dorkbot-austin

Fantastic Fest, the Alamo Drafthouse’s festival of fantasy, horror and sci-fi films, teams with dorkbot to celebrate Austin’s electric oddities.  We’re programming Fantastic Fest’s opening night party on Thursday, September 20, 10 pm.  Filmmakers, freaks, oddballs, gorehounds, sci-fi nerds, fantasy freaks and cineasts of all flavors convene on Austin from around the country for this badass festival.  dorkbot is proud to inaugurate this year’s fest with a parade of fire, sparks and digital daring. 

In the words of Tim League, the Alamo’s co-owner and Fantastic Fest instigator:

“We are also proud to announce that the opening night party will feature an electronic onslaught by Dorkbot Austin. This town is a hotbed for the crossover intersection of creativity and electronics/engineering professionals. What that means for us is a chance to sip cocktails while cheering on the loud, crazed and potentially dangerous robotic shenanigans of Austin’s nerdcore elite. Tesla coil in attendance, no pacemakers allowed.”

This special dorkbot event, which will include booze, food and all sorts of goodies, is only available to Fantastic Fest ticket holders.  Tickets are still available here.

Artificial Music Machine and ElectronicAustin present a free evening of circuit bending and experimental audio performances by local artists, at Gomi (233 W. 2nd Street) this Friday, August 3rd. Hands-on workshop from 7pm-8:30pm, followed by performances from 8:30pm-10pm.

Lineup of performers:

• Eric Archer (Visitor Q, Numbers on the Mast)
• Matthew Thies (Visitor Q, Numbers on the Mast)
• Operation Playmate (Erich Ragsdale, Lori Varga, et al)
• Thomas Fang (Inversion Effect) + the Furby Youth Choir

Thank you Jon Lebkowsky for sending in these panorama photos of dorkbot9

• Panorama 1
• Panorama 2

http://scifair.org/ http://labrats.org/

via Don Turnbull

Dorkbot is collaborating with the Austin Children’s Museum on a variety of things, including helping support the Play it By Ear program in 2008

Attached is a call for art. ACM is going to be splitting about $10K among 4-6 local projects.

The deadline for submitting a proposal is August 17.

PIBE Artists RFP 7 07.doc

Mike Weiblen, who presented his Echo Box / Catcher at the last dorkbot has shared some links to the microcontroller running his device.

http://greta.dhs.org/UBW/index.html http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/productinfo.php?productsid=8265 http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/productinfo.php?productsid=762

2007-07-30 fixed links

Here is a chance to score some parts for your next tinkering project:

“The UT Campus Environmental Center welcomes everyone back to school with the annual Trash to Treasure Campus Wide Garage Sale, presented by the University Co-op. We have a basketball court full of stuff to sell for cheap, including clothing, electronics, kitchenware, bedding, sporting goods, school supplies, decor, and over 100 pieces of furniture! Visit us online at www.TrashtoTreasureUT.com

The sale will take place on Sunday, August 26th from 8AM-4PM at the UT Recsports Center. You can get in early (from 8-10 AM) for only $4/adults and $2/students - it’s worth it to get the best deals!

After 10 AM admission is FREE. Parking is free all day in the “C” lots near 20th and San Jacinto . All funds raised support student-run environmental initiatives at UT, like recycling and energy conservation. Trash to Treasure is supported by the University Co-op, Freescale Semiconductor, Penske Truck Rental, Airport Self Storage, and A+ Prime Storage.

For more information, go to www.trashtotreasureut.com

We had such an incredible turnout last night. Thank you! Thank you for coming.

We’re considering doing a dorkbot9.5 in August (wanna help)?

If you took photos/videos you’d like to share, please tag them with “dorkbotaustin” on flickr and/or email us your video links.

Flickr photos tagged with dorkbotaustin

“Hello, Hello and welcome to dorkbot-austin.

Welcome to old friends and new friends. Welcome curiosity seekers and disbelievers. Welcome geeks and nerds, computer jocks and mad scientists, fire nuts and fire fighting robots. Welcome to the artists and performers, tinkerers and questioning fools… that’s all of you, whether you know it or not.

Welcome to the 10 year old wandering around who history will write about as our next Thomas Edison.

And most importantly, welcome home dorks. This night is for you to be recognized and celebrated as the heroes you truly are.”

Presenters * Edwin Wise * ACTLab * Maker Faire (Call for Makers) * Geek Group

Open Dork * Mike Weiblen - Echo Catcher * Bleep Labs * Nathan Elliot - Mythril (mesh linux boxes) * Marvin Niebuhr

Volunteer Opportunities * Central Texas National Engineers Week * Capitol BEST

_ACTLab Video and Pictures * Pictures * Video

2007-07-20-0809 : fixed geek group link

Thursday, July 12, 7PM
Cafe Mundi
1704 E 5th St. (a few blocks east of I-35)
(512) 236-8634
Yummy food and beverages to accompany your dork euphoria.

http://www.dorkbotaustin.org

Dorkbot is here, once again - and it’s going to be huge.

• Dale Dougherty (editor and publisher of Make Magazine) and Sherry Huss (director - Maker Faire) will give a recap of Maker Faire San Mateo and talk about what’s upcoming for Maker Faire Austin (Oct 20-21). They will also answer questions about the audition process and give insight on desired projects.

The application process to Participate in Maker Faire Austin is now open! Please review http://makerfaire.com/austin/2007/callformakers/ — Let’s show off what Austin dorks are all about!

• The Austin contingent of The Geek Group http://www.thegeekgroup.org/ returns. A smash hit at Dorkbot SxSW with their singing Tesla Coils, they have agreed to give us another demonstration. They will talk about the construction, programming, and tuning of a solid state tesla coil instrument

• Edwin Wise, inspired by Sean McCullough’s colloidal demonstration at the last dorkbot, will be building on these experiments with a variety of materials — Needless to say, it will be loud. (You may remember Edwin with his Ruben’s Tubes at dorkbot7 and Burning Flipside this year)

• The University of Texas ACTLab research group http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/ will be giving a series of presentations - Learn about the insane experiments going on this summer. (ex. Freestyle hacking, Actlab.tv - an open source video processing station, and circuit bent instruments, including a Casio / Atari 2600 mashup).

IF YOU KNOW OF A DJ WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN PLAYING AT DORKBOT9, let us know ASAP - dorkbotaustin@dorkbot.org — otherwise, it’s going to be Enya on an iPod on endless repeat.

dorkbot8

Thursday, May 10, 7PM
Cafe Mundi
1704 E 5th St. (a few blocks east of I-35)
(512) 236-8634
Yummy food and beverages to accompany your dork euphoria.

http://www.dorkbotaustin.org

dorkbot is back. What do we have in store for you this time? Colloids and immersive systems and Satanic anti-war song-cycles. Oh-my!!!

Line-up:

Brian Park

Virtual Reality in 3space: realspace, mindspace & cyberspace. If you’ve seen the film Lawnmower Man, you’ve seen Brian’s work. Come out Thursday to see his latest inventions.

Sean McCullough

teaches you to build a writhing slime demonstration that demonstrates how colloids react to sonic waves.

Jason Asbahr from Roxor Games

exposes Indie Arcade Game Development.

“Music” by themysterious H

who twists 8-bit synths in interesting and disastrous ways. DJ McPickleshittz backs him up with an original copy of Electric Lucifer.

Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar

Jeff Minter’s magnum opus, this sequel to the coin-op classic Tempest is one of the trippiest games you’ll ever see. See (and play) for yourself with a homebrew rotary control on the big screen.

Spread the word about this Thursday to dork lovers near and far.

What’s next? We can’t spill all the beans quite yet but here’s a teaser of what’s to come this summer and fall: kidbot, evil dorkbot and Maker Faire. Sign up on the mailing list and don’t miss a thing.