Dorkbot:18 Moving Pictures!

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Eric McNeill, Untitled: Portrait, Movement - Rabbit!!!: Seattle-based artist and technologist Eric McNeill will discuss the design and construction of this piece from PSDTWEII, and will also give an introduction to using Rabbit Microprocessors. In addition to simply showing lo-res video, "Untitled (Portrait/Movement)" is an example of some of the more advanced things you can do with a $50 micro like the Rabbit - for example, networking support to allow the piece to put or fetch media on or from the Internet. http://smellsnew.com/pdstwe/

W. Scott Trimble, Moving Pictures: Local machine artist Scott Trimble will talk about his 'Landscape Generator' series of machines, through which he considers the contrast between industry, nature, figure and machine, and his use of vending-machine models to engage the viewer with a familiar model, to encourage them to interact, and to contribute to the process of constructing, destroying or consuming components of the work before them. He'll also discuss his latest series, 'Moving Pictures', in which he uses kinetic sculpture to explore the very, very
slow movement of images superimposed over each other, presenting a constantly, but slowly, changing composite image to the viewer. http://wstrimble.homestead.com/

Edward Tang, A Trajectory of a Scholar-Practitioner in the Technological Arts: Ed Tang, a PhD student at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS), will guide you along the unconventional educational and artistic trajectory that's led him to the Center and his current aesthetic and technological research vectors. He'll include a discussion of his research, and past and present work. http://www.antiexperience.com/edtang/

Open Dork/Show and Tell: This week, dorkbotsea regular Toby Paddock will show a short ambient video, and Eric L. of the Seattle Outsider Art Project (S.O.A.P) will give a call for submissions for their Weird Genius Real Science Fair, to be held at Magnusson Park in mid-July this year. And as for the rest of ye… Have an announcement? A project to tell us about? A request? A new tool or book that you love? Need collaborators? Materials? Advice? Email dorkbotsea@dorkbot.org, or just come and find me during the presentations and I'll find you a spot in front of the mic.

POWER TOOL DRAG RACES: See most of San Francisco’s crazed and – er – colourful machine art scene out and proud of their mutant creations at the anarcho-technological, petrochemically infernal 2ND ANNUAL POWER TOOL DRAG RACES (http://www.powertooldragraces.com/). Starting at 7 pm at this month’s dorkbot and the next, we’ll be screening a Discovery Channel documentary created by intrepid New Zealand film makers as they explored the clanking, cotton-candy-covered underbelly of the strangest drag race on the planet. They’re starting a league – any Seattle takers? See this video, and find out if it’s your calling!

Eric McNeill has long been interested in how technology can be used to represent and reflect on human emotions and understanding. Most technology is used simply for control, but when repurposed for artistic use it can provide insights similar to and beyond that of other media. For the past several years Eric has focused on pieces that distill information into their elemental bits, and this series of LED works is a study in how we recognize meaning from the barest amount of information.

W. Scott Trimble: "When I was younger, my parents, brother and I lived in a small rural town northwest of Yosemite. My earliest memories were of the expansiveness of the wilderness, all of its wildlife, and extreme
weather conditions. I was also very influenced by the machines that humans have developed to move, build, and manipulate the landscapes in which we lived. Rusted equipment and found objects were also quite popular in my estimation and stood in juxtaposition to this wild setting. The world around me, and how it was assembled and deconstructed was, and still is, among many of my fascinations.

Some years later our family moved to a more urban, yet sleepy surf town of Santa Cruz, California. This move exhibited yet another contrast in my life: rural to urban. A more mechanized world from that of an organic one, if you will. My internal desire to constantly draw, design, and build things with whatever resources were at hand, I began to forge my creativity by way of painting and sculpture. I eventually received a BFA in Spatial Arts from San Jose State University in San Jose, California, and not long after made my way to Seattle to earn an
MFA in Sculpture at UW. Both institutions are recognized for their emphasis in the metal arts, as well as providing opportunity to explore various processes and concepts. Primarily a metal fabricator, I have also dealt with a wide range of materials and processes including, metal casting, woodcarving, digital media, cast materials, mold making, photography and automated sculpture. In the late 1990's I co-founded, built and maintained a metal fabrication and bronze-casting studio in Santa Cruz, California. I have also exhibited in many selected solo and
group exhibitions throughout the west coast."

Edward Tang is an artist and PhD student at Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media at the University of Washington. He received his MPS from the Interactive Telecommunications Program and his BM in Music Technology at New York University. He is a classical violinist and has worked as a freelance audio/music editor for broadcast television and new media in New York City. A native of the Seattle area, he has exhibited digital works in venues all over the world, including events in Paris, Glasgow, Warsaw, New York City, and London. His current research interests include new forms of hybrid software based works and interfaces for telematic musical performance.