From dorkbotmtl at gmail.com Tue Jan 8 22:55:40 2008 From: dorkbotmtl at gmail.com (Dorkbot Montreal) Date: Tue Jan 8 22:57:56 2008 Subject: [dorkbotmtl-infusion] =?iso-8859-1?q?DorkbotMtl_5=3A_10_jan=2C_1?= =?iso-8859-1?q?9h_=40_Oboro_-_Th=E8me_=3A_=AB_Autres_=C9nergies_?= =?iso-8859-1?q?=BB_/_=22Other_Power=22?= Message-ID: <2482c4f30801081955u53a2a967n87df9b854a695388@mail.gmail.com> Salut, Hello, Dorkbot MTL vous invite ? vous joindre ? son 5e ?v?nement. DorkbotMTL invites you to join its 5th event DORKBOTMTL 5 Th?me : ? Autres ?nergies ? Theme : " Other Power " d?sol? pour le cross-posting http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotmtl/ --------------- D?TAILS: Jeudi le 10 janvier ? partir de 19h00 January 10th at 7pm @Oboro, 4001 Rue Berri, Studio 01 (2e ?tage/2nd floor) http://maps.google.ca/maps?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=fr&tab=wl&q=4001,%20rue%20Berri,%20Montreal,%20QC --------------- SCHEDULE/HORAIRE (l'horaire peut changer/tentative): (chaque/each pr?sentation ca. 20' + 10' discussion) 0. BIENVENUE/WELCOME 1. Darsha Hewitt Topic: Tales From Popular Electronics Magazine (circa 1950): What Alternative Energy Looked like in the Olden Days. Darsha will make a short presentation and commentary on a few images and articles from dated tech. magazines. 2. Robyn Moody In town for a show at Skol, Canadian multi/new/omni media artist Robyn Moody will present examples of past and current work and discuss the underlying technology, especially as it relates to this month's topic. http://www.skol.ca/programmation/0708/expo.html 3. Micheal Caffrey (Ottawa via teleconference) Topic: Solar powered DC sound systems + grassroots off-grid Dance Parties (Teknival) 4. Kyd Campbell Topic: The FARM THE FARM is a publicly managed sound environment bringing the country to the city, a solar powered outdoor audio installation created by Kyd campbelll and Steve Helsing. It was hosted by Concordia University from 2004-2005. 5. Moshe Daniel Topic: The Moe-Joe Cell - Functions and Theory Daniel will speak about the Moe-Joe cell, which is a spherical prototype of the Joe Cell developed by himself, Moshe Daniel. http://www.moe-joe-working.com 6. Jim and Peter Topic: Solar Engines Experiments One half of your DorkbotMtl friends will attempt to impress you with their forays into making art with Solar Engines. --------------- BIOS: DARSHA HEWIIT ...is a Canadian artist from Ottawa. She makes sound performances and installations using experimental electronics, Open- Source programming software/hardware, ageing technology and public vicinities. Her artwork looks at the role of automation in everyday life and how technology-reliant society silences and reinterprets identity. The electronics she builds are ungrounded and tap into the invisible ethereal realm. She teaches workshops on versatile technologies, makes presentations about experimental approaches to technology, and does consulting with communities new to electronic media and open source practices. Her Recent exhibitions include: PSE at Video Pool (CA), Damaged Goods at Piksel '06 (NO), Press Play at Interaccess (CA), Racines D'origine with Art origine (FR), Make Art Festival '07 (FR), Encodeurs at Pierre- Fran?ois Ouellette art contemporain (CA), Media Povera at the Ottawa Art Gallery (CA) and the HTMlles Festival (CA). Darsha will be artist in resident at the Western Front Society (CA) in Spring 08. ~~~ ROBYN MOODY Currently based in Calgary, Alberta, Robyn Moody takes a whimsical approach to his work, using electronics, film, performance, installation, sculpture, painting, or whatever a project requires. He holds an MFA from NASCAD University in Halifax and has exhibited his innovative work extensively within Canada along with projects realized in Amsterdam and Milan. Robyn Moody vit et travaille ? Calgary en Alberta. Il aborde son travail dans un esprit ludique, ayant recours ? l'?lectronique, au cin?ma, ? la performance, ? l'installation, ? la sculpture, ? la peinture ainsi qu'? toute autre discipline requise par ses projets. L'artiste d?tient une ma?trise en arts plastiques de l'universit? NSCAD (Halifax). Ses installations, sculptures et performances ont ?t? pr?sent?es dans plusieurs galeries ? travers le Canada et l'Europe. ~~~ KYD CAMPBELL ...is an independent programmer and curator specialized in circulation, media and noise music and is also a digital artist creating public interactive situations. She is from Montreal but remains in constant transit. Remaining independent allows her some freedom to speculate and experiment, to welcome all forms of collaboration and information exchange. http://frontierlab.org http://www.tinynoise.com Longer Farm Description: The Farm works with the idea of an enclosure to metaphorically recast the courtyard of Concordia University's Fine Arts complex into a corral. During daylight hours the installation produces a continuous, amplified audio stream of sounds that are commonly associated with farms and farming life. The audio stream can be paused briefly by working the lever of a hand-operated water pump. The farm assumes that casual visitors to the courtyard might find the soundscape novel and entertaining, but students or staff who frequent the Fine Arts complex and its courtyard would soon tire of the sounds and be compelled to operate the water pump. ~~~ MICHAEL CAFFREY ...is an independent electronics arts/music technician, musician and all-round alternative energy enthusiast based in Hull Quebec. Micheal's interest in clean ways of charging batteries began in 1997 when he met a young lady playing a solar powered Casio in the sun. Since then he has been setting up solar powered DC sound systems at DIY dance parties in the woods, mainly with the region's Teknival community. These days Michael is a member of the Montreal based synth psych rock band 'The Unireverse' and is working alongside the Casio player he met in the sun on getting their home off the grid. ~~~ MOSHE DANIEL ...is a naturopathic doctor, homeopath, kabbalist, alchemist, free-energy energy researcher and developer, singer/songwriter, and published author. He practices naturopathic medicine in Sutton Quebec, specializing in homeopathy and helping people with myasthenia gravis, an auto-immune illness which he personally experienced and successfully healed. Moshe is also the author of The Last Four Books of Moses, and The Revolution of Naturopathic Medicine. He has just recently launched two projects that are very special to him: His musical album with inspirational poetic music titled the Psalngs of David and the global online project for world unity called EveryNationLand / Nutopia. He wishes everyone to recognize that they are a part of Nutopia and join him in his effort to move the world toward peace and says that EveryNationLand / Nutopia is the culmination of all of his work. Umbrella Website: www.david-house-productions.com Moshe Daniel est naturopathe, kabbaliste, alchimiste, enseignant et auteur et travail sur la creation des "device" pour un energie alternative. Il a notamment appliqu? la philosophie de la gu?rison dans le cadre de son travail avec la maladie auto-immune d?nomm?e myasthenia gravis. La maladie n'a pas arr?ter Moshe, et il continue a jouer au ultimate frisbee comp?titif. Il est l'auteur du livre sur la Kabbale intitul?e The Last Four Books of Moses, Book 1 - The Letting Go of Free Will, ainsi que d'un livre sur la philosophie de la m?dicine, The Revolution of Naturopathic Medicine. Il est gradu? d'un cours avanc? en hom?opathie et a re?u le titre d'Hom?opathe ma?tre clinicien (Hom?opathique Master Clinicien, HMC). Il exerce la naturopathie ? Montr?al (sp?cialisation en hom?opathie et consultation), enseigne la Kabbale, travaille sur un deuxi?me tome sur la Kabbale ainsi que sur le projet Foundation in Philosophy Project en relation ? sa profession de naturopathe. Il termine le d?veloppement d'un projet d'unification globale en ligne d?nomm? EveryNationLand - voyez le site Web en construction: http://www.everynationland.com From dorkbotmtl at gmail.com Sat Jan 19 22:32:47 2008 From: dorkbotmtl at gmail.com (Dorkbot Montreal) Date: Sat Jan 19 22:33:09 2008 Subject: [dorkbotmtl-infusion] =?windows-1252?q?GEEK-CONCORDIA_-_CIAM_cyc?= =?windows-1252?q?le_de_conf=E9rences/Speaker_Series=3A_Norman_Whit?= =?windows-1252?q?e_-_=AB_THE_HELPLESS_ROBOT_AND_OTHER_FIASCOS_=BB?= Message-ID: <2482c4f30801191932m46f28e8dxf97f2ca737781807@mail.gmail.com> GEEK-CONCORDIA Cette session, le CIAM pr?sentera un cycle de conf?rences en quatre parties avec Norm White, Donald Lawrence, Rita McKeough et Jessica Field. This semster, CIAM will present a four part speaker series featuring Norm White, Donald Lawrence, Rita McKeough and Jessica Field. d?sol? pour le cross-posting [English follows] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ? Geek-Concordia ? est un cycle de conf?rences qui explore diff?rentes approches artistiques et technologiques. On pourrait ainsi qualifier les artistes invit?s de ? geek ? : ces autodidactes ont chacun des m?thodes de cr?ation tr?s inspir?es par le mat?riel qu'ils utilisent. Dans une certaine mesure, ils laissent des traces visibles du processus cr?atif dans l'?uvre finale, que ce soit les cartes de circuits imprim?s et les enchev?trements de fils en ce qui concerne les animaux de zoo robotiques de Jessica Field ou les photographies sous-marines par st?nop? de Donald Lawrence cr??es gr?ce aux appareils qu'il a bricol?s. Ils ont tous su concevoir un ? mode vernaculaire d'exploration esth?tique ? (Donald Lawrence) et peuvent ?tre d?crits, selon l'expression de Diana Burgoyne, comme ?tant des ? artistes de la culture populaire ?lectronique ?. ---------- NORMAN T. WHITE ? THE HELPLESS ROBOT AND OTHER FIASCOS ? (en anglais) 28 janvier, 19h EV 11.705, 1515 Saint Catherine ouest, Universit? Concordia Dans le cadre de cette conf?rence, la premi?re du cycle Geek-Concordia, ce pionnier de l'art robotique passera en revue ses dix derni?res ann?es de travail. Fascin? par l'id?e que les machines peuvent ?tre impr?visibles et mener leur propre vie, r?gie par des r?gles et des cycles internes qui leur permettent d'?tre autonomes et d'avoir des comportements surprenants, M. White construit des dispositifs cin?tiques qui, bien que d?pourvus d'int?r?t visuel, ont une grande dimension comportementale. Leur comportement tient en partie du mat?riel employ? dans leur construction (composantes ?lectroniques, moteurs, poulies, engrenages, etc.) qui a tendance ? s'user et donc ? se d?t?riorer. Pour M. White, la robotique est une forme de portrait aux innombrables possibilit?s d'introspection, mais aussi une forme d'ironie, de satire et de critique sociale d'une puissante intensit? dramatique. BIOGRAPHIE Arriv? au Canada en 1967, Norman White se lan?a dans un auto-apprentissage intensif de l'?lectronique. Au cours des d?cennies qui suivirent, il cr?a une s?rie de ? machines ? logiques, qui s'exprimaient par des signaux lumineux ou sonores et des mouvements. Une grande partie de ses ?uvres se sont retrouv?es dans d'importantes collections publiques, y compris celles du Mus?e des beaux-arts du Canada et de la Vancouver Art Gallery. M. White a d'ailleurs pris part ? de nombreuses expositions en Europe et en Am?rique du Nord, notamment ? Machine Life ? (en 2004) au Agnes Etherington Art Centre de Kingston, en Ontario, et ? Norm's Robots ? (?galement en 2004) au Koffler Art Centre de Toronto, en Ontario. En 1990, il a re?u un prix (? Auszeichnung ?) Ars Electronica en art interactif et, en 1995, le Prix Petro-Canada en arts m?diatiques. De 1978 ? 2003, M. White a enseign? au Ontario College of Art & Design, o? il aida ? mettre sur pied un programme consacr? ? la formation des artistes en ?lectronique, m?canique et programmation informatique. Il donne aujourd'hui des cours semblables ? l'Universit? Ryerson, ? Toronto. ********** Information : Laura St.Pierre L'assistante charg?e de projet pour CIAM - Concordia est EV 11.429, 1515 Saint Catherine ouest 514.848.2424, poste 5773 lstpierr@alcor.concordia.ca ciam-arts.org -------------------- ENGLISH -------------------- GEEK-CONCORDIA Titled "Geek-Concordia", this series explores a diverse range of idiosyncratic approaches to art and technology. Each artist could be said to be a bit of a "geek": all have highly personal, hands-on and materials driven methods of creating work, and are significantly self taught. In some way, each artist allows traces of their process to remain visible in the final work, whether the open circuit boards and wire tangles of Jessica Field's robotic zoo animals or the very homemade, wonderfully cobbled together cameras of Donald Lawrence's underwater pinhole photography practice. Each artist has a developed a "vernacular mode of aesthetic inquiry" (Donald Lawrence) and may be described, to borrow a phrase from Diana Burgoyne, as an "electronic folk artist". NORMAN T. WHITE "THE HELPLESS ROBOT AND OTHER FIASCOS" January 28, 7pm EV 11.705, 1515 Saint Catherine West, Concordia University In this talk, the first in the Geek-Concordia series, pioneering robotics artist Norm White will give an overview of his work from the past few decades. White is fascinated by the idea of mechanical devices which have unpredictable "lives of their own":sets of internal rules and cycles which give them autonomous and surprising behaviors. He builds kinetic devices that have deliberately minimal visual appeal, yet a strong behavioral dimension. Their behavior derives partly from the materials employed (electronic components, motors, pulleys, gears, etc) and the tendency for such materials to wear and break. For White, robotics has become a form of portraiture, rife with myriad possibilities of introspection, irony, drama, farce, and social commentary. Artist Biography.... Norman White moved to Canada in 1967, where he embarked upon an intense self-education in electronics. In the decades that followed, he went on to create a series of logic-based "machines" which expressed themselves through light, sound and motion. Many of these artworks have found their way into important public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada and the Vancouver Art Gallery. He has exhibited in shows thoughout Europe and North America, the most recent major shows being "Machine Life" (2004) at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingson, Ontario, and "Norm's Robots" (2004) at the the Koffler Art Centre in Toronto, Ontario. In 1990, he was awarded an Interactive Art Prize ("Auszeichnung") at Ars Electronica, and in 1995, the Petro-Canada Award for Media Arts. From 1978 to 2003, White taught at the Ontario College of Art & Design, where he helped to initiate a programme dedicated to teaching electronics, mechanics, and computer programming to artists. He now teaches similar courses at Ryerson University in Toronto. ********** For more information, please contact Laura St.Pierre CIAM Concordia Project Coordinator EV 11.429, 1515 Saint Catherine Street West 514.848.2424, ext. 5773 lstpierr@alcor.concordia.ca ciam-arts.org