DorkbotColumbus - the Blog

Shedding a little light on the lightbulb revolution?

From the European Union to Walmart - many of the largest economic forces in the world are pushing for a switch from the standard traditional incandescent light bulb to other designed - fluorescent, LED, etc. 

While there are certainly attractive features to these new technologies - in one dimension or another of "green-ness" - one question that has not been widely addressed is:  Is the light these new sources provide as good, as effective, as useful?

Check out this brief review offered by a reporter from the BBC.

DorkbotColumbus goes GREEN for for Earth Week 2008

The Digigravitation event (the quarterly OSU Art & Tech department show of student projects) was well attended - and once again hosted a meeting of DorkbotColumbus members.

With current news in mind, the suggestion was made to pursue a GREEN theme for at least the early part of 2008 - and focus on a presentation event to be tied to Earth Week, observed in April 2008.

There was enthusiasm among the 15 or so attendees of the meeting, and the resolution - as if there were such things at Dorkbot meetings - passed handily.

What might make an interesting GREEN presentation?

Here are two ideas:

• In order to have fun with electricity, you have to generate it.  How many Dorkbot ways might there be to create electricity and either store it temporarily, or use it to perform some odd and/or grotesque <g> function?
• The reason we have so much waste and pollution is because those attributes are designed into almost everything!  If you were to start from scratch and design a functional product without pollution or waste in its production - and without waste at the end of its useful life - what might that look like?

Over the next few weeks, we will generate a call for projects, and some simple, basic rules-of-the-road.  But think - how can you have fun and do "strange things with electricity" - and at the same time demonstrate principles that help keep the planet GREEN and safe!

And thanks once again to Amy Youngs and Ken Rinaldo - the OSU faculty sponsors of the Digigravitation show - for supporting DorkbotColumbus and hosting our meeting!

More new languages with special capabilities

Matt Howard writes to point out that a cool new language has just recently released a new beta -  at www.processing.org - where the entire environment can be downloading and tested at no cost. 

In addition, the community that has grown up around Processing has created a number of facilities for dealing with mobile devices, other levels of software, and hardware.  The one that has Matt most excited is Arduino - which facilitate a new class of "open source" hardware. 

All these tools, including our own recent link to MIT's Scratch language for kids - are great examples of the tech world's concern about future generations, and keeping knowledge growing even in an increasing oppressive world of DRM, Millennium Copyrights, and "process" patents. 

DigEscape - Art & Tech Exhibition - Dorkbot Event!

Link: DigEscape - Art & Tech Exhibition - Dorkbot Event!

Time for another extraordinary evening with OSU students exploring the edges of art and technology - Thursday, May 31 at Haskett Hall on the OSU campus.  The exhibit will go from 5pm - 9pm - and there will be a special showing of video projects during the evening.

And there will be a meeting of DORKBOT COLUMBUS in room 408 (yes, that means the 4th floor - there's an elevator) - at 7 pm - shouldn't last more than 30 minutes.  We'll be talking about plans for a summer event - Hacking Toys!  It's not like we need an excuse to craft toys from tech, but if we're going to share - we need to find a good time and place. 

The great thing about the Art & Tech exhibits - organized by OSU faculty Ken Rinaldo and Amy Youngs - is the concentration of clever, off-the-wall, and pointedly creative projects by students in the program.  If you weren't able to attend one of the previous events - this may be a great opportunity for you!

Surprising tech just hanging around

Link: A Look at Engineering a Shape-Shifting Chandelier.

Chandeliers are things that are generally either taken for granted or ridiculed.  Yep, there are lights up there!

But this story from Wired highlights a new approach created by a team led by Moritz Waldemeyer.  The strands of the chandelier are independently lit, and connected to a series of ingenious conical drive gears that constantly changes the shape of the mass of light presented by the unit.  Imagine multiple strands hanging down, constantly in motion, moving up and down at varying rates.  Occasionally, the strand coalesce for just a moment into a static shape one might recognized as a conventional chandelier - but otherwise the strands are generally between states. 

A variation on the programmable theme is a chandelier whose strands are all of a constant shape - looking up you see a flat field of light - dots not unlike point in s hanging Etch-A-Sketch.  Each strand is uniquely addressable - so it is possible to create patterns - words, shapes, complete drawings - rendered as the collective of dots on this overhead field.

Go directly to the picture gallery here - but be aware that the photographers were far more impressed with the inner workings of the mechanisms, than they were with the ultimate effect - so use your imagination to visualize the fun you might have in your own implementation.

Sonic Tooth - Experimental Music the Dorkbot Way!

Link: Dorkbot Music - Experimental music event - April 28.

Saturday, April 28 - bring your self-made and X-treme-ly modified music makers to the next Dorkbot event at Haskett Hall's Gallery & Soundstage on the OSU campus!

All the details are on the web site - from 3pm to some point later that evening - we'll jam with a strange assortment of sound and music - then we'll enhance and record it and play with it - for your listening pleasure.  This isn't the kind of concert where you dress nice and show up to sit down and listen to others do all the work.  Oh no!  The whole floor of the Soundstage is the stage and the audience is the performance.

But don't get out your drums and trumpets and saxes - this is not only a self-performance - but it is creating music from the ground up!  We want to see your own construction of a device that makes tones, beats rhythms and otherwise contributes to a Dorkcophony of sound!

Should be some serious fun.  Check out the Web site for details - and we'll hope to see you there!

(For more info, check out this blog entry from January!)

Reinterpretation & Investigation of the Landscape

Link: Reinterpretation & Investigation of the Landscape. OSU campus, March 27 - April 1 and beyond ...

An event starting today - March 27 thru April 1 - with some exhibitions lasting longer - at multiple locations around the Ohio State campus.  Brought to you in part through the efforts of DorkbotColumbus co-champions Ken Rinaldo and Amy Youngs.

This event is bringing in artists from all over the world, to explore the use of technology in exploration and investigation of the landscape.  We're not talking Monet here - but some of the most creative applications of technology to artistic expression from a variety of renowned practitioners and artists.

Sounds like a rollicking good time - check out the artists, events and schedules at this link.

Meeting Success!

Link: DorkbotColumbus March Meeting Event!!.

When launching an initiative as unstructured as Dorkbot, it's difficult to define success - or even traction.

But after last night, Dorkbot Columbus can only be considered a resounding success.  As a co-promoter of Ken Rinaldo's Art & Technology program exhibit - Bit Babble - some 200 students in the program showed off their projects.  Amidst the proceedings - those specifically interested in participating in Dorkbot headed to a classroom upstairs.

About 22 people participated and talked about our forthcoming plans for some "themed" events - the next one focused on experimental musical instruments called "Sonic Tooth" - in addition to the quarterly exhibitions related to the OSU curriculum.  A number of the people in the meeting plan to participate in the Dorkbot concert!

We also discussed a couple of other prospective "themes" - including "toys" and "hacking Web 2.0." 

The next task is to pick a time and place for the Sonic Tooth event - that will happen by next week.  Then we'll start thinking about getting the next project on the calendar.

Some other ideas were probed as well - including the possibility of setting up an exhibition - jointly sponsored by Art & Tech and Dorkbot - during one of the monthly "Gallery Hop" community parties in Columbus' Short North.  There happens to be some apparently unoccupied storefront space in that area - we might be able to take advantage of it to show off some particularly vivid projects.

Pictures and some video will be posted soon - time is too short to do so at this moment.  But the good news is that DorkbotColumbus is looking to have some fun - with electricity and otherwise - in the months ahead.

Keep your eye on this space and on the DorkbotColumbus Web site.

Call for X-perimental music makers and instruments!

An excuse for Dorkbot groupies to gather together is too good to pass up - we can make beautiful music!  But - of course - in a Dorkbot way.  Music can be made in many ways other than with a standard piano, cello or theremin.  We would like to see your favorite non-commercial instruments - and hear you play them! 

The plan is to meet in late April to share your favorite alternative music make.  The date and place are TBD and I hope to announce that shortly.  But we want to have some fun and encourage not only solos, but small groups as well - to present a number - and perhaps share how this instrument came to be - and how you learned to play it.

The object here is not professional performance or even euphonious one - but rather a chance to share musical ideas and have some fun!

Experimental music has always been with us, since the earliest days of the stick beat on a log.  Variations on a flute-like  device have given us most of the wind instruments we consider standard today.  Some instruments have been purposefully design to become legitimate from the beginning - like Adolphe Sax's saxhorn - which he intended to be a combination of the best features of woodwind and brass.  Others have followed less traditional paths, like the theremin - which began as something else altogether - and, once recognized as a noisemaker whose sound could be controlled, entered the collection of musical devices.  Modern artists like the Blue Man Group have made a career from making music with non-traditional materials and tools, combined in a compelling way to create melody, harmony and beat. They have even created a line of musical instrument concoctions for sale. Does that make them experimental any longer?   

We can debate that point - but we can debate to the accompaniment of our own dulcet musical expressions. 

If you have  wanted to explore the subject, and have lacked access to information - this will fix you right up.

If you want to sign up to perform/present your own musical improvisation - send an email to dorkbotcolumbus@gmail.com - please provide a real name, a real phone number, and a brief description of your device - pictures are always great. 

And, of course, please register to be included in our regular mailing list, if you haven't already done so.

So - tune 'em up!  The last agenda item of the evening will be a group improvisation/concert performance of a well-known piece!  Ready?  On 2 - 1 and a  ...

"Geek Town" defined by Dorkbot attendance

Link: Top 10 Tech Towns in the US

It's a fun exercise - Lists are always popular and cities in the US are always willing to tout their inclusion on a list that looks hip, cool, hi tech etc.  Wired Magazine published a survey this month that listed the "Top Ten Tech Towns" in the US.  Columbus did not make the list.  Guess what?  San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, LA, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Raleigh-Durham, Boston, New York and Washington DC made the list.  What you might call the "usual suspects."

But the significant thing is that one of the measures used for picking these towns was - wait for it - Dorkbot meeting attendance!  And some of these numbers are pretty low.  Our first meeting last fall had about 90 people in attendance.  The December 1 event  promoted by Dorkbot - had several hundred attendees.  These number are not totally the result of Dorkbot support, but it certainly helped!

So - next year Columbus will have at least one more asset in its column when the survey is done - Our Dorkbot community is healthy - and will be getting stronger thru the year.