Dorkbotsheffield#6!

When: Friday 3rd August, 2012 from 6pm (Access Space) / 7pm (Site)

Door tax: Free entry, refreshments available

What: Another healthy evening of presentations and demos by people doing strange things with electricity, this time across two venues. You’d be welcome at either, but why not come to both?

We start at Access Space (3 Sidney Street, S1 4RG) for a dorkbot prelude at 6pm, to visit their current artist-in-residence:

Refab Space artist in residence, the Juneau Brothers (Juneau Projects and Joseph Welden), will discuss their latest project and the materials, technology and techniques behind it. They’ll give an overview of what the group does and where the residency idea comes from.

The Refab Space houses a laser cutter and other equipment for creating a host of two and three dimensional objects. The residency involves creating sculptural midi controllers from, audio triggers and circuits boards for live performance. You can get hands on and try out the new instruments too.

Then we stroll a few metres down the road to Site gallery (1 Brown Street, S1 2BS) by 7pm for more:

Susanne Palzer will talk about switching electricity off and going on in context of her interest in ‘performing technology without technology’. Following a period of R&D and the project RAM/RAR/RAA+RAP(s) – A Random Process Experiment at Access Space she will present recent findings: how she uses electricity for research and to learn about technology, her attempts to translate what she has learnt into physical performance – e.g. an ‘analogue hack of presentation software’ – and the temptation to switch electricity back on and use altered software in the future.

Susanne Palzer will talk about switching electricity off and going on in context of her interest in ‘performing technology without technology’. Following a period of R&D and the project RAM/RAR/RAA+RAP(s) – A Random Process Experiment at Access Space she will present recent findings: how she uses electricity for research and to learn about technology, her attempts to translate what she has learnt into physical performance – e.g. an ‘analogue hack of presentation software’ – and the temptation to switch electricity back on and use altered software in the future. Alex McLean will talk about Live Coding, using programming languages to make live music. Alex has been writing software to make music to drink beer to for over ten years in Slub, succeeding in making rooms full of people dance to algorithms on several occasions. He makes increasingly broken techno, writing code live in self-built languages. Lately he has been collaborating with Jake Harries to make statistically improbable pop music as Silicone Bake. Alex will talk a bit about how live coding has developed over the past ten years, show some of the live coding environments he has made, and look to a future of interactive programming languages based on visual and tangible interaction.

Alex McLean will talk about Live Coding, using programming languages to make live music. Alex has been writing software to make music to drink beer to for over ten years in Slub, succeeding in making rooms full of people dance to algorithms on several occasions. He makes increasingly broken techno, writing code live in self-built languages. Lately he has been collaborating with Jake Harries to make statistically improbable pop music as Silicone Bake. Alex will talk a bit about how live coding has developed over the past ten years, show some of the live coding environments he has made, and look to a future of interactive programming languages based on visual and tangible interaction. Plus! We hope to have a representative from the Audacious Art Experiment to talk about their work with respect to their day-to-night festival taking place at Site gallery the following day (Saturday 4th August).

Plus more TBC! If you would like to talk about something strange involving electricity in some way, please do get in touch at dorkbotsheffield@lurk.org