Ever wanted to turn your home into an interactive exhibit? Well now you can! Make your art talk and have your stuffed animals set a kitchen timer through the power of NFC tags! In this workshop you will learn how to program NFC tags with your phone and then craft your own NFC sculpture with sculpey clay or with paper and glue!

What exactly is an NFC Sculpture?
Originally inspired by Spencer Chang’s Sigil sculpture, I’ve been making little physical objects with NFC tags embedded inside. NFC tags are the very cheap electronics that power hotel keys and library book checkout Systems. They’re inert on their own, but when pressed next to an NFC reader (like the one in your smartphone), they receive an electrical current and can be used to store and read data! Your phone can then do things like open a website or run an app based on the data inside the tag! For example, make a teapot out of sculpey clay that sets a 4 min timer on my phone when tapped.

What to bring:
A smartphone – needed to interact with the NFC tags.
Optional: Collage materials and sculpey will be provided, but feel free to bring something of your own that you’d like to stick an NFC tag on or in!

About the Instructor: Hi, I'm Richard (he/they)!  Former big tech software engineer, trying to figure out how to do good with programming instead of capitalism. Currently living in Philly, formerly Seattle and the front-range of Colorado. White/mostly-cis/straight/early 30s. https://www.ragman.net