people doing strange things with electricity
the two hundred eleven thousandth dorkbot-nyc meeting was held on 05.nov.2003 at the Columbia University Computer Music Center.
it featured the lovely and talented:
Steve BaldwinInside the Digital Dumpster: Reflections on 10 Years of Cybergarbage
The World Wide Web will, in November of 2003, be exactly 10 years old. In this short talk, I will talk about the issues that obtain in terms of trying to preserve the collective digital cultural heritage of this era by focussing on examples from my collection of 1,000 defunct web sites. Illustrations of historical milestones in mass-deployed Web graphics technology, including server push, GIF89 animations, frames, and naturally, the wild and crazy business models that are representative of the "dotcom implosion" will also be shown. I would also make reference to notable Web History projects, including the Internet Archive.
John F. Simon, Jr.
John F. Simon, Jr. is an artist who uses programming language as an activated extension of written language. His software programs are displayed on the web and also on wall-mounted LCD screens. His software compositions emerge from a process of considering computer coding as a kind of creative writing. Simon will discuss the creation of his software and how he arrives at the hardware for his artworks by repurposing Apple laptop computers.
Tristan Perich
CubeScreen, 3-D fiber optic display
I will talk about my recent work piece CubeScreen, which exists as a three-dimensional computer display, analogous to a very-low resolution monitor in 3D, composed of fiber-optic cable. The piece, which routes light received at one end of the fiber, to a pixel array spread throughout a 3-foot cube, is very tactile, and I will discuss the construction and mechanism behind its function. CubeScreeen will be on display.
some images from the meeting are here.