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Dorkbot-Budapest

Friday, December 1, 2006
Impex

The fifth Dorkbot-Budapest meeting will take place on Friday, December 1st at 6pm at Impex (West-Balkán, VIII., Futó u. 48.)

Speakers:

+ Valerie Bugmann: The Drama of Digital Communication with a Human Touch

The Drama of Digital Communication with a Human Touch is particularly focused on the study and development of personal wireless communication networks that use the body as a node and convert it into an interface in using its conductive characteristics for the transmission of digital information through the skin: signifying the transformation of the body into a wire. Dealing with these emergent technologies our bodies and our system of communication find themselves in constant re-construction, giving birth to novel social interaction behaviors mediated or originated by this technology. These unique manifestations talk about the way in which our body lives a kind of drama through its interaction with the world: touch gets extended in new ways and unexpected ones, and the body gets embarked into a new exciting experience of itself and of the world.

Valerie Bugmann is a Colombian media artist interested in development and study of technological extensions and mediation in communication and their impact on social interaction behavior and cognition. Currently she lives and works in Zurich where she carries out her PhD research about the impact of technology in society at the HGKZ/Planetary Collegium.

http://www.valeriebugmann.com/

+ Katalin Tesch: Getting closer

Katalin Tesch had studied at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design and then started postgradual studies at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Zürich. "Getting closer" refers to the three interactive computer artwork which will be shown at Dorkbot-Budapest. Each work has a common central question: how virtual meets real and how it can be visualized in the most accurate way. Of course, the each project has a process in getting closer as well, from the simplest human-computer interaction to extremely used external devices. Parallelism (2004) is an interactive computer-animation about how stories and feelings can be experienced by different people. Virtual Girlfriend (2005) is more a computer-game than a story - users can experience the freedom of choosing an ideal girlfriend. The final video-installation, Ego-Mirror (2006) has a more sensitive device, a light-barrier, as a medium between users and computer. By that "magic, mirror-behaving" screen audience is able to read in their own, deepest thoughts - which are shown by the essential videowork of the installation.

http://www.teschkata.hu/parallelism.swf
http://www.teschkata.hu/vgf.swf http://projekte.snm-hgkz.ch/student_projects.php?userid=167

+ Massimo Banzi: Arduino

Arduino is an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple i/o board, and a development environment for writing Arduino software. The Arduino programming language is an implementation of Wiring, itself built on Processing.

Arduino can be used to develop interactive objects, taking inputs from a variety of switches or sensors, and controlling a variety of lights, motors, and other outputs. Arduino projects can be stand-alone, or they can be communicate with software running on your computer (e.g. Flash, Pure Data, Processing, Max/MSP). The boards can be assembled by hand or purchased preassembled; the open-source IDE can be downloaded for free.

http://www.arduino.cc/