Hi All! As the title suggests, I'd like to start a Sydney patching circle. Meeting preferably once a week in the outer west/wherever is the easiest ground for the members to get to.

The circle will initially consist of a few core members as we build awareness and momentum, but ideally will pick up its own identity and momentum in the latter half of 2011.

I'm particularly interested at this point to hear from anyone who has a connection with learning institutions, as the surplus of time/energy/brain cycles that students have would be a useful way to get things rolling and build membership.

Write back here, or direct to surveillanceparty@gmail.com

(P.S. Merry Xmas!)

I'd also like to hear from anyone else who has started their own patching circle in other cities, and their experiences in getting it off the ground, organisation etc.

Any encouragement/wisdom/tips greatly appreciated. Happy patching!

Hey, this sounds great. I can offer my experience in starting the NYC patching circle. First find a couple other people that are interested in attending and hopefully they can help you get things started. I worked with my friend Anton Marini to start the organizing and we had a couple of friends lined up to start with.

Second, hold it regularly and post a little update afterwards (I should be better about this). It allows people to get an idea of what happens there.

Third, I think weekly is probably too often to start with. I'd start monthly. The NYC Patching Circle was vaguely monthly for a while, then every other month, then it took a break, now its back to every month. I think Montreal and Berlin are also on a schedule like that.

Fourth, having things to demo are fun, or things that are fun to watch. I always enjoy it when people bring things like the Monome, we were playing with a Kinect camera last time.

Hi, Im in wollongong and am totally interested in joining a patching circle, even if it is up in sydney. I am a student at UOW studying Sound and have a few friends who are pretty PD savvy who might be interested.

Sounds good!

Shall we exchange details? my email is surveillanceparty@gmail.com

If you send me some details for you and your friends who are interested I'll start contacting people and organising place and time, getting people psyched etc.

Ok the Sydney Forum exists! Its just a skeleton at the moment, but it can grow over time as we get new members, but for now it can serve as a useful place for people to exchange ideas in between meetings.

Here is the address:

http://puredatasydney.freeforums.org/index.php

Viva La Sydney Patching Circle!!

How is all going? I'm in Melbourne, so it's a little far for me but good luck with it. Be great to have these in every city =) I'm trying to get a friend of mine in to Pd and Arduino... so you never know.

I went to an experimental music night last week wearing my Pd tshirt, I don't think anyone there recognised it, ah well... small steps lol.

But keep us updated how it's going, love to hear.