Creative Tech Workshop
Nick Fox-Gieg, an accomplished expert and PI hardware field, conducts an engaging session focused on single-board computers (SBCs) for the media arts at the event taking place in FEED 1SW.
Nick Fox-Gieg is a prominent experimental animator based in Toronto, Canada. His notable accolades include prestigious awards such as SSHRC, Eyebeam, and Fulbright Fellowships, along with an Engadget Alternate Realities grant. Additionally, he received the jury prize for Best Animated Short at SXSW in 2010, which highlights his exceptional talent. His impressive body of work has been featured at renowned festivals such as OIAF, Rotterdam, and TIFF, as well as esteemed institutions like the Centre Pompidou and on platforms including CBC TV. In the realm of XR, he has contributed to various projects for the University of Waterloo, Google Creative Lab, and Framestore, showcasing his innovative approach to technology and animation. Furthermore, his research has been published in respected journals, including Leonardo and Organised Sound, as well as in the proceedings of SIGGRAPH. Fox-Gieg's artistic practice has benefited from funding and support provided by various grants from organizations such as Bravo!FACT, the Canada Council for the Arts, and arts councils across Ontario, Pennsylvania, Toronto, and West Virginia. He holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, and is currently pursuing a PhD at York University, reflecting his commitment to advancing his knowledge and expertise in the field.
https://fox-gieg.com/feed.html
Tutorial Raspberry PI Set up
Current lineup is:
* $20 for RPi A+ (1 x 700MHz, 256MB RAM)
* $40 for RPi 2B (4 x 900MHz, 1GB RAM).
They both have the same GPU, but the 2B is by far the best value because you can assign the GPU much more RAM. This guide is for a 2B with at least 8GB storage.
2. Basic RPi 2B kit with power supply, case, SD card, wifi dongle, and some cables can be had for $60-70. I used a Canakit. Generally cheaper than acquiring each accessory separately. Good for a fast first-time setup; if you need to, you can invest in better components later.
3. Some useful hardware accessories; a compatility list is maintained at …
* faster SD cards can greatly improve system performance.
* The image quality of the in-house PiCam camera accessory isn’t exceptional, but with a direct bus connection it’ll run faster than third-party USB cameras. It also comes in an infrared version.
* An HDMI dummy dongle fools the OS into thinking a monitor is connected, which can speed things up when running headless and sharing the main display.
4. NOOBS is the boot utility, Raspian is the OS. If your RPi didn’t ship with a preformatted SD card, you’ll need to install it yourself from … Default install settings are fine.
5. The first time you set up, you’ll need a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. (Well, strictly speaking the mouse is optional.)
6. First thing, run sudo rpi-update (firmware) and then sudo apt-get update/upgrade.
7. Then run raspi-config:
* Change the default password
* Enable ssh
* increase GPU memory to 1/4 of total (if working with graphics). You can go higher by editing the config file …
* Change hostname (don’t use an underscore, or you’ll have to fix the hostname by editing the config files … and … )
* Enable camera, if you have one.
8. Wifi will not autostart the first time. Add auto wlan0 to config … now it will try wifi at boot.
9. If you’d like to preload ssids to connect to, enter them into the config file …
10. Reboot and test your network connection and ssh.
11. Install vnc server. Most guides use tightvncserver, which lets multiple users connect to their own desktops but can’t share the main screen. For most cases x11vnc, which shares only the main screen and runs much faster, is a better choice;
12. Add lines … to config … so vnc will run on boot.
13. Reboot and test vnc.
14. To connect headless more easily, you can set a static IP. Or if you have access to your router, you can reserve one for the Pi’s ethernet or wifi MAC address.
15. Right now, no popular RPi VNC viewer will let you view OpenGL graphics–apps will run, but the window will be invisible to you. To work with OpenGL you’ll need a monitor connected.
OPTIONAL
16. Vnc without a firewall is extremely insecure; even if you keep nothing of value on the RPi, it could still be used to attack your network. So install ufw.
17. Before starting ufw, tell it to allow the ports you’ll be using–for example, 22 and 80. (But don’t allow the unencrypted VNC port, usually 5900 or 5901–we want to block that!) You can also tell uwf to allow all ports on a trusted local network.
18. Start ufw. If you get something wrong and lock yourself out, connect a keyboard, mouse, and monitor and check ufw status. If you get stuck you can always disable ufw; it’ll stay off until you enable it again.
19. Reboot and confirm that you’re asked for your user and pass when you start a VNC session over SSH.
20. Reboot once more and confirm that everything’s working. Now you can disconnect your keyboard, mouse, and monitor and run your RPi headless.
21. Hard part’s over. Next, add some software tools, for example:
* Btsync
* Gphoto
* ffmpeg
* VLC
* imagemagick
* PureData
22. Finally, set up dev environments for your favorite programming languages. The RPi comes with Python, but here are some more options:
* JavaScript:
Chromium
Node.js
Sublime Text
* Ruby
* C++:
openFrameworks
CodeBlocks
* Java:
Processing
