Join us for local food and drinks from Southside and get hands-on making with a bunch of like-minded folks interested in art and tech. This new monthly event aims to inspire emerging creatives and offer peer-to-peer tech support in a friendly, collaborative environment. Each workshop is different, featuring a different guest speaker and activities.

7th March 2017 – ‘Command-line image manipulation with ImageMagick’ (previously named 'The Language of Programming’) led by Antonio Roberts (@hellocatfood)

ImageMagick is a suite of command-line utilities for manipulating images. Most of its capabilities can be found in programs with a graphical user interface (GUI) such as GIMP or Photoshop. ImageMagick differs in its ability to use algorithms and programming to quickly batch process a number of images, add effects, convert between common and uncommon file formats, apply filters, generative special effects, and more!

In this workshop Antonio Roberts will introduce you to the using the terminal to perform tasks usually carried out by GUI programs. By the end participants will have learnt:

• how to install ImageMagick
• How to convert between file formats
• How to view advanced metadata
• How to apply a variety of effects to images
• How to optimize files for print and internet
• How to create animated gifs with only a few keystrokes

Participants should bring:

A Mac or Linux computer. For those without one please contact louise@bom.org.uk . If participants are willing to do so please install ImageMagick prior to the start of the workshop: https://www.imagemagick.org/script/binary-releases.php#macosx

Antonio Roberts is a New Media artist and Curator based in Birmingham, UK. His artwork uses glitch art, hacking and technology-driven processes to explore issues surrounding open source software, free culture and collaborative practices.

As a performer and visual artist his work has been featured at galleries and festivals including databit.me in Arles, France (2012), Glitch Moment/ums at Furtherfield Gallery, London (2013), Loud Tate: Code at Tate Britain (2014), glitChicago at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago, US (2014), Permission Taken at Birmingham Open Media and University of Birmingham (2015-2016), and Common Property at Jerwood Visual Arts, London (2016).

As a curator he has delivered exhibitions and projects including GLI.TC/H Birmingham (2011), the Birmingham editions of Bring Your Own Beamer (2012, 2013), µChip 3 (2015), and Stealth (2015), all in association with Vivid Projects. In 2017 he will deliver the No Copyright Infringement Intended exhibition at Phoenix, Leicester.

He is an Associate Curator at Vivid Projects, Lecturer at University of Westminster, and is part of the Advisory Group for New Art West Midlands.

Website: http://hellocatfood.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/hellocatfood
Flickr: http://flickr.com/hellocatfood