DORKBOT : SYDNEY

Where: Serial Space, 33 Wellington St Chippendale.
When: Tuesday 23rd June, 19:00 for 19:30 speak-off.
Cost: FREE! < Bring along drinks and nibblies if you so wish.

P R E S T E N T E R S :

Lukasz Karluk from TimeBomb

Lukasz will be presenting a case study on techniques used in video manipulation to expose different times of the video in the one frame, a term Lukasz coined at video time distortion and how this technique was used to create an interactive graffiti wall that allowed to expose the different layers that went into the painting.
www.julapy.com/blog/2008/05/22/slit-scanning/
www.julapy.com/blog/2009/05/22/timebomb/

Sumugan Sivanesan

Sumugan Sivanesan is in residence at Serial Space from June 22 - July 5, where he will be building a wheelie bin sound system. John Jacobs designed and built the original “Wheely Good Sound System” in the early nineties. Sumugan is hoping to hook up with the other wheelie sounds systems in Sydney to research various designs.
www.sivanesan.com
Picture above: Andy Lysle’s System at Figure 8

SHOW & TELL

We invite people to bring along projects they are working on or any other cool things to show in a free-for-all at the end of the night. This is a great time to talk to people about things that are coming up, events and what not. Bring in something you have found, something you have broken and show us what you’ve got!

Be there AND be square

Where: Serial Space, 33 Wellington St Chippendale.
When: Tuesday 26th May, 19:00 for 19:30 speak-off.
Cost: FREE! < Bring along drinks and nibblies if you so wish.

P R E S T E N T E R S :

ROGER MILLS / IDEA OF SOUTH - RADIOPHONIC MULTICAST PRESENTATION

Idea of South is a contrapuntal radiophonic work for two radio stations and shoutcast stream composed by sound artist Roger Mills. Focussing on experiential sound design, Idea of South explores the possibilities of sound diffusion in the context of a live sound work for radio to be performed simultaneously on 2SER and FBI on Sunday June 14th at 10.30pm. Roger will be talking us through the inspiration and practicalities of composing a work like this with demo downloads for anyone with laptops.
http://www.eartrumpet.org/projects.html#ideaofsouth

LISA ANDREW - THE RAINBOW IS YOURS WITH VOLUME

The Rainbow is Yours with Volume is a work in progress at the Powerhouse Museum’s Beta Space next month. Images of video and installations, past and present, will be shown which negotiate space that is “public” including new video billboards advertising toponyms in the Australian suburban landscape which have a colour.

PIA VAN GELDER + THE VOICE MASK

The Voice Mask is a wearable instrument for vocal performance. The Voice Mask provides the performer with access to different sources of amplification built inside the external structure including a simple small dynamic microphone for aural noise and a contact microphone for textural noise. A glorified efx provesser, the Voice Mask allows the performer transform their voice into a little bird to a monstrous cacophony. The mask includes built-in wireless control using a hacked wii-mote and midi signal conversion. The transformation of the user’s voice depends on their position and movement input. The Voice Mask transforms the human voice into a fantastic creature.
Pia is performing with the Voice Mask and some members of her “Orchestra of Machines” on May 20th in Melbourne for the show Found Sound : The Experimental Instrument Project at Tape Projects.
www.piavangelder.com/
http://piavangelder.com/content/voice-mask
www.foundsoundproject.blogspot.com/

When: Tuesday 28th April, 7pm for a 7:30 speak-off.
Where: Serial Space, 33 Wellington St Chippendale
This month’s Dorkbot is sparktastic! With two explosive presentations and a show&tell session to end the night in a traditional Dorkbot free-for-all.

P R E S E N T E R S

LEIGH RUSSELL

Dorkbot regular and electronic 3D extraordinaire. Leigh also has a healthy interest in science in general but especially physics. He is all self taut and believes that eBay and Google are the two most powerful tools to the modern day scientist. Leigh has been looking into electrical discharge through air. His goal is to build a plasma speaker. Leigh will present his experiments.

MARK SIMPSON A.K.A. MOOK A.K.A. ROCKETCARDAY

Mark Simpson started Rocketcar Day in 2003, inviting his friends to add a rocket engine to anything they could find and putting on a race in a back alley. Inspired by the boringness of normal up-down rocketry, the aim of Rocketcar Day is to create a car that delicately balances the large forces of a C size rocket engine with something that rolls straight and also is hilarious. Now up to Rocketcar Day 11, it’s still a non-legal race in a back alley but now attracts over 100 people and 20 entrants. Mark will show photos of the development of what is now a yearly phenomena that brings a lot of DIY happiness to multiple generations, show some videos of the very frightening multi-car launches and a preview of a documentary being made about the day.
Rocketcar Day 11 is on Sunday May the 3rd.
www.rocketcarday.com

SHOW & TELL

We invite people to bring along projects they are working on or any other cool things to show in a free-for-all at the end of the night. This is a great time to talk to people about things that are coming up, events and what not. Bring in something you have found, something you have broken and show us what you’ve got!

Bring along some nibblies and drinks. Come and unite in the dorkdom that is Dorkbot!!!

P.S. If you are interested in doing a presentation for Dorkbot please feel free to email Pia using the contact link in the top left hand navbar. We are in constant search for new projects to be presented so don’t be a stranger!

This Tuesday the 24th say hello to a new year for Dorkbot-Syd and a new venue!

Serial Space will be hosting our first Dorkbot proper for the year. Serial Space is a new Artist Run Space located at 33 Wellington St Chippendale. Very close to central station for an easy commute and very roomy! Times are the usual 7pm for a 7:30 speakoff. Please bring along some nibblies if you please.

This month we have a real variety of presentations for our educational, audio, visual, interactive and tactile pleasure!

P R E S E N T E R S :

(in no specific order)

TW0 DEAD V0ICES

Two Dead Voices is a live Audio Visual act by Michael Aroustian and Harriet Birks, they use midi triggers, audio spectrum analysis, live video feeds, analogue synthesisers (KORG MS20, Oberheim Expander, RolandXOX boxes) and computers!! … to generate a warm minimal synaesthetic experience.



At this month they will attempt a mass hypnosis!

BALINT SEEBER & EYESWEB

Balint Seeber (Dorkbot regular) plans to present Eyesweb. “Eyesweb is a [Visual Programming-based] platform to support the development of real-time multimodal distributed interactive applications. It has been adopted in several other EU projects, has been licensed to more than 15,000 individual users, companies, and institutions. It is also used in University courses and summer schools.” Eyesweb is in a similar vein as Max/MSP, however it is grounded in the video/image processing world (as opposed to computer music). This allows for easier prototyping of such apps if you are already familiar with their basic concepts. In Balint’s spare time he used it to power: http://juliaburns.com/drift.php Balint intends to demonstrate how Eyesweb works and what you can do with it.

Please download it and bring it along on your WiFi-enabled laptop so you can follow along – even better if you can bring a video capture device (eg: internal/external webcam). He will attempt to lead everyone through the steps required to create (at least part of) a simple, fun, multimedia-enabled, interactive, networked program! If time allows, he shall explain why he is interested in Visual Programming Languages, and how he is trying to revolutionise the world of VPLs with his PhD research.

An example of analysis of expressive cues, using the Silhouette Motion Images (SMI) technique.

Homepage: http://www.infomus.org/

Download: ftp://ftp.infomus.org/Evaluate/EyesWeb/XMI/Version_5.0.2.x/EyesWeb_XMI_setup_5.0.2.0.exe

JAMES NICHOLS & DubTable

James Nichols is transforming his DubTable for our interactive pleasure. The DubTable is a manipulatable sound experiment, a surface on which you
can mix, twist and crush sounds using simple physical objects. A chance
for everyone to unleash their inner Lee Scratch Perry, the DubTable is
focused around dub sounds, but invites the user to twist the music in
any way using simple gestures.

YouTube Link here

Look forward to seeing you there!

When: Tuesday 27th January 7pm till i dunno.
Where: Strawberry Hills Hotel. 453 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills, NSW 2010
Why: To kick of the year nicely I thought it would be good to catch up and have a chat about the future and get back into the groove again.
Bring ideas and doodles and laptops and pocket money for beer and snacks. Looking forward to reuniting after a long break.

Happy New Year Dorkbotters! Holiday season seems to be wrapping up no matter how much i deny the signs. But I am happy to be getting ready for another year of Dorkbot-Syd.

2008 was a great year for Dorkbot-Syd. It was really great to try some interesting new approaches to programing and it was good to have some months off as well. I am trying to get back to making some of my own work so it has been really good to take some time for myself and I plan to keep doing so this year. I am really hoping that we can continue on a kind of two month rhythm for the year.
Some good ideas I think I had that I will carry though are:

GUEST PROGRAMMING:
I got to attend my first Dorkbot and really be there as a member of the audience for February’s meetup with Wade Marynowsky as guest programmer. The idea of having a guest programmer was very successful. Wade was able to pull in some excellent presenters and a new crowd for the night that were fellow colleagues and friends of his and we also got to see what he was getting up to too. I know this was very refreshing for the usual crew and valuable new alliances were made. I would really like to try this again this year!

If you are interested in guest-programming a Dorkbot it’s VERY EASY, please feel free to send me an email to let me know that you are interested.
The job involves:

1. Choosing two or three people/groups to present a project.
2. Confirming their/your availability.
3. Locking in a month with me.
4. Collecting short paragraphs explaining what will be presented from each party including a picture for each presenter to post on the website and in the mail out. Emailing these details to me.
5. Show up early to help your presenters set up with me. THAT’S IT!!!

The best thing about guest programming is that you bring in your own people. I am sure most of us have friends and colleagues who would do a presentation if we asked them to. Our community isn’t humongous and Sydney is pretty sprawled out. It’s important to continue to help each other expand. Their are plenty of people who don’t yet know about Dorkbot who make strange things with electricity and so many people who just haven’t been able to make it there yet. This is a very good way of bringing those people in. Being the only ‘Overlord’, it’s a challenge to make new contacts continually. So if you know some people who would like to be a part of Dorkbot and might like to present, get into it!

SOCIAL EVENTS:
I would love to try another mid-year Beerbot and perhaps a crocket/picnic towards the end of the year. It’s nice to nerd-out in a more laid back context and really get a chance to talk to each other. Might be a nice opportunity to bring someone along too.

EXCURSIONS:
CuriousWorks were very kind and embracing to open their new headquarters to us for the May meetup last year. A very comfortable space and an excellent opportunity to see their work and the work of Neil Jenkins. Looking forward to organizing more excursions this year.

ELECTROFRINGE:
It was a real pleasure to be a part of the Electrofringe Festival again. Aras Vaichas organized another year of amazing hands-on circuit building workshops that were a huge success and we were also given an opportunity to share what we do to a larger audience in our panel. I am looking forward to coming up with some new ideas for Electrofringe 2009, if you are interested in getting involved let me know. It has proved to by quite successful for us to team together and submit a large application under the Dorkbot banner rather than separately. The applications are usually due by the 31st of March so it’s time to get brainstorming. I will have a talk about this when we meetup next.

Please let me know if you have any ideas for dorkbots in the future. My contact details are listed here. I am in need of people who want to do presentations. They don’t need to be formal and the projects don’t need to be complete, so no excuses! If you know anyone else who might be interested send me their details! Remember: Dorkbot is intended to be directed by it’s members. This includes you! It is what you make it.

Yours faithfully,

Pia van Gelder (your humble Dorkbot-Syd ‘Overlord’)

We are having a break for the rest of the year. Have a good summer! See you in 2009!
Please email me if you have ideas for presentations next year by following the links in the top left hand menu.

We were proud to be involved with Electrofringe Festival for 2009. Electrofringe is a festival of electronic arts which runs annually in the city of Newcastle. It is possibly the only festival in Australia dedicated to electronic arts and runs in conjunction with This is Not Art and a bunch of other arts festivals. The program runs for 5 days and involves a combination of workshops, artist presentations, panels, screenings and performances. We are lucky to experience the local Australian community and also a range of artists that are shipped in from international locations. The festival presents a wonderful opportunity to learn and experience things that are being created in our field and also to network with like-minded people. This year was extremely enjoyable and very successful.

Our contributions this year were similar to 2008, with a talk about what Dorkbot is and what went on there this year, entitled “The Year in Dorkbot” on Friday afternoon, and two days of workshops on the Saturday and Sunday consisting of Aras Vaichas’ instrument designs, the WävRüta and the Nibbler which we called “Dorkshop”.

“The Year in Dorkbot”, hosted by Balint Seeber, a software engineer and current PhD candidate at UNSW, Julia Burns, an interactive audio/visual artist, and myself (Pia van Gelder). We waffled on about the fantastic people who presented this year in Dorkbot-Syd and how great Dorkbot is and how easy one can initiate such an event. People asked questions and we gave out flyers.

See photos here

“Dorkshop”, the workshop program which was held in the Tafe Worksheds from 10-2 on both Saturday and Sunday was a marvelous success. People turned up early and filled the 10 (free) spots pretty quickly.

NIBBLER
On Saturday we made the Nibbler kit, which was featured last year at our electrofringe workshops. The Nibber is an audio-pattern generator and noise maker. See some videos here of the machine in action.

WäVRüTA
And on Sunday we made the WävRüta. The WävRüta is a microcontroller based audio effects unit. See videos of this baby f*&%’n some audio up here

Each workshop was based on a single kit designed by Aras Vaichas, an artist/engineer. On hand were two extra helpers Nick Wishart from the band Toydeath, professional circuit bender extroadinaire and teacher, who is also one of the creaters of the MIDI controlled pneumatic orchestra CeLL, and myself. People were given all necessary materials and technical support to build a whole electronic instrument in a single day. Participants ranged from electronics enthusiasts to total first-timers. It was wonderful to share the experience and enthusiasm with everyone. Every group walked out of the worksheds with a working instrument!

I will say thank you from everyone involved in the workshop to Aras Vaichas for his dedication and time, as he designed the circuits from scratch, sourced all the materials wrote the in-depth handouts and trouble-shooted each instrument on the day! His expertise and love of electronics and patience are the reason the workshops have existed and now twenty replicants of his unique instruments happily perform for us today! I would like to also thank Nick Wishart, Balint Seeber and Julia Burns for their wonderful involvement and help and input in our programs.

If you are interested in the circuits we have uploaded the pdfs of the handouts distributed on the day, their are links to them in the top left-hand sidebar. You are also welcome to contact us if you have any enquiries! Their are more photos of Electrofringe and our events on Simone Schelker’s flickr pool

7pm for a 7:30 start at Sydney 302 Cleveland St, Surry Hills.
Bring some nibblies or drinks and gold coin donation.

Gearing up for Electrofringe Festival this labor day long weekend we have another interesting line-up…

P R E S E N T E R S

LEAGUE OF IMAGINARY SCIENTISTS

On their way to Electrofringe Festival in Newcastle for this October long weekend and a residency at Cusula Powerhouse. They call it “A Conversation on Blurriness” with the League of Imaginary Scientists’ Dr. Gomez and Swedish movement artist Carolina Bäckman: For Dorkbot Sydney, and as a prelude to finding Aurora at Electrofringe, Dr. Gomez of the League of Imaginary Scientists and Carolina Bäckman will discuss previous works and their current collaboration. You are invited to squint with them – please leave reality at the door as you explore the technology of choice and the possibility of chance.
www.imaginaryscience.org

MELISSA RAMOS + RHYS TURNER = XYRay

Melissa Ramos and Rhys Turner’s current installed artwork, XYRay at Australian Centre of Photography, on until the 4th of October, explores the user/viewer environment and attempts to blur the boundaries of online and offline social spaces and virtual game environments. The work issues the viewer a set of headphones to wear as they enter the gallery space. The viewer listens to sounds scattered through the gallery like Easter eggs in a game until they will finally end up as a Skelton avatar in the game itself. They explore a pixel art virtual environment with sound and play with other skeletons and surrounding artworks.

Melissa and Rhys have received a commission from Experimenta to develop another artwork based on ‘XYRay’ called ‘Heard’ which takes the concept further and develops a more complex iteration of the technology and medium, including multi avatars, chat and more interaction. Although ‘Heard’ is in concept and development stages, the work plans to use a combination of triangulation tracking technologies from CrossBox Cricket Mote and Arduino Bluetooth with a sound WaveShield.

Melissa and Rhys are looking for expressions of interest to work with them on the project. In particular they seek a C programmer, or someone who has had experience with or interest in the Crossbow Sonar/RF Cricket Mote technology, Triangulation, TinyOS and/or MIB510CA or similar to help them realize this artwork. For more information contact Rhys via the website

Look forward to seeing you all! Hope you’ll make it to Electrofringe this approaching long weekend! We have a two full day workshops called “Dorkshop” on both Saturday and Sunday and a presentation on Friday called “The Year in Dorkbot” in the festival. Look up the program on their website for details.

PEACE!

7pm for a 7:30 start.
This month we are back at Sydney 302 Cleveland St, Surry Hills.
Bring some nibblies or drinks and gold coin donation

This month we have two presentations from Dorkbot faithfulls:

ARAS VAICHAS

(who was missing last meeting)

Aras Vaichas is an artist+engineer who works fulltime as an embedded
software and electronics engineer. He creates simple but snazzy kits so
others can learn about electronics and technology.
The WävRüta is a microcontroller based audio effects units. It was
designed for one of the Dorkshop workshops that will be held during the
Electrofringe 2008 festival in Newcastle.The name is pronounced “Wave Rooter”. 
So called because it really fucks
with your audio.”

To see some videos of Aras’ creations go to: http://www.youtube.com/user/ArtistEngineer

PIA VAN GELDER

Pia van Gelder is an electronic artist/ Dorkbot Overlord. Her work has ranged from performance based video/audio work to animation and instrument building. She has been conducting some experiments and research in 3D or stereo photography and video and it’s peripheries. She will show some of her failed and working attempts and talk a bit about other people who are making similar stuff.

SHOW & TELL

Please feel free to bring along something that you have made even if it aint finished and show us what you’re working on. This is also a good time to talk about things that are going on at the moment in our community.

Be there & be … you know.