activity: a production line for chess sets using only available resources, enabling everyone to play. The images from the project changed perceptions of asylum seekers, who are treated with huge suspicion. As chess players, they appear thoughtful, cultured and skilled - overturning popular notions of uselessness and opportunism.

This month “Show & Tell” explores the role of the artist in social engagement, and makes a comparison between the circumstances and characters of participants at Bblackboxx in Basel and participants at Access Space in Sheffield.

For more information email soap@access-space.org

Access Space is taking this year's fab 20×20 Exhibition to a shop front in the city centre from the 26th of Nov, and on Saturday 10th of December Access Space staff, volunteers and artists will be at the exhibition to talk about the project.

If you're a participating artist please join us that day : ) Email jake@access-space.org for info

http://www.artsheffield.org/1049

SHOW & TELL: Open Source Programming / Home Schooling data.

This Friday 28th 4-4.30p.

Fiona Nicholson will discuss her home schooling data map, which displays all the top tier local authorities in England and the number of home educated children recorded by each authority in an easily accessible form. See it at http://edyourself.org/articles/latotalnumber The map was created with a programme written by Fiona's son Theo, who has made the source code publicly available here http://edyourself.org/england_la_php.tar.gz

Free and no need to book, hot drinks and biscuits for all.

Richard Bolam has created a time-lapse video of two days, documenting volunteers and staff re-using, re-purposing and recycling obsolete computer equipment.

The video was captured using Canon PowerShot compact cameras, time-lapse enabled with the open-source Canon Hack Development Kit (CHDK).

Access Space wins in the recycling category of the Sheffield Telegraph Environmental Awards

http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/green-scene/awards_for_organisations_making_green_city_great_1_3885478

It's that time of year again : )

Submit your work by Wednesday this week, the 21st September.

Exhibition opens Friday 23rd September and runs until 23rd November

This will be our 6th yearly 20×20.

The theme is simple - anything goes, as long as it is 20 inches by 20 inches.There is no charge for submission

Last year we had an brilliant and hugely diverse response from Access Space particpants, artists from South Yorkshire, and received submissions from as far away as Bristol and London. Email us if you are going to send your work by post.

For more info http://tinyurl.com/6ddm8bw

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=256097714402055

Email jake@access-space.org

Hi Everyone

I'll be great to back up and running after the summer break. Hope to see you all soon.

Two interviews about Access Space on the Arts Council England's SoundCloud page

One with James Wallbank and Steve Withington by Marc Garrett of Furtherfield.org http://tinyurl.com/3kmh5cm

And one with Jake Harries by Marc Garrett is here http://tinyurl.com/3mxkexa

Other Arts Council interviews and talks about digital http://tinyurl.com/3bwng97

As usual we will be closed for maintenance during mid-summer, but we re-open at 11am on Tuesday 30th of August.

Don't forget 20×20!!! It'll be another great one this time.

Why not get involved and create a 20×20 this year?? Read more about it here.

It's that time of year again! This will be our 6th yearly 20×20 exhibition.

Put your name on our list of exhibitors from this week. The theme is simple - anything goes, as long as it is 20 inches by 20 inches. Buy a board from us, or make it yourself out of anything you like (as long as we can hang it). There is no charge for submission. We need your work buy Wed 21st September. You can get boards from us from this week

http://tinyurl.com/6ddm8bw

The whole event has an on-line video stream: http://lurk.org/placard/

Neil C Smith who performed at one of our sonic events last year has a first release of the graphical patcher environment for Praxis up at http://code.google.com/p/praxis/ There is also Processing-esque live coding support.

The first Sheffield Placard Festival at Access Space

♦ More info: http://lurk.org/placard/
♦ Lots more info http://lurk.org/placard/background.html
♦ http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=162867633772525

There are two exhibition previews on Friday, 8th July 5.30-8pm. All welcome!

John Ledger - Ill Equipped and Tony Goddard - Hyatt Plaza Retrospective

• http://tinyurl.com/3cyh2lp
• http://tinyurl.com/64oe2o7
• http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207329012645657

Grow Your Own Media Lab - The Graphic Novel

We've sold out of the first print run, so here's the full text of Access Space's seminal publication.

Free download here:

http://access-space.org/doku.php?id=publications:gyoml

COMMONSense apazine

A 60 page magazine created from submissions to a call for pieces which reflect a theme connecting the activities of Access Space to the wider world, “the commons”. We asked for prose (stories, thoughts, book reviews, bibliographies…), poetry, photographs, cartoons, drawings or graphics. Edited by Dougald Hine with art direction by Anne-Marie Culhane.

Download here:

http://tinyurl.com/6bc4db5

Bring us all your old drinks cans (beer or pop, it doesn't matter).

At the end of the month we'll be hosting a free workshop by artist Salim Malla where participants will build a solar powered heater.

The cans will be a integral part of the construction.

An afternoon of open source documentaries

A celebration of documentaries made using Open source Software; about open source subjects; or created with an open source ethos.

More info http://tinyurl.com/5tducgl

Dorkbot arrives in Sheffield this week!

More info : http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotsheffield/

dorkbotsheffield #1 7:30pm, Thursday 9th June 2011 at Access Space

Here are a few words about how Access Space helped this project:

“On behalf of the department [of Biblical Studies], can I say how grateful we are to you and your colleagues at Access Space? Your willingness to drop anything and help, and to go beyond your remit, is deeply appreciated. Our Telling Tales exhibition would not have been the same without you, and I hope you feel there have been benefits to this partnership. At a personal level, I cannot underestimate the difference your help has made.”

Iona Hine

Project Coordinator

Sheffield King James Project:

Marking 400 years of the King James Bible

www.shef.ac.uk/kjv

As part of our programme of website improvements we are moving several of our sites and services to new homes. We are getting new setups for our mailing list, and for:

• http://access-space.org (and http://www.access-space.org)
• http://knowhow.access-space.org
• http://loss.access-space.org
• http://livecode.access-space.org

It's almost certain that there will be temporary disruption to these sites! So far the team reports that http://access-space.org has been moved and is working well.

Ouch! Okay, so our prediction was correct, and we had a serious outage of http://access-space.org for nearly 20 hours last Wednesday (the 18th). It turned out that one of our scripts was being a little (ahem!) “over enthusiastic” in its demands for memory. It's all sorted now, but this does motivate me to sort out a custom error page.

Xname - Noise_Objects in Public Space (video)

Xname - Phantasmata performance Fri 8th April (video)

Xname - Phantasmata performance 8 April (audio) http://soundcloud.com/accessspace/xname-phantasmata-access-space

Xname, Jen Rich, John Moseley - Noise Jam 8 April (audio) http://soundcloud.com/accessspace/xname-noise-jam-access-space-8

Facebook events http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=76785786200

Xname, Access Space Artist in Residence, will be performing with Noise_Objects this evening

Friday April 8th, 5.30-8.30pm – Free – all welcome

• Artist Talk - 6.30pm
• Video projection - 6.45pm
• Live performance of Phatasmata - 7.15pm
• Noise Jam - 7.45pm

Xname completes her artist residency at Access Space with an artist talk, a performance of the Noise_Objects, a screening of a video documenting the residency and a Noise_Objects jam with other artists who came to her workshops.

Access Space page: http://tinyurl.com/49bwcow

Keep up with the project on Xname's blog http://xname.noblogs.org/category/noise_objects/

Her website is http://www.xname.cc/

Show & Tell this Friday 25th March 4pm - free

Richard Bolam will be tlaking about his project Flying Monkey -The Missing Link, and Xname, our artist in Residence will talk about her project Noise Objects in Public Space.

Facebook event: http://tinyurl.com/6huvnv2

Noise_Objects in Public Space web page http://tinyurl.com/49bwcow

Richard has posted this video of this activities. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7evY7MRRjU

Workshop this Saturday 26th March 2pm - free- all welcome

Operational Art - James Wallbank

Info at the Access Space exhibition page: http://tinyurl.com/6f955tj

The recent MEGA Recycling and FabLab Development Days (16th & 17th March 2011) were our biggest ever recycling days. We estimate that we sorted an astonishing 3 tonnes of IT stuff for recycling or re-use, making sure that the huge number of computers we receive do contribute to the community. And it was all great fun, with free pizza, thanks to the generous support of The Friends of Access Space. The volunteers participants (who received health and safety/risk assessment training induction) deserve a special thank you for their hard work.

Events mailing list: http://tinyurl.com/2wpe7ts Facebook Group: http://tinyurl.com/37j7gh4 Twitter: http://twitter.com/accessspace

MEGA Recycling and FabLab Development Days Wed & Thu next week (16th & 17th March).

We'll be doing our biggest ever recycling days. Come and join in! It is always great fun.

Give a few hours of your time to help us recycle and re-use the huge number of computers we receive & contibute to the community!

Free lunch for all participating – be here for 11am.

*This activity has been sponsored by The Friends of Access Space *

Artist Richard Bolam's project Flying Monkey TV:The Missing Link was selected for the Access Space small R&D Bursary 2011. Richard is documenting the research on his blog: http://fmtvmissinglink.wordpress.com/

James Wallbank's Operational Art exhibition open this Friday, 11th March, 5.30-8pm - all welcome

It is also a participatory project inviting you to stage mini-invasions in the city using ideas on pieces of paper made into origami tanks! The exhibition runs until 30th April.

More info at http://tinyurl.com/6f955tj

6-2-2011
Six participants and Alex jamming with the new software yesterday.
http://tinyurl.com/6ehnlh6

Two videos from our first sonic event in July 2010.

Monika Dutta and David Mutch - Kindle

Video by Richard Bolam

http://www.youtube.com/embed/sXMs3hydzAs&feature=share

Neal Spowage - Ghetto Bastard

Video by Laurence Alexander

http://player.vimeo.com/video/14420772&feature=share

COMMONSense is a 62 page magazine, launched in 2010, created from submissions to a call for pieces which reflect a theme connecting the activities of Access Space to the wider world, “the commons”. We asked for prose (stories, thoughts, book reviews, bibliographies…), poetry, photographs, cartoons, drawings or graphics. It was edited by Dougald Hine, with art direction by Anne-Marie Culhane.

People sent us material relating to green issues, land ownership, social relations, the internet, copyright, software and a whole host of other subjects.

Download a pdf of COMMONSense here

Please feel free to distribute copies by electronic means.

Hard copies are available from Access Space for GBP 4.00 + GBP 1.50 P&P

Email jake@access-space.org Tel: +44 (0)114 249 5522

ISBN: 9780955009143

The publication is being made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial license (see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/)

A recent binary build of Neil C Smith's Open Source software, Praxis, along with the patch used for the performance at Sonic Event 2 in the video below is available from http://code.google.com/p/praxis/

Alex Mclean will be giving a workshop on his software, Tidal and Text, on 5th Feb.

Nice video by Richard Bolam of the performances by Alex McLean & Scott Hewitt, Neil C Smith and Dan Stowell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zZfSWjcWAI&feature=share

In residence throughout January will be sound artist Will Scrimshaw.

His project, Spectral Influence, aims to explore the way in which the noises and lighting of the city we occupy influences our movements and emotional relations with urban space and the others we share this space with, Look out for ways to participate, workshops and other activities nearer the time.

http://willschrimshaw.net

In March and April we will be hosting Xnames's residency project, Noise_Objects in Public Space. Xname (Eleonora Oreggia) describes Noise_Objects as a series of sculptures made of recycled material, simple electronic components and micro circuits (using chip CMOS 4093, among others) which intertwine the hacker's philosophy - diy and intolerance towards closed systems - with the disruptive conceptual provocation of an art piece.

Look out for workshops and other activities in April.

http://xname.cc

Access Space is still open as normal despite the snow (Tuesday to Saturday 11am-7pm). Unless the weather gets really bad we will stay open; come and find a warm welcome! If you want to check before you set off please phone us on 0114 2495522.

We flicked the switch on our new website on 6th November. While it's not totally complete and we have a number of improvements in mind, we felt we've made enough progress for the world to see. If you spot glitches please email us with feedback and help us to improve it!

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that we're temporarily at http://access-space.lowtech.org, redirected from our usual home at http://access-space.org. There are a bunch of back-room functions which we need to wrangle before we can safely change our URL back to http://access-space.org. When that happens you'll know we've completed the job.

Learning Central hosts a handy a list of learning providers in the Sheffield CENTRAL Community Assembly Area.

Access Space is one of the featured providers and our Steve has designed the site for us.

Thursday 13th of May 2010 was a great day for the space, we are now feeling organised in preparation for fablab activity, and have plenty of bits recovered for upcoming physical computing and electronics projects.

Huge thanks to the following who all turned up to help:-

• Andy Downing
• Darrell Young
• Fiona Nicholson
• Joe Donally
• John Keenan
• John Moseley
• Joshua Fowles
• Mike Howe
• Rachael Middleton
• Saif Ghareeb
• Theo Parmakis
• And the staff….