The SenseBus project kicked off with a big party on Saturday, November 7th and will complete with an exhibition opening on May 14th 1999. Here are some of the planned milestones along the way:

NOVEMBER

7th - kickoff launch: presentation with party following.
UPDATE: It was a great party! Gossip page online soon.

17th - organisational and conceptual discussions: meetings where sensebus participants will hash out project and process details
UPDATE: We established an editorial group for the workbook, delegated some tasks and got to discuss our particular interests.

DECEMBER

1st - basic technical training workshop: an introduction to electronics: come and learn something and teach something. Also show and tell: bring something you have done, something that inspires you, and relate it to the SenseBus project. For this round keep it to 10 minutes, if you have something more in-depth you would like to share, talk to one of the coordinators and we will schedule a time for it.

15th - In the last meeting this year we will begin to conceive what the SenseBus installation will be like. Bring your hopes, your dreams and your enthusiasm. Come with examples that help to illustrate what you imagine.

1999

JANUARY

12th - This SenseBus meeting will aim to conceptualise the actualities of the installation. What is it about? What does it do? How does it do it? What does it sound, smell, feel, look, taste, like? How does it affect the observer? How does the observer affect it?

19th - At the last SenseBus meeting it was decided that we should go to weekly meetings as of this week. The next SenseBus meeting will continue to conceptualise the actualities of the installation.

26th - Tell your friends, SenseBus now meets weekly!!! Last meeting felt a major step to me and others I have talked to, lots of postings to the list around memory. We will revisit the memory concept and keep this discussion moving.

FEBRUARY

2nd - groundhog day: focusing of concept options and initial experiments with technical implementation for four consecutive Tuesdays: get your hands dirty. This meeting will pick up on the technology side of things with a basic introduction to the Parallax Basic Stamp II Microprocessor. Rob will give an overview of how the stamp works, what it can be used for and how to get around the programming manual.

9th - We will create an exquisite manifesto to will be assembled at this meeting of the SenseBus project. Have your two lines of utmost import ready to be linked up. We will also be hearing presentations of each members take on the important critical/cultural concepts of SenseBus as they would like to see it. We will then look for common elements in order to find a specific area of concern which we will tackle in the exhibition planned for May 14th 1999. Maximum of 5 minutes each. The third activity for the evening will be to get a commitment from members of the group as to specific dates and times they will be available to work on the building of the installation. Please bring your date books and think about your ongoing commitments, we need to be able to assess our human resources.

16th - Technical workshop - Happiness is a digital multimeter with fresh batteries, or Confidence Building with your pal the volt meter. Also How to use the RCTime command with the Basic StampII and impress your analogue friends. More scheduling. Please bring your date books and think about your ongoing commitments - we need to put names to dates. Bring drawings you have made of what you think the SenseBus installation should look like and how it will work. Bring drawing tools you like to work with and we will carry on sketching in the meeting. Further discussion of the important critical/cultural concepts of SenseBus as you would like to see it.

23rd - The SenseBus installation concept should be mostly resolved and the physical aspects should be taking shape so that we can break it all down into tasks, form teams, and schedule building dates over the next two months.

MARCH - five Tuesdays in march with task groups meeting at various times: exhibition concept is finalized and proof of concept technology is built.

2nd - Tech workshop: Sensorama, small teams hook up different sensors to the Stamp and write up a description of the process for others. Time to get the publicity machine rolling, tasks to be identified and assigned

9th - Sync meeting - task groups report progress, resources are allocated and new tasks are assigned.

16th - Sync meeting - task groups report progress, resources are allocated and new tasks are assigned.

23rd - Sync meeting - task groups report progress, resources are allocated and new tasks are assigned.

30th - Sync meeting - task groups report progress, resources are allocated and new tasks are assigned.

APRIL

2nd - good Friday and five weeks to SenseBus exhibition: go crazy, forget yourself, live and breath SenseBus: be an artist, cultural worker, technologist, theorist, pipe-fitter, publicist, writer, or what ever it takes to get the job done.

27th - All building is completed and ready to go with 4 days until the installation in the gallery. All last minute publicity, gallery materials, and tasks for the opening are sorted out.

MAY

1st - Tactile Video moves out of the gallery space

2nd - Installation of SenseBus; two weeks to configure the gallery space (paint, lighting, walls, cleaning etc.), assemble the completed parts, make adjustments for unforeseen problems, run it in the gallery space over consecutive days and debug the problems that will inevitably arise.

* SenseBus Installation opens May 14th 1999 *
14th - SenseBus exhibition opens: pat yourself on the back! Then get ready for the artist's talk.

29th - Saturday 2:00 PM SenseBus artist's talk about the installation and the process of making it.

JUNE

12th - Last day of the SenseBus Installation at InterAccess 401 Richmond St. W. Toronto, Canada.

13th - Strike the installation.