In this workshop, we will go over OSC, the most widely supported real-time communication protocol that exists. OSC is the common language that almost every existing hardware/software tool most likely speaks, and which allows multiple independent programs to communicate with each other in real time. With just one tool you can create a simple network with 2 or more programs or devices working together, leveraging the best features of each. You just have to tell them what to say and what to listen for.
Supported platforms include: TouchDesigner, Max/MSP, Max4Live (Ableton), Processing / OpenFrameworks / p5.js, Arduino, ESP32, Raspberry Pi, Unity, Unreal Engine, any iOS/Android mobile device, code libraries in most programming languages and many others. If you use any of these or are just curious to explore the potential of networking together multiple programs/devices, this beginner-friendly, 95% code-free (examples provided) workshop is a great starting point.
We will introduce some basic networking concepts and dive right into how to send/receive data between software programs. We will go over some introductory examples using Max/MSP, TouchDesigner, Arduino and a mobile device (using the Zig Sim app). Feel free to bring at least one of these to the session if you’d like to follow along, but the process works the exact same on any platform. Learn OSC once, apply it anywhere! We’ll have some time for creative brainstorming and ideation at the end. What kind of project could you make with this technology?
