Dorkbot Melbourne Sun Feb 1, Richard Allen & Cagatay “Chatai” Goncu

Dorkbot Melbourne 25
>>> people doing strange things with electricity <<<
4pm, Sunday 1 February, 2009
Level 1, 124a Johnston St Fitzroy 3065 (just east of Brunswick St), Melbourne.

Dorkbot Melbourne once again brings together inspired and inspiring minds from across the known universe. Everyone with an interest in doing strange things with electricity is invited to come along and check out the presentations and participate in lively discussion. Doors open at 4pm, presentations start at 4.30 sharp. Bring your friends. Bring drinks and nibblies of your choice. Scheduled talks are outlined below.

::: LalaLullaby :::
Richard Allen

Richard Allen (aka Chi Chi Fibonacci) will discuss the maiden voyage of  “Lalalullaby” – a weird and wonderful immersive musical sculpture created with Pippa Willison and Paul Irving.

Fresh back from experimenting with punters at the Rainbow Serpent festival, Richard will attempt to explain what it’s like to sit inside a giant cosy knitted egg, swinging inside a five metre tall pyramid, being pushed by two costumed creatures while your motion generates a multilayered, synthesised,
quadraphonic soundscape…

::: Diagramming For the Blind :::
Cagatay “Chatai” Goncu

Diagrams are important components of educational materials. They can be found in various media. Printed media, such as text books, have traditionally been the most commonly used media for educational material, however online electronic resources, such as web pages and e-books, are becoming increasingly popular sources of educational content. Online materials include static diagrams, like text books, but may also include dynamic content such as animations and components that can interact with the user. Unfortunately, these types of content are not easily accessible to blind people.

While there has been considerable research into generation of accessible diagrams, there is still no generic technique for automatically generating accessible diagrams from a standard input format such as SVG or image. Developing such a generic technique is the aim of this project. This generation should preserve the same semantics and pragmatics as its visual representation as far as possible, and be appropriate to users, tasks, devices and presentation media.

Cagatay (Chatai) Goncu is a PhD student studying at Clayton School of IT, Monash University. He is in his second year now, and working on presenting diagrams to blind people by using different modalities such as tactile, audio, and tactile/audio.

::: OpenDorks :::

P.S. Check out our mailing list and wiki to hear about future dorkbots…
http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotmelbourne
( dorkbotmelbourne@dorkbot.org ) if you’d like to present something at a future dorkbot.

Join the Wave! Obama’s buddies

In order to mark the arrival of Mr. Obama as president of the United Sates, the company Pixman is contributing to “this time of change” with the creation of a Web 2.0 experiment, establishing an interactive communication channel through its worldwide street media and communication network and using its technologies and world presence to allow people throughout the planet to genuinely express and share their own views regarding the significance of this event. In order to do so, Pixman has created a global event based on the idea of joining Mr. Obama and his team. This global event is called “Join the Wave”.
The results are genuine, varied and entertaining.

See for yourself: we invite you to watch or join the Wave that is already spreading through more than 25 countries around the world.

jointhewave.com

Flopfest

Have you ever been at the pub & after a few drinks – Bingo! You’ve got it. An absolute cracker of a business idea. You share it with your mates, you explain it to the barman, and you even tell the janitor who kicks you out at the end of the night. The next day, you wake up and realise it maybe wasn’t the best idea, it was just the beer talking. Those are the ideas we’re after! We want wacky, way out ideas for a new business. No concept is too crazy, anything from Potato Peelers R Us, to Hire- a-Hamster, the limit is your imagination.
The winner will be crowned by the people. The Short Film that receives the most online votes will win the $500 prize.
 
THE BRIEF: Create a short film pitching your idea for a new and novel business.
FILM LENGTH:  2 minutes
THE PRIZE: $500
 
Deadline: 30 January, 5pm
To enter, and for more information, visit the website at:
http://www.topfranchise.com.au/Site-Info/filmfest.html

Hao Guo Exhibit – Melbourne

Hao Guo is an artist from Beijing, China. He completed an Applied Design course at RMIT before going on to complete a Bachelor of Fine Art (painting) with first class Honours at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2006. Hao is now undertaking his research Masters in Fine Art at the VCA.

Hao has worked on many collaborative projects including: Increase Your Uncertainty with A Constructed World (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 2007), got no puppamumma with James Deutsher (Singapore, 2006), Hao Guo, a magazine edited by Olivia Barrett (2006), and the group show Objects
in Space (a KickStart project presented as part of the 2008 Next Wave Festival). Hao created a project with James Deutsher during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and whilst in Beijing held a simultaneous project with Thea Rechner in Melbourne at Seventh Gallery. In 2009 Hao will return to China.

30 January – 14 February
Free Artist Floor Talk: 12 February, 12.30 – 1.30pm
Galleries 1 + 2 + 3

West Space, 1st Floor, 15-19 Anthony Street, Melbourne
Wednesday to Friday 12-6pm, Saturday 12-5pm

For further information, contact (03) 9328 8712, or info@westspace.org.au
www.westspace.org.au

Tape Projects – Melbourne

This year, strange noises will be heard coming from the Degrave St subway, flickering lights will be made out through the darkness at the end of Campbell Arcade. From now until July, Tape Projects will be occupying Frame, a window in the Platform art space suited perfectly to the kind of noisy, flickery work we do.
 
First cab off the rank will be a showcase of the recently completed TAPR 06/07 publication- a pairing of flipbooks by 12 artists, with a locked groove record containing over 60 sounds pieces. By its sheer numbers, it is a great testament to the talent in this town, but it is also an ingenious play on the relationship between moving images and sound- enabling the user to mix and match soundtrack, image, and speed of flipping to explore this phenomenon for themselves.
 
Until July
Flinders Street in Campbell Arcade (also known as Degraves Street Subway). Melbourne
The subway connects to the Flinders Street Station train platforms and can also be reached via stairs off Degraves & Flinders Streets.

For further information, visit the blog at: www.platformartistsgroup.blogspot.com

Geocaching Australia – Free and Open Geocaching

The home of Aussie Geocaching, with forums, newsletters and leaderboard. Geocaching is the free high-tech treasure hunt where you use your GPS receiver to find caches hidden by other players. It’s a great way to be outdoors, enjoy the environment and the revel in the thrill of the hunt!

Source: geocaching.com.au

Jon Dee and Bayer-UNEP begin search for Australia’s “eco” students

Australian university students with something “eco” on their minds are being asked to step forward with their ideas on sustainable energy solutions for the 2009 Bayer-UNEP Eco-Minds Forum, and be in with a chance to represent Australia at an International Forum in Auckland, New Zealand.

In partnership with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), the Bayer Eco-Minds program aims to foster awareness, thirst and passion for the environment amongst students from across the Asia Pacific region. In return, the winning students receive an all expenses paid trip to Auckland for the opportunity to present their ideas and participate in solution-orientated group work, cross-cultural activities and knowledge sharing in a bid to tackle real-life sustainable development issues.

In Australia, the initiative is being supported by leading environmentalist Jon Dee who believes the Eco-Minds Forum is an ideal opportunity for students to put their passion to good use. 
 
“What better way for young Aussie students to get their suggestions for sustainable energy solutions out there,” says Dee. “Eco-Minds provides the perfect forum for tomorrow’s leaders to exchange ideas with each other in a proactive, pan-Asia effort to make a very real difference to the future of our environment, today.”

The 2009 Eco-Minds Youth Forum will focus on a topic that is of growing importance to the world -Sustainable Energy Systems: Challenges and Opportunities. As part of the week-long event, participants will look at some of the challenges around energy supply, including climate change, and the practical solutions that can overcome such challenges with a visit to New Zealand’s hydro and geothermal supply systems.

The Bayer-UNEP Eco-Minds is open to all university students aged 18-24 years with delegates from Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, India, Indonesia and China attending.

For entry details and application forms, students can log on to www.eco-minds.bayer.com, or contact the Australian Eco-Minds Co-ordinator on Australia # (02) 4736 0892. Entries close on 28 March 2009.

Watch the YouTube video

Peter Singer Lecture – The Life You Can Save: Acting now to end world poverty

At this special event to launch his new book The life you can save: Acting now to end world poverty, Peter Singer will discuss the moral implications of greed and poverty, and his suggestion extreme poverty could be abolished if the world’s wealthiest 10 per cent of people donated a fraction of their income.

The Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University since 1999, and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne since 2005, Professor Singer is an internationally renowned philosopher and acclaimed author of over 25 books on ethics. He is best known for Animal Liberation, widely credited with starting the animal rights movement, and his most recent book The Ethics of What We Eat was a 2006 bestseller.

Peter Singer may be the most controversial philosopher alive; he is certainly among the most influential.’ New Yorker

6:30pm, February 5 2009
State Library of Queensland
SLQ Auditorium 1
Cultural Centre, South Bank
Tickets $25 (5% of proceeds go to Oxfam)
Bookings via qtix 136 246
Email: info@ideasfestival.com.au
www.qtix.com.au

Abu Dhabi Aims to Build First Carbon-Neutral City

Planners hope to transform an empty stretch of desert into Masdar, a city of 50,000, within a decade. They aim for it to be powered entirely by renewable energy, to reuse water and to recycle even human waste.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90042092

Thousands of Bundled Straw @ M.R.C

David Young presents a song cycle in seven parts as part of the Melbourne Recital Centre opening season.

Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 10:30pm
Location: Melbourne Recital Centre – The Salon
Street: Cnr Southbank Blvd and Sturt St.
City/Town: Southbank, Melbourne

David Young is preoccupied with exploring the relationship between sound and image, employing intricate and often miniature formats in unconventional settings. The music has been variously described as ‘musical origami’, ‘an aural equivalent of seeing a world in a grain of sand’.

This major song-cycle is inspired by an ancient myth of the Temple of the Healing Eyes in far-western Japan and features five eggs, 12 instrumentalists and soprano Deborah Kayser, who consistently delights audiences worldwide with the rare sonic purity of her voice.

Premiered in 2005 at the Melbourne International Arts Festival after a decade of development in collaboration with the Libra Ensemble, Thousands of Bundled Straw will return to Melbourne as part of the opening season at Melbourne Recital Centre. The cycle will be performed by an ensemble of Australian and international musicians, all leading interpreters of contemporary music, under the baton of Mark Knoop.

soprano Deborah Kayser
recorder Tosiya Suzuki
oboe Adam Yee
clarinets Carl Rosman
trumpet Ben O’Callaghan
trombone Ben Marks
percussion Peter Neville
piano Timothy Young
guitar Geoffrey Morris
violin Elizabeth Sellars
viola Jason Bunn
violoncello Geoffrey Gartner
contrabass Dorit Herskovits
conductor Mark Knoop

TICKETS can be purchased through the Melbourne Recital Centre.

Online: www.melbournerecital.com.au
Phone: +61 (03) 9699 3333