A series of artist-led workshops focused on artmaking in the metaverse, in collaboration with arebyte.
As part of Future Art Ecosystems: Art x Metaverse’s exploration into virtual experiences and the infrastructure necessary to support evolving art and advanced technologies, Serpentine and arebyte partner to bring you a series of technical workshops focused on artmaking in the metaverse. Each workshop, led by an artist, will offer participants the opportunity to learn and create live with a group of 20 other participants. Upon completion, attendees can expect to have tangible skills to apply in their own creative practice.
[Upcoming] Saturday 18 September: Metahuman production with Keiken
[Past event] Saturday 28 August: Dynamic Environments in Unity with Christopher MacInnes
[Past event] Saturday 24 July: Interaction 101 with Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley
Workshops will be available for booking two weeks ahead of the event. When considering which workshop to book, please make a note of the software/hardware and skill requirements. Please note that these live sessions will be recorded and made available after the event via Serpentine’s Youtube channel.
About arebyte + arebyte Skills
arebyte leads a pioneering digital art programme at the intersection of new technologies and contemporary cultures. Since net art’s inception in the 90s, arebyte follows the long tradition of artists working within the digital realm. Multiple voices are invited to create multimedia installations at arebyte, London, and online experiences at arebyte on Screen.
Alongside the art programme, arebyte Skills features short courses on digital theory and introductions to creative software and hardware. Through workshops led by artists working within the digital realm, arebyte Skills provides practitioners and newcomers with hands-on techniques for digital making.
Workshop details
Metahuman production with Keiken (Upcoming – Saturday 18 September)
Keiken are a cross-dimensional collaborative artist collective that includes Hana Omori, Isabel Ramos and Tanya Cruz.
Are you using Unreal Engine to create environments and ready to start building the characters who inhabit them? In this workshop, Keiken will be sharing their approach to production using Unreal Engine’s Metahumans. Demonstrating CGI and virtual workflows and frameworks for gaming, films and CGI, artist collective Participants will be guided through how to create a high fidelity and fully rigged digital avatar. By the end of the session users will become familiar with the basics of setting up facial animation, recording and sequencing for digital characters using this freely available animation software.
Capability levels/assumed knowledge: Starting out with Unreal Engine/Intermediate
Software requirements: Ahead of the workshop participants are asked to create an Epic Games account; download unreal engine 4.26; download bridge; sign up for access to Metahuman’s; access metahuman creator; and finally, download the Livelink app.
Hardware requirements: Best experienced using a powerful graphics card; iPhone X & above.
Dynamic Environments in Unity with Christopher MacInnes (Past event – Saturday 28 August)
Christopher Macinnes is an artist based in London. Taking computing and networks as a starting point he works with software, hardware and organisms.
Are you a creative practitioner interested in exploring game engines, but have never used one before? In this workshop Chris MacInnes will introduce you to Unity—a free game engine for Mac, Windows and Linux––by taking you through beginner-level, development workflows. Using provided assets, you will focus on creating dynamic behaviours i.e. making things spin, bounce, patrol paths and react to a viewer or player. These simple yet flexible techniques can eventually be chained together to create complex interactions and dynamic environments.
Competency levels/assumed knowledge: Beginner , however it’s probably most relevant to people who are maybe working with 3D already or want to get into game engines.
Software requirements: Please install Unity 2020 (installation guide) and Visual Studio Code (installation) ahead of the workshop.
Hardware requirements: See here for Unity system requirements. Please also check that you have a minimum of 4gb RAM, preferably 8gb.
More about Christopher MacInnes
Interaction 101 with Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (Past event – Saturday 24 July)
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley is an artist, animator and archivist creating work that centres Black Trans people.
Looking to add interactivity to the work you are producing? Throughout the workshop, participants will learn ways to engage their audience/users of their work by designing for interactivity with mediums you engage. Danielle will take participants through examples of the mediums and design methods that have been used to make her interactive work in recent years ( from internet-based tools, to physical devices like dance pads and motion capture) and will cover the workflows of mapping and designing for interactive digital work.
In the second half of the session, participants will develop their own short interactive experience using a medium of their choosing to share with the group.
Capability levels/assumed knowledge: Beginner
Software requirements: Access to the internet via wired connection (preferred) or wifi
Hardware requirements: PC or Mac, no specific hardware requirements
