Announcing our Workshop Schedule

We are excited to announce our DRAFT workshop schedule! We say draft because we are still confirming details and are considering one or two more options.

At Electric Sky, we host workshops to help you improve your practice as a creative artist, designer, or technologist. These hands-on workshops for the most part will be tied to the theme (2026: Supernatural), and some will encourage you to add a project to our pop-up art show. Learn, connect with other creative folks, and share!

  • Green Workshop Tent:
    • Friday 8:30pm-9:30pm Make your Own Pepper’s Ghost
    • Saturday 9:30am-11:00am Hacking ESP32s to Make a Music Box
    • Saturday 11:30am-1:00pm Soldering 101, Make an LED Pin
    • Saturday 1:30pm – 3:00pm How to Set Up Analog Feedback Loops for Glitchy Video Art
    • Saturday 3:30pm – 5:00pm DJ Your Own Private Radio Station
  • Yellow Workshop Tent:
    • Saturday 10:00am-11:00am Lighten Up with LED Charm Jewelry (kid friendly)

Workshop Descriptions:

Make your Own Pepper’s Ghost

Friday, July 31st, 8:30pm-9:30pm

Learn this historic art of theatrical illusions! At this workshop you will create your very own “Pepper’s Ghost” animation inside a glass orb. You will learn how to both create the object and the animation using a simple craft snow globe and a phone app. Ages 15+*

Hosted by Shelly Farnham. Shelly is a classically trained painter who also works with interactive, experimental technologies in sculptural installations. See https://shellydianefarnham.com Image and workshop lesson plan drawn from instructions shared by Ellingson.tv, later published in Make Magazine: https://www.instagram.com/reels/C87wINvS-93/

Hacking ESP32s to Make a Music Box

Saturday, Aug 1, 9:30am-11:00am

At this hands-on workshop we create a small embedded music player together, using ESP32’s, a small, inexpensive, yet powerful microcontroller! Ages 15+*

Hosted by Cam Smith, a Seattle-based new media artist exploring surveillance, AI, and technology’s societal impact. https://smith.cam

Soldering 101: Make an LED Pin

Saturday, Aug 1, 11:30am-1:00pm

Come to this workshop to learn the basics of soldering while you assemble a light-up LED pin to take with you. The workshop will begin with a description of what soldering is and the theory behind it. Your host Andrew will then discuss safety and demonstrate good and bad solder joints. Participants will then be invited to try soldering by assembling a provided kit which will result in a small (1″-ish) blinky LED pendant pin. Ages 13+*

Hosted by Andrew Cole, a multidisciplinary engineer and tech artist with extensive experience making interactive, kinetic, sound and lighting projects. Andrew is a veteran of Electric Sky and a member of the art group Totally Legit. See https://aocole.net/

Lighten Up with LED Charm Jewelry (kid friendly)

Saturday, Aug 1, 10:00am-11:00am (Yellow Tent)

Light yourself up with a fun and simple project for all ages, creating a charm bracelet lit up by LEDs! For this workshop you will familiarize yourself with basic jewelry-making elements and tools. If you are feeling adventurous you may also make matching earrings.

Ages 6+

Our hosts include Shelly Farnham and others from the Totally Legit crew, who have decided this is the summer of jewelry and LEDs. See https://TotallyLegitLLC.com

How to Set Up Analog Feedback Loops for Glitchy Video Art

Saturday, Aug 1, 1:30pm-3:00pm

Nicholas will teach you how to set up an analog feedback loop using a common crt television, a laptop, and a camera, demonstrating a simple and accessible way to create glitchy video art. Ages 15+

Hosted by Nicholas Bowen a creative technologist, abstract generative artist, and software engineer. See https://instagram.com/offlineartisan

DJ Your Own Private Radio Station

Saturday, Aug 1, 3:30pm-5:00pm

Learn the basics of playing your favorite playlist as a DJ “on the decks”, and how you can then broadcast your music even in the remote mountains using a private FM radio. After this workshop the DJ station will be set up for workshop attendees to play all night long. Ages 15+

Josh creates art and tech experiments including: interactive installations, electronics, light/audio, graphic design, music, woodwork, food trucks, and more—often built for group shows and collaborative spaces. In the tech world, he builds web front-ends. Born in WA in 1982, he now lives on Camano Island chasing ideas and pugs.
art.doublejosh.com

Space is limited in our workshops, so be sure to register in advance. We will be sending registered attendees the workshop sign up information mid July. In other words registered participants will receive sign up priority.

*Several of the workshops are designed for mixed-age attendees. Parents should attend workshops with kids 14 and under, and should be within earshot for ages 15 – 18. Workshops marked “Ages 15+” indicate the complexity of content, manual dexterity, or patience required is not appropriate for kids but a teenager could probably handle it.

Grant Recipients for 2026

Remember, *anyone* can show up with a project at Electric Sky and we encourage you to do so!

That said, small grants (up to $500) are provided for some larger-scale projects to help cover project costs.

We are excited to announce our granted recipients and projects for 2026 include: Josh Lind, bring back Popagenda and Puppet Karaoke; Joel Walters, for A Magic Carpet Ride; Jennifer Davis for Mycelium Symphony; Joseph Gray for Glow Cart; Ron Smith for Honeycomb Lights; Nicholas Bowen for Rememberance Gate; Cam Smith for Music Box; Church of the Black Hole for Advanced Toy Research; Andrew Cole and Jeffrey Larson for Beacon/Warning; Adrian MacDonald and his sound collaborators for Resident Frequency; and Lysa Christie for her Predictive Platform.

Electric Sky is structured much like a hackathon so these projects may evolve a fair amount before we see them, but here are a few provocative images from the application submissions.

2026 Theme Super Natural

We are pleased to announce our 2026 theme for Electric Sky: SUPER NATURAL. Each year we orient our collaborative installations, workshops, and Saturday night art show around a theme. For 2026, with theme SUPER NATURAL we call on you to venture beyond the familiar, and explore what lies just beyond your human perception.


We ask artists, designers, and tech creatives to examine the space between nature and technology where imagination meets the unknown.

  • How do we, as creatives, enhance or move beyond nature’s current capacities?
  • How might we see, hear, or feel what lies beyond human perception?
  • How might we find those mysterious entities at the edges of awareness, and make contact?

We encourage participation from interdisciplinary practitioners and groups at the intersections of art, design, technology and science, leveraging both technology and traditional arts in new and exciting ways in their creative process. Successful projects at Electric Sky have included light art, sound installations, kinetic sculptures, interactive tech, projection mapping, games, generative art, and creative coding, in addition to any more traditional arts that lend themselves towards outdoor installations in an evening art walk in a field, in the woods, or on the river.

As an ongoing theme spanning several years, we also seek to continue our path toward installations that are more ecologically resilient, and ask participants to integrate renewable energy into their projects where feasible.

How it Works

For our group show, we provide a basic framework around the theme, and then recruit artists, technologists, scientists, and designers to take on aspects of that theme, playing with technologically-infused, sensing, interactive and self-illuminated elements.

In the style of hackathons, you may bring your own piece to work on, you may join other emergent collaborations, or you may just show up to enjoy the show. Projects are shared during our Saturday night art show and party, which is open to the public.

Participating artists and technology creatives may include light, sound, video, performance, landscaping, architectural elements, in addition to visual art, however we encourage all projects incorporate an electronic, sensing, interactive, or self-illuminated component, to be experienced outdoors at night.

Art grants are available up to $500 for material project support and/or subsidized tickets, learn more hereThe [revised] deadline was Sunday May 24th, 2026 at midnight (now past).

2025 Theme: Movin It

Each year we orient our collaborative installations, workshops, and Saturday night art show around a theme. We are pleased to announce for 2024 our theme is MOVIN’ IT — inviting participants to explore kinetic energy as a creative inspiration.

Whether gears or motors, wind or water, digital animation, dance or play — movement brings art to life as materials are transformed over space and time. For 2025, we encourage artists, technologists, designers, makers and builders to play with movement itself as a creative medium.

As an ongoing theme spanning several years, we also seek to continue our path toward installations that are more ecologically resilient, and ask participants to integrate renewable energy into their projects where feasible.

How it Works

For our group show, we provide a basic framework around the theme, and then recruit artists, technologists, scientists, and designers to take on aspects of that theme, playing with technologically-infused, sensing, interactive and self-illuminated elements.

In the style of hackathons, you may bring your own piece to work on, you may join other emergent collaborations, or you may just show up to enjoy the show. Projects are shared during our Saturday night art show and party, which is open to the public.

Participating artists and technology creatives may include light, sound, video, performance, landscaping, architectural elements, in addition to visual art, however we encourage all projects incorporate an electronic, sensing, interactive, or self-illuminated component, to be experienced outdoors at night.

Art grants were available to $500 for material project support or subsidized tickets, learn more here. The deadline is Friday April 4, 2025.

2024 Wrap Up

It was another fantastic year at Electric Sky, with a particularly great line-up of workshops. We cannot thank everyone enough for all your help in making this event happen, between our workshop organizers, artists, setup and takedown volunteers, planning and organizing, designing, marketing…well it goes on and on. It takes a village!

We were particularly happy with how the workshops and the art integrated the 2024 Theme: SUN WIND WATER, exploring renewable energy in art. We learned a lot and will keep leveraging our new know-how to leverage renewable technologies like solar panels and wind turbines in our installations.

Community Intros

Workshops

Pop-up Art Show

The Scenery

FINAL Final Workshop Schedule

We have a couple new additions to our workshop schedule which is looking fantastic! See listed below. Be sure to register in advance to save your spot in our workshops (see “add-ons” when registering).

At Electric Sky, we host workshops to help you improve your practice as a creative artist, designer, or technologist. These hands-on workshops are for the most part tied to the theme (2024: Sun Wind Water), and some will encourage you to make something to add to our art show. Learn, connect with other creative folks, and share!

Friday, June 21, 8:30pm-9:30pm
Workshop #1: Soldering 101
hosted by Andrew Cole
Get back to the basics of soldering with a small LED project.
See full description.

Saturday, June 22, 9:00am-10:00am
Workshop #1.5: Pysanky Egg Decor Craft
hosted by Sue Copenhaver and Emily Martin
Learn Ukrainian egg painting.
See full description.

Saturday, June 22, 10:00am-11:30am
Workshop #2: Playing with Wind: Make an LED Pinwheel or Mini Wind Turbine
hosted by Shelly Farnham
This is a very kid friendly workshop, draw and assemble a pinwheel, or take it to the next level and make a small wind turbine that powers an LED
See full description.

Saturday, June 22, 11:30am-1:00pm
Workshop #3: Vision Cubing
hosted by Falona Joy and Genevieve Tremblay
Learn a new contemplation and crafting technique!
See full description.

Saturday, June 22, 1:00pm-2:30pm
Workshop #4: Augmented Environments
hosted by Jeff Brice
Learn the processes of making image-triggered augmented reality objects and environments.
See full description.

Saturday, June 22, 3:00pm-5:00pm
Workshop #5: Intro to Solar Energy in Art
Hosted by Bruce Cooper
A basic introduction to how to “unplug” your projects, withs hands-on experience by building a working solar power project.
See full description.

Saturday, June 22, 5:00pm-6:30pm
Workshop #6: De Light and the Everyday
Hosted by Rebecca Cummins
Magical characteristics of sundials, rainbows, lenses, and the camera obscura are explored with water, wine glasses, chalk, and a suitcase.
See full description.

Be sure to register in advance to save your spot in our workshops (see “add-ons” when registering), otherwise it is first come, first serve on site. Parents should attend with kids 14 and under, and should be within earshot of any offspring under 18.

Workshop: Pysanky Egg Decor Craft

Saturday, June 21, 9:00am-10:00am
Hosted by Sue Copenhaver and Emily Martin

Learn Ukrainian egg painting with electric kistky (wax-resist tools). Our Pysanky masters will help you incorporate Sun, Wind, and Water visual motifs into your design.

Join us for our scheduled introductory workshop, and/or find us for extra maker sessions at the TYPONEXUS camp.

Sue Copenhaver is a master Psykansky artist.

Workshop: De Light and the Everyday

Saturday, June 22nd, 5:00pm-6:30pm
Hosted by Rebecca Cummins

Want to discover more about light and basic optics? This workshop explores the magical properties of sundials, rainbows, and the camera obscura with water, wine glasses, chalk, lenses, and a suitcase.

Trace the movement of the sun, construct a simple camera obscura with domestic materials, view the microscopic world through a cardboard foldscope – and consider basic optical principles using a wine glass. All ages welcome!

Rebecca Cummins is inspired by science, its history, and instrumentation; she explores possibilities of light and natural phenomena in installations that include a machine for making rainbows, sun and moon pointers, periscope dinner table devices – and a variety of sculptural and photographic approaches to conceptualizing time. She has exhibited widely internationally and is active in public art and cross-disciplinary collaboration. She is a Professor in the School of Art at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Rebeccacummins.com