Introducing Dorkbot
I do things other than work, from time to time. Mostly I don't write about them here because I want to keep this blog nice and focussed, but I think I will start regularly posting about one in particular—Dorkbot—because I think it's directly relevant. I am one of a loosely-organised group of "overlords" who organise the Seattle Dorkbot meetings and shows. Since I expect I'll start writing about this from time to time, I thought I should start with a post explaining what I'm talking about.
The Seattle Dorkbot website (which I maintain and needs updating... oops) gives a short blurb about what we are, which I'll reproduce here because it's a good start, and then I'll add my own words after the cut:
Welcome to dorkbot-sea, the Seattle-based spin-off of dorkbot-nyc, a monthly meeting of artists (sound/image/ movement/whatever), 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 is to:
- Give artists / programmers / engineers an opportunity for informal peer review
- Establish a forum for the presentation of new artworks / technology / software / hardware
- Help build relationships and foster collaboration between people with various backgrounds and interests
- Give us all a chance to see the cool things that our neighbors are working on
Thinking about that 'mission statement', it has a lot in common with academic conferences and workshops, except that Dorkbot has no equivalent of the published proceedings - it's a more transient affair. It's a very broad forum for people to get together and discuss ideas ranging from here's a cool thing you can do with such-and-such a piece of hardware
to what do we want from public art?
or just look at amazing work others have put together. Most months we have a meeting at which a few people present either work they've done, projects in progress or discussions about topics of interest, but every now and again we hold a movie night or just go to the pub for a chance to get to know each other better, and there's the occasional gallery show [we're hoping to put another show on this year, but currently looking for a venue].
If you want to know more about Dorkbot, Shelly Farnham, our overlord-in-chief, has also written about it, and recently gave a 5-minute talk at a somewhat related event in Seattle.
I got involved in organising largely because I find unconventional art fascinating, and I had been enjoying the meetings a lot, but I don't have any ideas for artistic contributions so this is my way of giving something back to a community that I've got a lot from. I love the idea of actually contributing some artwork, but I have as yet to have an idea that meets the 'sleep test': after sleeping on the idea, was it interesting enough for me to actually remember it, and do I still think anyone other than me would care? That said, I'm starting to think I should put together a presentation about someone other attendees may find interesting; perhaps Jacques de Vaucanson.
I'm also looking for resources that interface art directly with science. We have seen a lot of tech-art, broadly defined as art that either uses or is inspired by technology (a classification I'd place de Vaucanson's work in), but relatively little that really deals with science. I'm thinking of art that in some way relates to open questions in science, or issues raised by scientific discoveries and debates. Ideally I'd love to find local [Seattle-area] artists who would be interested in talking at a future Dorkbot meeting, but I would also be interested in learning about work done elsewhere, both for my own edification and because it might make an interesting topic for me to present second-hand.
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