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Created page with "{{Article |Main Navigation=No |Newsletter=Yes |Project=No |Date=2026-01-15 |Draft=No }} <h1>👋 Welcome</h1> <p>Hiiiiii<p/> <p>Welcome to #63 Hope everyone is staying cosy in this cold weather!</p> <p>The Monthly meetup is on this coming Tuesday on the Digital Artists Ireland discord [meetups channel] - drop in and say hi / share what you’re working on / or just to or just share your art/tech joys and frustrations with a group of like-minded people.<p/>..."
 
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<h1>👋 Welcome</h1>
Happy 2026, and we hope everyone had a not so stressful start to the new year!


<p>Hiiiiii<p/>
For this month, we have some exciting news to share:


<p>Welcome to #63 Hope everyone is staying cosy in this cold weather!</p>
The TouchDesigner Meetup Dublin Event, in collaboration with TOG Hackerpsace, will continue until June this year! The event will be run by the same group of organisers, but under a new name: NóidLab. Derivative has kindly offered to sponser the series heading into this year! So a huge thank you to everyone involved to make this happen ( :


<p>The Monthly meetup is on this coming Tuesday on the Digital Artists Ireland discord [meetups channel] - drop in and say hi / share what you’re working on / or just to or just share your art/tech joys and frustrations with a group of like-minded people.<p/>
The first session in this series will be held on the 28th of Jaunaury @ TOG Hackerspace, starting at 7PM. If you want to pop in and say hi to the community, or to learn more about TouchDesigner, feel free to come along--no matter your level of experience. More information below!


<p>Before we get on to the opportunites and events section of this one, we want to give a lil recap of two big undertakings we completed last month, Concept Null 2025 and Emergent Sound System Workshop: </p>
And as always, if you want to support this project, please share this newsletter! And if you want to submit something, email us at [email protected]


<h3>Concept Null 2025</h3>
<hr>
== Articles 📖 ==
<hr>


<p>Following nearly a year of planning, Concept Null 2025 finally came to life in Dance Limerick on 15 November. It was brilliant to see so many enthusiastic people at both the meetup and the evening performances — ideas flying, artists vibing, and genuinely great energy in the room. Moments like this remind us why we do what we do. Ireland is full of unique work and artists who deserve the spotlight, and we’re so grateful to everyone who came along and made the night feel so special.</p>
'''Ed Devance, Open-Studios'''


<p>The daytime meetup featured a great spread of WIPs and experiments: Róisín Berg kicked things off with a demo of their DIY synth; Sorcha Hassett shared her kinetic-origami master’s project; and Nicolás Rojas showed an AV piece in TouchDesigner. After the break, Walter Nied presented a screen-dance WIP, Sióda McCarthy demoed her Syncmap tool (later used in her performance), and Bánk Burján explored new ideas for his performance practice with the room.</p>
Irish sound artist, Ed Devance, is gathering interest for a monthly hands-on meetup focused on exploring sound through electronics, digital fabrication, and collaborative practice.


<p>The evening programme rounded everything off beautifully, with a fully improvised electronics set by Róisín Berg & Nicolás Rojas (performing together for the first time); Gaelic harp, voice, electronics and visuals from Mícheál Ó Catháin; a dance-music and Tixl-generated visuals performance by Sióda McCarthy; and Structures, the new live AV show by Pauric Freeman.</p>
The studio offers a wealth of gear, materials, and prototypes, providing a rich environment for experimentation and creative play.


<p>Thank you to Limerick City & County Council, the Limerick Arts Office and Creative Ireland for supporting this event through the Creative Communities grant, and to Dance Limerick for sponsoring the night. Huge thanks to Sorcha Hassett and Seán Murray for production and tech, and to Paul Michalski for the extra help. Thank you to Harshini Karunaratne for their mentorship throughout the process. And of course, thank you to all our performers and to everyone who presented at the meetup. Finally, a massive thank you to everyone who came along and made it such a fantastic night!!</p>
Interested? Get in contact w/ Ed!


<h3>Emergent Sound System Workshop</h3>
'''[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfdOcP5qHZYHXiu8CfTK0T3kzo6Pa4zRCZd8PbIjFvC2CKtLQ/viewform]'''


<p>This FLINTA-led, one-of-a-kind workshop was led by Concept Null’s Róisín Berg and Synthesize_Her’s Viva Dean for Irish Design Week 2025. Across five evenings in the CSIS MakerSpace and Fab Lab [University of Limerick], participants moved through the full process of building a mono sound system, with conversations around sound-system culture, access and context woven into every session.</p>
<hr>


<p>We began with signal flow (Day 1), moved into cable-making and laser cutting (Day 2), then spent a day designing and CNC-routing the enclosure in the Fab Lab (Day 3). Soldering drivers, wiring the passive crossover and preparing the electronics took over Day 4, and Day 5 brought everything together - assembling, sealing and testing the final system.</p>
'''The Critical Makers Reader. (Un)learning Technology'''


<p>We wrapped up with a Day 6 reception at Starling, where we showed off the finished build, and reaped the benefits of our hard work, listening to music through the newly made system.</p>
A decade ago many gushed at the possibilities of 3D printers and other DIY tech. Today makers are increasingly shaking off their initial blind enthusiasm to numerically control everything, rediscovering an interest in sociocultural histories and futures and waking up to the environmental and economic implications of digital machines that transform materials. An accumulation of critique has collectively registered that no tool, service, or software is good, bad, or neutral—or even free for that matter. We’ve arrived at a crossroads, where a reflective pause coincides with new critical initiatives emerging across disciplines. What was making? What is making? What could making become? And what about unmaking? The Critical Makers Reader features an array of practitioners and scholars who address these questions. Together, they tackle issues of technological making and its intersections with (un)learning, art and design, institutionalization, social critique, community organizing, collaboration, activism, urban regeneration, social inequality, and the environmental crisis.


<p>Thank you to Irish Design Week for funding us, to the Computer Science and Information Systems Department UL, and Fab Lab Limerick - Gerard Walshe in particular -  for supporting us. Thank you to Starling for hosting our reception.</p>
'''[https://attachments.are.na/10803846/a679cf1328c38b31139475cd27e97f13.pdf?1613598429]'''
 
<p>Thank you to the participants, who brought so much creativity, enthusiasm and curiosity to every session; it was an absolutely transformative experience to teach on this project.</p>
 
<p>Anyways, on to our regularly scheduled programming — as always, if you want to support this project, please share this newsletter! And if you want to submit something, email us at conceptnullofficial@gmail.com </p>

Revision as of 18:06, 14 January 2026

{

No Yes No 2026-01-15 No |}


Happy 2026, and we hope everyone had a not so stressful start to the new year!

For this month, we have some exciting news to share:

The TouchDesigner Meetup Dublin Event, in collaboration with TOG Hackerpsace, will continue until June this year! The event will be run by the same group of organisers, but under a new name: NóidLab. Derivative has kindly offered to sponser the series heading into this year! So a huge thank you to everyone involved to make this happen ( :

The first session in this series will be held on the 28th of Jaunaury @ TOG Hackerspace, starting at 7PM. If you want to pop in and say hi to the community, or to learn more about TouchDesigner, feel free to come along--no matter your level of experience. More information below!

And as always, if you want to support this project, please share this newsletter! And if you want to submit something, email us at [email protected]

Articles 📖

Ed Devance, Open-Studios

Irish sound artist, Ed Devance, is gathering interest for a monthly hands-on meetup focused on exploring sound through electronics, digital fabrication, and collaborative practice.

The studio offers a wealth of gear, materials, and prototypes, providing a rich environment for experimentation and creative play.

Interested? Get in contact w/ Ed!

[1]

The Critical Makers Reader. (Un)learning Technology

A decade ago many gushed at the possibilities of 3D printers and other DIY tech. Today makers are increasingly shaking off their initial blind enthusiasm to numerically control everything, rediscovering an interest in sociocultural histories and futures and waking up to the environmental and economic implications of digital machines that transform materials. An accumulation of critique has collectively registered that no tool, service, or software is good, bad, or neutral—or even free for that matter. We’ve arrived at a crossroads, where a reflective pause coincides with new critical initiatives emerging across disciplines. What was making? What is making? What could making become? And what about unmaking? The Critical Makers Reader features an array of practitioners and scholars who address these questions. Together, they tackle issues of technological making and its intersections with (un)learning, art and design, institutionalization, social critique, community organizing, collaboration, activism, urban regeneration, social inequality, and the environmental crisis.

[2]

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