CONTACT:
Kate Seekings
Curator
dorkbotsea/People Doing Strange Things With Electricity II
<snip>
dorkbotsea AT dorkbot (dot) org

OR

John Gascon
President of the Board
CoCA (Center on Contemporary Art)
john AT cocaseattle (dot) org

MEDIA ALERT
March 7th, 2005
Kill date: None

DORKBOTSEA ANNOUNCES WINNER OF 2005 PEOPLES' CHOICE AWARD

At the closing event for this year's dorkbot-sea People Doing Strange Things With Electricity II exhibition, held at Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) from January 22nd to March 4th, special guest Professor Shawn Brixey, founder and Associate Director of the University of Washington's Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXArts), presented the 2005 dorkbotsea Peoples' Choice Award to San Francisco-based artist Ryan Wolfe for his winning work, Sketch of a Field of Grass, Pacific Coast, 2004. The award is a check for $1,000 (one thousand dollars) donated by dorkbotsea members, and is intended to assist the recipient in continuing to explore art that uses technology.

The winner of the 2005 dorkbotsea Peoples' Choice Award was determined by votes cast by gallery visitors during the 5-week run of the exhibition. Ryan Wolfe's eloquent, evocative work won over a quarter of the total number of votes, with the remainder being split between the other 34 works in the exhibition. Runners up included Los Angeles-based OdescO (Ocean Design Collaborative)'s 'Nanocity', and local artists Eric McNeill's 'Untitled: Portrait/Movement', John Bain's 'Cubist Mirror' and SID, Inc.'s 'Disassembly Line'.

People Doing Strange Things With Electricity II is the best-attended and most successful exhibition at CoCA in over 5 years, with over 1500 people attending the opening celebration and CD launch event at CoCA, a further 400 attending the after-party at ConWorks, and record numbers of visitors to the exhibition through its close.

More About the Artist and Sketch of a Field of Grass

"Sketch Of A Field Of Grass, Pacific Coast, 2004 explores the idea that a memorable time, place or experience can be condensed in a singular, physical object that embodies the essential qualities of that experience. It is one in a series of sketches that encapsulate the experience of watching the rise and fall of a summer breeze across a field in a single blade of grass (or a series of blades of grass). The sketch exhibited in Seattle comprises 8 blades of grass. Each blade is a complete computational system with the ability to sense and respond to its environment. A simple networking protocol is used to propagate wind data down the network, blade by blade. Just as in a real field, each blade responds to the wind in a slightly different way. Each blade is both physically distinct and simultaneously part of a larger aggregate phenomenon. The emergent behavior that comes from the interrelation of independent nodal behavior interpreted in a group context is fundamental to the overall aesthetic effect." (Ryan Wolfe)

Ryan Wolfe is a device artist and interaction designer based in San Francisco, California. His current work focuses on creating animate and interactive sculptures and design objects that incorporate technology in beautiful new ways.

High-resolution images are available from ryan AT livingindustries (dot) com or dorkbotsea AT dorkbot (dot) org.

dorkbot-sea is the Seattle-based spin-off of dorkbot-nyc, a monthly meeting of artists of all stripes, designers, engineers, students and other interested parties who are involved in the creation of electronic art in the broadest sense of the term. The purpose of dorkbot, now in 22 locations worldwide, is to give artists and technologists an opportunity for informal peer review, establish a forum for the presentation of new artworks and technologies, help build relationships and foster collaboration between people with various backgrounds and interests, and give us all a chance to see the cool things that our neighbors are working on. More: http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotsea.

CoCA serves the Pacific Northwest as a catalyst and forum for the advancement, development, and understanding of contemporary art. CoCA provides opportunities for the art audience in this region to view new and experimental artwork firsthand in exhibitions which show the work of international, national and local artists. More: http://cocaseattle.org.

Shawn Brixey is Associate Director of the University of Washington's newly established research center and PhD. program in Digital Arts and Experimental Media. Previously, he was founder of the Digital Media Program at the University of California Berkeley, and Director of their Center for Digital Art and New Media Research. A graduate of MIT's CAVS/Media Lab, Brixey has exhibited art and technology works internationally, including Documenta, the Deutscher Kunstlerbund, Karlsruhe, The Cranbrook Art Museum, The MIT Museum, The Contemporary Art Center of Cincinnati, The Chicago Art Institute, The 1998 Winter Olympics, The first American Design and Architecture Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, The Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, and the Berkeley Art Museum More: http://www.washington.edu/dxarts/people_faculty.php.

Resources:
dorkbotsea: http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotsea
Exhibition: http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotsea/events-pdstwe2.shtml
Double CD: http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotsea/events-pdstwetoo.shtml
Screening: http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotsea/events-electricarts.shtml
CoCA: http://cocaseattle.org
Ryan Wolfe: http://livingindustries.com,
       http://livingindustries.com/ecopoesis/ (Sketch of a Field of Grass)
DXArts: http://www.washington.edu/dxarts/