Sebastien is the creator of one of the most interesting FPGA platforms I have seen recently. I posted something about it last year. Back then he was just prototyping his boards. Currently the OSHW design can be found at different retailers and it is so stable that can be used for production of visuals and art installations. He named it Milkymist and is now promoting it around the world.

The Milkymist One is an open hardware live video synthesizer. Connect a camera and a videoprojector, press the power button, and seconds later, everything you film becomes live psychedelic effects of color and light. Point the camera at a dancer on stage, at people attending your party, at toys, use UV-glow paint… there are no limits to creativity! If no camera setup is available, the Milkymist One can produce purely generative effects which react to the ambient sound, making it an ideal option for music bands, clubs and party organizers who want a turnkey solution for simple visual effects.

Lekernel, as you will find him on email lists and the like, has even left a port for devices to send control commands over serial port. One of his examples includes using an Arduino board to read any kind of sensor and send the data encoded as MIDI to the Milkymist. You can take part of a workshop with Sebastian using this technique. Take a look at his website for dates. The next one will be in Berlin on October 1st. It is free as in free beer!

References:

– http://lekernel.net/blog/2011/09/interactive-visuals-workshop-with-milkymist-one-and-arduino/

– http://milkymist.org

About the workshop:

Date: October 1st, 2011
Time: to be announced, check www.milkymist.org
By: Sébastien Bourdeauducq, Fabienne “fbz” Serriere
Price: free, just drop in
Duration: 4 hours (but feel free to come and go)
Location: betahaus
Prinzessinnenstraße 19-20
10969 Berlin
U-Bahn: Moritzplatz