A few weeks ago, I read an EchoDitto Labs blog post about Dorkbot DC, which prompted me to search for a NYC equivalent. Bingo! Dorkbot NYC meets the first Wednesday of every month only a few blocks from our office. Perfect, for someone like me who is essentially lazy.
What is Dorkbot?
dorkbot-nyc is a monthly meeting of artists (sound/image/movement/whatever), designers, engineers, students, scientists, and other interested parties from the new york area who are involved in the creative use of electricity. dorkbot meetings are free and open to the public. Since we started dorkbot-nyc in 2000 many other dorkbots have sprung up around the world. See them all at: http://dorkbot.org
Well, I mean, of course it started in NYC.
I got to the gallery a little before 7 and found a seat toward the front. Being shy and a little nervous that someone was going to ask me to solder or explain how the internet works, I then had 15 minutes to busy myself with my iPhone, and furtively check out the room. Things looked promising: all projectors and mics seemed to be working; everyone seemed pretty friendly; and someone had brought my favorite snack, kettle corn, to share. Ready.
The first presentation was two guys explaining their new open-source program to push user interfaces to mobile devices (called Mrmr). The premise is that you can build interfaces to control computer programs and then send them to someone’s mobile device. Then that person can control the program from their phone. Their example was a computer visualization program where you could adjust the angle, static, distortion, etc.
The best part was that they actually explained it in human language. When open for questions, the discussion became a little more robot-based, but I pretty much followed. If you are a robot, and would like more robot details, check out their site.
The details of how this will actually be helpful in real life are a little vague, but they did suggest we could use it in museums to send interactive content to people or add it to interactive billboards to let passersby interact with them. Pretty fricking cool…
When the next presenter, Andrew Senior, started talking, my heart skipped a beat. His three projects were explorations of artificial life—life forms that live on television radiation, words that come alive and crawl toward each other, robots that help plants achieve optimal energy storage. Amazing. I recommend watching this video immediately. And then swooning.
All in all, I left the meeting filled with nerdy hope for the world. There are people out there working on amazing projects, not for money, not for fame, just for the joy and intellectual challenge of it. I love these people. And plan to spend the first Wednesday night of every month with them. Wanna join me?
P.S. One other thing filling me with nerdy hope for the world: the Obama Yes We Can video. It’s #1 on CNN and on Google Video for a reason. These geniuses (or… celebrities) have turned a political speech into a relatively catchy video. The kind that makes you want to listen again and again so you can sing along to it. Just when you think there’s nothing new in the world, smart people come along.
