Constant

ZOMBITRON e x t e n d e d

Wendy Van Wynsberghe — 2025-11-25T10:22:39Z

Zombitron is an open-source research project started by Clara Rigaud allowing the design of new interactive devices made with obsolete smartphones. In our research workshop we will focus on making music together with the existing Zombitron. But we will go a step further.

The aim is to explore how smartphones from a different generation (2012>2020) can, once combined together, provide new interactive possibilities through their panel of various sensors (gyroscopes, NFC chip readers, etc) in addition to the touch screen. In this workshop, we will explore how Zombitron can be combined with external sensors as well. We will develop new sensors to build even richer Zombitrons.

We will use premade experimental buttons and we will develop other diy sensors and hopefully play with them with the help of esp32's.
We have invited Zombitron developer Clara Rigaud & artist developer Rebekka Jochem* to join us in our experiments.

We will work on two levels
– code: programming esp32's to interact with Zombitron ( via the network and the browsers of the phones)
– tinkering: make and finetune DIY sensors, like experimental buttons, to be able to connect to Zombitron

*Bios

Clara Rigaud is a lecturer and researcher at École Centrale Lyon in France and a member of the Limites Numériques research collective. Her research focuses on the design of interactive interfaces, using methodologies from the fields of HMI, interaction design and sustainability.
(https://clararigaud.com/fr/)

Rebekka Jochem is a designer and media artist living in Germany and Belgium.
(www.rebekkajochem.com/index.html)

Practical

Enroll by e-mail to wendy@constantvzw.org before 04/12/2025
Vegetarian lunch is provided, please provide information around allergies
Bring working old phones, with a sound output like minijack
Bring your own esp32 with a working IDE if you have one

Accessibility

The two days will take part in the studio of Constant
Address: Jetsesesteenweg 388 Chaussée de Jette, 1081 Koekelberg (Brussels)
Wheelchair accessible entrance + toilet + meeting space
Parking in the street is usually available, we can block a parking spot if asked in advance.

Language

The main language of communication is English.
Whisper translation to French and Dutch can be organised on the spot.

Quantifying nature / Questioning categories > a bike tour and a walk

Wendy Van Wynsberghe — 2025-11-25T10:11:07Z

New date >>

Where physical and digital infrastructure meet amphibians and other beings in Neder-Over-Heembeek

In short:

On January the 10th, 2026 we will be using cycling and walking as a research method to explore two areas in the north of Brussels, where human development and the natural world collide. We look at the way tools and systems are used to record data, count species and their relationship with infrastructure. In these landscapes we see everyday, we want to show hidden layers.

In the morning we cycle around the canal and the river Zenne/Senne, starting at Maison de la Creation NOH. We look at the history, past and present of buildings, waterways in relation to plant and animal life, including humans.

In the afternoon we meet at Korte Groenweg 99 Petit Chemin Vert to walk. We combine two ways of looking at that area: through the eyes of migrating amphibians and by means of naming species. Both methods of looking have their problems, which we will touch upon and make new stories. Rotterdam based artists from Varia and Blise Orr will join us in making them. A part will be in English, we will include spontaneous translations.

As we know this area for about two and a half years, we offer a recent point of view. This is a story open for change over time, hopefully with more voices and narratives.

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Please enroll by sending an e-mail to wendy@constantvzw.org
> lunch is available if you mail us before 06-01-2026
> please provide information around food allergies
> mention what part of the day you will join (morning, meal, afternoon)
In case of bad weather, we will provide an alternative programme

10:30-12:30 Bicycle tour around the canal
Departure @ Maison de la Creation Neder-Over-Heembeek, Sint-Nikolaasplein 3 Place Saint-Nicolas
Tram 10, stop Zavelput
12:30 -14:00 Vegetarian lunch
thai cuisine at Maison de la Creation (reservation required by mail)
14:30 - 17:00 Performing the past and Linnaean stretching
Departure @ Korte Groenweg 99 Petit Chemin vert (entrance sports complex)
Tram 10, stop Nelson Mandela

Accessibility
> Lunch in Maison de la creation is wheelchair accessible
> The bike tour has some steep hills
> The walk is mostly on roads, a section is quite steep. Another part is a more narrow dirt track that can be muddy. There is an accessible tramstop nearby.
> We provide child care in the afternoon, walking along the same path, please mail us before 06-01-2026 so we know

Language
> The main language of communication is English.
> Whisper translation to French and Dutch can be organised on the spot.

Full story:
The workshop looks at a multilayered corner of Neder-Over-Heembeek which we have been closely following for the past year under the header of Otherworldly communications.

In the morning we wander around by bike near the canal, touching on key sites of change and friction between humankind and the more than human world. Through past, current and future projections we get a faint feeling of what once was and of what can be. Canals, castles, viaducts, datacentres, the (natural) landscape gets shaped in different ways over time. We can only catch a glimpse of how organisms and particular species perceive and experience that world.
In the afternoon the walk starts at the Sports centre in Neder-over-Heembeek (NOH Mandela stadium). At a slow pace, we focus on ways of helping amphibians migrate without them being present. We travel back in time and highlight key points on the route in which the animals have encountered struggle, unrest and altercations due to decisions made by urban planning. We look at data, counting species and the relationship with infrastructure. Varia gives a cartographer's twist to the walk as they temporarily change location in their 'Common dirt' series*, from Rotterdam to Brussels.

Throughout the walk, participants are encouraged to record, observe and consider new ways of looking at the everyday landscapes they encounter. One method explored will be engaging with the app Obsidentify. After a very brief introduction to the classic scientific Linnaean and Latin based methodology of categorising the more-than-human world that is the foundation of the obsidentify platform, participants are then invited to engage critically with the information the application provides. Rather than accepting the identifications and expert responses at face value, they are encouraged to question, reinterpret and play with these classifications. By resisting the ‘expert' labels generated by the app, participants can begin to reclaim their observations and form a compelling argument against these so-called truths. Though digital by design, participants are welcome to explore these topics together in this informal group setting. No smartphone is required for this workshop.

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Organised by Blise Orr, Yoana Buzova & Niek Hilkmann, Wendy Van Wynsberghe, sos_amfibies_NOH@collectifs.net*
Kindly hosted by Maison de la Creation NOH and GC Nohva

*Bios

Blise Orr's practice critically breaks through the boundaries of architecture as a discipline and reconsiders how spatial design influences ideologies of ecology in relation to our post-natural environment.
(https://covepark.org/residencies/subsidised-winter-residencies-10/)

Yoana Buzova & Niek Hilkmann animate Common dirt, an ongoing series of events organised by the Varia collective, in which they take a critical look at the interconnections between biology and technology in Rotterdam. Each season, they explore how these two influence each other and how developments in nature and urban policy become entangled during a walk.
(https://varia.zone/en/common-dirt-presentation.html)

Photo by Greet De Gendt
Images from this walk

Cilia Workshop

Wendy Van Wynsberghe — 2025-05-26T20:04:41Z

a tiny wiggly hair on a cell
transmitting motions
for animals, plants, fungi...
to sense vibrations

|/|\ A research afternoon of crafty imaginings ||/|

Cilia have many shapes and sizes. They exist on a different scale. We will look at all kinds of representations of these haircells and speculate on potential physical forms with all kinds of hands-on materials
We will also look at haptic feedback, integrating sound induced vibrations into our creations, with gentle tweaking of prepared code and electronics.

Please enroll by e-mail: wendy@constantvzw.org

Converging - following the elements

Wendy Van Wynsberghe — 2025-01-24T16:05:50Z

｀、ヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ｀ヽ
No predetermined date or time because this is weather dependent
｀、ヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ｀ヽ

In this part of the Otherworldly Communications thematic year*, we go a step further with helping, counting and digitizing the species we encounter. The online structures and apps will be discussed, including their link to AI for identifying.

Become part of the group following the rhythm of the toads, frogs and salamanders. When it's around 7 degrees at night for a few days in a row, humid, the amphibians start migrating towards certain breeding ponds.

You will get a message through Signal or mail after your inscription. We meet at 20:00.

Bring: rubber boots, a torch, rubber gloves, a bucket. The trajectory will be muddy sometimes along narrow paths.

✉⤷ Enroll by sending an e-mail to sos_amfibies_noh@collectifs.net

* In 2025 Constant explore different research threads under the header of Otherwordly Communications. There will be a worksession, workshops, and a conglomerate of small-scale public activities.

Converging - gathering and informing

Wendy Van Wynsberghe — 2025-01-24T15:29:13Z

Information session on site

Within the programme* dedicated to Otherworldly Communications, we will start the year with a focus on noticing.

The NOH amfibian migration workgroup will give a presentation on how to help, toads, frogs and salamanders get to their breeding ponds. We will learn who wants to cross and how to handle their bodies. One of this workshop's hope is to set up a network of people wanting to help the amphibians in surmounting built structures and obstacles that are making their navigation more difficult.

After a short introduction, we will walk the potential migration trajectory. Recent infrastructure works on public transport have seriously messed up the migration routes. By indexing and digitalising the presence of a toad crossing the street, it becomes an entity in a database. The numeric creates a means to negotiate how or whether a particular type of infrastructure is built, this goes from roads to sidewalks to gutters and more.

Bring: rubber boots, a torch, rubber gloves, a bucket. The trajectory will be muddy sometimes along narrow paths.

* In 2025 Constant explore different research threads under the header of Otherwordly Communications. There will be a worksession, workshops, and a conglomerate of small-scale public activities.

Constant_V: Bye Bye Binary typotheque 2.0 launch

Wendy Van Wynsberghe — 2024-09-05T08:08:45Z

Constant invited everybody to come celebrate the Bye Bye Binary typotheque 2.0 launch!

Bye Bye Binary (BBB) is a French-Belgian collective created in 2018. It proposes the exploration of new typographic shapes adapted to the French language, especially the creation of new characters taking inclusive and post-binary language as an experimental graphic and research field.

This autumn the collective was putting online a new version of its 'typotheque' where many post-binary fonts are distributed! The collection gathers and distributes post-binary fonts designed by people inside and outside the collective, for everybody's use. The BBB collective gives this space as a welcoming place for their fellow queer type designers wanting to publish their fonts in a place which shares their values. Type design is not BBB's only goal, the collective aims to feed the debate around the political impact of graphic design, language and the representation of bodies and identities. The collective takes an activist position through community research, that is to say by and for people involved, through a feminist, queer, trans*, fag, bi and dyke perspective.

The installation and the launch were also an opportunity to discuss the newly-released CUTE (Conditions d'Utilisation Typographiques Engageantes)!

Opening”: Thursday 26-09-2024 18:00 -> 22:00
Workshop: Saturday 09-11-2024 14:00 -> 17:00

-> During the workshop on November 9th, participants took a closer look at the type library and the CUTE license.

* letters, ligatures, periodcentered, linking or symbiotic elements

View online : https://typotheque.byebyebinary.space/

Workshop: Connecting Buttons

Wendy Van Wynsberghe — 2024-04-25T20:12:38Z

This workshop consisted of further speculating and creating more prototypes for on and off buttons, customized for your body and connecting them to electronic devices. What kind of button would your brain, neurodiverse or otherwise, like to have made? What gesture does your hand/other body part want to do to activate something (technologically)? What material do you find pleasant? What shape should such a button have? What is the scale? What do you want the button to activate? Should it be practical, poetic or very personal? Should it activate your favourite music playlist, open something physical or turn off a myriad of possibilities?

This was the second workshop of two, the first edition took place in March 2024 and focused on prototyping. The second iteration looked at possibilities of connections and took place in Zinneke, Place Masuiplein 13, 1000 Brussels.

On Thursday 13/06 from 13:00 to 17:00 we had the Button Walk-in Clinic, where you could prototype further, catalog the previously made on/off devices or bring a button that needs attention.
Friday 14/06 from 10:00 to 17:00 and Saturday 15/06 from 10:00 to 16:00 were reserved for connecting the buttons with electronics.

Wendy Van Wynsberghe, Marie Verdeil and Raaf (Unbinare)*, together with the participants, speculated on gestures, shapes, interfaces and scale of interactions, connecting them to bela's, networks, Arduino like microprocessors. We tried to do as much electronic reuse as possible. There was prototyping material, related to tactility, look and feel available. We teamed up and shared skills.

*Wendy van Wysberghe is a DIY, sound and hardware artist and researcher and part of Constant's core team. Marie Verdeil is a designer who uses design to explain how we see, build and use technology. This practice is based on empirical (DIY) and empathetic research, often resulting in the creation of tools, methods or experiences, rather than ready-made solutions. Unbinare is an e-waste reverse engineering lab. Their goal is to reduce the proliferation of e-waste by finding ways to reuse discarded electronic devices.

Practical info about the workshop:

> Please sign up before 03/06/2024 by writing to: wendy@constantvzw.org
> A vegetarian lunch and drinks are provided
> On Saturday we provide a multilingual childcare
> For more information on the accessibility of Zinneke, please go here: https://www.zinneke.org/contacts

In collaboration with Zinneke

Rubbing and pushing a possible button

Different gestures handling potential buttons, by touch, squeezing or pushing

Scrunching to activate

Buttons

Wendy Van Wynsberghe — 2024-02-26T17:15:17Z

This workshop consisted of speculating and creating prototypes for on and off buttons, customized for your body. What kind of button would your brain, neurodiverse or otherwise, like to have made? What gesture does your hand/other body part want to do to activate something (technologically)? What material do you find pleasant? What shape should such a button have? What is the scale?

Wendy Van Wynsberghe and Alex Zakkas*, together with the participants, speculated on gestures, shapes, interfaces and scale of interactions. There were prototyping materials, related to tactility, look and feel available. The participants teamed up and share skills.

This was the first workshop of two, the second edition took place in May 2024. In the first part we stayed in the prototyping phase, with little or no links to other devices. The second iteration looked at possibilities of connections.

*Wendy van Wysberghe is a DIY, sound and hardware artist and researcher and is part of Constant's core team. Alex Zakkas works in the field of design, digital culture and education. His research is informed by experimentation with the technologies of daily experiences, to reflect on the techno-political transformations they bring into play. He participates in processes of activating critical practices through making tools. Within, between and besides academic institutions.

Practical information over the workshop:

> Please sign up before 12/03/2024 by writing to: wendy@constantvzw.org

> A vegetarian lunch and drinks are provided

> Information on the accessibility of the workshop room is here > https://www.pianofabriek.be/zalen/cadzand

In collaboration with GC Pianofabriek.

Different gestures handling potential buttons, by touch, squeezing or pushing

Scrunching to activate

Rubbing and pushing a possible button

A Traversal Network of Feminist Servers (ATNOFS) publication

Wendy Van Wynsberghe — 2023-04-24T12:15:38Z

A Traversal Network of Feminist Servers (ATNOFS) was a collaborative project formed around intersectional, feminist, ecological servers whose communities travelled between each other in 2022 to share and extend their knowledges through live gatherings. ATNOFS argued that such platforms and tools are necessary to navigate our communications and cultural growth beyond the current media oligopolies, and democratise cultural and political expression outside obscure, bureaucratic algorithms and advertising monetisation.

The project responded to the need for continuity, interrelation and support for self-hosted and self-organised computational infrastructures in The Netherlands (Varia, LURK), Romania (hypha), Austria (esc mkl), Greece (Feminist Hack Meetings) and Belgium (Constant). We are excited to share with you the documentation of these sessions.

You can download or print the publication from any of the following urls:

– https://atnofs.constantvzw.org/
– https://hub.vvvvvvaria.org/rosa/ATNOFS/
– https://www.ooooo.be/atraversalnetworkoffeministservers/
– https://systerserver.net/ATNOFS/
– https://txt.lurk.org/ATNOFS/
– https://zoiahorn.anarchaserver.org/ATNOFS/
– https://hypha.ro/ATNOFS
– https://varia.zone/ATNOFS
– https://bleu255.com/ marloes/txts/ATNOFS/
– https://psaroskalazines.gr/zines/ATNOFS/
– https://esc.mur.at/en/werk/atnofspublication

This project was supported by the Culture of Solidarity fund and the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie.
Co-funded by the European Union
With the support of Flanders Arts Institute

View online : https://atnofs.constantvzw.org/

Workshop: DEDBUG

Wendy Van Wynsberghe — 2023-04-24T11:31:05Z

Most contemporary electronics devices which are built today have small to very small components, called SMD (surface-mounted device) components. In 2019, 83% of broken devices and other electronic waste is shipped to the global south without any form of environmental processing, limiting the potential of these components. The amount of e-waste we collectively produce will only grow over time and to remove the increasing influence of governmental and corporate ownership of our digital lives we need to take back control of our devices. To achieve this objective, we need to familiarize ourselves with forgotten circuit-building techniques.

The DEDBUG project revives and facilitates free-form, point-to-point construction techniques for those small, surface-mount components and allows for the construction of circuits with SMD components without the requirement to design a circuit board beforehand.

The workshop will coved the background of free-form construction, each of the DEDBUG tools and how to work with components salvaged from e-waste to make new (and weird!) devices. Each participant left with flex-pcb sheets with the DEDBUG toolkit and basic electronics tools to experiment with at home. As the toolkit fitted in a C5 sized envelope, it was also shipped to workers in the informal sector surrounding waste management sites throughout the global south.

The weekend had three main threads: enhancing legibility of the electronic landscapes and pcb's, learn what chip or component can be useful, salvage the chips and components we want to use to build a circuit with.

Practicalities about the workshop
> Bring trash electronics to work with
> This workshop has a limited amount of tools, for 10 participants. We want to bypass the first come first served principle, so we ask for you to introduce yourself and why you want to come. Please send your e-mail to wendy@constantvzw.org
Deadline for registration: 21 May 2023
> Open for all levels, we help each other
> Lunch is provided by Constant

*This workshop was hosted by Unbinare, an anarchist e-waste reverse engineering laboratory and Constant.

*For more information -> https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/an-ontology-of-electronic-waste

View online : Unbinare website