How To ProtoSpace: Music Production with Ableton
Week 4: Press Record
This week we're plugging in and making sound. We'll introduce Ableton Live, the software at the heart of our music studio, and show you how it turns loops, samples, and ideas into full tracks. Then we'll get hands-on with the Ableton Push 3, a tactile instrument that lets you play, sequence, and produce without staring at a screen the whole time. Come tap out a beat, build a melody, and hear how quickly a track comes together.
And Ableton is just the front door. Our music studio is stocked for wherever your sound wants to go: semi-modular synths from Moog, a full Eurorack modular system, drum machines, MIDI controllers, and a mixing setup to tie it all together. Whether you want to produce clean electronic tracks in software or patch cables and chase strange noises on hardware, there's a seat here for you.
No background in music production required, just bring your ears and your curiosity. This is the first stop in our music offerings this semester, and a great way to find out what's poss…
Event Categories: Workshops & Training. Campus Locations: Marriott Library - J. Willard (M LIB). Cost: Free. Transportation / Parking: Park in the visitor parking lot, west of the library, next to the bookstore.
http://www.lib.utah.edu/info/directions.php. Contact Name: Mark Howell. Contact Email: m.howell@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes.
Wednesday, September 16, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit lib.utah.edu. How To ProtoSpace: Music Production with Ableton
Week 4: Press Record
This week we're plugging in and making sound. We'll introduce Ableton Live, the software at the heart of our music studio, and show you how it turns loops, samples, and ideas into full tracks. Then we'll get hands-on with the Ableton Push 3, a tactile instrument that lets you play, sequence, and produce without staring at a screen the whole time. Come tap out a beat, build a melody, and hear how quickly a track comes together.
And Ableton is just the front door. Our music studio is stocked for wherever your sound wants to go: semi-modular synths from Moog, a full Eurorack modular system, drum machines, MIDI controllers, and a mixing setup to tie it all together. Whether you want to produce clean electronic tracks in software or patch cables and chase strange noises on hardware, there's a seat here for you.
No background in music production required, just bring your ears and your curiosity. This is the first stop in our music offerings this semester, and a great way to find out what's poss…
Event Categories: Workshops & Training. Campus Locations: Marriott Library - J. Willard (M LIB). Cost: Free. Transportation / Parking: Park in the visitor parking lot, west of the library, next to the bookstore.
http://www.lib.utah.edu/info/directions.php. Contact Name: Mark Howell. Contact Email: m.howell@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes.
Thursday, September 17, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit lib.utah.edu. How To ProtoSpace: Sewing
Week 5: Dice Goblins and Mountain Goats
Time to get behind the sewing machines. This week you'll stitch up your own D&D dice bag using custom-printed fabric featuring our very own ProtoSpace characters. It will make the perfect home for your growing dice collection, and a solid follow-up if you snagged a dice tower back in week three.
Never touched a sewing machine? Perfect. We'll walk you through threading, stitching, and finishing, and you'll leave with a finished bag to show for it. Already handy with a needle? Level up and sew a chalk bag instead, built for the climbing wall, ready for your next bouldering session.
Come learn a skill that'll outlast the semester and walk away with something you actually made.
Equipment and materials provided, no experience needed. Thread's already loaded.
Event Categories: Workshops & Training. Campus Locations: Marriott Library - J. Willard (M LIB). Cost: Free. Transportation / Parking: Park in the visitor parking lot, west of the library, next to the bookstore.
http://www.lib.utah.edu/info/directions.php. Contact Name: Mark Howell. Contact Email: m.howell@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes.
Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit lib.utah.edu. How To ProtoSpace: Sewing
Week 5: Dice Goblins and Mountain Goats
Time to get behind the sewing machines. This week you'll stitch up your own D&D dice bag using custom-printed fabric featuring our very own ProtoSpace characters. It will make the perfect home for your growing dice collection, and a solid follow-up if you snagged a dice tower back in week three.
Never touched a sewing machine? Perfect. We'll walk you through threading, stitching, and finishing, and you'll leave with a finished bag to show for it. Already handy with a needle? Level up and sew a chalk bag instead, built for the climbing wall, ready for your next bouldering session.
Come learn a skill that'll outlast the semester and walk away with something you actually made.
Equipment and materials provided, no experience needed. Thread's already loaded.
Event Categories: Workshops & Training. Campus Locations: Marriott Library - J. Willard (M LIB). Cost: Free. Transportation / Parking: Park in the visitor parking lot, west of the library, next to the bookstore.
http://www.lib.utah.edu/info/directions.php. Contact Name: Mark Howell. Contact Email: m.howell@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes.
Thursday, September 24, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit lib.utah.edu. How To ProtoSpace: Zines
Week 6: Cut, Paste, Print
This week we're going analog. Zines are self-published, do-it-yourself little magazines, a way to put whatever's in your head onto paper and share it, no publisher required. We'll roll out our zine cart and show you how to fold, layout, and assemble your own from scratch.
Dig back into the clip art, magazines, and old books from our button week and give them a second life, clip an image, chop up a headline, and collage a page that's entirely yours. Want that authentic vintage clatter? Our old-school typewriters are ready to go, so you can bang out your text the way zinesters have for decades. Rants, comics, poems, tiny manifestos, anything goes.
No writing experience and no art skills required. A zine is whatever you make it, and by the end of the session you'll have one you can copy, fold, and hand to a friend.
Everything provided, bring your ideas, we've got the rest.
Event Categories: Workshops & Training. Campus Locations: Marriott Library - J. Willard (M LIB). Cost: Free. Transportation / Parking: Park in the visitor parking lot, west of the library, next to the bookstore.
http://www.lib.utah.edu/info/directions.php. Contact Name: Mark Howell. Contact Email: m.howell@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit lib.utah.edu. How To ProtoSpace: Zines
Week 6: Cut, Paste, Print
This week we're going analog. Zines are self-published, do-it-yourself little magazines, a way to put whatever's in your head onto paper and share it, no publisher required. We'll roll out our zine cart and show you how to fold, layout, and assemble your own from scratch.
Dig back into the clip art, magazines, and old books from our button week and give them a second life, clip an image, chop up a headline, and collage a page that's entirely yours. Want that authentic vintage clatter? Our old-school typewriters are ready to go, so you can bang out your text the way zinesters have for decades. Rants, comics, poems, tiny manifestos, anything goes.
No writing experience and no art skills required. A zine is whatever you make it, and by the end of the session you'll have one you can copy, fold, and hand to a friend.
Everything provided, bring your ideas, we've got the rest.
Event Categories: Workshops & Training. Campus Locations: Marriott Library - J. Willard (M LIB). Cost: Free. Transportation / Parking: Park in the visitor parking lot, west of the library, next to the bookstore.
http://www.lib.utah.edu/info/directions.php. Contact Name: Mark Howell. Contact Email: m.howell@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes.
Thursday, October 1, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit lib.utah.edu. How To ProtoSpace: 3D Design in Blender
Week 7: Sculpt, Render, Repeat
This week we go deep into Blender, the free and shockingly powerful 3D software behind everything from indie animations to Hollywood VFX. It's the tool that turns the 3D printing and scanning you've seen earlier this semester into things you design from the ground up.
We'll cover three ways in: digital sculpting, where you push and pull virtual clay into whatever form you can imagine; rendering, turning your models into polished images with real lighting and materials; and procedural geometry with geometry nodes, where you build shapes with logic and math instead of by hand, small tweaks, wildly different results.
Blender has a reputation for being intimidating, but that's exactly why we're here to guide you in. No experience needed, just come ready to make something weird and wonderful.
Equipment provided. Bring your imagination, leave with new skills.
Event Categories: Workshops & Training. Campus Locations: Marriott Library - J. Willard (M LIB). Cost: Free. Transportation / Parking: Park in the visitor parking lot, west of the library, next to the bookstore.
http://www.lib.utah.edu/info/directions.php. Contact Name: Mark Howell. Contact Email: m.howell@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes.
Wednesday, October 7, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit lib.utah.edu. How To ProtoSpace: 3D Design in Blender
Week 7: Sculpt, Render, Repeat
This week we go deep into Blender, the free and shockingly powerful 3D software behind everything from indie animations to Hollywood VFX. It's the tool that turns the 3D printing and scanning you've seen earlier this semester into things you design from the ground up.
We'll cover three ways in: digital sculpting, where you push and pull virtual clay into whatever form you can imagine; rendering, turning your models into polished images with real lighting and materials; and procedural geometry with geometry nodes, where you build shapes with logic and math instead of by hand, small tweaks, wildly different results.
Blender has a reputation for being intimidating, but that's exactly why we're here to guide you in. No experience needed, just come ready to make something weird and wonderful.
Equipment provided. Bring your imagination, leave with new skills.
Event Categories: Workshops & Training. Campus Locations: Marriott Library - J. Willard (M LIB). Cost: Free. Transportation / Parking: Park in the visitor parking lot, west of the library, next to the bookstore.
http://www.lib.utah.edu/info/directions.php. Contact Name: Mark Howell. Contact Email: m.howell@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes.
Thursday, October 8, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit lib.utah.edu. How To ProtoSpace: Machine Embroidery
Week 9: Stitched by Design
Welcome back from fall break, we're picking things up with thread and pixels. This week introduces machine embroidery, where a digital design becomes a physical, stitched-out pattern on fabric. We'll work in Inkscape, a free vector design tool, using the Ink/Stitch extension to turn your artwork into embroidery you can wear.
Then we hand it off to our embroidery machine and watch it stitch your creation into being. You'll leave understanding the full pipeline, from a shape on the screen to a finished design. It pairs naturally with the sewing skills from week five, and opens the door to customizing just about any fabric you can hoop.
No design or embroidery experience needed, just bring an idea and we'll help you stitch it out.
Equipment and materials provided. Let's make it stick.
Event Categories: Workshops & Training. Campus Locations: Marriott Library - J. Willard (M LIB). Cost: Free. Transportation / Parking: Park in the visitor parking lot, west of the library, next to the bookstore.
http://www.lib.utah.edu/info/directions.php. Contact Name: Mark Howell. Contact Email: m.howell@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit lib.utah.edu. How To ProtoSpace: Machine Embroidery
Week 9: Stitched by Design
Welcome back from fall break, we're picking things up with thread and pixels. This week introduces machine embroidery, where a digital design becomes a physical, stitched-out pattern on fabric. We'll work in Inkscape, a free vector design tool, using the Ink/Stitch extension to turn your artwork into embroidery you can wear.
Then we hand it off to our embroidery machine and watch it stitch your creation into being. You'll leave understanding the full pipeline, from a shape on the screen to a finished design. It pairs naturally with the sewing skills from week five, and opens the door to customizing just about any fabric you can hoop.
No design or embroidery experience needed, just bring an idea and we'll help you stitch it out.
Equipment and materials provided. Let's make it stick.
Event Categories: Workshops & Training. Campus Locations: Marriott Library - J. Willard (M LIB). Cost: Free. Transportation / Parking: Park in the visitor parking lot, west of the library, next to the bookstore.
http://www.lib.utah.edu/info/directions.php. Contact Name: Mark Howell. Contact Email: m.howell@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes.
Thursday, October 22, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit lib.utah.edu. How To ProtoSpace: 3D Printing, Part Two
Week 10: Print by the Numbers
3D printing is back, and this week we're going deeper. We're running alongside a class meeting in ProtoSpace this week, so it's a perfect moment to jump in, whether you're part of that course or just want to build on what you saw back in week three. We'll have premade designs ready to print, so you can walk away with a finished object no matter your experience level.
But the real focus is on making models that make themselves. We'll dig into OpenSCAD, a tool that lets you build 3D objects with code instead of by hand — type a few parameters, and watch a design generate itself. Want ten versions of a part, each a little different? Change a number instead of starting over. It's a whole new way to think about design: precise, repeatable, and endlessly tweakable.
Whether you want to hit print and go or learn to generate your own models from scratch, there's a track here for you.
Equipment provided, no experience needed. Let the code do the modeling.
Event Categories: Workshops & Training. Campus Locations: Marriott Library - J. Willard (M LIB). Cost: Free. Transportation / Parking: Park in the visitor parking lot, west of the library, next to the bookstore.
http://www.lib.utah.edu/info/directions.php. Contact Name: Mark Howell. Contact Email: m.howell@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit lib.utah.edu. How To ProtoSpace: 3D Printing, Part Two
Week 10: Print by the Numbers
3D printing is back, and this week we're going deeper. We're running alongside a class meeting in ProtoSpace this week, so it's a perfect moment to jump in, whether you're part of that course or just want to build on what you saw back in week three. We'll have premade designs ready to print, so you can walk away with a finished object no matter your experience level.
But the real focus is on making models that make themselves. We'll dig into OpenSCAD, a tool that lets you build 3D objects with code instead of by hand — type a few parameters, and watch a design generate itself. Want ten versions of a part, each a little different? Change a number instead of starting over. It's a whole new way to think about design: precise, repeatable, and endlessly tweakable.
Whether you want to hit print and go or learn to generate your own models from scratch, there's a track here for you.
Equipment provided, no experience needed. Let the code do the modeling.
Event Categories: Workshops & Training. Campus Locations: Marriott Library - J. Willard (M LIB). Cost: Free. Transportation / Parking: Park in the visitor parking lot, west of the library, next to the bookstore.
http://www.lib.utah.edu/info/directions.php. Contact Name: Mark Howell. Contact Email: m.howell@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes.
Thursday, October 29, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit lib.utah.edu.