First dorkbot meeting in Second Life planned 18th Febr. (2-3 PM PST)

Finally! The first dorkbot meeting in-world can be announced: It will take place on Sunday 18th February at 2-3 PM PST (LA, East Coast North America) = 5-6 pm EST (NY, West Coast North America) = 11-12 pm CET (Berlin, Europe) = 7 – 8 AM (19th) (Tokyo). I am very looking forward to it, as Wirxli Flimflam aka Jeremy Turner from the avatar performance group Second Front and Ian Ah aka Ian Murray (translate in english here) pioneering canadian (media)-artist have confirmed to take part at this small historical event. Both are quite experienced with art (not design) and culture in Second Life so I am sure it will be a nice talk. We will first gather at my place (rhizomatic in SL) and then move further to Ian Ah’s special movie screening lounge which is on Sugar Mountain (Odyssey Island).

The motto of dorkbot is people doing strange things with electricity. For more infos read my blog here.

Gourgous encounters – defining dorkbot

Tonight I met again more intersting people rather accidentally than planned! First of all Karolwojtyla (Sl name) member of Rybn a french artist group based in Paris and Toto Donat (Sl name) member of upgrade! Paris and digital artist. Rybn was taking part at the last years (2006) Transmediale. As Karol seemed to be also a laptop musician, we had some nice talk. Anyway Karol introduced me to Man Michinaga (aka Patrick Lichty), curator, writer, artist and teacher. Man aka Patrick is editor in chief of intelligentagent a interesting online magazine. After 15 years as a contemporary artist (Lichty is born 1962), he is now a faculty member in the Interactive Arts and Media Department at Columbia College Chicago. He worked in diverse technological media, including painting, mobile media, print, video, new media etc. He seems to be a really experienced artist and of course must have a huge network! And he is also member of Second Front, about which I blogged before.

Anyway another fact is that he is organizing upgrade!-meetings in Second Life. Upgrade is like dorkbot a international network of artists, curators and academics. So he is somekind of co-pioneer in establishing a culture of reflexion about digital art and cultures in Second Life. It seems that he is maybe the pioneer… Therefore I need to re-configure dorkbot. Upgrade! seems to be somekinde of Goliath. So what is dorkbot SL? David?

On the way of defining dorkbot SL I researched the meaning of dork-bot as I am not a native english-speaker: A dork is a quirky, silly and/or stupid, socially inept person, or one who is out of touch with contemporary trends. The term “dork” was earlier a synonym for penis, like dick. Bot is the shortform of robot. Bots are software applications that run automated tasks over the www. Typically, bots perform tasks that are simple and structurally repetitive at a much higher rate than humans are able to do. Hmmm..

Dorkbot meetings are therefore a more nerdy gathering of people doing strange things with electricity, which means also with digital technology, which would not exist without electricity.

Dorkbot is not dependent on hypes or technological newness. Thats why dorkbot is going metaverse so late!

Dorkbot meetings are more in sense of a artificial hypostasis, a idolatry of geekiness, celebrating digital otaku-culture = Digital artpop-geekiness? Dorkbot-meetings in Second Life are automated interuptions of the everyday. They disturb, they are geeky, dorkish, crazy….. Hopefully..

Anyway enough for today!

dorkbot in SL! people doing strange things with electricity.

I (Maximillian Nakamura) am trying to establish dorkbot*** meetings in Second Life.. I mailed the founder of dorkbot Douglas Repetto who is in New York and asked him if he thinks it is a good idea and he was into it! So next steps are find out some appropiate presentations methods.

I founded also a new group in-world, means in Second Life, called: Dorkbot SL:

Dorkbot SL wants to explore the new possibilieties of the metaverse and tries to establish a platform for a glocal way of creating new connections and collaborations. Meetings are held at rhizomatic (link to rhizomatic in SL).

*** WIKIPEDIA says: people doing strange things with electricity – Dorkbot refers to a group of affiliated organizations worldwide that hold meetings of artists, engineers, and designers working in the medium of electronic art. Started by Douglas Repetto in New York (2000), it has spread around the world with over forty chapters holding monthly meetings as of 2007. In addition to the original New York City-based dorkbot (dorkbot-nyc), current and planned groups exist in London, Ghent, San Francisco, Linz, Melbourne, Mumbai, Seattle, Rotterdam, Lisbon, Sofia, Chicago, Southern California, Barcelona, Switzerland, Orlando, Madrid, Detroit, Mexico City, Philadelphia, Bahia, Eindhoven, Toronto, Tokyo, Vienna, Washington, DC, and Atlanta, GA (at Georgia Tech).

The purpose of dorkbot meetings is to nurture a local electronic arts community (in the broadest sense of the term) and to encourage emerging, and established, artists to present new works for informal peer review. While many of the dorkbot groups hold their meetings at universities and students are encouraged to attend, dorkbot meetings are not restricted in any way to the academic community. Dorkbot groups encourage the free exchange of ideas on the electronic arts, and regular attendees of one dorkbot will often visit another when they are travelling, serving as informal ambassadors between groups.

Sand (177, 16, 151)