About dorkbotSF
dorkbot-sf is a spinoff of dorkbot-nyc which is
“a monthly meeting of artists (sound/image/movement/whatever), designers, engineers, students and other interested parties from the new york area who are involved in the creation of electronic art (in the broadest sense of the term.)”
The purpose of dorkbot is to:
give artists/programmers/engineers an opportunity for informal peer review
establish a forum for the presentation of new art works/technology/software/hardware
help establish relationships and foster collaboration between people with various backgrounds and interests
give us all a chance to see the cool things that our neighbors are working on

Mike Kuniavsky – Information is a Material

We have passed the era of Peak MHz. The race in CPU development is now for smaller, cheaper, and less power-hungry processors. As the price of powerful CPUs approaches that of basic components (there are fast CPUs now that cost less than some LEDs, for example), how information processing is used fundamentally changes. When information processing is this cheap, it becomes a material with which to design the world, like plastic, iron, and wood.

This vision is the opposite of cloud computing and it argues that most information processing in the future will not be in some distant data center, but immediately present in our environment, distributed throughout the world, embedded in things we don’t think of as computers.

This talk will discuss:

* * What it means to treat information as a material.
* * The properties of information as a design material.
* * The design possibilities created by information as a material.
* * How information as a material enables The Internet of Things, object oriented hardware, smart materials, ubiquitous computing, and intelligent environments.

Mike Kuniavsky has been active in the intersection of design and technology for more than twenty years. In 1994 he designed one of the first e-commerce websites. Since then, he has worked on hundreds of interactive experiences: search engines, museum guides, digital pianos, kitchens of the future, wine racks, amusement parks, and more websites than he can remember. He co-founded Adaptive Path, an influential Web design company, and Wired Digital’s user experience lab, one of the first user research initiatives dedicated to a single company’s online products. In 2006, he co-founded a new company, ThingM, which designs and manufactures ubiquitous computing products.

His previous book, “Observing the User Experience,” has been popular all over the world and is used as a textbook at many universities. He lives in San Francisco. He blogs at orangecone.com.”

Visit Mike’s site: Orangecone

k9d – Chip Music

After homebrew enabling a gameboy or similar retro computer it’s possible to run whatever software you like on it, including contemporary software that has been written specifically for composing and performing music! starPause will provide a birds eye view of the culture around this trick as well as demonstrating how he builds a track from the ground up using a playstation portable.

Jordan the k9d writes code for cash, rides keirin bikes on city streets, and produces lofi electro music as starPause. He’s also active in the demoscene with the Northern Dragons, practices dayan qigong, and publishes the DINOAIDS pocket zine.

Visit k9d’s sites at Starpause and Indie Games.

A. Tobias Tenney – Night Garden: Bio-Modified Photography

T.bias is compiling a book of photographs that he has taken of plants & flowers at night. Armed only with his point & shoot Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 he has discovered an interesting way to biologically modify his process to capture stunning night time photographs. He intends to release his book of these photos, “Night Garden”, in tandem with the Dorkbot talk.

T.bias is a jack of many trades; Music, video, web production, graphic design, interaction design, geekery and hackery. He spend some of his time trying to capture photographs that he finds pleasing with the limited photography gear he has.

Visit Tobias’ Site.

Scott Kildall – Gift Horse

The Gift Horse is:

* * 13′ high sculpture depicting the mythological Trojan Horse.
* *A public project where everyone is invited to make hundreds of real and imaginary paper viruses sculptures.
* *A means to smuggle the viruses into the museum and release them in a public ceremony.
* *Constructed almost entirely of sustainable and recyclable materials.

Scott Kildall is cross-disciplinary artist working with video, installation, prints, sculpture and performance. He gathers material from the public realm as the crux of his artwork in the form of interventions into various concepts of space.

He has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Philosophy from Brown University and a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago through the Art & Technology Studies Department. He exhibits his work internationally in galleries and museums. He has received fellowships and awards from organizations including the Kala Art Institute, The Banff Centre for the Arts and Turbulence.org and the Eyebeam Art + Technology Center

Victoria Scott strives to understand the transformation of matter and energy as it flows from one state into another. Working with electronic media, sculpture and social relations, she creates site-specific installations, digital prints, objects and audio works.

Her recent projects include constructing 3D paper representations of objects that exist both in simulated environments and real life. She is also developing a series of batteries that are charged by human emotional energy.

Scott completed her MFA in 2005 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago within the Art and Technology Department. She has exhibited in Sweden, Mexico City, Toronto, Berlin, Boston and Chicago and received several Canada Council arts grants.

Check out Scott’s site: Trojan Gift Horse

MC Sasha Harris-Cronin

Sasha Harris-Cronin is a San Francisco based multimedia artist who creates interactive exhibits for museums. freelances designer, programmer, artist, technologist, integrator, manager, and all-around outside-the-box thinker.