In this workshop we'll be building a small, yet versatile effect pedal, constructed entirely of common components and designed to accommodate anything from your standard guitar to
amplified whale bones to the occasional transmission of Peruvian shortwave radio art. No previous electronics. No experience is needed and all materials will be provided. The pedal
itself will be a CMOS-based distortion box capable of just about anything from a small amount of dirt to full-on alien space battle/gear-grinding/octave-tripping doom-tones. All materials are included in the workshop cost. In addition to learning DIY electronics skills, you will leave with your own hand-built pedal.

PureData is an open source graphic programming environment that is free and easy to learn and use. PD enables artists to have complete creative control over their programming without writing any code. Pd can be used to generate sound, image and video as well as used to process incoming sound and video. The program also can be used to interface with MIDI, sensors, arduino and other devices. PD is a great tool for any artist looking to explore sound, video and various levels of control and creativity with technology. 

Participants don't need anything for the workshop, but are encouraged to bring a laptop and a pair of headphones. Program can be downloaded at https://puredata.info/ . 

The Free Movie Workshop is designed to promote film-making without spending money!

Too often, artists get hung up on equipment. Not having the right materials can certainly be demotivating, but what exactly are the "right" materials? Well, It turns out you already have them: your creativity, your mobile phone, and (not required) your laptop. That's all you need to make a professionally written, shot, and edited short movie! Local independent filmmaker Jon Lutz will show you how to achieve higher production value from the following FREE resources:
a) available lighting; b) your phone's camera; c) your phone's microphone; d) free software for your laptop.

We will make a 5-minute or shorter movie and post it to social media. All in about 3 hours.

Humanitarian Clowning is back, as a one-day workshop designed to give a strong foundation in humanitarian clowning. Deriving from the European clown tradition which emphasizes connecting to our shared humanity through both humor and pathos, Humanitarian Clowning is about bringing joy to people in need in a fun, sensitive and caring way. It also involves creating a unique clown personality that is an extension of your own. Let your inner clown come out while giving back to your community and having lots of fun in the process. 

As healthcare delivery becomes increasingly corporatized, physicians in the fifteen-minute visit are focused on quick diagnosis and prescription without appreciating the complexity of the patient story. Symptoms that cannot be diagnosed based on a lab finding or procedure are often classified as unimportant or psychosomatic.

Narrative Medicine is a new movement and skill based on the idea that healing is intimately connected to the stories we tell ourselves and our dynamic with others.  Narrative Medicine incorporates a person's lived experiences and perspective, creating a relationship between healer and patient that allows for true interchange and out of the box thinking, leading to better care.

In this workshop led by Dr Nadia Marsh, we'll discuss the narrative medicine approach and share our stories through writing as well as practice nonverbal communication and attentive listening.

An interactive workshop / video shoot where participants will be both in front of and behind the camera as Baltimore's Jimmy Joe Roche comes to Rhizome to create a short promo video for his label Ultraviolet Light. A great opportunity to witness Jimmy's creative process firsthand and learn some of his video-making techniques. He'll be giving a short talk as well.

Skip supper. Or rather, bring yr supper. This one starts with a potluck and performance(s) in the Shnth room, followed by music/dance performance and discussion with Asimina Chremos and participants from her afternoon workshop.

Dancers bodies make sounds, even if they don't vocalize or do anything percussive. Musicians have bodies and instruments that are visual elements in the performance area. Performance environments are rarely sound-locked. There are always some sounds from the environment. There is light, how we see what is happening. I want to work with the matter of our bodies and the reality of our sounds, with the reality of the fact that there is light, or dark, that our T-shirts have colors, etc.

In this workshop we will throw out the assumptions of our practices and look at what is really happening as we do our improvisational performance work. We will use our eyes, our ears, our skin, our perception, to open to what is arising and real and not necessarily in our control. On the other hand, we can have faith that sensitivity leads to skill, and we always have choices to make, and we can refine our personal aesthetics through those sensitive, skilled choices.

In this workshop, artist Dan Conrad will guide participants to make a luminous image of their own design using LEDs, and to learn the skills necessary to pursue further projects independently. Dan’s technique of indirect illumination creates smooth areas and gradients of color by diffusing the bright spots of colored light that LEDs produce.  The “light painting” thus produced will use very little energy, and it will last for many years

Join us May 28th for an all-day synth-making workshop in which participants will assemble their own Shnth, a completely customizable music synthesizer designed by Ciat-Lonbarde's  Peter Blasser. The Shnth combines concepts from modular synthesis, computer music and circuit-bending into a compact, extremely playable all-in-one instrument . All sounds are synthesized in real time by the Shnth's embedded ARM microprocessor into a 16-bit stereo output. Every aspect of the Shnth's performance can be customized and instantly re-programmed via USB. It even comes complete with its own graphical programming environment (Fish), which we will learn to use in the workshop. The Shnth is portable, includes a rechargeable battery pack, and can store up to 256 presets to be recalled as needed 'in the field'. Its like having the Shnth room in the palm of your hand!

In this workshop you will build your own Shnth and learn how to program it to explore the rich world of electronic music. We will also be hosting free monthly fish boils at Rhizome for people to get additional help, share patches, or just jam out on their Shnths.

Circuit-benders have long known that consumer electronics are much more interesting when modified to operate in unintended ways. Traditionally most of these bends are manifested as warped audio for use in performance,  sampling, or as fodder for further mangling. But circuit-bending can also result in beautifully weird, glitched out visuals as well. In this workshop, UK circuit-bender and performer Psychiceyeclix will show you how any electronic toy, game console or even music keyboard can be hacked to produce abstract patterns, glitched-out video, and who knows what else. Of course you can also add audio bends too.

Combine craft and electronics to create inventive audio controllers with soft circuitry.  Soft circuit technologies allow you to explore new ways of interacting with electronic instruments.  Instead of twiddling knobs we we can squeeze, pull and move to create sounds. This workshop introduces participants to a range of alternative materials for building audio controllers and experiment with knitting, sewing and painting conductive circuits.  In addition to audio electronics we’ll consider the physicality of playing and attempt to invent new ways of playing with audio. No arduinos or programming are used in this workshop, it’s all stitching and wires. No previous electronics experience is necessary.

The Paper mulberry tree (Broussonetia papyrifera), has been prized for thousands of years for making some of the best paper in Asia, including Japanese Washi paper. Paper Mulberrys also grow as an invasive species in our area. The plant material for this workshop has been harvested from a large stand of trees and shrubs growing in Anacostia on city-owned land. In this workshop we will explore every step in the papermaking process, from sticks to paper. We'll steam the sticks, remove the bark and separate out the bast. Then we'll cook the bast, beat it and combine it with water to make pulp. After that, we'll make paper!

The third in Rhizome’s Urban Agriculture series!   In Composting with Worms, urban farmer Ann Beman will show you around the farm and demonstrate how she uses worms to grow food. You can find balance in your own life by finding balance in the living system that is a worm compost bin (I'm not kidding). In the process, you can turn your kitchen waste into black gold.

Do you sometimes feel trapped in Apple's 'ecosystem'? Do you ever daydream of the world outside the Windows ?  Rhizome's new series on Open Source Computing is intended to provide you with the knowledge and tools necessary to achieve true computing independence. Command Line Mysteries, the first workshop in the series, will introduce participants to using the command line, a powerful and flexible tool for interacting directly with your computer.

In this workshop, we will be building a small, yet versatile analog
synthesizer, constructed entirely of common components. This class is equally suited for experienced makers, as well as those new to instrument building and sound
creation. 

This hands-on workshop will teach you everything you need to know to grow your own food anywhere - in containers, your front yard, or an empty lot. You'll learn the basics of how to start seeds, how to maintain your plants, and when to harvest.

One night after presenting Apparitions, at RhizomeDC, Vancouver-based media artist Alex MacKenzie will lead a workshop exploring how to work with 16mm projection devices to allow an extension of their potential and a re-purposing of their function. Discussion and examination of the various elements of projection: light, lens, focal plane, film gate, speed, shutter, motor, bulb, and screen will all be explored with live examples and an up-close and hands-on approach. Participants will be given the opportunity to try out various techniques, and will leave with a better understanding of how these elements work both separately and in tandem, as well as with a demystification of the primary instrument of the motion picture.

Making Room for Sweetness utilizes real food, readings, journaling exercises, and dialogue as catalysts in unearthing the sweetness that women have the potential to cultivate in both their everyday lives and their home kitchens.  This interactive workshop will guide women in creating a selection of sweet treats using real, local food while connecting with one another.  

Deriving from the European clown tradition which emphasizes connecting to our shared humanity through both humor and pathos, Humanitarian Clowning is about bringing joy to others in a fun, sensitive and caring way. It also involves creating a unique clown personality that is an extension of your own. This spring, RhizomeDC will be offering a series of 3 workshops designed to give a strong foundation in humanitarian clowning

A three-part workshop on character development as a crucial element to the storytelling process in comics and illustration. The goal for the workshop is to have each student create a fully-realized character, build storytelling skills and produce a short 3-5 page mini-comic featuring their character.

In this 90 minute workshop, participants will work with artists Ayodamola Okunseinde and Salome Asega to create designs for future technological artifacts that live in Afro-positive futures. The sketches and drawings developed in these workshops will be featured in the Iyapo Repository. A select few  of the designs will be constructed and exhibited and a 5 minute sci-fi film incorporating the artifact will be made.

The next in a series of concerts of experimental and improvised music featuring pre-show workshops with world-class improvisers.

Learn all the steps required to turn any patch of land into a rich habitat for beneficial insects and healthy plants, and how to grow vegetables and flowers using sustainable methods.

The first in a series of concerts of experimental and improvised music featuring a pre-show workshop with world-class improvisers.

Join us October 18th for an all-day synth-making workshop in which participants will assemble their own Shnth, a completely customizable music synthesizer designed by Ciat-Lonbarde's  Peter Blasser.