Dorkbot SoCal 29 - Make:Way Team gets 33rd Place
*****
Thursday, May 29, 2008
***** 8:00pm
*****
Machine Project
*****
1200 D North Alvarado Street
*****Los Angeles, CA
***** Google map of Machine
Hear the gut-wrenching tale of four plucky men and a crappy car who made a fooli
sh fantasy into a foolish reality!
Earlier this year, Make: magazine agreed to sponsor Jason Torchinsky in fielding an entry into the 2008 24 Hours of Lemons motor race: an endurance race for cars valued at $500 or less. Jason gathered the best people in the field of enough free time and some interest in ra
cing a shitbox: Tom Jennings, Brett Doar, and Sloan Fader. A 1993 Ford Escort LX
was purchased for $300, and the work began.
In the end, The Make:Way car came in 33rd out of nearly 90 entries-- a far bette
r result than ever hoped for. Come see what the team did, how they did it, and s
ee the 33rd-place-winning car itself!
Press coverage: http://jalopnik.com/391333/huge-wing-e
yeballs-propel-makeway-escort-to-33rd+place-lemons-finish
The project: http://www.makewayracing.com
More event info: http://machineproject.com/2008/05/27/makeway/
Dorkbot SoCal 28 - Seeley, Lotan & Edwards + Make Magazine design contest
*****
Saturday, April 5, 2008
***** 1:00pm - 3:00pm
*****
Machine Project
*****
1200 D North Alvarado Street
*****
Los Angeles, CA
***** Google map of Machine
Guest hosted by Thomas Edwards, former Dorkbot Seattle overlord.
Presenters:
Damon Seeley
http://electroland.net/
Damon Seeley and partner Cameron McNall are Electroland, a team
that creates large-scale public art projects and electronic installations.
Each project is site-specific and may employ a broad range of media,
including light, sound, images, motion, architecture and interactivity.
Electroland is working at the forefront of new technologies to create
interactive experiences where visitors can interact with buildings,
spaces and each other in new and exciting ways.
Thomas Edwards
http://www.t11s.com
http://phy2phy.wikidot.com/
Thomas Edwards is a technology artist who is a recent transplant
from Washington, DC (where he co-founded Dorkbot DC).
He will be presenting "Phy2Phy", his campaign to link physical
objects to other physical objects using the Interent. Phy2Phy
concentrates on de-localization of interaction through the use of
affordable hardware devices, and parallels the displacement of
his own recent transcontinental journey.
Gilad Lotan
http://giladlotan.com
Gilad works to explore the intersection between culture, technology
and spatial design, made possible through new media. What gets
him excited is finding ways to create and use technology as a tool
to strengthen connections between people and to places. He builds
objects and designs spaces that take advantage of embedded
technology as a way to augment their base line functionality.
= Make:Way Design Briefing =
Also, the Make Magazine 24 Hours of LeMons race car project will be giving a short presentation to describe how you can be involved and get a project in Make Magazine.
Make:Way is Make Magazine's entry into the 2008 24 Hours of LeMons race -- an endurance race where each car must be $500 or less. The Make:Way team will be transforming a $300 1993 Ford Escort LX into a screaming brute of a racecar. See how we do it!
We need individuals to produce side projects for inside the car, that will include, but not limited to:
- Nixie tube (or other grabby display) gas gauge (A/D then display)
- In-car video, in-car audio
- Car-to-pitstop driver communication
- Car telemetry (data capture in moving car, transmit to pit)
This will be at minimum a "side bar" project in Make: Magazine, so you could get a nice write up and be on the team, etc. Come on Saturday and check it out.
Project photos: http://flickr.com/photos/makeway/
Project blog: http://www.makewayracing.com
Race info: http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/
Make Magazine: Make Magazine
Dorkbot SoCal 27 - Make:Way Meet-The-Car Event
Saturday, March 29, 2008
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Tom's Place
2350 Allesandro Street
Los Angeles, 90039
(at the corner of Whitmore)
(Google Maps)
Make:Way is Make: Magazine's entry into the 2008 24 Hours of LeMons race -- an endurance race where each car must be $500 or less. The Make:Way team will be transforming a $300 1993 Ford Escort LX into a screaming brute of a racecar. See how we do it!
Come out on Saturday at 4pm to see the car, meet the crew, and hang out. We will be wanting someone to produce side projects for inside
the car, that will include, but not limited to:
- Nixie tube (or other grabby display) gas gauge (A/D then display)
- In-car video, in-car audio
- Car-to-pitstop driver communication
- Car telemetry (data capture in moving car, transmit to pit)
This will be at minimum a "side bar" project in Make: Magazine, so
you could get a nice write up and be on the team, etc. C'mon out on Saturday and check it out.
Project photos: http://flickr.com/photos/makeway/
Project blog: http://www.makewayracing.com
Race info: http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/
Dorkbot SoCal 26 - LA Geek Dinner: Blind Date w/ Dorkbot
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
8:00 PM - 11:30 PM
Machine Project
1200 D North Alvarado Street
Los Angeles, California 90026
(Yahoo! Maps, Google Maps)
(Photo by Dave Bullock / eecue)
I know you've seen them out of the corner of your eye. I've been watching them too. They do geeky dinners in LA.
We've teamed up with Heather Vescent and Mark Allen of Machine Project to put together the January LA Geek Dinner / Dorkbot SoCal blind date. Basically that means, we're having nice food at Machine with the LA Geek Dinner folks.
Since this is a first date, be sure to bring stuff to show off. And you can bring a present for the white elephant exchange (something geeky, not more than $15).
Dinner will be about $15
RSVP for this event is required. Please state whether you are attending or not at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/389862/. If you RSVP, you must show up, or pay for your no-show. We're getting some classy catering!
Dorkbot SoCal 25 - Bullock (HDR Photography), Hoetzlein (Intelligent Things), Hertz Sr. (Supermileage Vehicles) - Machine Project, December 1st 2007, 1pm
[ S P E C S ]
*** December 1st 2007, 1pm (Saturday)
***
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
***
[ D E T A I L S ]
Meet at Machine Project @ 1pm on Saturday, December 1st 2007. We will have Dorkbot there. Presenters are as follows:
Dave Bullock
HDR Photography
http://eecue.com/
Today's digital cameras have a limited dynamic range compared to
film. If you shoot a photo of a landscape with a beautiful cloudy
sky, your landscape will be properly exposed, but your clouds will be
washed out or vice-versa. High-Dynamic Range photography allows you
to circumvent your sensor's limitations by taking multiple photos with
different exposures and combining them on your computer. All you
need is a camera capable of manual exposure settings, a tripod and a
computer and you'll be on your way to HDR mastery.
Dave Bullock (eecue) is the offspring of a photographer and a programmer. He
has been sifting through bits on the internet since he was young and
along the way has taught himself programming, unix and photography.
Dave is a frequent contributor to WIRED News and a member of the San Bernardino Sheriff's Search and Rescue Team. When he's not
shooting photo of geeky stuff around Los Angeles, you can usually find
him crawling through a cave, out in the desert or rescuing a wayward
hiker.
Rama Hoetzlein
Intelligent Things: Ideas and Forms
http://www.rchoetzlein.com/
Rama will present a range of projects, including videos of mechnical and
robotic sculptures, self-organizing systems and systems for knowledge
organization. Themes will include the relationship between physical
(embodied) and non-physical (mental) activity, knowledge representation,
and systems of belief. The relationship of these projects to the
interdisciplinary questions raised by intelligent systems will be
introduced with the intention of engaging in an open discussion.
Rama Hoetzlein completed a BA in Computer Science, a BFA in Fine Arts
from Cornell University in 2001 with thesis works in robotic sculpture.
From 2002 to 2004, he co-founded the Game Design Initiative at Cornell
University (GDIAC) in 2001, with David Schwartz, to support
interdisciplinary education among artists and engineers. In 2007, Rama
completed an MS with the Media Arts & Technology Program (MAT) at UC
Santa Barbara in the area of knowledge organization, and is currently
doing research in artificial intelligence and computer graphics.
Professor Barry Hertz
Saskatchewan Supermileage Vehicles
http://www.engr.usask.ca/faculty.php?barry.hertz
Professor Barry Hertz will be presenting on the development of ultra-fuel-efficient vehicles developed from 1980 to 1988 at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. The distinctions held by the U of S engineers include winning every SAE Supermileage event entered during nine successive years, breaking three amateur world records, and shattering the absolute world fuel economy record on May 29, 1986 with a vehicle that got 4,738 miles per US gallon (5691 MPIG, 49.6 mL/100 km).
Barry Hertz specializes in Vehicle Research, Machine Design, Manufacturing, and Mechanical Tribology, with current and past projects including:
1. Vehicular transportation efficiency,
2. Vehicle aerodynamics,
3. Wind tunnel testing,
4. Machine Design: Automotive Vehicles,
5. Mechanical Tribology: Friction, Lubrication, & Wear,
6. Alternative Fuels and Lubricants,
7. Bio-Diesel Engine Wear Research.
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Yahoo! Map of Machine Project or a Google Map of Machine Project
After the event, you may also be interested in going to Chris Csikszentihayli and Edmund Ming-Yipkwong's reception at Fringe Exhibitions from 6 to 8pm.
Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a presentation at
an upcoming Dorkbot SoCal event.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
Dorkbot SoCal 24 - Mister Jalopy's Studio, October 13th 2007, 5pm
[ S P E C S ]
*** October 13th 2007, 5pm (Saturday)
***
*** SECRET LOCATION DISCLOSED ONLY TO 30 RSVPs
*** Los Angeles, CA
After a long summer slumber, Dorkbot SoCal is back at it on October
13th 2007 at 5pm with a special studio visit/event with Mister Jalopy of
http://hooptyrides.blogspot.com/ and Make Magazine. For more information, see Mister Jalopy's Dorkbot/Hooptyrides Open House aka "You call that a door prize?" post for details!
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO COME TO THIS EVENT, EMAIL garnethertz@gmail.com WITH THE FOLLOWING:
- Your name
- Why you want to come
THIS EVENT IS LIMITED TO THE FIRST 30 PEOPLE THAT RSVSP. ONLY THESE PEOPLE WILL DIRECTIONS, AND SECURITY CLEARANCE.
From Mister Jalopy's post:
In conjunction with Dorkbot Socal, I will be throwing open the doors to Hooptyrides, Inc. but space is limited. Attendance will be restricted to the first thirty respondents per Dorkbot instructional internet presence (Link). One lucky attendee will leave with a door prize/boat anchor which will be won through a rousing round of Rock, Paper, Scissors. The contest portion of the evening will be officiated by Echo Park superhero, Mark Allen (Link). Mark doesn't know that he will be performing in this capacity, so if you happen to see him, please urge him to attend. Perhaps you should suggest that he bring a whistle.
What can you expect?
- Demonstration of Mister Jalopy's Urban Guerrilla Movie House
- Demonstration of the Giant Ipod
- Demonstration of Boombox TV, as featured in upcoming Make article Platform:Boombox
- Tour of Hooptyrides, Inc.
- Tour of Hooptyrides, Inc. executive restroom reserved for those donating $5 (or more) to Machine Project (Link)
- Live demonstration of Mister Jalopy's Four-Step Miracle Process for the Refurbishment of Wood as we transform crummy Delco console into something slightly less crummy. (No photos or videos, please. Some miracles need to be witnessed, not recorded.)
- Ample opportunities to be separated from your money
You may ask, why do I have to win that console?
When I built the Giant Ipod, I had purchased/found three consoles as I was not sure which would work for my purposes. This is #2 of the three. If I find the 3rd, which is pretty likely, there may be two door prizes! What a lucky day that will be!
People confirmed to be attending this event:
- Garnet Hertz, Dorkbot SoCal, conceptlab.com, hot rod Vanagon
- Douglas Repetto, The Founder of Dorkbot and maker of great projects and nice guy - here from New York City
- Mark Allen, Machine Project
- Tom Jennings, World Power Systems
- Eliot Phillips, lead blogger for hackaday.com is driving out from Las Vegas just for this event
- Peter Krapp, Distraction Economy, krapp.org and author
- Leo, aspiring elementary school student
- Catherine Liu, Higher Yearning and author
- Amelia Guimarin, MyDeathSpace Researcher
- Brett Doar, King Volcano, talented paper clip-ish device creator and the world's most perfectly developed man
- Eric Kurland, the Stereoscope PS2 guy
- Becky Haycox, her identity somewhere between a dilettante and an aesthete, she marches to her own homemade drum.
- Craig Thomasian, http://krinkle.net - and he even blogged about being #13
- Jim Sedgwick, wants sticky cool makieness
- Steve Graham, ran into Mr. Jalopy at a garage sale recently and have been meaning to get around to stalking him
- Jacob Tonski, made an adjustable floor to make people the same height
- Jason Torchinsky has a 1973 Reliant Scimitar as a daily driver - one of the only ones in the US and in this month's MAKE along with Mister Jalopy.
- Tim Odell, a biomedical engineer. Hooptyrides HQ is his Wonka's Chocolate Factory.
- Daisy Odell, a mechanical engineer that is constantly demanding to pick up random appliances/furniture on discarded on the side of the road. To see his 4 step miracle process would be a life changing event.
- Randy Dugan, who built the "Iron Fairy", a 50cc sidecar that set 3 world records at El Mirage and Bonneville.
- Suzanne Stefanac co-founded RespondTV and is the director of the American Film Institute's Digital Content Lab
- Marc Tuters made a Fetemobile
- Coop. If you don't know of Coop, you should: described by House Industries as "morally bankrupt yet aesthetically rich". See Fine Art of Coop, Coop Stuff and Positive Ape Index.
- John Lilley makes beer can chicken and low resolution highly unreliable TVs
- Alan Teel remembers J. J. Glass downtown, the smell of warm bakelite and PCB oil.
- Glenn Zucman has a radio show called Strange Angels with lots of good interviews, including one with David Wilson from The Museum of Jurassic Technology
- Mark Frauenfelder is editor-in-chief of Make magazine and co-editor of Boing Boing. He has been spotted on the Colbert Report.
- Matt Ashton needs the inspiration to get off his ass and
finally start tackling some of his dreams.
- Dave Bullock, aka eecue, covering this event for Wired.
Dorkbot SoCal 23 - Excursion to Norton Sales - Saturday May 5th 2007
[ S P E C S ]
*** May 5th 2007, 1pm
***
*** [meeting at 1pm, and leaving at 1:10pm]
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
***
*** [ending up at, at around 1:30pm]
*** Norton Sales inc.
*** 7429 Laurel Canyon Blvd
*** North Hollywood, CA 91605
*** http://www.nortonsalesinc.com
***
*** Online Map from Machine to Norton or as a Nice PDF file.
(Photo by Dave Bullock (eecue))
[ D E T A I L S ]
Meet at Machine Project @ 1pm. We will be driving up to Norton at 1:10pm sharp. Maps will be left at Machine to help get you there. Alternately, you can just meet up at Norton at around 1:30pm. Note that the store closes at 3pm.
The goal of this event is this: get to Norton, buy something, and make something interesting with it in the month ahead. Bring it back to the next Dorkbot SoCal event, and the best object wins a free copy of the beautifully produced Machine Project Almanac v1.1, featuring a bunch of previous events. If you're better at photography or some other alternate skill, you're also welcome to take photos, document yourself at Norton doing something, etc. and also present it - anything goes.
Here's some info on Norton Sales:
Norton Sales has been a leading supplier of Aerospace and Industrial supplies since 1962. Our customers tend to be small shops and individuals who are looking for very specific, and often hard to find, parts for rocketry, stunt equipment, movie props and old school hydraulics.
Come on out, bring some money, your friends and some dirty clothes. Don't be late. Here's a description of the place and a picture of the storefront you'll be looking for...
Ready, set, go...
Dorkbot SoCal 22 - 3D/Stereo Imaging - Saturday March 10th 2007 at 1pm at Machine Project
[ S P E C S ]
*** March 10th 2007, 1pm
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
[ D O R K B O T I N 3 D ]
This event will be on the theme of 3D imaging technologies and systems, and it's been in the making for a number of months. The event - organized with the help of Eric Kurland - will showcase some devices that have been informally demo'd at previous events, and also have presentations by two respected pioneers in 3D/stereo imaging technologies: Ray Zone and John A. Rupkalvis.
Come on out and bring your friends - seating is limited, and we'll be projecting/demonstrating in 3D: we'll be handing out stereo glasses to folks in the crowd... so come early. We will have some incredible hardware on site, too. Personally, I've seen Ray Zone recently present at USC: it was interesting, articulate and intelligent.
[ P R E S E N T E R S ]
 
Eric Kurland is an award winning filmmaker and digital artist whose films have played in festivals around the world. He also runs the Hollywood Mobile Movie, which presents guerrilla drive-in movies around Los Angeles. He is currently working on several independent stereoscopic projects and has hacked together various rigs for shooting and displaying 3-D video.
Ray Zone is a widely published author and speaker whose articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, American Cinematographer, and The Hollywood Reporter. A 3-D film producer and an award-winning 3-D artist and photographer, Zone has produced or published over 130 3-D comic books and created stereoscopic images for more than two decades.
John A. Rupkalvis is currently CEO of StereoScope International, which he founded in 1972, and Vice President of StereoMed, Inc., which he co-founded in 1978. He has served numerous clients in the motion picture and television industries, offering extremely experienced consultation on stereoscopic (three dimensional, or "3-D") imaging acquisition and display for producers and exhibitors. His extensive background has included serving as stereographer on over a dozen 3-D features and other productions, and he has designed and developed numerous stereoscopic systems and devices.
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Map of Machine Project
Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a presentation at
an upcoming Dorkbot SoCal event.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
Dorkbot SoCal 21: Dorkbake Contest
Feb 3rd 2007, in the evening (Saturday)
Machine Project
[ S P E C S ]
*** Feb 3rd 2007, in the evening (Saturday) - exact time of bakeoff TBA
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
[ D O R K B A K I N G ]
Machine Project, Make Magazine and Superbunker are very excited to announce DORKBAKE! (Dorkbot SoCal is, of course, fully supportive of this effort too.)
What we know at this time:
1. We are inviting teams or individuals to construct small baking ovens using only the heat of a 100-watt incandescent bulb.
2. The makers of said ovens shall compete in a public bake-off with said ovens on the evening of Feb 3rd. Ingredients will be provided to all competitors at the event.
3. Winners shall be judged on engineering, aesthetics and tastiness. Prizes include subscriptions to MAKE and CRAFT, a free class at Machine, electronic kits and other goodies.
4. The name Easy-Bake Oven is property of Hasbro and shall not be mentioned again. Except for here:
I think you should get bonus points if you can exactly replicate this picture - but I technically have nothing to do with scoring of this contest.
5. A Registration fee of $13.37 per team is required to compete. Registration and more details available here
The Dorkbake FAQ is available here
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Map of Machine Project
Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a presentation at
an upcoming Dorkbot SoCal event.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
Dorkbot SoCal 20: Laminar Sciences, Open Hack, with Dorkbake Contest Announcement / Registration
Jan 6th 2007, 1pm (Saturday)
Machine Project
[ S P E C S ]
*** Jan 6th 2007, 1pm (Saturday)
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
[ S C H E D U L E ]
We'll start this event with a demo by Bob Blackstock from Laminar Sciences Corporation: he'll be bringing and demoing some patent-pending "streaming birefringence" devices that produce extraordinarily interesting and colorful flow visualizations. It's like a combination of kaleidoscope, Etch-a-Sketch, and Lava Lamp with swirling colors spontaneously appear then disappear. Bob is exploring aesthetic and technical applications for these devices, including flow visualization for fluid mechanics and aerodynamics. See http://www.laminarsciences.com/id11.html for videos of this gear in action.
After Bob's demo, we'll be breaking into an "Open Hack": bring your scrap junk, ideas, in-progress devices, and completed projects. We'll bring out the tables and tools and hack away and chat for about an hour.
At the end of the event, we'll be announcing and taking registrations for our "Dorkbake" contest. Basically, people can register in the contest to have a month to build an oven using only a 100 watt incandescent for heat. The event finale is a cook off to be held on February 3rd 2007, where contestants are judged on flavor, engineering and aesthetics. Make Magazine and Craft are giving away subscriptions, Machine Project is giving away a free class or two, and some books. There may even be more prizes. Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair (Make and Craft editors) are going to judge. Other impressive judges are in the works. Contest details will be announced at the event.
And, as if this wasn't enough encouragement, the winner of the contest will also win a photo of their project in the beautiful hardcopy of Make magazine.
So, come on out... and bring your friends, gear, and ideas.
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Map of Machine Project
Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a presentation at
an upcoming Dorkbot SoCal event.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
Dorkbot SoCal 19: Make Magazine Issue #8 Launch Party
December 2nd 2006, 5:30pm (Saturday)
Machine Project
[ S P E C S ]
*** December 2nd 2006, 5:30pm (Saturday)
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
Please join us Saturday Dec 2nd at 5:30pm for a very special event with Machine Project to launch the new issue of MAKE Magazine.
Simon Penny (Director of UCI’s Arts Computation Engineering program) will speak on integrating interaction design, space design, structure design, mechanical design, electronic design and software engineering using his 3D machine-vision driven interactive digital-video project Fugitive 2 as a case study. Attention will then turn to the pragmatic design and fabrication issues involved in building a custom motion control rig for the video projector in the project. Simon is bringing in a prototype of the motion control rig as tangible example.
Mr Jalopy (Contributing Editor to MAKE and automotive mad scientist) will be giving an epic (yet fast paced) talk on “Deep Sea Suburbs: Custom Vans, Internal Combustion Engines, Backyard Anthropology and the California Dream”.
Make Magazine Issue #8 will be available for perusal and purchase
There is a high probability of free beer and pretzels
—————
[ A L S O ]
In conjunction with the Make #8 launch party, Machine Project is offering a workshop on solar powered eletronics
Introduction to Solar Robotics
Dec 3rd, 11am to 7pm (12-1 lunch break)
$95 all materials and a free issue of Make #8 included. Registration and more information.
Space is limited to 10 people. Register early to avoid disappointment.
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Map of Machine Project
Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a presentation at
an upcoming Dorkbot SoCal event.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
Dorkbot SoCal 18: Trip to Apex Electronic Surplus
November 4th 2006, 1pm (Saturday)
Machine Project
[ S P E C S ]
*** November 4th 2006 - 1pm (Saturday)
*** Meet at Machine Project at 1pm, leaving at 1:15pm for Apex
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
*** Arriving at Apex Electronics at around 1:45pm
*** 8909 San Fernando Road
*** Sun Valley, CA. 91352
*** http://www.apexelectronic.com/
[ O V E R V I E W ]
This event will be a "field trip" to Apex Electronic Surplus. Tom Jennings knows the place well, and will be our unofficial guide. Apex has 10,000 square feet of unusual, unique and hard to find items: it's got all of the usual surplus items as well as helicopter cockpits, missiles, and odd scientific and industrial equipment.
Come on out, bring your friends and some cash - you won't forget this one. (And in case you end up climbing around the junkpile, bring some decent shoes and some clothes that might get dirty.)
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Map of Machine Project
Map of Apex Electronic Surplus
Driving directions from Machine to Apex:
1. Start at 1200 N ALVARADO ST, LOS ANGELES going toward RESERVOIR ST - go 0.4 mi
2. Bear Left on GLENDALE BLVD - go 0.6 mi
3. GLENDALE BLVD becomes CA-2 NORTH - go 0.5 mi
4. Take the I-5 exit toward SACRAMENTO - go 11.9 mi
5. Take the PENROSE ST exit - go 0.2 mi
6. Turn Left on PENROSE ST - go 0.2 mi
7. Turn Right on SAN FERNANDO RD - go 0.6 mi
8. Arrive at 8909 SAN FERNANDO RD, SUN VALLEY, on the Left. Here is a picture of the Apex storefront.
Special thanks to Tom Jennings for helping with this event. Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a presentation at
an upcoming Dorkbot SoCal event.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
Dorkbot SoCal 17: Stefanac, de Fren, Elliott
October 7th 2006, 4pm (Saturday)
Machine Project
[ S P E C S ]
*** October 7th 2006 - 4pm (Saturday, but not at the usual 1pm time)
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
[ O V E R V I E W ]
This event will feature Suzanne Stefanac, Allison de Fren and Greg Elliott. Suzanne Stefanac will be starting off the event: she recently moved to LA to direct the Digital Content Lab at the American Film Institute, one of the country's
leading R&D Labs for digital content. Allison de Fren will take us on a journey of technosexuality through the screening of her film work which explores the quest to manufacture the perfect woman in both the robotics and sex industries. Lastly, Greg Elliott will show his project, PersonalSoundtrack, an iPod/pedometer hybrid that automatically changes audio tempo and track based on your gait.
Come on out, bring your friends - it should be an exceptional event. NOTE: This event will feature sexually graphic material.
[ P R E S E N T E R S ]
Suzanne Stefanac
http://www.zorca.com/
http://dispatchesfromblogistan.com
After abandoning her first career as a chemist, Suzanne Stefanac wrote about technology and its social and business implications for more than fifteen years and published in Wired, Macworld, Salon, PC World, Publish, New Media, San Francisco Chronicle, California Lawyer, and Rolling Stone, among others.
With the emergence of the web, Stefanac was founding editor of Macworld Online, overseeing technology, creative, editorial, and business aspects. She was an executive producer for The Site, an hour-long, nightly program about technology that launched on MSNBC. She co-founded RespondTV, an interactive television infrastructure company, where she served as senior vice president for creative and production, overseeing applications for clients such as Coca-Cola, Ford, American Airlines, Purina, Comedy Central, and PBS.
More recently, she has provided strategic consulting for a variety of efforts. She designed and built a website for General Wesley Clark’s PAC and oversaw a website in seven languages for Quincy Jones’ We Are the Future project. Stefanac conceived and built a website for Macarthur Fellow and American Book awardee Guillermo Gómez-Peña. She has served as a mentor with the American Film Institute’s Digital Content Labs for the past eight years. She was a session chair at DUX2005.
Suzanne has also just released a book which is just starting to hit shelves. it's called Dispatches From Blogistan: A Travel Guide for the Modern Blogger.
Allison de Fren: ASFR (alt.sex.fetish.robots)
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2408202
Allison de Fren will take us on an exploration of technosexuality through the screening of her documentary short, ASFR, which focuses on an internet community of robot fetishists.
Allison de Fren is a digital media maker who creates both linear and interactive work. She is currently in postproduction on a feature-length documentary entitled 'The Mechanical Bride,' which explores the quest to manufacture the perfect
woman (in both the robotics and sex industries).She has taught and written about technology in its relationship to the body, and she has worked as an interaction designer and consultant for companies such as Voyager, Starwave, and Interval Research. She has a masters degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and is currently a doctoral candidate in the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California.
Greg Elliott: Personal Soundtrack
http://ace.uci.edu/~gelliott/personalsoundtrack/
PersonalSoundtrack, a tiny wearable computer, detects your walking or running speed and plays songs from your music library that match your pace. Song speed is adjusted in real-time to match subtle variations in your gait, while larger, deliberate pace changes cause the device to change songs. You simply put it on and begin moving; that's it.
Most computational devices require the user to adapt to the machine. PersonalSoundtrack offers, instead, a symbiotic relationship: both human and machine actively adapt to each other in real-time. The 'interface' is one's natural gait. There is no optimal or pre-defined experience, encouraging meandering, wasting time, and loitering.
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Map to Dorkbot SoCal 17
Special thanks to Tom Jennings for helping with this event. Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a presentation at
an upcoming Dorkbot SoCal event.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
DORKBOTSOCAL16 - SPECIAL EVENT
Machine Project Aug 12th 2006, 8pm (Saturday)
Make Magazine Issue 7 Release Party
[ S P E C S ]
*** Aug 12th 2006 - 8pm (Saturday, but not at the usual 1pm time)
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
[ O V E R V I E W ]
This will be a special event presented by Dorkbot SoCal & Machine Project: Make Magazine's Issue 7 Release Party. Jed Berk will be there to talk about autonomous flocking behaviour in robotic blimps, Make editor and internet superstar Mark Frauenfelder will be there to introduce the new issue and chat with you about general makery, and Issue 7 (Back Yard Biology) will be there for you to peruse and purchase, which includes an article on making a home mushroom growing lab by our friend Phil Ross.
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Map to DORKBOTSOCAL16
Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a presentation at
an upcoming Dorkbotsocal event.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
DORKBOTSOCAL15
Machine Project July 2nd 2006, 1pm (Sunday)
"Open Hack" Event (Electronic Disassembly Event #2)
[ S P E C S ]
*** July 2nd 2006 - 1pm (SUNDAY - not Saturday)
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
[ O V E R V I E W ]
This will be an "open hack", and will be a repeat of our highly
successful May "electronic disassembly" event where people brought a
variety of electronic devices to rip apart while chatting. Come on
out and bring in something that you've never seen the insides of: an
old VCR, toaster, alarm clock, keyboard, camera or a piece of
industrial surplus. If you've never taken anything apart, don't be
intimidated: this activity is for both newbies and experienced folks.
To help rip apart your electronics, you're also welcome to bring some
of your own tools in case things get busy and the "house" tools get
monopolized.
Please note that this event will be held on SUNDAY, not Saturday (as usual).
In addition to your objects of deconstruction, Tom Jennings will give
a demo of http://wps.com/projects/MP3-system/index.html - a computer
music system for his 1970 AMC Hornet. This is an linux-based MP3
player operated by 2 knobs and 2 switches, with no visible computer
controls.
If you have your own projects to demo, bring them out too.
So, come on out on Sunday... bring your ideas and something to rip
apart. The last event like this was a lot of fun: hope to see you
there!
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Map to DORKBOTSOCAL15
Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a presentation at
an upcoming Dorkbotsocal event.
LOST? If you're completely lost, you can always call nine-four-nine-291-5666.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
DORKBOTSOCAL14
Machine Project June 3rd 2006, 1pm
Coniglio, Silbert, Kurt
"Un-everyday Environments"
*** June 3rd 2006 - 1pm (Saturday)
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
--
[ O V E R V I E W ]
This event, in "Dorkbot-ish" fashion, is a diverse blend of three presentations that all relate to inhabited environments: but in a completely different realm than Bed Bath & Beyond. Samuel Coniglio, Vice President of the Space Tourism Society, will show us products he's designed for life in space: including, of course, a zero-gravity martini glass. Jennifer Silbert, an L.A.-based architect, will bring us into the interesting world of designing and working with highly original custom architectural materials. Lastly, Tod E. Kurt will bring an entourage of Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners and show us how to modify them to play music and do other unexpected things.
So, come on out and bring your friends. As with all events, this is free of charge. If you would like to make a donation to our kind venue-host (Machine Project), bring some dollar bills and watch them get sucked up in the money-sucking-machine. Also, most lecture events are filled to capacity, so if you want a chair, it might be a good idea to come at 12:50.
------
[ P R E S E N T E R S ]
--
Samuel Coniglio: Emotional Design for the Orbital Lifestyle
http://www.spacetourismsociety.org
Samuel Coniglio is photographer, designer and promoter for the space tourism industry. His photographs document the evolution of the private space industry, focusing on the pioneers and their vehicles. In 2004, he photographed the historic flights of Space Ship One, the world's first successful private spaceship. He designs robots and other products specifically for the zero gravity lifestyle. Samuel is Vice President of the Space Tourism Society, which promotes the nascent space tourism industry, and a member of the Space Frontier Foundation, which promotes free trade in orbit. Since 1997, he has presented papers, run conferences and conducted seminars on space tourism in the USA, Great Britain, and Germany.
--
Jennifer Silbert: 3form Architectural
http://3-form.com/
http://3-form.com/architectural-case_studies.php?sid=8
Jennifer will present on the technology and process of designing new materials for architectural projects. One project is the renovation of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts - Alice Tully Hall - in New York. This project features translucent wood panels that are 2" thick to meet the acoustic requirements of the concert hall. In addition, the panels have complex curves, meaning that the material must also be heat-formable. The research and development of this material took over 3 months of testing various adhesion and lamination techniques. This presentation will provide an overview of the digital data modelling, structural design, hardware design, prototyping, fabrication and assembly of the project. Jennifer Silbert is a practicing architect in Los Angeles and a graduate of the Yale School of Architecture.
--
Tod E. Kurt: Hacking Roomba
http://todbot.com/
http://todbot.com/blog/category/roomba/
Tod will show how a Roomba can be a MIDI synth or make room-sized Spirographs, as well as demonstrate what a good platform for robotics experimentation the Roomba has become. The cheap hardware and software needed to hack a Roomba will be shown and discussed. Tod E. Kurt is the author of the upcoming book "Hacking Roomba". He has engineered the hardware and software for robotic camera systems that went to Mars. He was a founding developer and systems architect of Overture Systems, née GoTo.com, later sold to Yahoo. Now as co- creator of ThingM.com, he's designing sketchable hardware and networked portable objects. He has degrees in Electrical Engineering from Caltech and Physics from Occidental College. His robotics hacking began at the age twelve when he took apart his BigTrak, RC car, and chemistry set box to build an upright programmable robot.
------
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
The next Dorkbot SoCal event will be held on Saturday July 1st 2006 at 1pm at Machine Project. This will be an "open hack" event with another disassembly workshop: the last one was very cool, informative and social. We will also have an update from "Ro Bo" about his wearable computing project introduced at the end of May's event.
Map to DORKBOTSOCAL14 / Machine Project:
Yahoo Map to Machine Project
Please contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a presentation at an upcoming DORKBOTSOCAL event.
LOST? If you're completely lost, call nine-four-nine-291-5666 on the day of the event for directions.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
DORKBOTSOCAL13
Machine Project May 6th 2006, 1pm
"Open Hack" Event
(with Jennings "Electronic Disassembly" workshop and Hart " Southern California Science Cafe" presentation)
[ S P E C S ]
*** May 6th 2006 - 1pm (Saturday)
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
[ O V E R V I E W ]
This will be the third "open hack" event, with a workshop/activity in the disassembly of an electronic device. In other words, come on out and bring something interesting to rip apart: Tom Jennings will provide an overview of some disassembly issues and get us all rolling. Bring in something that you've never seen the insides of: an old VCR, toaster, alarm clock, keyboard, camera or a piece of industrial surplus. If you've never taken anything apart, don't be intimidated: this activity is for both newbies and experienced folks. To help rip apart your electronics, you're also welcome to bring some of your own tools in case things get busy and the "house" tools get monopolized.
In addition to your objects of deconstruction, you are also invited to bring your latest prototypes, napkin sketches, and items to get technical help or conceptual feedback on. This has been an increasingly fruitful part of the open hack events as people become more comfortable to share their ideas and projects.
We will also be featuring a short presentation by Brian Hart, the director of the Southern California Science Cafe - a relatively laid-back forum for scientists to give informal presentations about fresh-from-the-lab discoveries. It looks like a very interesting project, and it will be good to hear more about what Brian's been up to.
So, come on out on Saturday... bring your latest project/idea and something to rip apart. It's shaping up to be a great event - hope to see you there.
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Map to DORKBOTSOCAL13:
Yahoo Map to Machine Project
Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a presentation at
an upcoming Dorkbotsocal event.
LOST? If you're completely lost, you can always call nine-four-nine-291-5666.
DORKBOTSOCAL12
Machine Project April 1st 2006, 1pm
Dagett,
Spellman/Stow, Lew
"Visualizing the Invisible"
*** April 1st 2006 - 1pm (Saturday)
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
--
[ O V E R V I E W ]
If a theme for this event had to be chosen, I'd pick "Making the
Invisible Visible". This month's event will feature a good variety of
work from a number of different angles: social software, locative
media and digital cinema. Mark Daggett, most well-known (perhaps) as
being part of the Radical Software Group that won a Golden Nica at Ars
Electronica 2002, will be presenting "Balance Bar" - a browser
extension programmed to allow any user to editorialize any web page
anywhere on the Internet. Naomi Spellman & Brandon Stow from 34 North
118 West will be showing "Interpretive Engine for Various Places on
Earth", a system that uses outdoor wireless network connections to
design a custom-built narrative specific to geographical location,
including factors like weather conditions, the physical environment,
nearby locales, and historic events. Michael Lew will also be
presenting: he's a media artist and research engineer that primarily
works on expanding cinema, and has a background in electrical
engineering, artificial intelligence, performance and filmmaking.
Come on out - bring your friends. This event is free of charge. If
you would like to make a donation to our kind venue-host (Machine
Project), bring some dollar bills and watch them get sucked up in the
money-sucking-machine. Also, the last number of lecture events have
been filled to over-capacity, so if you want a chair, it might be a
good idea to come at 12:50.
------
[ P R E S E N T E R S ]
--
Mark Daggett
"Balance Bar"
http://www.flavoredthunder.com/
"In my artwork, I primarily make tools for use by others. The tools that
I create are computer applications, which are commonly referred to as "social
software" or "art applications". My ongoing social software research
is in the area of "independent interfaces," a term I coined to
describe my artistic production and academic research. (The term also
is the title of my related book project.) Independent interfaces are
artistic augmentations to conventional technology that help people
understand how social software can alter their lives in positive and
not-so-positive ways. My interfaces are developed to illuminate and
measure the often-elusive effects of social software on our culture.
A good example of my work in social software is an on-going project
called the "Balance Bar" (http://www.collcoll.com/balancebar/). The
"Balance Bar" is a simple browser extension programmed to allow any
user to editorialize any web page anywhere on the Internet. The
"Balance Bar" will literally insert your comments/article/rant
directly onto whatever web page you would like to expound on. The
"Balance Bar" was developed to address the increasing need to
"balance" the one-sided and isolated worldview that much of our media
sources produce."
Mark Daggett is an artist and programmer, whose work has been shown in
museums, festivals and exhibitions around the world. His work has
shown in the Whitney Museum, the Princeton Museum, P.S. 1, the Ars
Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria, and the Transmediale festival
in Berlin, to name a few. As a member of Radical Software Group, he
was part of a team that won a Golden Nica award for the project
Carnivore at the 2002 Ars Electronica Festival. Daggett have been
nominated for several prestigious awards, including a 2006 Rockefeller
New Media Grant, and a Webby Award, which is sometimes called the
Oscars of the Internet. Major media sources have covered Daggett's
work, including the New York Times, Le Monde, WIRED Magazine and
Surface Magazine. He is presently Creative Manager for Revver a Social
Software company based in Hollywood.
--
34 North 118 West
Naomi Spellman & Brandon Stow
"Interpretive Engine for Various Places on Earth"
http://www.34n118w.net/
Naomi Spellman and Brandon Stow will discuss The Interpretive Engine
for Various Places on Earth, a project with Jeff Knowlton. A work in
progress, this generative narrative relies on outdoor wireless
Internet connection to tell a story specific to user location. Data
such as weather conditions, the physical environment, nearby locales,
historic events Ð all specific to the current location and time Ð are
retrieved from online sources and fed into a scripted story structure.
The negotiation of remote databases uncovers larger issues of social
control and power among governmental, commercial, and academic
interests.
34 North 118 West is a southern California based collective focusing
on site specific experimental works utilizing digital media,
computation, and internet resources. Through telecommunications and
mapping tools, one of their concerns is to expose or call to light the
debate around control of and access to information. Their work has
been shown at Futuresonic <4> (Manchester, UK), the LA Freewaves
Festival (Los Angeles), and the Art in Motion in Festival (Los
Angeles). The "interpretive engine" will be shown in the Fresno
Metropolitan Museum's Off-site series, June - August 2006. Naomi,
Jeff, and Brandon are affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Computing
Arts Program at UC San Diego.
--
Micheal Lew
Topic TBD
http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~lew/
"I will be presenting some ongoing research project about "Human
behaviour control". Combining the electronic art attempts of tapping
into the nervous/muscular system (roachbot, Stelarc, Artifacial
expression) and the influence of video game control into live
interactive entertainment, I will present a project where live actors
can be controlled by the audience. It's better than Office Voodoo, the
Sims or reality TV. After a background talk surveying the field, I
will present a demo with live actors of my work-in-progress
prototype."
Michael Lew is a media artist and research engineer, with backgrounds
in electrical engineering, artificial intelligence, performance and
filmmaking. From 2001-2004, he was a Research Fellow at the MIT Media
Lab Europe in Dublin, Ireland, investigating what happens to the film
form when the medium becomes computational. Michael's interactive film
installations and live experimental videos have been shown in
electronic art festivals across Europe and the US. Michael obtained
his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology (EPFL), with a masters thesis on software agents from
the AI Lab, Motorola Labs in Paris, France, for which he was awarded
the Logitech 2000 prize. In 97-98, he was developing architectures for
MPEG-2 video streaming at the Technion Institute of Technology, Haifa,
Israel.
------
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Map to DORKBOTSOCAL12 / Machine Project:
Yahoo Map Link to Machine Project
Please contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a
presentation at an upcoming DORKBOTSOCAL event.
LOST? If you're completely lost, call nine-four-nine-291-5666 on the
day of the event for directions.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
DORKBOTSOCAL11
Machine Project March 4th 2006, 1pm
"Open Hack" Event (with Hertz "how to solder" workshop)
[ S P E C S ]
*** March 4th 2006 - 1pm (Saturday)
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
[ O V E R V I E W ]
This will be the second "open hack" event, with an added bonus: come
on out for a "how to solder" demo by Garnet Hertz.
The "open demo" is an opportunity for you to bring projects that
you've been working on and to get technical or conceptual feedback on
them. During the last open hack event we had a number of folks bring
out completed projects, project ideas, and specific technical
questions. We're looking for more of the same: this should be a good
time to bring works in progress, get feedback/help, and see what
others are doing.
The "how to solder" portion of the event will be an instructional demo
that will be catered toward people that are beginning with
electronics: Garnet will be showing the basics of soldering. The
tools and supplies for this workshop will be provided... and is free
of charge.
So: grab your stuff, tools, sketches, ideas and friends and come on
out on Saturday March 4th at 1pm to Machine Project.
[ P R E S E N T E R S ]
You, your rude-gesture-traffic-signal-device, your robot figure made
from MHz CPU speed indicator LEDs, a big motor that you want to use in
your next project, or your talking-streetcorner-post glove. (These
were all projects brought to the last event.) And your best friends.
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Map to DORKBOTSOCAL11:
Map of Machine Project
LOST? If you're completely lost, you can always call nine-four-nine-291-5666.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
DORKBOTSOCAL10 - Machine Project Feb 4th 2006, 1pm: Reas / Khan / Dockray
[ S P E C S ]
*** February 4th 2006 - 1pm (Saturday)
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
--
[ O V E R V I E W ]
This event will focus on how Processing - an open source programming
language and environment for people who want to work with images,
animation, and sound - can be used to interact and control electronics
and other physical devices. Two physical computing initiatives related
to Processing will be presented: Osman Khan
will explore the Arduino project
and Sean Dockray
will present the Wiring project. In addition,
some recent Arduino/Wiring projects developed at UCLA will be
demonstrated.
------
[ P R E S E N T E R S ]
The event will begin with an introduction by Casey Reas
, co-initiator of the Processing project. Casey will introduce the project that was
co-developed with Ben Fry from ideas explored in
the Aesthetics and Computation Group at the MIT Media Lab and recently
won a Golden Nica award at Prix Ars Electronica 2005.
--
Osman Khan on Arduino
http://www.osmankhan.com/
http://arduino.berlios.de/
Osman Khan will be giving a presentation and lecture on Arduino
http://arduino.berlios.de/. Arduino is an open-source physical
computing platform based on a simple I/O board and a development
environment that implements the Processing/Wiring language. Arduino
can be used to develop stand-alone interactive objects or can be
connected to software on your computer (e.g. Flash, Processing,
MaxMSP). The Arduino board is inexpensive and easily assembled by
hand. This provides a cheap and easy way to get started learning how
to assemble circuits. Osman Khan is an artist interested in using
technology to construct engines that help create artifacts for social
criticism and aesthetic expression. His work explores certain themes
to see how technology fabricates as well as subverts our understanding
of identity, communication, and public space through interactive
installations and site-specific interventions. His work has been shown
at Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria, Beyond Media Festival, Florence,
Italy; UC Santa Barbara, USA; LALALA Westweek, Pacific Design Center
in Los Angeles, USA; nano, LACMALab, Los Angeles, USA; telic gallery,
Los Angeles, USA; Dangerous Curve, Los Angeles, USA; bank, Los
Angeles, USA. Osman received his MFA from UCLA's Department of Design
| Media Arts.
--
Sean Dockray on Wiring
http://spd.e-rat.org/
http://wiring.org.co/
Sean Dockray will be giving an overview and demonstration of the
Wiring platform http://wiring.org.co/. Wiring is a physical
computing platform with a sophisticated I/O board and a development
environment utilizing a Processing style language for programming
microcontrollers. Sean Dockray is an artist whose practice follows
from research into social systems and events. He is a founder of the
Los Angeles chapter of the Institute for Advanced Architecture; a
producer of Building Sound, an internet radio program about
architecture; and has worked with the Center for Land Use
Interpretation on their Land Use Database. Dockray received a BSE from
Princeton University in Civil Engineering and Architecture in 1999 and
completed coursework towards an MFA in Critical Studies from the
California Institute of the Arts in 2002. His individual and
collaborative work has been shown at the Telic Gallery (Los Angeles),
the Turtle Bay Museum (Redding), Basekamp Gallery (Philadelphia), Oni
Gallery (Boston), Marcuse Gallery (San Diego), Contemporary Artists
Center (North Adams), LeRoy Neiman Gallery (New York), and the
Storefront for Art and Architecture (New York).
--
Arduino/Wiring Projects from UCLA
This portion of the event will include quick presentations of some of
the best projects built in a recent class by Sean Dockray and a
workshop by Tom Igoe of NYU. These demos involve the creation of
electronic instruments build for performance and small boxes imbued
with behavior. All projects sense some aspect of its environment (e.g.
light, distance, orientation, touch) and have a physical output (e.g.
light, sound, motion). Each project uses an Arduino or Wiring boards
as a software control system for mapping the input to the output. A
variety of sensors have been explored: orientation, tilt,
acceleration, light, sound, IR and sonar distance, RFID, etc. A
variety of different actuators have been used: solenoid, step, DC, and
servo.
------
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Please contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a
presentation at an upcoming DORKBOTSOCAL event.
LOST? If you're completely lost, call nine-four-nine-291-5666 on the
day of the event for directions.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
DORKBOTSOCAL9
Machine Project Jan 7th 2006, 1pm
"Open Hack" Event
[ S P E C S ]
*** January 7th 2006 - 1pm (Saturday)
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
[ O V E R V I E W ]
After a short hiatus, Dorkbot-socal is revived with a new
home, a new time, and new structure - and a new twist for January: we're trying out a free-form "open hack" concept for the entire event. To get more hands-on-hacking going on, every 2nd
month (starting in January) will be a "bring your project and work on it"
event, featuring semi-regular appearances by the guru Tom Jennings http://wps.com,
the svelte Mark Allen http://markallen.com/ and grubby old me,
Garnet Hertz http://conceptlab.com.
This should be a good time to bring works in progress, get feedback/help,
and see what others are doing. I think this will also be a good opportunity to scout out neat stuff for future (more formal) presentations for upcoming events.
So: grab your stuff, tools, sketches, ideas and friends and come on out on Saturday Jan 7th at 1pm at Machine Project.
[ R E V I V A L _ N O T E S ]
We're meeting on Saturday afternoons (at 1pm) now, which will hopefully
make it easier for people to come to events. To keep things consistent
(and MapQuesting confusion to a minimum) we're going to hold the events at
a regular location over the next while: Machine Project Gallery, a perfect
match for Dorkbot. The 3-presentations/demo events will occur every 2nd month (feb, april, june, aug, oct, dec) and odd-numbered months (jan, march, may, july, sept, nov) will be in an open hack/lab/studio (aka "opendork") format. these events are built for people to just bring their projects-in-progress, work on them, get feedback/help, and discuss.
a rough schedule for 2006 is as follows:
- DORKBOTSOCAL9 - Jan 7th 2006 1pm - Machine Project - Open Hack
- DORKBOTSOCAL10 - Feb 4th 2006 1pm - Machine Project - Proposed topic: hardware.processing.org
- DORKBOTSOCAL11 - Mar 4th 2006 1pm - Machine Project - Open Hack
- DORKBOTSOCAL12 - Apr 1st 2006 1pm - Machine Project - Presenters TBA
- DORKBOTSOCAL13 - May 6th 2006 1pm - Open Hack
- DORKBOTSOCAL14 - Jun 3rd 2006 1pm - Presenters TBA
- DORKBOTSOCAL15 - Jul 1st 2006 1pm - Open Hack
- DORKBOTSOCAL16 - Aug 5th 2006 1pm - Presenters TBA
- DORKBOTSOCAL17 - Sep 2nd 2006 1pm - Open Hack
- DORKBOTSOCAL18 - Oct 7th 2006 1pm - Presenters TBA
- DORKBOTSOCAL19 - Nov 4th 2006 1pm - Open Hack
- DORKBOTSOCAL20 - Dec 2nd 2006 1pm - Presenters TBA
all dates, times, locations and everything is subject to change.
[ P R E S E N T E R S ]
You, your soldering iron, hacked together automobile, laser-scanning vegetable peeler, paper tape talking machine or massively multiplayer game intervention. And your best friends.
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Map to DORKBOTSOCAL9:
Map
of Machine Project
Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a
presentation at an upcoming Dorkbotsocal event.
LOST? If you're completely lost, you can always call Garnet at
nine-four-nine-291-5666.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
DORKBOTSOCAL8
Machine Project Dec 3rd 2005, 1pm:
Bleecker/Brinson, Stearns, Johnson
[ S P E C S ]
*** December 3rd 2005 - 1pm (Saturday)
*** Machine Project
*** 1200 D North Alvarado Street
*** Los Angeles, CA 90026
*** http://www.machineproject.com
[ O V E R V I E W ]
After a short hiatus, Dorkbot-socal is revived with a new
home, a new time, and new structure - and some great
presentations/demos for December! Come out to the event at
1pm on Saturday the 3rd. I say this every time, but this one
should be extra-good. Seriously: read the descriptions below,
and I'll see you there.
[ R E V I V A L _ N O T E S ]
We're meeting on Saturday afternoons (at 1pm) now, which will hopefully
make it easier for people to come to events. To keep things consistent
(and MapQuesting confusion to a minimum) we're going to hold the events at
a regular location over the next while: Machine Project Gallery, a perfect
match for Dorkbot. Also, to get more hands-on-hacking going on, every 2nd
month (starting in January) will be a "bring your project and work on it"
event, featuring semi-regular appearances by the guru Tom Jennings http://wps.com,
the svelte Mark Allen http://markallen.com/ and grubby old me,
Garnet Hertz http://conceptlab.com.
This should be a good time to bring works in progress, get feedback/help,
and see what others are doing. More info about this will be explained on
the 3rd.
[ P R E S E N T E R S ]
Julian Bleecker & Peter Brinson: Vis-a-Vis Games
http://www.visavisgames.org/
We're developing a new kind of game experience using outdoor
viewable mobile devices that anticipate the near-future of
pervasive electronic gaming. These devices range in size from
about that of a tiny laptop, to the size of a small book. We
then configure these portable mobile devices with a GPS sensor
that measure your location in the real world, and orientation
sensors that can tell precisely where you're looking. This
combination makes for designs that represent a true innovation
in game play. Vis-a-Vis Games is an enterprise of the Mobile
and Pervasive Lab at the University of Southern California.
//--------------------
Phil Stearns: TI99/4a Circuit Bending
Through "circuit bending" and creative analog to digital
switching, I've managed to turn a friendly TI99/4a computer (c
1981) into a pixel-spewing entity that likes to feed on sound
waves and spit out garbled, colorful, and highly pixelated
images in realtime. The device was born out of a desire to
explore the artistic possibilities of what happens when our
discarded technology is forcefully but carefully coaxed into
modes of failure.
//--------------------
Jay Mark Johnson: Robotic Spherical Lens Camera 3D Invention
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0425323/
Jay Mark Johnson will be presenting a robotic camera with a
spherical lens that takes High Dynamic Range images and
converts them to lighting rigs to be used in 3D applications
for image based rendering. He also has some "top secret" stuff
he's doing with the camera, which he may be talking about.
He's worked on a pile of movies, including "A Day Withought a
Mexican", "Nomad", "The Matrix" and "Titanic".
//--------------------
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Map to DORKBOTSOCAL8:
Map of Machine Project
Mark Allen and Dan Novy helped to oranize the event.
And Garnet Hertz, too.
Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a
presentation at an upcoming Dorkbotsocal event.
LOST? If you're completely lost, you can always call Garnet at
nine-four-nine-291-5666.
DORKBOTSOCAL7
04-March-2005 - UCSB
Novak / Black / Overholt
[ S P E C S ]
*** MARCH 4th 2005 - 8pm (Friday)
*** University of California Santa Barbara
*** 6020 Humanities and Social Sciences Building, McCune Conference room
*** http://www.aw.id.ucsb.edu/maps.html
***
Map to event
[ O V E R V I E W ]
After much planning, Dorkbotsocal will finally be held in Santa
Barbara. DORKBOTSOCAL7 will take place on Friday, March 4th at 8pm
at UCSB. In conjunction with the "Calculating Images" conference at
UCSB (), Marcos Novak will
open the evening with a talk entitled "Transvergent Beauty:
Computation and Alloaesthetics". For those of you who haven't heard
Marcos talk, you're in for a treat. After that, we'll reconvene in
another room (Arts 2220) to hear August Black and Dan Overholt
present. August Black has worked on numerous international
projects, and will share some of his work with us. Dan Overholt
will close off the evening with a presentation entitled
"Re-inventing the Orchestra: HCI in music performance" in which he
will demonstrate some captivating gestural interfaces for electronic
music. If you're interested in architecture or audio, this event is
for you: come on out and see beautiful Santa Barbara.
[ P R E S E N T E R S ]
//--------------------
Marcos Novak (UCSB/Los Angeles): "Transvergent Beauty: Computation
and
Alloaesthetics"
http://www.centrifuge.org/
Marcos Novak is a pioneer in the field of virtual architecture. In
the mid 90s, his contribution to International architectural
discourse was further expanded by the coining and definition of the
term "Transarchitectures". His approach: "we conceive
algorithmically (morphogenesis); we model numerically (rapid
prototyping); we build robotically (new tectonics); we inhabit
interactively (intelligent space); we telecommunicate instantly
(pantopicon); we are informed immersively (liquid architectures); we
socialise nonlocally (nonlocal public domain); we evert virtuality
(transarchitectures)." He has also posited a new "Soft Babylon," a
theoretical stance which posits that our digitized architectural
palette is causing us to create a wired Situationist city, while we
struggle with some of the massive paradigm shifts that our era will
and must face. Whilst articulating highly fluent theory, he has
practiced, producing beautiful ethereal architectures that flux and
shimmer as his algorithms run their designed logics. He received the
Masters of Architecture at Ohio State university in 1983. Since that
time he has taught at Ohio State, University of Texas Austin, the
Architecture program at UCLA, the Digital Media program at UCLA, Art
Center College of Art & design, Pasadena. He has published, lectured
and exhibited his work internationally.
//--------------------
August Black (UCSB)
http://aug.ment.org/
August Black has an awful habit of calling himself an artist.
Previously, this has meant making marks on paper and later on
canvas. Now, this means almost anything concerning material,
concept, and form. His research is based in the overlap of media
(both digital and analogue, electronic and mechanical), focusing
mostly on the kinds of audiences that are created and induced by
emerging conventions of observation and involvement. He works in
radio, television, software, networks, comics, text, and projected
sound/light. Collaborating with others on various free radio
stations in Austria, he's devised a technique for performing live
radio on a shoestring budget from networked locations outside of the
studio, transforming the location at hand into material and subject
for conceptual play. He is currently an IGERT research fellow at
the University of California Santa Barbara.
//--------------------
Dan Overholt (UCSB): "Re-inventing the Orchestra: HCI in music
performance"
http://www.create.ucsb.edu/~dano/
In music composition and performance, it has always been important
to use a variety of instruments in order to create interesting sonic
environments. Historically this led to the development of many
different acoustic instruments, but musicians have increasingly been
composing and performing with computers - today, various audio
synthesis techniques are used to generate sound; these synthesis
techniques can be viewed as modern corollaries to the different
orchestral instruments. Moreover, given the flexibility of these
synthesis algorithms, today's virtual instruments are capable of a
much wider range of sound generation than their acoustic
counterparts. However the interfaces used to control these new
sounds are predominantly based on historic instruments such as the
piano (MIDI keyboards), or simply use a standard computer
keyboard/mouse. While such standardized approaches are useful in
some situations, they limit the range of musical expression that our
new orchestra of synthesis techniques potentially offers. Instead of
losing much of the expressiveness and live performance capabilities
of acoustic music, we should extend our methods of sonic control to
a more intricate level by developing gestural interfaces for
electronic music. I have developed several new interfaces with this
goal in mind, and will explain the ideas behind their creation and
demonstrate how they work.
//--------------------
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Directions to DORKBOTSOCAL7 from LA:
1. Take 101 North.
2. Near Goleta, take the 217 west towards UCSB.
3. When the highway ends, take a right on Mesa Road.
4. Go left on Ocean Road. When you get to the traffic circle, veer
right and
continue on Ocean road.
5. At the intersection of El Colegio Road and Ocean, go left. Park
in lot 21.
You will have to buy a permit (bring dollar bills) at one of the
automated
machines. The Calculating Images conference will be in Humanities
and Social
Sciences and the rest of dorkbot will be in Arts 2220.
Ben Ritter, MarkDavid Hosale, John Thompson, Graham Wakefield, and
Carlos
Castellanos helped to oranize the event.
Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a presentation
at an upcoming Dorkbotsocal event.
LOST? If you're completely lost, you can always call Garnet at
nine-four-nine-981-6438.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
DORKBOTSOCAL6
18-December-2004 - Enlighted (Encinitas)
Hansen / Stalbaum&Poole / Kearns
[ S P E C S ]
*** DECEMBER 18th 2004 - 8pm (Saturday)
*** Enlighted Designs
*** 163 La Costa Ave, Encinitas CA 92024
*** Map: Mapquest
Link
[ O V E R V I E W ]
We'll be holding the DORKBOTSOCAL6 event at the studio/factory of
Enlighted Designs - designers and builders of
electroluminescent clothing. Janet Hansen, the company founder, will
be
giving us a tour of the place, and may even share the secrets of how
things like this
are manufactured. After
that, Paula Poole & Brett Stalbaum will take control: they'll talk
about
doing arbitrary mapping things with GPS, in their incarnation as
painterflat.net. As a bonus, Brett's also a member of the highly
respected C5 Corporation and is also the
coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts Major at UC
San Diego... you'll want to hear what he has to say. Lastly, we're
capping
off the evening with a special and wonderfully strange presentation by
Neil Kearns: he supposedly has an RV that he's modified to be driven by
sitting on the roof, and it's outfitted with a bunch of video monitors
playing an obscure synchronized mix of images. We'll put on our
jackets,
head outside, and go inside the darned thing.
Come on out, bring your own "refreshments", egg nog and a couple of
friends - this will be a mind-engaging and memorable event!
[ P R E S E N T E R S ]
//-------------------------
Janet Hansen
Enlighted Designs
http://www.enlighted.com
Janet Hansen is an artist/engineer/entrepreneur and pioneer in the
field of wearable technology, particularly lighted clothing. Through
her company, Enlighted Designs (http://enlighted.com), she
illuminates all types of apparel, including bras, pants, suits,
dresses, ties and hats. Light elements include LEDs and
electroluminescent (EL) materials, used in conjunction with a variety
of optically transmissive and reflective elements. The lights are
animated in pre-programmed patterns (with PIC-based sequencers), and
some designs incorporate motion-reactive, sound-reactive, or
color-changing effects. At this dorkbot meeting, she will give a
tour of her studio, display examples of lighted clothing, and discuss
the past/present/future of this unusual industry.
Janet's formal training is in engineering, in areas as diverse as
robotics, image processing, semiconductor manufacturing, molecular
biomechanics, and dynamics analysis of aerospace vehicles. She
received a BS in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College of Claremont,
CA, and PhD in Bioengineering from UC San Diego.
//-------------------------
Brett Stalbaum & Paula Poole
http://www.painterflat.net
http://visarts.ucsd.edu/faculty/bstalbau.htm
Paula Poole and Brett Stalbaum will talk about doing arbitrary mapping
things with GPS, in their incarnation as painterflat.net. Paula and
Brett spend as much time as possible in the Great Basin, performing
their vocational pursuits as artists, as well at their avocational
interests in archeology, geography, geology, natural history, and
low-impact, minimalist camping. The Great Basin provides the immense
scale, subjective context, and open access to remote space that
combines
the above interests into a multiplicity of possible outcomes. The goal
is to conceptually explore in the spaces between disciplines of
interest
to us - for example between database and painting. Brett will also talk
about the other major collaboration he is involved with, C5
corporation,
their stunning recent discovery of the actual physical location(s) of
the Great Wall of California, (the speculative "other" of the Great
Wall
of China), and the potential applications of supercomputing and
database
applications to tell artists where to go.
//-------------------------
Neil Kearns
doktorandom@yahoo.com
Neil Kearns is an artist currently specializing in telecast and kinetic
artforms. Under the pseudonym Doktor Random, he will introduce you to
the "Portable Scalable Mirth Module" which promises to increase
awareness of and measurably change your perspectives of the physical
and civil landscape.
Doktor Random is utterly unqualified to do any of this though, holding
little in the way of tangible credentials other than a valid California
Driver's License.
//-------------------------
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Directions:
Enlighted Designs is located at 163 La Costa Ave, Encinitas CA 92024.
This is north of San Diego. From I-5, take the La Costa exit, and go
west, almost all the way to the coast. The house is on the left, on a
private driveway set back from the main road. It is marked by a "Not a
Through Street" sign, just past the construction site with the blue and
white flags. If you go past it, and reach the end of La Costa at Hwy
101,
make a U-turn, go past Vulcan, and then it is the next right. There is
plenty of parking in the driveway and on the private road.
(( The January Dorkbotsocal meeting might be held in Santa Barbara. ))
Contact Garnet Hertz if you are interested in giving a presentation at
an
upcoming Dorkbotsocal event.
LOST?
If you're completely lost, you can always call Garnet at
nine-four-nine-981-6438.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
DORKBOTSOCAL5
20-November-2004 - Telic (LA Chinatown)
Ruest / Schoenerwissen/OfCD
Schlegel / Sauter
[ S P E C S ]
*** NOVEMBER 20th 2004 - 8pm (Saturday)
*** Telic
*** 975 Chung King Road, Los Angeles, CA 90012
*** map:
http://www.design.ucla.edu/telic/images/map.gif
[ O V E R V I E W ]
This is going to be an excellent event - and it's not just because I
say
that every time. Casey Reas has organized a cool mix of tactical
media,
GPS, text visualization, connecting expressive environments, and
projections on to the cityscapes of Los Angeles. Investigate the links
below: you'll be thoroughly impressed. As a bonus, it's hosted at Telic
on
Chung King Road in the heart of Chinatown: come on out, tell all your
friends, and be there. You won't want to miss this.
[ P R E S E N T E R S ]
//
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Annina Ruest
http://www.t-t-trackers.net/
TRACK-THE-TRACKERS is a network installation consisting with mobile
components. The project makes use of existing personal technologies in
conjunction with GPS infrastructure to provide participants with an
audible (not
a visual) experience of the proliferation of video surveillance in the
urban
public sphere. The mobile unit, a bag containing a laptop,
GPS-receiver,
earphones, and a generic mouse is taken on a walk through the city. The
sound in
the headphones changes whenever the participant enters the vicinity of
a
surveillance camera. This effect is not automatic but created by other
participants who are adding new locations to the existing database. The
technology is documented with the intention of inspiring others to
build similar
psychogeographic systems.
Annina Ruest is a Swiss media artist currently based in San Diego. Most
of her
artistic activity so far has taken place within the field of software
art. As
part of the group LAN she co-authored the project tracenoizer.org -
Disinformation on Demand. She is also the author of SuperVillainizer -
Conspiracy Client (supervillainizer.ch), TRACK-THE-TRACKERS---
(t-t-trackers.net) and most recently BUSH BOT 0.4 (bushbot.ath.cx). She
graduated in 2003 from the Department of New Media, Zurich School of
Art and
Design (www.snm-hgkz.ch) and is now a graduate student at the
Department of
Visual Arts at UC San Diego (visarts.ucsd.edu).
//
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Schoenerwissen/OfCD
http://www.sw.ofcd.com
Schoenerwissen/OfCD presents their approach of by outlining principles
and methods
they used for recent projects - situating the work with respect to
other related
design strategies. They will focus on their last project txtkit - A
Visual Text
Mining Tool.
Schoenerwissen/OfCD continues its design research on information
architectures, interfaces and visual languages currently at UC Santa
Barbara. In developing new digital tools SW/OfCD provides spatial and
temporal contexts serving as frameworks for exploration and dynamic
decision making. Their project Minitasking - a visual gnutella client
has
been recognized by an Award of Distinction of the Prix Ars Electronica
in
2002 and received the transmediale Software Award in 2003. Their latest
project txtkit - visual text mining tool was supported by the Federal
Ministry for Education and Research (BMB+F) and Lander Ministries for
Education or Science and Culture. In 2004 txtkit has been awarded an
Honorary Mention at Net Vision category of Prix Ars Electronica.
//
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andreas Schlegel
http://www.sojamo.de/
TEMP is a software based network environment for any software capable
of tcp or udp socket communication. TEMP is made for people utilizing
computers and similar devices as a tool for their expression. Where
most
software is developed for specific processes, TEMP interconnects these
environments, and enables collaborations between artists, scientists,
or
researchers from different disciplines without insisting on one
particular
software environment. Time shouldn't be spent on solving technical
issues
but rather on finding communication models to explore the possibilities
of
interactions and interconnections amongst nature, people, and devices.
Andreas Schlegel is a computational designer interested in collecting
data, sensing spaces, exploring communication processes in the fields
of networks. He received a diploma in communications design from Merz
Akademie Stuttgart, Germany, and an MS in Media Arts and technology
from
the University of California, Santa Barabra. He currently lives and
works
in Berlin, Germany.
//
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel Sauter
http://daniel-sauter.com/
LIGHT ATTACK is a media artwork, as well as a social experiment, which
takes
place the urban sphere of Los Angeles. While driving through the city,
an
animated virtual character is projected onto the cityscape of L.A.
exploring
three places "to go" and three places "not to go", according to the
popular
Lonely Planet travel guide. Light Attack elaborates the concept of the
"moving
moving" image in the stereotyped neighborhoods of Hollywood, Beverly
Hills,
Santa Monica, Downtown, Watts, and Compton. The virtual character,
projected
from a moving vehicle onto the city facades, reacts to the
architectural context,
and interacts with passers-by while "walking" through the city. The
character's
actions are condensed in a gallery installation, reflecting projection
as an
emergent ubiquitous medium. The piece raises questions about property
and privacy.
How public is public space? How projection, as a medium, changing the
environment
in which we live?
Daniel Sauter is a media artist exploring interactive installations
dealing with time and space relations, cultural implication of
technologies and
site-specific interventions. Currently Sauter is a lecturer at the
Design | Media
Arts department at UCLA. His works have been shown internationally
including
the Ars Electronica Festival 2004, O.K Center for Contemporary Art,
Linz, Austria;
Milia 02 in Cannes, France; International Video Festival in Bochum,
Germany; 6.
International Videofestival in Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro,
FILE2002 in Sao
Paulo, Brazil; telic gallery, Los Angeles; LACMALab, Los Angeles;
westweek, Pacific
Design Center in Los Angeles; Europrix Festival in Vienna, Austria;
Leipzig Book
Fair in Leipzig, Germany; werk, bauen + wohnen in Zagreb, Croatia,
Europrix Award,
Lisbon, Portugal. Diploma HfG/ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany; MFA Design |
Media Arts, UCLA.
Honorary Mention Prix Ars Electronica, Interactive Art, 2004; Winner
Europrix
Students' Award, 2001.
//
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ M O R E _ I N F O R M A T I O N ]
Telic
http://www.design.ucla.edu/telic/
http://www.design.ucla.edu/telic/images/map.gif
Directions
From the 110 Freeway (traveling either north or south) take the Hill
St.
Chinatown exit. From downtown drive north on Hill St. to Chung King
Road,
a pedestrian only street parallel to and just west of Hill St. You can
park on Hill St. Enter through the plaza at the pedestrian crossing
halfway between College and Bernard Streets. There is also a parking
lot
at each end of Chung King Rd. Driving in from Hill St. (take the first
driveway on the right after the 110 exit - $2.50/3 hours parking). The
other parking structure is on Bernard Street between Hill St. and
Broadway.
This event has been organized by Casey Reas: http://www.groupc.net/
If you would like to present at future dorkbotsocal events, please
contact
Garnet Hertz at dorkbotsocal at dorkbot dot org.
(( December's dorkbotsocal will likely happen in San Diego. ))
LOST?
If you're completely lost, you can always call Garnet at
nine-four-nine-981-6438.
* PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT *
DORKBOTSOCAL4 - 9-October-2004 - Flash Film Works: Draves /
Goodwin / Schoelerman
[ S P E C S ]
*** OCTOBER 9th 2004 - 8pm (Saturday)
*** FLASH FILM WORKS
*** 743 Seward Ave., Hollywood, CA 90038
*** Phone Number: 323-468-8855
*** http://www.flashfilmworks.com
[ O V E R V I E W ]
This - I think - will be one of the most exciting DORKBOTSOCALS yet: we're
meeting at Flash Film Works in Hollywood, a motion picture special effects
house. Dan Novy, a dorkbotter and FFW employee, will give us a quick tour
of the facilities. The first presenter will be Spot Draves (down from San
Fransisco) who will be presenting his acclaimed "Electric Sheep". Next,
Doug Goodwin from CalArts will present "Reactive System"; last but not
least, we'll catch Ryan Schoelerman, fresh from performing his "Autonomous
Radiobodies" system on the streets of Los Angeles.
Bring all your friends and beer: prepare to see some great work in an
interesting venue.
[ P R E S E N T E R S ]
DAN NOVY, Flash Film Works Tour
http://www.flashfilmworks.com/
Dan Novy will be presenting a quick "nutz and boltz" walk through of the
process of creating visual effects for motion pictures. Topics will
include 3D model creation and integration into onset footage, image based
lighting, massive distributed rendering, and network issues that arise
from moving immense data sets on a daily basis. Facility tour
included.
-----
SPOT DRAVES, Electric Sheep
http://electricsheep.org/
http://www.draves.org
Electric Sheep is a distributed screen-saver that harnesses idle computers
into a render farm with the purpose of animating and evolving artificial
life-forms. Each clip of animation has a genetic code, and the collective
voting of users determines its fitness. In the next version a P2P network
distributes the bandwidth of sharing the video and votes.
Spot will show a video documentary explaining the project and answer
questions, then play some new "best of" sheep.
Spot (AKA Scott Draves) is a software artist schooled in computer science
and mathematics and living in the San Francisco Bay Area that produces
visuals by writing software.
----
DOUG GOODWIN, Reactive System
http://www.calarts.edu/~dgoodwin/
The Reactive System is a framework designed to support real-time
interactive art-works involving synthetic actors. RS promotes the
simulation of conversation over limited-bandwidth media including email,
sms texting, IRC chats, faxes, threaded discussions, voicemail and
webcams. RS operates either synchronously or asunchronously, and
maintains emotional state over extended periods of interaction. RS is
modular, so it may facilitate communication with any number of actors and
people, Ultimately it should be possible to assemble a cast of characters
each with their own emotional state and conversational abilities. The
system should be able to interact with any number of peer applications
including other instances of the RS. Equally important is the development
of a persisten emotion engine that could respond to the quality of
interaction.
Doug Goodwin is currently pursuing an MFA degree in Critical
Studies/Integrated Media at the California Institute of the Arts.
-----
RYAN SCHOELERMAN, Autonomous Radiobodies
http://www.elintartslab.org
http://radiobodies.elintartslab.org/
  
Autonomous Radiobodies is a public art performance/installation that
involves people wearing or carrying units equipped with a Radio Graffiti
Device for creating localized radiophonic art/graffiti spaces. The intent
of this project is to create an immediate radio art/public voice space for
listeners by using the mainstream FM broadcast as a background "canvas"
and disrupting it on a localized level with spontaneous short radio burst
interruptions.
Ryan will be presenting three versions of transmitting gear, and will talk
about his goals in the project/performance:
Ryan Schoelerman is a new media artist working in the mediums of
electronic music composition, electronic & robotic design, interactive
installation and tactical media. He as a BA in Media Study from the
University at Buffalo. He is currently studying at the University of
California Irvine in the Art Computation Engineering Graduate Program.
[ M O R E - I N F O R M A T I O N ]
If you need driving directions while coming out to the event, call
323-468-8855 after 7pm. Flash Film Works has two buildings on the
property and we'll be presenting in the UPSTAIRS of the BACK building.
There should be plenty of parking on the street, and people should walk up
the drive way between the two buildings and come into the BACK building.
What appears to be the front door from the street is purely
ornamental.
In the meantime, contact Garnet Hertz at dorkbotsocal [at] dorkbot [dot]
org if you have questions about dorkbotsocal, the event, or life in
general.
DORKBOTSOCAL3 - 4-July-2004 - KUCI: Opendork Audio Broadcast BBQ
[ S P E C S ]
*** JULY 4th 2004 - Noon (SUNDAY)
*** KUCI 88.9 FM, UC Irvine (Studios & Outdoor Patio)
*** Hosts: Ryan Schoelerman and Mike Boyle
*** Bring: Audio/Electronic Gear, Noise-Making Machines, Recordings,
Food, Drinks
*** Map:
Mapquest
Map
[ L I V E - E V E N T - F O R M A T ]
We will be meeting on the patio between the KUCI FM
(http://www.kuci.org) headquarters and the Arts Computation Engineering
buildings at UC Irvine at noon on July 4th, 2004. This event is
directly adjacent to the May 2004 DORKBOT-SOCAL event location.
This event will be in in "opendork" format: you are invited to bring
audio equipment, noise-making machines, strange robots, electronic
gear, recordings, and ideas. We will be transmitting live to air for
the duration of the day, and will strive to integrate your ideas and
gear into the mix.
Simultaneously, we'll also be having a BBQ: bring food and drink and be
prepared to socialize, jam, and experiment.
[ L I S T E N - O N L I N E ]
On July 4th 2004, you can listen to us live via the internet and on FM
radio - tune in to catch the event.
MP3 24k: http://kuci.org/mp3stream.m3u
MP3 128k: http://kuci.org/128mp3stream.m3u
RealAudio 24k: http://kuci.org/play.ram
RealAudio 128k: http://kuci.org/play128.ram
FM Radio: 88.9 FM in Southern California
(And available via iTunes as "KUCI" under the category of "Public".)
DORKBOTSOCAL2 - 2004-JUNE-05 UCLA-DMA : KUZMA / YARIN / HOBERMAN
*** JUNE 5th 2004 - 8pm
(SATURDAY)
*** UCLA Design | Media Arts
*** Host: Casey Reas
Presentations:
- LUCAS KUZMA
The Ecstasy of Communication
A population of sound-making devices interacting with each other and the
sounds in their environment. Using models from computational neuroscience
as a basis, they emulate some of the features of organic neurons as well
as those of artificial neural networks.
Lucas Kuzma is a media artist, musician, programmer, and interaction
designer living in Los Angeles. His personal works utilize generative
systems for the production of aural and visual art, explore the
confluence of sound and space, and examine data mappings between time,
space, and frequency domains. Kuzma holds a BS in Computer Science
and a BA in Philosophy with an Artificial Intelligence minor from Case
Western
Reserve University and is currently pursuing an MFA in Design and Media
Arts at UCLA.
http://users.design.ucla.edu/~muzak/thesis/
http://machinatus.net
- PAUL YARIN
LTS2000
Laparoscopic surgery is a surgical specialty which involves operating
through
small incisions. The internal organs are seen by inserting a video
laparoscope
through one of the small incisions. The delicate coordination required for
laparoscopic surgery and the high cost of failure demand standardized
training
systems and metrics for laparocopic skills. The ISM60 is an interactive
sensing
module for laparoscopic skill training and measurement. The module is a
rotating sensor carousel with several coordination and knot tying tests.
It
provides
a video overlay with task data, error count, and score. PC software allows
administrative monitoring and logging of these tasks. The ISM60 is
designed
to be mounted in the RealSim LTS2000, an enclosure that simulates the
abdomen.
Paul Yarin is a consultant in the fields of interactive media, product
design,
and technology research. His goal is to apply research experience to
making
useful interactive products. Paul studied Mechanical Engineering at
Stanford
University and the University of Pennsylvania; he also attended the
Tangible
Media Group at the MIT Media Lab.
http://www.realsimsystems.com
http://www.blackdust.com/projects.html
- PERRY HOBERMAN
(Topic TBD.)
Perry Hoberman is an installation artist whose work has been exhibited
widely
throughout the United States and worldwide. He works with a variety of
technologies, ranging from utterly obsolete to seasonably
state-of-the-art.
His installation "Timetable" was awarded the Grand Prix at the ICC
Biennale
'99
in Tokyo, and "Systems Maintenance" won a 1999 Prix Ars Electronica "Award
of Distinction"."Unexpected Obstacles", a retrospective survey of his
work,
was
exhibited during summer 1998 at the ZKM Mediamuseum in Karlsruhe, Germany,
and before that at Gallery Otso in Espoo, Finland. Other recent works
include
"ZOMBIAC", exhibited at the Kiasma Museum in Helsinki, and "Workaholic",
shown at the exhibition "Vision Ruhr" in Dortmund, Germany. He is
represented
by Postmasters Gallery in New York and currently teaches at USC.
http://www.perryhoberman.com
DORKBOTSOCAL1 - 2004-MAY-01 - UCI-ACE : Jennings / Allen&Frostenson /
Tang
*** FIRST OFFICIAL DORKBOTSOCAL MEETING
*** MAY 1st 2004 - 8pm - T O D A Y
*** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE, ARTS COMPUTATION ENGINEERING
"BUNKER" Map
Presenters:
- Tom Jennings: World Power Systems /
hacker extraordinnaire -
Presenting on "Car Parts and ASCII" - 'I currently I make functional and
complex instrumentation that reveals the beauty hidden within scientific
apparatus of the 1930's through 1950's, a time of unsurpassed social and
scientific change. My work is about the aesthetics of scientific
problem-solving and the obscure traditions of technical design.'
- Mark Allen and Sky Frostenson: C-Level - "Waco Ressurrection Project" - C-level
unveils Waco Resurrection, its first
chapter of Endgames, a new 3D multiplayer computer game series based on
alternative utopias and apocalyptic moments.
- Beverly Tang: Rhizome.LA / Sublimina - Beverly will present her
sublimina (http://sublimina.com) works and her current preoccupation with
silversmithing and electronic jewelry, which includes a "third eye"
necklace that can sense the invisible.
It should be a good event - the room is small, so come out early if you
want a chair. All are welcome. This event is free. BYOB. A phone number
will
be sent to the mailing list the day of the event to help people
navigate their way here.
Contact Garnet Hertz at dorkbotsocal@dorkbot.org for more information.
DORKBOTSOCAL ZERO - 2004-APRIL-10
a couple of pictures from our first informal get-together can be seen
here: http://www.dorkbot.org/dorkbotsocal/past/2004-april-10.
a number of folks came out: it was actually a little bit of a shock to
have people (20 or so) appear. from what i can remember, the following
people were there and talking about dorkbotsocal in some form:
- beverly tang (rhizome l.a.)
- ben benjamin (superbad.com)
- mark allen (c-level / machine project)
- ryan schoelerman (elintartslab.org)
- sky frostenson (illinest.net)
- alex "the pink" (la + sd futurists)
- peter cho (pcho.net)
- andrea, aka tulpje tulp
- casey reas (ucla d|ma senselab, processing.org)
- garnet hertz (conceptlab.com)
- dan novy (flash film works)
- and several others...
FOR MORE INFO ON DORKBOTSOCAL, CONTACT GARNET HERTZ AT garnethertz *-at-* gmail *-dot-* com
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