When	Where	Participants
07 - 08.06.2025	Swimming Pool	10
10:00 a.m.	10 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd. 5th floor
	Sofia, Bulgaria

 

Creative Coding Workshop / Hackathon 

In a world obsessed with efficiency and productivity, we invite you to embrace uselessness! Inspired by Bruno Munari’s "Useless Machines", this workshop will explore the creation of intentionally unproductive machines that challenge the relentless pursuit of technological progress in a hyper-efficient society. Let’s create machines that do nothing useful—except make us rethink our relationship with technology.

In this two-day creative coding workshop, we’ll explore AI-powered interaction using beginner-friendly tools. We will create reactive machines that respond to user input, movement, sound, or even emotions in unexpected ways. By the end of the workshop, we will showcase a collection of useless machines made with a purpose—playful, unexpected creations that offer a break from today’s obsession with productivity and automation. Call your friends!

We'll be working with web-based tools that integrate AI algorithms directly in the browser, making it easy for anyone to get started with creative coding. All you need to bring is your laptop, and we’ll provide the Wi-Fi password!  This workshop is open to artists, designers, students, and anyone curious about creative coding.

Program: 

01 Introduction (approx. 1hour):

• short introduction and artistic references related to the idea of the Useless Machine in modern and contemporary art

• introduction into creative coding with AI - what are the possibilities and how does it actually work in theory / examples of sketches we developed using web-based AI fo our own projects

02 Brainstorming (approx. 1hour)

• participants brainstorm a useless machine – they can work in separately or in groups if they prefer

03 Coding session (approx. 5hour)

• start of coding session (preparations and installing necessary apps) 

• coding session in progress (everyone does their own thing with help from workshop leads in troubleshooting, guidance on AI concepts, etc.) 

Temporality: might take up to 8 hours incl. lunch & breaks

RawLab is a research-driven artistic duo exploring intersections of art and technology. The duo interrogates the evolving relationship between language, human cognition, and emergent technologies. Their practice operates as both critique and experiment, unveiling the broader socio-cultural implications of networked environments, prompting reflection on the entanglements between technological mediation and contemporary experience.

RawLab’s practice situates interactivity at the core of their artistic inquiry, transforming audiences from passive observers into active participants within technologically mediated environments. Their installations function as both critique and experiment, interrogating the shifting dynamics between language, cognition, and emergent technologies. By emphasizing the role of the visitor in activating the work, they reinforce the idea that meaning is co-constructed through interaction. 

Please note that your place is only reserved at the moment you have already paid for your ticket. This can be done via online payment or on-site at the KO-OP art space.