Nuts and Volts - August 2008

■ FIGURE 2. Dorkbot Austin at Cafe Mundi.

have been privately organized and funded, some have been sponsored by such big names as South by Southwest (SXSW), Make Magazine, Amaze Entertainment, and the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) (Figure 3).

Due to the nature of a Dorkbot event, the main facilitators have changed as new folks become interested and some of the early movers and shakers have moved on to other projects. Though David Nunez and Rich LeGrand are no longer working with Dorkbot Austin,

the current Dorkbot Austin crew of Rodney Gibbs, Luke Iseman, Chase Hammock, and Nick Pietraniec have stepped in to make sure the event lives on.

I did get a moment to chat with

PERSONAL ROBOTICS

■ FIGURE 3. Dorkbot poster by Noel Waggener; subculturepress.com.

THERE’S NO DORKBOT IN YOUR CITY? MAYBE YOU SHOULD START ONE!

Somethingstoconsider: collaborating withpeopleinother generallyfreeevents, soyouneedto nearby cities/towns. Maybe the be careful about spending lots of Dorkbot meeting can travel to a money to produce them! Several different location each month, or Dorkbots sell beer and/or food at the maybe you can all pool your meetings to help cover their costs. resources for a couple long-form Make sure you talk to the venue meetings each season. before selling anything. Dorkbot.org donates web space, email lists, etc., to the local Dorkbots, so there is no administrative cost associated with setting up a new Dorkbot.

What is Dorkbot, exactly? Each Dorkbot event is different and is driven by the needs and interests of people in the local community. But generally, the main goals of Dorkbot are: to create an informal, friendly environment in which people can talk about the work they’re doing and to foster discussion about that work; to help bring together people from different backgrounds who are interested in similar things; and to give us all an opportunity to see the strange things our neighbors are doing with electricity. Dorkbot isn’t really a forum for formal artist talks or lectures, but rather a chance for diverse people to have friendly conversations about interesting ideas. The organizers of Pixelache 2008 asked Douglas to talk about Dorkbot’s “organizational strategy.” Here’s what he had to say:

■ Venue: Is there a place to hold the meetings? It can be very convenient to have the meetings in the same place each time. Often, an art gallery or performance space will be willing to donate their facilities for the occassional meeting. If you know someone connected to a university, you may be able to get a space through them. It doesn’t have to be a fancy space!

■ Frequency: How often will you hold meetings? Some Dorkbots have meetings every month, others just a few times a year. It’s a lot of work putting the meetings together, and in smaller cities it can be difficult to schedule enough speakers. You don’t want to burn out!

■ Equipment: Do you have access to presentation equipment? At the least, you’ll probably need a video projector, a small sound system, and a network connection. A laptop computer can also make things easier on the presenters. As with the venue, it’s best if you can use the same equipment at each meeting. It can be very stressful trying to track down a video projector the day of a Dorkbot meeting! Often, the venue you use will have A/V equipment you can borrow.

■ Meeting Format: Dorkbot meetings are rather informal. There are usually two or three presentations (about 20-30 minutes each) per meeting and sometimes very short “lightning” presentations from audience members. The specific format is up to each organizer to decide. You’ll probably have to play with your format for a few meetings until you find something that works well in your context. One thing to keep in mind is that the Dorkbot format works best for informal, conversational presentations on a particular work or topic, rather than formal artist talks or lectures on a body of work. Thirty minutes isn’t much time, so focused presentations work best.