To launch our new series of creative conversations, we're teaming up with the dorkbot-SF community for a night of electric experimentations. Known for creating social forums for local artists to present new artworks, technologies, and soft/hardware, dorkbot-SF gives us a chance to learn about new projects that creators are tinkering at. Artists from around the world will present their recent projects, from forecasts of future fashion, innovative subversions of everyday objects, to novel ways of experiencing art at a distance.
We will be donating 100% of the proceeds from this event to the Bayview BOOM, a local organization teaching marginalized teens skills for engineering mastery and economic self-determination.
Artists
Anouk Wipprecht
Robotic Couture in the Time of Social Distancing
Dutch FashionTech designer Anouk Wipprecht creates designs ahead of her time; combining the latest in science and technology to make fashion an experience that transcends mere appearances. She wants her garments to facilitate and augment the interactions we have with ourselves and our surroundings. Her Spider Dress is a perfect example of this aesthetic, where sensors and moveable arms on the dress help to create a more defined boundary of personal space while employing a fierce style.
Anuradha Vikram
Drive By Art Gallery
Anu is an art critic, curator, author, and lecturer based in Los Angeles, California. She is the artistic director of 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, and a senior lecturer at Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles. She has contributed to numerous publications, and has a published book called Decolonizing Culture: Essays on the Intersection of Art and Politics.
Jorvon Moss aka Odd Jayy
Companion Bots
Odd Jayy is a tinker who designs and makes gadgets and robots. He is a big fan of steampunk and cyberpunk
Graham Plumb
Magnetic Letterpress
Graham is an experience designer, artist and teacher working with technology, design and architecture to create immersive exhibits and installations. Clients include major museums, Fortune 500 companies, entertainment venues, artists and musicians.
In his work and his teaching, he explores media that 'goes beyond the screen', developing socially immersive spaces and interactive objects that reimagine the ways technology can be used to shape human connections and conversations.
At the California College of Arts, his students learn how to design, prototype and test new forms of tangible and natural user interface. Student projects include the sex-toy orchestra and exploding selfie sticks for Santa Claus.
His personal projects include the Reactive Cube - developed at Stochastic Labs in Berkeley with Karen Marcelo, and the Magnetic Letterpress - a machine that writes words out of magnetic oil, and the subject of this presentation.
Tom Zimmerman
Putting a $3 MP3 Player to Use
Tom is master inventor at IBM Research - Almaden. He has more than 60 patents on user input devices, wireless communication, image and audio signal processing, biometrics, encryption and microscopy. His Data Glove and PowerGlove inventions helped establish the field of virtual reality. His electric field Personal Area Network invention sends data through the human body, and it can prevent airbags from injuring children in cars. Zimmerman is currently developing AI-powered microscopes to monitor plankton in their natural environment and studying the response of plankton to toxins in his work with the Center For Cellular Construction. He supports the DIY community through articles in Make Magazine and his passion for volunteering in the public schools earned him the California Medal for Service from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver.
Sam Coniglio aka Spaceman Sam
Zero Gravity Cocktail Glass Project; a Post Mortem
Samuel Coniglio is a Retro-Futurist. He dabbles in cutting edge space research while also paying homage to a past that never was. He is a Maker and member of Obtainium Works, a Steampunk-inspired art car factory. He an expert in Cocktail Robotics: his three drinkbots re-invent cocktail creation through fun and whimsy. As a space advocate, Samuel is former Vice President of the Space Tourism Society and designer of creature comforts for future off-world travelers. His Zero Gravity Cocktail Glass Project won international acclaim and promoted the controversial topic of drinking in space
Tracy Swedlow
Reads Her SciFi Book or Poem
Tracy recently published a collection of outrage poetry called "No Visiting 'Till My Show Is Over" and completed a series of paintings featuring ovens. Currently, she is working on a sci-fi book called "Time of Arrival" and developing a new musical about TV. Other than all of that, she co-owns and produces (with her husband Richard) The TV of Tomorrow Show conferences and "Televisionation," the video podcast series featuring TV industry executives and creatives. She founded and produced the first three years of the Burning Man Fashion Show; produced/directed many theater productions; worked in the feature film industry; dabbled in independent films; was one of the first journalists to cover virtual reality (VR) in the early 90's, worked with the great theater impresario, George Coates here in San Francisco and is a proud wife and mother.
V. Vale
Performs Protest Song
An original member of Blue Cheer (when it was a 6-man band) V. Vale put down his instruments to publish Search & Destroy in 1977. He now plays for friends and for fun, channelling music for our listening pleasure. V. "Valhalla" Vale is an American editor, writer, interviewer, musician and, as Vale Hamanaka, was keyboardist for the initial configuration of Blue Cheer, before it became famous as a power trio. He is the publisher and primary contributor to books and magazines published by his company, RE/Search Publications.
