dorkbot-boston 200906 at Axiom June 30, 2009

dorkbot-boston 200906 at Axiom
http://www.dorkbotboston.com

FREE EVENT
Tue, June 30, 7-9PM
Axiom Gallery for New and Experimental Media
141 GREEN STREET

Directions:
AXIOM is located on the ground floor level of the Green Street Subway (”T”) station on the Orange line, at the corner of Amory and Green Streets in Jamaica Plain, MA

dorkbot-boston is a monthly gathering of people doing strange things with electricity. Artists, designers, engineers, students, scientists, hackers and anyone else interested in the creative use of electricity are encouraged to attend. dorkbot meetings are free, family-freindly and open to the public. Bring your projects, in whatever state they are in, and bring 10 friends!

This summer, dorkbot will present: hands-on workshops, outdoor hacking events (Breadboards and BBQ), tours of interactive entertainment venues, and internationally known tinkerers. To participate, please visit dorkbotboston.com and join our mailing list.

dorkbot-boston is thrilled to be working with Axiom Gallery for New and Experimental Media to host our June meeting.

Our presenters:
* Leah Buechley is an Assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab where she directs the High-Low Tech research group. The High-Low Tech group explores the integration of high and low technology from cultural, material, and practical perspectives, with the goal of engaging diverse groups of people in developing their own technologies. Leah is a well-known expert in the field of electronic textiles (e-textiles), and her work in this area includes developing a method for creating cloth printed circuit boards (fabric PCBs) and designing the commercially available LilyPad Arduino toolkit.

* Gideon Weisz is a jeweler, sculptor, and hacker working in Allston, Somerville and Cambridge. At the 200905 dorkbot, he demonstrated his beautifully mysterious Linked Boxes (http://gideonweisz.com/album/shadowboxing/). He will be sharing some of his work along with tips and techniques for fabrication.

“Most of my work is inspired by forms from nature, math and science, exploring symmetry, complexity and topology. I’m fascinated by knots, fractals, polyhedra, proteins, molecular structures, and trees. I create jewelry and sculpture in sterling silver, platinum and gold, using fabrication and lost wax casting techniques. I both carve wax models by hand, and model rings in CAD, creating them with a 3D wax printer or a CNC mill. I am currently building an Arduino based CNC wax carving machine. I also work at a larger scale in steel rod (diameter 1/4″-1/2″), welding with both an oxy-acetylene torch and TIG.”

* Brian Knep is a new-media artist who uses science and technology to explore change, healing, struggle, and acceptance. Often his works are dynamic and respond to changes in their environment. Some are simply aware of the passage of time while others are interactive, sensing and reacting to the people around them. Knep has had solo shows at the New Britain Museum of American Art, the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and Arizona State University and has been part of group shows at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Laval Virtual in France, MobileArt in Sweden, and the Insa Art Center in Korea, among others. His works have won awards from Ars Electronica, Americans for the Arts, AICA/New England and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2005 Knep became the first artist-in-residence at Harvard Medical School in a program co-sponsored by Harvard’s Office for the Arts. Knep lives and works in Boston and is represented by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, NY and Judi Rotenberg Gallery, Boston.

* OpenDork - Everyone is encouraged to bring your own recently completed or projects-in-progress for OpenDork, a lightning round-the-room session of peer-review and general showing-off. Art and technology projects at all stages (sketchbook to polished) and of all levels of complexity are welcomed. This is the perfect chance to say, “Hey, I’m trying to do something interesting… here is what I’ve got so far. Can anyone offer suggestions to move forward?”

Official Website: http://dorkbotboston.com