This weekend, East Austin’s many studios open up:
I’m going to run around like a madman trying to see them all. Here are a few of those that I’m most excited about (images via eastaustinstudiotour.com):
1. Metal Arts Coop
2. Bleep Labs
I hope to see you out there!
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Original post by Luke Iseman
For those who prefer comics with a bit more depth -
New York Stereoscopic Society 3D Comics Night
Wednesday, November 19, 7 pm
Haft Auditorium, Fashion Institute of Technology
Enter C Building Lobby on 27th street between 7th and 8th AvenuesFree and open to the public
3D PROJECTIONS and live readings by:
Michael Kupperman — “Hercules vs. Zeus”
Kim Deitch — “It’s 4D!”
R. Sikoryak — “The Lost Treasure of the 3D!”
Jason Little — “The Abduction Announcement”
Mick Andreano, Jerry Marks, Joe Pedoto — 3D Comics and Moral Corruption3D Bake Sale and other fundraising for next year’s programs. Some Neat 3D Stuff has been donated for this effort.
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Original post by Collin Cunningham
I was all impressed with Dorkbot Austin having held 18 Dorkbots, and I find out San Francisco’s up to number 40!
dorkbotSF #40!
when: nov 25 7:30pm
where: retox lounge: 628 20th @ 3rd, SF ca (basically dogpatch)speakers:
I’ll bring some of those glow in the dark dorkbot t-shirts so gets yours then!
CASH BAR so 21+
FREE ADMISSION but donations appreciated!will try and snag tamale lady to come by
anyone want to open dork, let me know!
-karen
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Original post by Luke Iseman
Joey Lopez and Brandon Wiley were kind enough to let me pick their brains about ACTLab, an interdisciplinary program at the University of Texas focused on the intersection of technology, culture, and art:
Dorkbot/Make interviews ACTLab from jl on Vimeo.
Video editing by Joey Lopez
If you’re in Austin, check out their space this Wednesday at Dorkbot.
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Original post by Luke Iseman
Next Sunday, any Austin analog synthesizer addicts have an event they should check out:
Looks like fun for the rest of us, too:)
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Original post by Luke Iseman
(photo by Bre Pettis)
Upcoming classes @ Brooklyn′s NYCResistor cover some very awesome topics -
Software Programming
PHP 001: Getting Started - Nov 8
PHP 101: Variables, Functions, & More - Nov 15
Processing 101: Hello Pixel - Nov 22Hardware Programming
Arduino Programming 102: If Funky, Get Loopy - Nov 9
Arduino Programming 103: Sensory Overload - Nov 16Arduino and Processing - Nov 12
Processing + Arduino - Dec 13Wireless Wearables - Dec 14
General Electronics
Joule Thievery - Nov 15
Electricity .01 - Nov 16
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Original post by Collin Cunningham
Image by Telstar Logistics
Slapping a baby into your Illegal Soapbox Derby car:
Here’s a good account of what conspired. An excerpt:
Well, turns out there’s a reason why it’s called the *Illegal* Soapbox Derby.
When we arrived at Bernal Speedway in San Francisco to take in the 2008 running of the Illegal Soapbox Derby, some unpleasantness ensued between the racers and several representatives of the San Francisco Police Department. It seems the Parks Department had received a pre-race complaint from someone in the Bernal Heights Temperance and Abstinence League, and the cops were under orders to put the kibosh on the event. (According to the police, San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano had attempted to intervene on behalf of the Soapbox Derby, but to no avail — Ammiano was overruled by the bureaucrats at the Parks Department. Thanks for trying, Tom!)
Major buzzkill.
After some futile and frustrating attempts at negotiation, the crowd dispersed peacefully and relocated (no less peacefully) to an another gravity-rich location elsewhere in the city.
Here’s some more pictures of the illegal rolling (baby-friendly?) mayhem:
I know San Francisco’s particularly suitable terrain for an event like this, but I also know people in other cities enjoy sending infants spiraling down hills. What are your other favorite DIY races?
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Original post by Luke Iseman
This Saturday is the opening reception of a nifty show of self-illuminated artworks (think video, fire, lights) at the Alwun House in downtown Phoenix. I have a piece in it! If you can’t make it to the opening (or don’t want to pay to go on opening night where there will be a band and psychedelic juggler), the show will be up until November 21.
Lighthouse @ the Alwun House
Saturday, November 8, 7pm
1204 E. Roosevelt St.
Phoenix, Arizona
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Original post by Becky Stern
a photo from one of ACTLab’s many interesting project
Dorkboⵢ - ACTLab!
dorkbot-austin @ UT’s ACTLab
Wed. Nov 12th 2008 6:30-9:00pm (Presentations @ 7:00)In this building:
http://www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/cmb.html
On the 4th floor studio 4B aka the ACTLab.Parking map:
http://www.utexas.edu/parking/maps/index.html
There are also major bus routes right in front of the building and a bike
rack right underneath. Parking at any grey city meter is free after
5:45pm—
Presentations:
ACTLab Intro: A little back story and introduction of people working
with the ACTLab - UT’s new media initiative
http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/Sandy Stone - Sandy’s Fan Club: A look into micro controllers and more
Cecy Correa - Presenting a preview of a documentary she is
working on about the actlab.Joey Lopez - Studying Car Culture in Central Texas, learning to hack
in the backyard.Other cool stuff from the ACTLab - steam punk projects, circuit bending
and more!—
Dorkbot-austin is a regular meeting of artists (sound / image / movement /
whatever), hackers, designers, engineers, students and other interested
parties who are involved in the creation of electronic art (in the
broadest sense of the term).Dorkbot is, as always, a FREE event.
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Original post by Luke Iseman
The 1601216th dorkbot-nyc meeting will take place at 7pm on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at Location One in SoHo.
The meeting is free and open to the public. Please bring snacks to share.
We’re always looking for (and playing) more dorkbot theme songs! Bring or email one and we′ll play it at the meeting.
Featuring the polarized and kerogenic:
Michael Mandel: MajorMiner — Automatically describing music In order to computationally describe music, objective and specific descriptions of the sound must be collected to serve as training data. MajorMiner is a web-based game that makes collecting tags describing 10-second clips of songs fun. When enough instances of a tag have been identified by players (between 20 and 40), we can train a machine learner to automatically identify it in a large database of music. We have trained automatic taggers (”autotaggers”) for instruments like saxophone, guitar, and trumpet, descriptions like soft, repetitive, and male, and genres like hip-hop, dance, and rock. I will demonstrate the game itself, discuss the collected data, and demonstrate clip retrieval and “semantic music similarity” using these automatically generated tags. You can check out the game and the autotags at:
http://majorminer.orgAlison Lewis: Fashion and Craft Tech for the Masses
Alison lewis, the founder and producer of Switch, a Guru for Verizon FiOS’ TV Show MyHome2.0, and a electronic specialist at a museum fabrication house will be talking about her new book Switch Craft: Battery Powered Crafts to Make and Sew co-authored with Fang-yu Lin. Switch Craft is a book of 20 DIY technologically infused and inspired projects that mix sewing, soldering, electronic techniques. It is the first book whose goal is to reach a mainstream craft audience and show them the joy of working with electricity without compromising aesthetics or style. Alison will be talking about the book, its projects, and about its strategy for making technology accessible and relatable to a mass female audience.
http://www.iheartswitch.comLuke DuBois: Hindsight Is Always 20/20
‘Hindsight is Always 20/20′ is a piece based on an analysis of presidential rhetoric. Constructed as sets of lightboxes and prints, the project has travelled to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and a show in New York City. I’d like to talk about the piece and share some of the experiences I’ve had showing it in the past few months. http://www.lukedubois.com
http://hindsightisalways2020.net
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Original post by Collin Cunningham
Here are some photos from last week’s MAKE Out session, courtesy of Warren at Art Seen:
Basically, it looks like a bunch of makers showed up, tools of choice in hand, and transformed an otherwise-normal cafe into a massive work session. I’m excited for the next one!
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Original post by Luke Iseman
[All pics by Gary Mattingly]
Another highlight of Steam Powered, the Steampunk Convention, was meeting Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, editors of the most excellent Steampunk Anthology. They gave a talk called “Steampunk: Inside and Out.” A few highlights:
Jeff shared with us his steampunk equation:
Mad scientist inventor + [invention (steam x airship or metal man divided by baroque stylings) x (pseudo)Victorian setting] + progressive or reactionary politics x adventure plot = steampunk.
Artist John Coulthart even turned the equation into a gorgeous laser-etched Moleskine cover.
Ann, who’s also the editor of the venerable Weird Tales magazine, shared Stephen H. Segal′s “Five Thoughts On The Popularity Of Steampunk.” (Stephen is the editorial and creative director of Weird Tales.) To paraphrase Stephen and Ann via my notes:
1. Steampunk is romance that men can participate in. It’s gender neutral. Masculinized romance.
2. It’s an aesthetic response to “ergonomic” (sleek, user-friendly) science fiction being culturally mainstreamed. Who wants the secrets of the universe stored on a memory device the size of a grain of sand when you can imagine a colossal brain the size of an art deco skyscraper with input/output delivered on punch cards by scurrying clockwork file clerks?
3. It’s like goth, but without scaring your parents. Goths take vampires very seriously. Vampires are scary. Steampunks take pocket watches seriously. Nobody is scared of a pocket watch.
4. Bridges sub-genres. There really is no set steampunk style. It’s a mash-up of fantasy, horror, adventure, superheroics, speculative fiction, etc. As Jeff said: It’s a set of tools, not a coherent movement.
5. It’s a technological do-over. Mid-20th century sci-fi was largely Utopian, with an unwavering faith in science and technology. Late 20th century sci-fi got scarier, showing where science and technology could go wrong. We wanted Star Trek, we got Blade Runner. Steampunk lets us go back to a more innocent, enthused time, but with the wisdom of hindsight, and this time, we’re not leaving the cowlings on the hardware. We want to be under the hood, we want to get dirty with the future, not just experience it like a World of Tomorrow ride.
One of the other talks I really liked was “Engines of Empire,” a panel on Victorian science and technology, with Chris Garcia of the Computer Science Museum, Dan Sawyer, multimedia artist, producer and open source evangelist, and freelance scholar Mike Pershon. Mike’s PhD dissertation is on steampunk as an aesthetic. One (of many) interesting things he said concerned the origins of the word “punk,” as in junk wood, tinder to start fires, and how that has some utility in describing the “punk” part of “steampunk,” as in the making, remaking, hacking aspects of steampunk. And, of course, the word “hacking” itself has origins in woodworking and axe-hewn furniture, so there’s a fortuitous connection there.
Steam Powered also featured a Victorian sitting room in the center of the lobby, put together by artist Norm Barringer and some other set designers and artists. The space was filled with the loveliest cabinet of wonders-type pieces, framed Zeppelin plans, and other cool curios, including the throbbing power source in the fireplace seen above. The place reeked of absinthe and antiquity.
Dr. Grordbort himself, Greg Broadmore, of Weta Workshops was there showing off his ray guns and other aetheric oscillators, including the new “Unnatural Selector” ray-blunderbus. Okay, you know how cool you think these things look in pictures? They are MUCH cooler in person! Here’s what went on inside my head as I saw them up-close, hefted them in my hands, and marveled at all the attention to detail and quality: “Wow, these are amazing. These are REALLY amazing! Holy crap, these are INSANE! Okay, quick, how can I figure out a way of spending $650 on one of these? I HAVE to have this!” (One caveat: the mini versions of the ray guns are *really* mini, much tinier than I imagined. If you want one of these pieces, save your lunch money and get a REAL ray gun — or as close as you′ll likely ever get).
More:
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Original post by Gareth Branwyn
[Pics by Gary Mattingly]
The first California Steampunk Convention has drawn to a close. What a fantastic and inspiring event! Bowlers and top hats off to Ariane Wolfe, Tofa Borregaard, Richard Bottoms, and everyone else who made the con come off so well. I met tons of cool, friendly, and talented people, marveled at the most outrageous and lovingly-constructed costumes, and liberated far too much of the content of my wallet in the service of fellow makers and craftspeople in the vendor area.
The highlight of the event for me was Jake von Slatt’s keynote and the presentation of his Wimshurst Influence Machine. This gorgeous and impressive electrostatic generator will be the featured project in MAKE Volume 17, the Lost Knowledge (aka “Steampunk”) issue. This event was something of a coming-out for the device.
Jake’s plane was delayed and he arrived late to the convention and his talk. Overwhelmed with the rush, technical difficulties, and a video camera floating in his face, he was a little wobbly out of the gate, but nobody really cared. Herr von Slatt is much-beloved, a rockstar to this crowd, and his unpretentious charm and spot-on keynote quickly overcame any initial awkwardness (plus it only adds to that mad scientist mystique).
Jake started off with a laundry list of promised futures we’ve been teased (or threatened) with but have never seen (the ’50s jet-packed future, the ’60s geodesic-domed future, the ’80s road warrior future, the cyberborged, downloadable you of the ’90s), all the way to today, where the promise and timescale of our possible future seems to have been reduced to a corporate calendar of next-gen home theater and Bluetooth offerings and the next Steve Jobs keynote. Then Jake asked:
Is it any wonder then, that some of us have decided to take a step sideways? A step out of the corporate time stream and into one we’ve made for ourselves? A step into a world of adventure and romance where we each seek out our own futures, on our own terms, without having to wait for it to go on sale? A step sideways into a past that never was and a future that still could be.
Then, he paused and declared:
I am a maker. “Maker” describes what I do and “Steampunk” describes the style in which I most commonly work. Thus calling me a “Steampunk Maker” is roughly equivalent to calling someone a “Jazz musician.”
For the rest of his talk, he borrowed heavily from Institute for the Future’s Alex Soojung-Kim Pang’s “Reflections of Tinkering,” something he wrote while attending a conference entitled “Tinkering as a Mode of Knowledge: Production in the Digital Age.” “Academics are studying tinkering!,” exclaimed von Slatt. “And they actually get it!” As he read, he asked the audience to freely substitute the word “steampunk” for tinkerer, e.g.:
Tinkerers are also social animals. Their success depends in part on being able to tap into porous and ad-hoc communities. For most of what they do the manual is useless; other tinkerers are the only ones who are likely to have the information you need.
[You can read the rest of Alex’s conference musings here.]
After Jake finished his talk, to rousing applause, he showed off his Wimshurst Machine. It’s beautiful and elegant and made with hand tools (with the exception of an electric drill) and parts readily found at Home Depot. Even though it was very humid in the standing room-only conference space, he still managed to get a couple of pretty sobering sparks from it and some genuine “ohhhs” and “ahhhs” from the crowd. Jake also brought a set of “Franklin’s Bells,” and had no trouble getting them to ring with the charge stored in the Wimshurt’s Leyden Jars.
During the questions and answers, someone asked him how he became such a technical virtuoso. How did he learn to use all of these tools and machines? “My parents were both librarians,” he responded, deadpan, to a roar of enthusiasm. “They didn’t answer questions, they pointed you to the relevant sources where you could look things up for yourself.”
Somebody also asked him: “How does one become a maker? I don’t even know where to start. I’m a unmaker.” [Laughter] “Well that’s where you start,” he replied. “You start out as a breaker. Take stuff apart. Find out how it works. Break it. Eventually, you′ll start to figure out how things work and how to make what you want.”
And then it got weird. People started asking him what his visions were of our future, how he wanted history to remember him, and what he wanted his encyclopedia (”wikipedia,” he corrected) reference to say. I was waiting for the pantaloons to start flying forward.
It really struck me — as someone who′s watched Jake′s net-fame grow from the beginning (we published one of the first pieces about him in MAKE Volume 09) — how amazing it is that someone can go from being a shy, reserved Linux IT guy to ascending geek stardom simply by posting some cool projects that thoroughly fire people′s imagination and show them possibilities for themselves. I remember him telling me on the phone once how exciting it was when he put up his first few projects and started to get enthusiastic email. And that just egged him on to try to do better, cooler projects that would inspire more people and garner more attention. And on and on… It also doesn’t hurt that Jake IS how he answered the question about how he wanted to be remembered: “He was a really nice guy.” And so he is.
Here are a few costume pics from the con:
[More pics and favorite moments of the con tomorrow…]
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Original post by Gareth Branwyn
[Pics by Gary Mattingly]
The first California Steampunk Convention has drawn to a close. What a fantastic, inspiring event! Bowlers and top hats off to Ariane Wolfe, Tofa Borregaard, Richard Bottoms, and everyone else who made the con come off so well. I met tons of cool, friendly, and talented people, marveled at the most outrageous and lovingly-constructed costumes, and liberated far too much of the contents of my wallet to the service of fellow makers and craftspeople.
The highlight of the event for me was Jake von Slatt’s keynote and the presentation of his Wimshurst Influence Machine. This gorgeous and impressive electrostatic generator will be the featured project in MAKE Volume 17, the Lost Knowledge (aka “Steampunk”) issue. This event was something of a coming-out for the device.
Jake’s plane was delayed and he arrived late to the convention and his talk. Overwhelmed with the rush, technical difficulties, and a video camera floating in his face, he was a little wobbly out of the gate, but nobody really cared. Herr von Slatt is much-beloved, a rockstar to this crowd, and his unpretentious charm and spot-on keynote quickly overcame any initial awkwardness (plus it only adds to that mad scientist mystique).
Jake started off with a laundry list of promised futures we′ve been teased (or threatened) with but have never seen (the ’50s jet-packed future, the ’60s geodesic-domed future, the ’80s road warrior future, the cyberborged, downloadable you of the ’90s), all the way to today, where the promise and timescale of our possible future seems to have been reduced to a corporate calendar of next-gen home theater and Bluetooth offerings and the next Steve Jobs keynote. Then Jake asked:
Is it any wonder then, that some of us have decided to take a step sideways? A step out of the corporate time stream and into one we’ve made for ourselves? A step into a world of adventure and romance where we each seek out our own futures, on our own terms, without having to wait for it to go on sale? A step sideways into a past that never was and a future that still could be.
Then, he paused and declared:
I am a maker. “Maker” describes what I do and “Steampunk” describes the style in which I most commonly work. Thus calling me a “Steampunk Maker” is roughly equivalent to calling someone a “Jazz musician.”
For the rest of his talk, he borrowed heavily from Institute for the Future′s Alex Soojung-Kim Pang’s “Reflections of Tinkering,” something he wrote while attending a conference entitled “Tinkering as a Mode of Knowledge: Production in the Digital Age.” “Academics are studying tinkering!,” exclaimed von Slatt. “And they actually get it!” As he read, he asked the audience to freely substitute the word “steampunk” for tinkerer, e.g.:
Tinkerers are also social animals. Their success depends in part on being able to tap into porous and ad-hoc communities. For most of what they do the manual is useless; other tinkerers are the only ones who are likely to have the information you need.
[You can read the rest of Alex’s conference musings here.]
After Jake finished his talk, to rousing applause, he showed off his Wimshurst Machine. It’s beautiful and elegant and made with hand tools (with the exception of an electric drill) and parts readily found at Home Depot. Even though it was very humid in the standing room-only conference space, he still managed to get a couple of pretty sobering sparks from it and some genuine “ohhhs” and “ahhhs” from the crowd. Jake also brought a set of “Franklin’s Bells,” and had no trouble getting them to ring with the charge stored in the Wimshurt’s Leyden Jars.
During the questions and answers, someone asked him how he became such a technical virtuoso. How did he learn to use all of these tools and machines? “My parents were both librarians,” he responded, deadpan, to a roar of enthusiasm. “They didn’t answer questions, they pointed you to the relevant sources where you could look things up for yourself.”
Somebody also asked him: “How does one become a maker? I don′t even know where to start. I’m a unmaker.” [Laughter] “Well that’s where you start,” he replied. “You start out as a breaker. Take stuff apart. Find out how it works. Break it. Eventually, you’ll start to figure out how things work and how to make what you want.”
And then it got weird. People started asking him what his visions were of our future, how he wanted history to remember him, and what he wanted his encyclopedia (”wikipedia,” he corrected) reference to say. I was waiting for the pantaloons to start flying forward.
It really struck me — as someone who’s watched Jake’s net-fame grow from the beginning (we published one of the first pieces about him in MAKE Volume 09) — how amazing it is that someone can go from being a shy, reserved Linux IT guy to ascending geek stardom simply by posting some cool projects that thoroughly fire people’s imagination and show them possibilities for themselves. I remember him telling me on the phone once how exciting it was when he put up his first few projects and started to get enthusiastic email. And that just egged him on to try to do better, cooler projects that would inspire more people and garner more attention. And on and on… It also doesn’t hurt that Jake IS how he answered the question about how he wanted to be remembered: “He was a really nice guy.” And so he is.
Here are a few costume pics from the con:
[More pics and favorite moments of the con tomorrow…]
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Original post by Gareth Branwyn
I’m here in Sunnyvale, CA to cover Steam Powered, the first dedicated steampunk convention. Set-up is now underway. The local San Jose freebie, Metro, ran a nice cover piece on the event and steampunk 101. That’s Abney Park on the cover. The article emphasized the maker aspects of the genre and the non-serious roleplaying involved. I.e. it’s fun to make beautifully-crafted, ornamented retro-futuristic gadgets and to pretend they came from some parallel universe that mashes up appealing aspects of past, present, and future.
Some things I’m looking forward to at the convention are Chris Garcia’s talk on the replica of Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine, currently on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, presentations from the Weta Workshop folks (see their Moon Hater Death Ray below), learning more about Airship Ventures, and of course, seeing Abney Park perform on Saturday night at the San Jose Civic Auditorium (tickets for this show are still available). Also, MAKE pal and frequent blog-subject Jake von Slatt is delivering the keynote address at the con. Should be a fun weekend.
BTW: If you’re at the convention, please look me up. I’m staying at the hotel where the convention is happening (The Domain).
Wired has a piece, Ray-Gun Maestro Zaps Steampunk Convention, on Greg Broadmore of Weta Workshop and his participation at Steam Powered.
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Original post by Gareth Branwyn
Developages - Development and Technology Blog
