Concordia University / Skins Hacking Workshop

Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC) and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF) are always looking to tell Indigneous stories in new ways. On November 28-29, 2019, IIF co-investigator Jane Tingley visited us at AbTeC headquarters to lead a workshop on the Bare Conductive Touch Board alongside Skawennati in the Milieux Makerspace. Workshop participants included Anastasia, Maize, and Waylon representing AbTeC and IIF, as well as Indigenous students Caitlin Court, Rachel Neufeld, and Sydney Hannusch from the University of Waterloo. Logan MacDonald, Assistant Professor of Indigenous Arts at UofW, also joined us. The Touch Board is an Arduino-powered interactive microcontroller programmed to play MP3 audio files when its sensors are touched. Depending on what sounds are loaded onto the Touch Board and how it is configured, this microcontroller can be used to create interactive art, MIDI instruments, and more that responds to human touch!