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This month’s dorkbot is curated by S.O.A.P –
aka Seattle
Outsider Artist Project, a local non-profit
dedicated to the advancement of art by self-taught
artists, underground artists, undiscovered artists,
and creative persons who do not consider themselves
to be artists.
Wednesday, July 6th at 7.00 pm (screening), 7.30 pm
(presentations)
Center on
Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA
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Matt Stiger, How I coiled my Coil and why
there’s a washtub on top: local artist and
technologist Matt Stiger, winner of the Best Tesla
Coil Award at last month’s dorkbotsea Tesla
Night, describes the ins, outs, challenges
and rewards of building your very own Tesla Coil.
Matt is also an accomplished neon artist, creating
interactive art with glass and gases. http://flaminggasneon.com
will tell you more.
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Michael Clark and Chris Lodwig, World’s
Largest Baking Soda Volcano… For the second
year in a row, these pioneering scientists will attempt
to break the non-existent World Record for the Largest
Baking Soda and Vinegar Volcano at the Weird Genius
Real Science Fair. Last year’s was big, and made
of baking soda and vinegar! This year’s will
be made of baking soda and vinegar, too – but
even bigger! Michael and Chris tell you how it’s
done, what they’ve learned – and why.
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Bill Beaty, More Unwise Microwave Oven
Experiments: local tech-artist, amateur scientist,
founder of the Weird Science Salon and dorkbot favourite
Bill Beaty reprises his microwave madness and shows
that, besides heating coffee, zapping CDROMs and making
monstrous Peeps(tm), your microwave oven can also
produce molten lava, explode light bulbs, and melt
beer bottles. http://amasci.com/weird/microexp.html
tells you about the experiments, and http://amasci.com/me.html
tells you about Bill.
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THE FLOOR IS YOURS!! Have a weird science project?
A wild and woolly theory? A question? An announcement?
Need collaborators or co-conspiritors? Then Open Dork
is for you! This month, dorkbotsea regular Christopher
Prosser will talk about a new work in progress,
Franklin Hu describes his Unified
Field Theory of Gravity, and anyone else who
feels like talking GETS TO DO SO!
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Tawney is the girl who listened through a
balloon underwater to a favourite sound and called
it music. Her primary focus when DJing is to ask questions
about the relationship and/or barrier between noise,
music, and sound and to never be satisfied with the
answer. Tawney spins while you talk, network and show
off your own weird science and peculiar chemistry.
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Survival
Research Labs’ The Pleasures of Uninhibited
Excess: a fast-moving and comprehensive documentation
of three SRL performances from 1989-1990. Includes
"Illusions of Shameless Abundance ...",
ArtSpace Computer-Controlled Installation, "A
Carnival of Misplaced Devotion ...", plus details
of the 1989 bomb hoax incident. You’ll see SRL
in Seattle! You’ll see Greg Leyh’s Tesla
Coil! You’ll see general mayhem! You’ll
wonder why things have been so quiet around here ever
since… Video courtesy of Mark Pauline.
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Matt Stiger, artist statement: Art
or craftsmanship? Duchamp declared that anything the
artist produces is art. How anybody draws that line
is not my business. I just make the stuff. I create
things that interest me. My pieces are usually not
social, political or religious statements (At least,
not that I am aware of!). I make things simply because
I like to make them. I am often inspired by things
I see in nature; a coral reef, tropical flowers, complex
molecules, even microbes. My hope is that anybody
who sees my work will feel some of the wonder and
appreciation I feel when I see those things. Almost
everything I create is interactive. What does that
mean? Almost everything I make responds to touch!
Touch the glass and see! Brightness increases. Colors
change. Patterns, behaviors, and motions change. It's
never the same reaction twice. I plan to keep making
Neon Art and trying to find new ways to use glass
and light in my artistic efforts. I also plan to keep
on with my High Voltage silliness by making ever more
powerful and insane machines. One day I hope to be
able to really shock the heck out of any people crazy
enough to come and see my projects! http://www.flaminggasneon.com/
Bill Beaty: At the moment I'm an Research
Engineer on staff at the University of Washington
in Seattle. In the past I've spent time as an embedded
designer and software engineer, consulted on textbooks,
lectured about electricity education, designed science
projects for kids, and built physics exhibits while
running the electronics dept. at the Museum of Science
in Boston. Today I spend my free time running SCIENCE
HOBBYIST, a large website for amateur science
and science education. You'll also find me hanging
out on the PHYS-L physics education forum, holding
forth about various ways to explain all things electrical.
I was born in the US but I was raised on the island
of Guam, which gave me a bit of an "outsider"
viewpoint which I've carefully tried to preserve.
And when you're in 3rd grade while both your parents
are school teachers, it gives you a critical eye regarding
the foibles of educators. I was bitten by the science
bug at an early age and had fun with a chemistry set,
but I soon discovered where the REAL magic was hidden:
hobbyist electronics. Even more magical is the Black
Art of electrostatics. And to search for traces of
true magic in the sciences, nothing beats actual magic.
More:
http://amasci.com/billb.html
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