Introduction

Introduction
Wiring is both a programming environment and an electronics prototyping input/output board for exploring the electronic arts and tangible media. It can also be used to teach and learn computer programming and prototyping with electronics. It illustrates the concept of programming with electronics and the physical realm of hardware control which are necessary to explore physical interaction design and tangible media aspects in the design and arts disciplines. The Wiring software and the hardware designs of the Wiring electronic input/output board are freely available for download on the Web. Users have access to the Wiring electronic input/output board as well. The site contains a reference, and a number of short prototypical examples that explore the media and illustrate the code and the electronics diagrams allowing users to learn by experimenting with them.

Concept
Design and media art education and practice increasingly rely on digital technology. For designers and artists to successfully enter this domain they need to understand the inherent qualities in the media they work with, such as electronics and software. Current prototyping tools for electronics and programming are mostly targeted to engineering, robotics and technical audiences. They are hard to learn, and the programming languages are far from useful in contexts outside a specific technology. Designers and artists need a teaching language and electronics prototyping system that facilitates and encourages the process of learning, that reduces the struggle with electronics design and programming, and that are powerful and flexible enough for the needs of Interaction Design.

Language & Environment
Wiring builds on Processing, the open source programming language developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab and Interaction Design Institute Ivrea by Ben Fry and Casey Reas. People who learn how to program using Processing can instantly move to program in Wiring and then to other languages or scripting environments like Java, C, C++, JavaScript, Flash or Director. While working on their design concepts, users will be able to sketch, test their ideas and prototype them, by writing small programs and uploading them to the input/output board. The Wiring input/output board is a general purpose electronic system that includes a microcontroller where the users’ programs will run. It provides digital and analog inputs and outputs and functionality that will allow users to interface all kind of sensors and actuators and program the behaviors needed in their projects.

Networked Learning
This project aims to support education not only in the design and art schools but also in different types of learning environments and different types of practices. It will enable users to quickly prototype their ideas and concepts in the physical world, allowing users to concentrate on the quality of their designs, the interaction, ideas, or concepts being illustrated, rather than concentrate on showing that the technology works. It will contribute to sharing ideas and knowledge with the wider community of interaction design and in general to others outside this field. Because it builds on the Processing language, it will take advantage of the existing online community of users around the world and their collective experience.
  


 

People

Hernando started Wiring in Summer 2003 and he has been developing it since. Wiring builds on Processing, the open source programming language developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab and Interaction Design Institute Ivrea by Ben Fry and Casey Reas. A number of people have been making additional contributions to Processing and Wiring. The current state of the project wouldn't have been possible without this assistance.

Hernando Barragán
http://barraganstudio.com

 

Development:

Nicholas Zambetti
http://www.zambetti.com

Processing:

Ben Fry
http://benfry.com

Casey Reas
http://reas.com

 

Instant Soup Tutorial:

Yaniv Steiner, (Project Leader), Massimo Banzi, (Advisor), Giorgio Olivero (Interaction and Visual Designer), Paolo Sancis (Information Designer), Michal Rinott (Editor/Advisor), Riccardo Strobbia (Web)
http://www.nastypixel.com/instantsoup

 

Wiring Workshop Tutorial (Korean):

Jae-gon Lee
http://tokage.cafe24.com/wiring

 

Wiring bootloader:

K. Worapoht (based on the work of Peter Fleury)
http://www.avride.com/article/wiring

 

Special thanks for their ongoing support and contributions to:

Tom Igoe, David Mellis, Sawad Brooks and Pascal Stang


 


 

Contact and Feedback

If you have a general question, please check out the Wiring Discourse

If you want to contact the Wiring development team use these email address:
Hernando Barragán: hbarragan at uniandes.edu.co
  


 

Links

Interaction Design Institute Ivrea
Aesthetics + Computation Group
UCLA Design | Media Arts
Universidad de Los Andes
Design By Numbers
Processing