Better Living Through Storytelling
Curated by Gabe Kean, Artistic Director of Born Magazine and co-curator of Help Wanted
Wednesday, April 6th, 2005 at 7.00/7.30 pm
Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA

Randy Moss and Michael Evan, Afterwords – Objectivism, Kinetic Text and the Corporeal: How do a poet and a programmer enable us to experience another's memories? Can computer programming serve to create a coherent physical reality and at the same time create poetry, which occurs in the interstices between memory and reality? In this presentation, poet Michael Evan and artist/programmer Randy Moss talk about their experience creating "Afterwords," an interactive installation that examines personal identity, labels and the ephemera of the digital age. Afterwords encourages visitors to explore a living body of memory, providing an open space in which meaning is made through words, presence and movement. The pair will discuss their use of pervasive computing technology and explain how the installation extends the tradition of American Objectivist poetry into the interactive realm. They will also highlight some of the challenges they faced collaborating remotely on a piece that is firmly rooted in the physical. http://rmoss.com

Brian McWatters, Estate of Beverly Thomas: Brian discusses using 3D modeling and other architectural design techniques in the collaborative process of installation design and construction. This process included the accurate collection, documentation and cataloging of many disparate pieces of furniture and cultural detritus and the subsequent task of assembling these pieces together to create a large ‘assemblage’. Incorporating audio and video content was an additional parameter of the process, with the final result yielding a portrait of a person’s life composed of her belongings and memories encapsulated in the guise of an estate sale. http://www.alchemyDL.com

Rick Mullarky, Narrative Environments: Rick will discuss his approach to bringing storytelling to interactive environments, both for the screen and for interactive installations. He will be showing past projects and collaborations as well as current and unrealized work, and his interactive work has appeared on Born Magazine, Shift, The Remedi Project, and Rhizome.org. Recently, his piece Eidetic Memory was nominated for a prize at the Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs Office Media Arts Festival. Rick’s poster work is part of the permanent collection of the Zurich Museum of Design. http://www.rickmu.com

Christopher Prosser will review Dan O’Sullivan and Tom Igoe’s ‘Physical Computing’, hot off his nightstand. As for everyone else… Have an announcement? A project to tell us about? A request? Need collaborators? Materials? Advice? Email dorkbotsea@dorkbot.org, or just come and find me during the presentations and I’ll find you a spot in front of the mike.

POWER TOOL DRAG RACES: See most of San Francisco’s crazed and – er – colourful machine art scene out and proud of their mutant creations at the anarcho-technological, petrochemically infernal 2ND ANNUAL POWER TOOL DRAG RACES (http://www.powertooldragraces.com/). Starting at 7 pm at this month’s dorkbot and the next, we’ll be screening a Discovery Channel documentary created by intrepid New Zealand film makers as they explored the clanking, cotton-candy-covered underbelly of the strangest drag race on the planet. They’re starting a league – any Seattle takers? See this video, and find out if it’s your calling!

Randy Moss creates interactive environments that enable one to experience natural phenomena not otherwise apprehended by the senses. His installation "dislocator" opened at the Jack Straw New Media Gallery in Seattle in 2004 and was selected as a visual arts pick by the Seattle Weekly. As an interaction designer and programmer, Randy has created products for Electronic Arts, Sega, Ofoto, and Motorola. His product work has been featured at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and at the Mill Valley Film Festival. He studied filmmaking at the University of California at Los Angeles and lives with his wife and two children in Seattle, Washington. "Help Wanted" is his first group show.

Michael Evan is a poet, freelance writer and teacher who lives in Portland, OR. His poems have appeared in Yale Angler’s Journal, Fireweed: Poetry of Western Oregon, By Line Magazine, and Born Magazine. His recent freelance clients include the Muhammad Ali Center, The Columbia Gorge Institute, and the Hawthorne Boulevard Business Association. His writing has also appeared in El Hispanic News, for which the newspaper won two national awards from the NAHP, including "Outstanding Hispanic Success Story." He has also written freelance for the outdoors in such publications as Active Northwest and Lake Country Journal.

Brian McWatters is an accomplished architect and the founder and principal of Alchemy DL architecture + design, an architectural collaborative begun five years ago to combine good design with readily available materials and inventive spatial concepts. He creates well lit and thoughtful designs by focusing on the visual and tactile details that shape space. Brian has been exploring the use of light as both a tool and an object in his projects and installations for the past twelve years. His projects span the full spectrum of applied arts from light-based installation art to the design and construction of contemporary residences. His work has been recognized for several design awards including a project featured as an AIA / Seattle Times home of the month.

Rick Mullarky: As an artist and designer Rick has worked for Adobe, Microsoft, and numerous web companies. Currently he is teaching and working on several public art commissions. His interactive work has appeared on Born Magazine, Shift, The Remedi Project, and Rhizome.org. Recently, his piece Eidetic Memory was nominated for a prize at the Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs Office Media Arts Festival. His poster work is part of the permanent collection of the Zurich Museum of Design.