Our ancestors believed that ordinary objects could contain energies, spirits, intelligence, and the spark of life. Today, tens of billions of tiny electronic processors permeate our reality, embedded in phones, watches, appliances, toys, cars, factory equipment, and our entire technological infrastructure. In this workshop, we'll look at the microcontroller - the basic element of this distributed network of intelligent objects. These "computers on a chip" are small, inexpensive, simple, and unlike their desktop/laptop cousins, are designed for interaction with the physical world. How can creative individuals use microcontrollers to produce evocative, compelling objects and experiences that go beyond typical mass-produced consumer products? We'll look at examples and discuss how artists have incorporated embedded intelligence into sculpture, installation, and performance. We'll compare various microcontroller systems, and using the open-source "Arduino" platform, we'll experiment with building activated objects that include sensors, processing, and movement. We'll also look at using the microcontroller as a physical interface for audio/video environments like Pure Data, and for remote interaction over the Internet.