May 2011 - April 2012

  • May

  • Tuesday 3 may we toast to Free Furniture! Mathieu Gabiot designed and constructed a large working table and three bench-variants that fit the many different working habits of the Constant community. The furniture that Mathieu made to measure on site is released under a Free Art License, meaning (…)

  • OSP will participate in the 6th Libre Graphics Meeting in Montreal with three talks and also co-organises a workshop weekend and an exhibition in StudioXX.
    LGM is an opportunity for give software developers, artists, designers and other graphics professionals to collaborate and learn from each (…)

  • Ellentriek is a series of workshops where artists can come and work together on their own artistic electronics projects. We work with themes. This Ellentriek has two threads happening simultaneously. You choose which thread you want to follow.
    Thread one: Normally Ellentriek stays under 20 (…)

  • A grid divides the map in eight regions. Each region has a label: "Ornamental", "Geolyrical", "Taxonomical", "Afraid of tomorrow", "Fermentational", "Miraculous", "Exobotanical", "The end of the world". On the background, a deconstructed street network of CLuj-Napoca. In the tension between the (…)

  • The Digitale Werkplaats together with AKV|St. Joost is organizing a day around sound & noise. Constant was invited to participate with a lecture and a workshop. We decided to make a contribution on scanning the inaudible frequencies, combining this with the manual made by julien Ottavi aka (…)

  • A grid divides the map in eight regions. Each region has a label: "Ornamental", "Geolyrical", "Taxonomical", "Afraid of tomorrow", "Fermentational", "Miraculous", "Exobotanical", "The end of the world". On the background, a deconstructed street network of CLuj-Napoca. In the tension between the (…)

  • Constant member An Mertens is hosting a workshop about i-literature at the yearly ’Writer’s day’, an event for amateur writers organised by Creatief Schrijven.

  • This talk will provide elements to think about social network platforms and the evolution of national and international legal agreements. We will examine the processes of homogenization of the web and the processes of legislative harmonization within the EU and see how they influence each other. (…)

  • Femke will participate in the Unbound Book: Reading and Publishing in the Digital Age with a talk about open source tools such as podofoimpose, laidout and psnup to explore design strategies that engage with the many dimensions of the book.

  • Re-broadcast of a program made by Radio Kif.
    Radio Kif is a radio station, established by 11 adolescents from the Marbotin neighbourhood, in the north of Brussels (Schaarbeek). Seven boys and four girls of around 16 took out to the streets to inquire people (their classmates, random (…)

  • A la recherche du gitan perdu
    In Schaerbeek, winter, jobless, prices are on the rise: this reality really puts you down. Music, dance, the sun revives you. And this song that keeps on coming back without ending. The song that reminds you of where you came from, who you are ...
    Get to know (…)

  • What are chips - no - not the ones you eat! How do you make a led burn?
    Can you sew with electronics?
    Come experiment with Ellentriek. Crocodile clamps don’t bite!
    (We will work under 5 Volt - battery powered)
    This is a workshop for children between 10 and 12 years old.
    Supported by the (…)

  • With Hisk students, we delve into art history and look at image quotes, sampling, intertextuality. We will analyse a few cases on works of art and licenses.

  • Tuesday 24 May @ 19:00 the D.I.Y. bookscanner built by/in Hackerspace Brussels will be operated for the first time through a speculative software that Pierre Marchand developed with contributions from John Haltiwanger. The experiment traverses text, image and data and plays with the various (…)

  • An open work moment for everyone working with video and open source software. This meeting is an opportunity to work on your transcoding, your time line editing, your experimental video-scripts in the company of colleague video makers. If you have particular questions, you need specific (…)

  • The final day of the Word-Shop temporary housing for the Language of Schaarbeek. has come. Today will be the last opportunity to visit us here, to listen to the database and the radio broadcasts that have been made.
    Also today is the launch of a new responsive neighborhood speech tool. A voice (…)

  • Lecture in the context of Shared Memory, a series on the various aspects of knowledge production and usage (Femke).

  • June

  • The project !Co LAPse KoDe was selected out of 97 submissions from 27 countries to participate in the international residency program of Marginalia+Lab, a space for creation and research in art and technology in Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
    During the residency in Belo Horizonte, the group wishes (…)

  • Samedies is a collective of women using free software. The Ninja Samedies will be a meeting around the following back-up tools: cron, rsync, tar, dump, clé privé & public, rdiff backup.
    The language spoken at Samedies is French.
    Please confirm your presence by sending a mail at (…)

  • We, members of the Labtolab network, have become convinced that the measures evoked by the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA*) will make our work harder, less efficient and sometimes even impossible.
    In a letter of concern, supported by major institutions, artists and thinkers in the (…)

  • !CoLAPseKoDe continues its research in De Pianofabriek KWP. Simon Yuill, Lot Jansen and An Mertens will be working with the surveillance imagesof one of the cameras of the residency. On a daily basis they will exchange scores and code with their collegues in Marginalia+Lab in Brésil, Dorothé (…)

  • LABtoLAB is a European network of media labs that aims to create a platform for: sharing experiences and ways of doing; studying specific cases; exploring the role of the lab in offering spaces for collaborative learning and knowledge exchange; examining the possibilities of life-long learning (…)

  • An Mertens, member of Constant, contributes with an article to Verz!n (jaargang 6,3), a magazine about writing for amateur authors. She develops the idea why it could be interesting for amateur writers to start publishing their work under a free license and what license is best to choose for.

  • Radio Marbotin is a radio station created by eleven adolescents of the Marbotin neighbourhood in North Brussels. Seven boys and four girls of around 16 took out to the streets to inquire people (their classmates, random passers-by) about what they believe is a "flamand".
    This is a re-broadcast (…)

  • In 2008 An presented the beta-version of the distributed novel ’CIAO/Tot Later’ in the exhibition Place@Space/NowHere in Z33 Hasselt. Years passed by and now she’s ready to present CIAO/Tot Later - the author’s cut, an object that is a beautiful book typeset by OSP accompanied by a digital story (…)

  • July

  • As a follow-up to the Expression of Concern regarding ACTA, a mailing list has been created to spread new information about the Agreement. It will also be the place to exchange ideas for action and debate different strategies. Please subscribe to : https://listes.domainepublic.net/listinfo/acta

  • Open source video meetings are for those artists and video makers who are enthusiastic about open source tools.
    We’ll discuss ideas for the soon to be opened ’osvideo lab’. Please bring your suggestions for the ’open content’ and ’free workflow’ video-screening we’ll organise in september.

  • In the framework of the first ACS Summer Institute, hosted by the University of Ghent, Constant member Femke Snelting invites participants in a hands-on workshop to discover various Open Source tools that can be linked together to transform existing texts into new publications. Starting from a (…)

  • In the framework of the first ACS Summer Institute, hosted by the University of Ghent, Constant member Peter Westenberg will present the project Schaarbeekse Taal and discuss the working methods, based on documentation of past events and activities.
    The three year project ’The Language of (…)

  • Radio broadcast with a remix that sound artist Mozhorus has made of the sound database of Schaarbeekse Taal.
    The world is sweating gnosis from the pores of reality. Professor Vulcain (aka Matthieu Gautier aka Christian Guillemet aka Mozhorus Tau Solarass; Gnostic chaotic bishop of the Diocese (…)

  • August

  • Artist Kirsty Stansfield and storyteller An Mertens will round up their 3 weeks residency at CCA with a workshop for artists and performers, in which they share the results of their research. In the framework of the CCA-program Creative Lab Kirsty and An will explore the concept of the "voice as (…)

  • September

  • Last spring Mathieu Gabiot designed and made 5 pieces of furniture for the
    Constant workplace.
    He conceptualized a large working table, 4 benches (in three variations) and a light fixture. The series was cut and assembled on site within a week, with materials from a local DIY store.
    After an (…)

  • Report of the performance of Delphine Auby that took place on 29 may 2011 in the framework of the project De Schaarbeekse Taal.
    http://ecrivezjecrierai.unventdunord.be/-Cris-commis-.html

  • A letterbox. A megaphone. Words of citizens. Those are the ingredients of the performance The Wild Cry that writer / town crier Delphine Auby has carried out in the framework of the project La Langue Schaerbeekoise.
    Auby asks people to give her their written / spoken words about their (…)

  • From 12 to 16 September 2011, Les Samedies (Women and Free Software) organise a week of Python. Every morning we meet in the Gallait House to teach ourselves this programming language.
    - Stephanie Vilayphiou http://stdin.fr will be there every morning (10:00-12:30) to give us explanations, (…)

  • Femke participates in Don’t Know, a conference on the art of research developed by a.pass.

  • Nicolas Malevé, member of Constant, will participate in the panel "Sniff, Scrape, Crawl"¦". Bringing together artists, programmers and theorists, the project, initially launched at the Piet Zwart Institute, Master Media Design and Communication in the department of Networked Media, is a series (…)

  • An evening with presentations and screenings around the question what do we understand by ’Open Source Video’? No doubt that the cutting edge artistic content will be alternated by discussions about open codecs, free licenses and free software. Expected ingrediënts: Pure data, experimental Super (…)

  • October

  • Digital lay-outing tools are path dependent in their way of mimicking the past processes of 600 years of moveable type (and maybe even beyond). Often practice proceeds without extensive critical reflection by practitioners themselves. Practice is spoken of in a ’living language’ that addresses (…)

  • Femke presents the Libre Graphics Research Unit, a traveling lab where new ideas for creative tools are developed. Its diverse activities range from the practical to the theoretical via writing, research meetings, experimental prototyping, conferences and workshops.
    The Research Unit is an (…)

  • At the invitation of Nuria Enguita Mayo, Nicolas Malevé, member of Constant and Rafaella Houlstan-Hasaerts participate in the Encuentro Internacional de Medellín (http://www.mde11.org/). Their proposal to animate the medialab is to organize interviews, drawing sessions and terrain observation (…)

  • For the next three years Constant runs a F/LOSS Arts Lab in the rue Gallait straat 80. This modularly conceived workspace and its makers cordially invite you to come and have a look at what they create, using free software only.
    Program: 15:00:door opens & welcome drink Guided tours: (…)

  • The Samedies will meet around the practices of installing from source (a.o. freeplane, fontmatrix, scribus....)
    Samedies is a collective of women using free software.
    The language spoken at Samedies is French. Please confirm your presence by sending a mail at samedies[atttt]collectifs.net.

  • Remix of the hits of the sound dictionary by Clémentine, Peter & An and some favourite automised sentences by Python, such as:
    Communauté pain juf keufs courgette khbizat zra3 nÇ hÇŽo prunes... Hayir atelier tesjekkur ederim daron rpg cake maison hippie pommes de terre? Raïf cage aux ours (…)

  • Femke participates in a roundtable: "Can technology be
    feminist?" which concludes the colloque "From Cyborgs to Facebook:
    Technological dreams and feminist critiques". The event is organised by the Belgian network for genderstudies, Sophia and investigates the latest developments in theory and (…)

  • November

  • Emma Hedditch is an artist from the UK who has been staying at the Constant Variable residency since early October. Emma makes performances and videos, and volunteers for Cinenova, a film and video distributor, based in London.
    Emma will present her early experience and experiments with (…)

  • Maria PtqK and Nicolas Malevé will present the GenderArtNet project - http://www.genderartnet.eu - in the seminar "Cuerpo Impropio, guia de modelos somapoliticos y de sus posibles usos desviados". During three days (2-4 of November) Beatriz Preciado and her interlocutors will try to respond to (…)

  • Sneak preview by Sarma & Constant
    Oral Site is a new open source software and website that Myriam Van Imschoot develops with a team of programmers, writers and sound specialists of Sarma, Constant and Rits. Oral Site enables users to publish online multimodal publications that merge sound, (…)

  • Tagging Matters explores the writerly work of tagging in relation to ideas behind the Semantic Web. Active Archives started on the principle of "we are no islands", looking for ways of linking on-line resources with respect for specific data practices. Open Data, Linked Data and Resource (…)

  • Tagging Matters explores the writerly work of tagging in relation to ideas behind the Semantic Web. Active Archives started on the principle of "we are no islands", looking for ways of linking on-line resources with respect for specific data practices. Open Data, Linked Data and Resource (…)

  • In the framework of the digitalisation project ’Archipel’ Constant developed the ’Active Archives Videowiki’ in collaboration with BAM. During the closure event of the Archipel project Michael Murtaugh and Femke Snelting will present their experiences.
    Archipel is based on the finding that a (…)

  • kerthiossane@gmail.com

  • Constant member An will give a lecture on the project La Langue Schaerbeekoise/De Schaarbeekse Taal for the students of the Master in Social Work/Cultural Studies, at UGent.

  • Ellentriek is all about audio in November. We will learn how to build small own amplifiers and microphones, during two long Wednesday afternoons. With a soldering iron, a couple of components, some creativity and a tons of good vibes we’ll happily tinker away!
    The workshops are free and (…)

  • The Samedies is a collective of women using free software, meeting up every six weeks on a Saturday. This session looks at how to make a Debian package. The language spoken at Samedies is French. Please confirm your presence by sending a mail at samedies[atttt]collectifs.net.

  • Jonctions/Verbindingen 13: Prototypes for transmission
    5 meetingdays around connection protocols, on-line networks and the Internet as public space. Prototypes for transmission looks at the protocols, rules and regulations that define the Internet. V/J13 wants to nourish and re-activate our (…)

  • December

  • Presentation of V/J12 e-publication in Constant Variable
    On the occasion of the Verbinding/Jonctions 13, Donatella Portoghese, Nicolas Malevé, Stephanie Villayphiou, Alex Leray and Gijs de Heij presented "By Data We Mean", an on-line edition of texts, images and reflections that followed from (…)

  • The first ever Research Meeting in the context of the Libre Graphics Research Unit was organised by Worm and themed Networked Graphics. 30 participants from across Europe gathered in Rotterdam for five days. We traversed "The extremes of Networked Graphics": From demo-scene classics to the (…)

  • This weekend will be an introduction into textile and electronics. We will
    look at the integration of sensors and soft buttons into sewn and knitted
    projects. We will include a small introduction to Arduino, with a set-up
    related to this kind of projects.
    It’s an open workshop, with free (…)

  • This weekend will be an introduction into textile and electronics. We will
    look at the integration of sensors and soft buttons into sewn and knitted
    projects. We will include a small introduction to Arduino, with a set-up
    related to this kind of projects.
    It’s an open workshop, with free (…)

  • An Mertens will present a statement on working with scores in the 7th Salon organised by Sarma & Workspace Brussels. Many performance artists work with scores or self-imposed constraints. Yet what do scores and constraints do precisely? How do they function and how do they effect the (…)

  • The ever evolving exhibition organized by Pttl is about to end. Ellentriek
    takes advantage of the festive atmosphere to present the Ellentrieken
    valies, a travel trunk full of tools and electronic goodies and
    microcontrollers. You can use the suitcase to start tinkering with
    interactive (…)

  • Constant will be closed from 24th December 2011 till 1st January 2012. Wishing everyone a warm ending of the year.

  • January 2012

  • Our best wishes for 2012 to everyone who reads this message, supports us, inspires us, works with us!
    Our wishes are enriched by the impressive wealth of knowledge, information and beauty that today, like every year on this day, becomes freely available to humankind. Every year on New Year’s (…)

  • The objective of the workshop is to propose a re-narration of the project "(...) Ciencia, territorio y narrativas subjetivas" and explore the scientific language from a feminist perspective.
    "(...) Ciencia, territorio y narrativas subjetivas" is a project by Lorenzo Sandoval supported by Can (…)

  • Ellentriek is a series of workshops, often collaborative, where artists can come and work together on their own artistic electronics projects, made with open hardware.
    This Ellentriek is about textile, electronics and wireless interaction. We will focus on soft sensors made with textile and on (…)

  • Digital Flux #2 is an exhibition organised by La Vènerie. The theme of the exhibition is the flow of digital data and how it infiltrates our daily life.
    Michel Cleempoel will present three projects among which the game Yoogle!
    The exhibition also presents works of Sylvain De Vreese and David (…)

  • An will present the work of !Co LAPse KoDe in 20 slides and 400 seconds.
    Please register beforehand if you would like to assist.

  • A workshop proposed by The Strickland Distribution, an artist-run group supporting the development of independent research in art-related and non-institutional practices. The workshop runs parallel to the yearly Computers, Privacy & Data Protection conference.
    Ongoing developments in IT (…)

  • ATTENTION: New Schedule:
    18:00
    Meet Screen Chat @ Rue Gallait
    20:00
    go to Nova:
    http://www.nova-cinema.org/spip.php?article9886
    The first informal ’Open Source Audio Visual’ meeting of 2012. An occasion to start the year with some fresh local input. During these meetings audio visual (…)

  • Constant is pleased to announce that the project «Yoogle!» has won the Winston Award at the occasion of the Big Brother Awards 2012 organised by La Ligue des droits de l’Homme and De Liga voor Mensenrechten.
    This award is given to a person or project defending the privacy rights of the (…)

  • OSP (Open Source Publishing) is a graphic design collective that uses only Free, Libre and Open Source Software. At the first OSP Public Meet you are invited to finally discover 9000 km of drawings, tools and stories. Interested in the libre? Curious about their practice? OSP studio welcomes you (…)

  • February

  • Constant is pleased to announce that the project «Yoogle!» has won the Winston Award at the occasion of the Big Brother Awards 2012 organised by La Ligue des droits de l’Homme and De Liga voor Mensenrechten.
    This award is given to a person or project defending the privacy rights of the (…)

  • Mélanie Godin invites the publishers Esperluète and the project of La Langue Schaerbeekoise to talk live about their work.
    Poésie à l’écoute is a live radio program on Radio Panik every Wednesday from 19h till 20h (105.4 fm or online streaming via www.radiopanik.org)

  • Radio broadcast on the sound dictionary with the crea-sounds of sound artist Daniel Martin-Borret and a conversation with Milady Renoir, writer, performer and inhabitant of Schaarbeek.

  • As part of the Artefact Festival in Stuk Leuven, organised around ’The Social Contract’, Constant will present Connection Protocols.
    Not only people but also bots, search engines and spiders abide laws and agreements. Whether we email, surf or chat ... rules and regulations are having an (…)

  • The women of Samedies will visit Constant’s project on Protocols for Transmission at Artefact in Leuven. Constant will host a special session for les Samediennes in the staircase of STUK.

  • The second ’Research meeting’ organised by the Libre Graphics Research Unit takes place in Brussels. LGRU is a collaboration between Medialab Prado (Madrid), Worm (Rotterdam), Piksel (Bergen) and Constant. Developers, designers and theoreticians from all over Europe will gather to imagine future (…)

  • During these meetings audio visual makers who are interested in Open Source, show what they are working on, exchange experiences. At these meetings we also plan future workshops, screenings, worksessions.
    The ’meet and screens’ are "Bar camp" style: there is no planning beforehand "” whoever (…)

  • An evening of performances in dialogue mode. With amongst others Alexandre Quessy (CA). Alexandre will perform Toonloop, a live stop motion animation software. It aims to show the creation process the the audience as well as the result of the creation. http://toonloop.com
    This evening is (…)

  • Are you working with children and multi-media? Toonloop is a tool to make animations on the fly. In this one day workshop you’ll be guided through possibilities offered by of the softwares. The main developer will be present so expect to be flashed with the latest features and benefit by having (…)

  • How can we re-imagine lay-out from scratch? What tools do we need to support decentralized collaboration? How can we bring together canvas editing, dynamic lay-outs, web-to-print and Print On Demand in more interesting ways? A conversation with designers and programmers about future Libre (…)

  • March

  • Radio broadcast on the sound dictionary discussing a collection of words from African origin.

  • It’s party time in a dozen neighborhoods in Brussels!
    Visit Brussels proposes a discovery week-end of neighborhoods that are usually not touched by the touristic flow. It is the people themselves, neighborhood committees, associations ... that will cook up for you a festive program.
    At this (…)

  • Your browser does not support the video tag.

  • During these meetings audio visual makers who are interested in Open Source, show what they are working on, exchange experiences. At these meetings we also plan future workshops, screenings, worksessions.
    The ’meet and screens’ are "Bar camp" style: there is no planning beforehand "” whoever (…)

  • April

  • In Schaarbeek you can hear heritage, litterally. Throughout the many languages that are spoken in this part of Brussels, one finds traces of various migration waves that have changed the neighbourhood. During this walk we look for stories and expressions of and about heroes of the past and the (…)

  • The project Expeditions to the Void, Science, Territory and subjective narratives, investigates the potential of subjective narratives created by a series of women artists who analyse, narrate and question the models of science and territory. The first phase of the project consisted in a (…)

  • Bodies are locations of political, cultural, scientific and technological negociations. They are objects of science and knowledge, they are flexible and vulnerable, but they are also sites of resistance and experimentation of possible futures and presents. A dialogue between Laurence Rassel and (…)

  • Radio broadcast with a selection of words of Brussels’ origin of the sound dictionary of La Langue Schaerbeekoise/De Schaarbeekse Taal.

  • (CC BY-NC 2.0) Some rights reserved, image by _kzr
    With an Arduino you can collect a lot of sensor data, from smelling gasses to measuring temperature or light and lots more. But how do you save these data? How do you actuate the outside world, transfer bits and bytes online, without using a (…)