Welcome back after the summer break, Dorkbot returns Tuesday 16th October, 7pm at Watershed.

The line up looks like this:

1) From waterproof robots to crazy patents; from light sabers in space to designing a new nuclear bomb, 2007 has been yet another crazy year in science and technology. Dr Andrew Impey from Null Hypothesis, the online Journal of Unlikely Science will be highlighting some of the more weird and bizarre stories to make the news this year.

And…

2) John Honniball presents “What can you make with microcontrollers?”
Microcontrollers are very popular with gadget builders who need a little more intelligence in their circuits. But what exactly are they and what can you do with them? This demo will show just what’s involved when you want to add a microcontroller to your gadget, and will introduce the creative possibilities of combining electronic hardware with embedded software. So, what could you do with a computer-on-a-chip that’s far smaller, cheaper and less power-hungry than the PC or Mac?

The Jerwood Charitable Foundation, which supports artists in the early stages of their careers, has announced a new award scheme for artists working in digital moving art.

Three £10,000 awards will be given to emerging artists working across a range of disciplines – from film to dance, installation to drawing.

Submissions of work between 1-10 mins in length, completed in the last two years by UK based practitioners are invited from the 25th September to 3rd December. 30 artists will be shortlisted by the 18th January on the basis of originality, artistic merit and quality of production. Their work will be available to download onto laptops, phones and MP3 players and opened to a public vote. 8 finalists will be selected on 8th February 2008 and three winners announced 4th March 2008.

For full details and to apply see the Jerwood Foundation website

The Jerwood Charitable Foundation, which supports artists in the early stages of their careers, has announced a new award scheme for artists working in digital moving art.

Three £10,000 awards will be given to emerging artists working across a range of disciplines – from film to dance, installation to drawing.

Submissions of work between 1-10 mins in length, completed in the last two years by UK based practitioners are invited from the 25th September to 3rd December. 30 artists will be shortlisted by the 18th January on the basis of originality, artistic merit and quality of production. Their work will be available to download onto laptops, phones and MP3 players and opened to a public vote. 8 finalists will be selected on 8th February 2008 and three winners announced 4th March 2008.

For full details and to apply see the Jerwood Foundation website

7 September 2007 | 1900hrs | Watershed, Bristol
Tickets £5.00 / £3.50 Tel: 0117 927 5100

Watershed opened its doors in 1982 to capture that shift in media at the point when satellite was beginning and Channel 4 was just starting up. Arguably, it is only really recently with the explosion of the web that we are beginning to realise what a Media Centre might actually be or mean. So what does the growth of the web mean for consumption of culture and for organisations like Watershed?

As part of Watershed’s birthday celebrations, self-proclaimed ‘antichrist of Silicon Valley’ Andrew Keen, author of recent web 2.0 polemic The Cult of the Amateur – How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy. Keen, who maintains a blog himself, argues the web is inhabited by second-rate amateurs deluging us with ‘everything from uninformed political commentary, to unseemly home videos’ – and that the rise of blogs, wikis, social networking sites and podcasts – are swiftly destroying our culture. To cyberspace enthusiasts, Keen isn’t just a heretic, he is an apostate, himself a pioneering dotcom entrepreneur who some see as embittered by the failure of his start-up company.

Keen will discuss the implications of his thinking, the impact of the web on culture and consumption and views on the future with special guests including award winning filmmaker Ana Kronschnabl, CEO of digital media consultancy FluffyLogic, founder of plugincinema.com and also co-author of ‘PlugInTurnOn: A Guide to Filmmaking for the Internet’ and writer/director Hazel Grian (Licorice), who has been working on a number of gaming and interactive narrative projects including the successful Alternate Reality Game ‘Meigeist’ and the hit online show ‘KateModern’.

Part of Watershed’s 25th Anniversary Celebrations see watershed.co.uk/25

OFFLOAD SYSTEMS FOR SURVIVAL – is the UK’s first interdisciplinary network media and systems arts event on nature, sustainability and ecology.OFFLOAD brings together international, national and local artists and practitioners interested in creating socially engaged work that use new and existing media, highlights include:

Marrying the digital with new forms of engagement, Heath Bunting’s ‘Status Project’ brings it back to the basics by reclaiming how we can survive in cities, particularly when natural resources are scarce and our normal systems of engagement are redundant.

Futurefarmers (US) present their ‘Gardening Superfund Sites’, which looks at the influence of technical or eWaste around the Silicon Valley and across other US site.

Avant garde architects Minimaforms present their SMS text message public sculpture ‘Smoke Signals’. Based on the ancient system of trading messages, their digital version allows participants to text in real-time their messages onto plumes of smoke, which will float across Bristol Harbour.

Nottingham based Active Ingredient utilize the latest mobile computing software’s to create the outdoor, playful, hand-held computer game ‘Ere Be Dragons’, which is controlled by your heart rate. Taking place on the street, as you play the game you create delicate digital landscapes, which emerge and grow on your computer screen.

Polar Produce’s ‘Come Outside’ social bike project encourages sustainable participatory experiences. Polar Produce take people on a bike ride with modified bicycle dynamos that are re-wired to small re-chargeable batteries. As people cycle the energy created charges the batteries and is then used to boil a kettle or power electric devices.

For further details and to join the OFFLOAD mailing visit www.offloadfestival.org

REGISTER NOW FOR THE EDINBURGH INTERACTIVE FESTIVAL 2007
MONDAY 13 – TUESDAY 14 AUGUST 2007 Early bird rate is just £120

A packed two day conference and screenings programme kicks off on Monday 13 August with Ubisoft President Yves Guillemot. This year Edinburgh Interactive also welcomes keynotes from Sony Computer Entertainment, the BBC and Simon Fuller’s 19 Management. The cultural diversity of Edinburgh also sees  contribution from actor Steven Berkhoff, Eve On-line’s Hilmar Petersson and a look at developing for Second Life with Jim Purbrick, Rivers Run Red and Electric Sheep.

This year’s event once again plays host to the annual EDGE Award.

With keynotes, debates, panel sessions, screenings and cross-media industry discussions, the Edinburgh Interactive Festival celebrates and examines the cultural and business impact that games and  interactivity are having on the public, entertainment companies and on more traditional media, such as film and television.

Now in its fifth year, the Festival is attracting a wider cross-media industry audience as the role of games has become increasingly meshed into popular culture and entertainment.

To find out more and register now visit www.edinburghinteractivefestival.com

Cut & Paste international design event is coming to London for the first time and is on the look out for digital designers who want to showcase their work on an international stage.

This live digital design tournament is happening in 11 cities round the world, and Germination is bringing the event to the Truman Brewery London on Saturday 20th October. Competing in three single-elimination rounds, the designs will be web-cast globally, projected in real-time for the live Cut & Paste audience and featured on a new designers’ social network site.

Judges include Patrick Burgoyne, Editor of Creative Review, Daljit Singh Creative Director and Founder of Digit, Laura Bambach Head of Art at Glue London, James Sommerville co-founder of ATTIK and Fiddian Warman Managing Director and Founder of Soda Creative Ltd.

The London C&P champion will receive a Wacom®21UX Cintiq interactive display, with the semifinalist taking home a Wacom®Intuos3 6″X8″ Tablet. The winner of the Audience Prize will win an Adobe®Creative Suite 3 Master Collection Suite and all competitors will receive the new Adobe® Creative Suite 3 Design Premium.

If you’d like to take part, enter now by entering your contact details, a link to your work online and a bit of blurb, until July 17th on the cutandpaste website.

Test rounds will be in central London at the end of July – a relaxed opportunity to audition while networking with other designers.

For a look at a previous event, check out this short clip on Cool Hunting.

Camera phone ‘expert’ Scott Fletcher presented screen dorkbot on Thursday evening, to celebrate the ten year anniversary of the first camera phone, built by Philippe Kahn and first demonstrated on June 11th 1997.

From happy slapping to Japanese anti-night vision pants, discussions included the pros and cons of having a camera phone, user generated content and the right to privacy.

A specially shot mobile film made by Phillipe and his daughter for dorkbot bristol, was screened with a selection of dorkbot-made mobile films which can be viewed at Youtube.

From home made Coca-cola to dried apple rings and the physics of a glass of water, May’s Dorkbot at the Cube had a distinctly food theme.

Thanks to everyone who presented and attended, and especially to The Cube for hosting – a good night had by all.

UWE Linux Boot Camp, 25th-27th July 2007
Ever needed to get more out of your computer and gadgets? Have you wanted to knowmore about Linux, open source software or get in touch with your inner geek? If so then the UWE Linux Boot Camp is for you.

The event, open to people who are studying for or have recently done A levels, will involve two and half days of practical workshops exploring many aspects of modern technology and explaining the use of free, open source software.

For further information please email: craig.duffy@uwe .ac.uk
Craig Duffy, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering