A Line Made by Walking Without Marking the Earth – A GPS Workshop for Artists

An entirely flexible schedule for the workshop I am giving at the YSP on 24-25 September 2011. Posted here for the participants and anyone else who might be interested.

Location:
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
West Bretton
Wakefield
WF4 4LG
01924 832631
Our Contact: Damon Waldock damon.waldock@ysp.co.uk

Schedule

Day One
10:30 – 10:45 Brief introduction to my own work
10:45 – 11:30 Participants introduce themselves and their practice and what they hope to gain from the workshop. Any previous experience with GPS? What?
11:30 – 13:00 What is GPS – a theoretical class about the components of the Global Positioning System

  • What isn’t a GPS
  • How does a GPS work?
  • A range of different hardware and their differences
  • What to look for

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 14:30 Practical GPS induction – getting satellite reception and understanding the basics – outside
14:30 – 16:00 GPS drawing exercise – outside TIMES WILL SLIDE FROM THIS POINT
16:00 – 16:30 Introduction to GPS downloading – inside
16:30 – 17:00 Group analysis of results of first drawing, questions, discussions – inside
17:00 – 18:00 Opportunity for second exploratory walk, probing the difficult areas and interior spaces.
We have until 19:00 if we need it.

Day Two
11:00 – 13:00 Artists who use GPS

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 14:30 What tools are available for downloading and viewing GPS tracks?
Free Stuff:

  • GPSBabel – cross platform, many types of GPS supported, including data loggers, many conversion options, command line only but there are GUIs available for all operating systems (I use Gebabbel – Linux)
  • BT-747 – cross platform. For downloading tracks from data loggers
  • GPS Visualizer – web based (so cross platform)
  • Qgis – cross platform
  • Viking – Linux, Windows

Shareware / Commercial:

  • Gartrip – Windows, Shareware – very good, used it for years before I switched to Linux

14:30 – 15:40 Applications of GPS: Locative Media

15:40 – 16:00 Applications of GPS: Roll your own

  • What are the possibilities for building your own GPS?
  • Why would you want to?
  • How do you use GPS as a sensor?

NMEA sentence parsing. This session will look at my own sonorisation project written in Python and Pure Data as an example. The length and depth of this session will depend on the participants’ knowledge and interest.
15:30 – 16:30 Opportunity for individual tutorials installing and teaching each participant how to use a GPS with their own laptop while others have a chance to experiment with more GPS drawing and recording, testing the limits and granularity.
16:30 – 18:00 Hardware advice reiteration

  • What to look for in a GPS and what to avoid.
  • Can I use my smartphone?
  • Preparation and collation of material, making sure everyone has all the data and information they require.

Goodbyes.
We have until 19:00 if we need it.

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