Come to Art’s Birthday, make a hat, then compete with other hat makers in a sword battle to the death… of the hat.

Wait! What?

Basically we will be doing is performing Milan Knizak’s Fluxus score Confrontation No. 1
“Each participant wearing a paper cap tries to knock off with a wood or toy sword the cap of another while defending himself with own sword against the attempts of opponents. 1965″

Participants will make and decorate paper hats, then compete in a round robin tournament until a victor is declared and a trophy is won.

I will be needing some volunteers. If you volunteer you can still compete. I need someone to:
take a quick photo of combatants for documentation.
help wrangle competitor
be a judge
Also if you are interested in doing colour commentary, let me know, otherwise I’ll get up and make a fool of myself.

This is the third year we are participating and it is always a really fun night! So even if you don’t want to volunteer, come out for some fun and cake. Also, tell all your friends!

Where is the electricity? We will have some electric stuff to decorate the hats!

Details:
Art’s Birthday
Saturday, January 14, 2012 @ 7-11PM
EMMEDIA 351 – 11 Ave SW
Admission is FREE

Andrew Preece is a current director at Protospace and all around nice guy. I’m not sure why his nickname is Toaster, but I hope is has to do with marshmallows and not Cylons. Yumm… s’mores.

Adam will be talking about something old, something new and, something broken.

Adam Tindale is an electronic drummer and digital instrument designer. He is a Permanent Instructor of Interaction Design in the Media Arts and Digital Technologies department at the Alberta College of Art and Design. Adam performs on his EDrumset: a new electronic instrument that utilizes physical modeling and machine learning with an intuitive physical interface. He completed a Bachelor of Music at Queen’s University, a Masters of Music Technology at McGill University, and an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Music, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Victoria.

Kyle will be talking about his recent project. Circles of Confusion is a generative image and sound based installation composed of dual Super 8 film-loop projections integrated with dual optically-sensitive sine-wave oscillators. Similar to a Theremin, these scratch built oscillator circuits are controlled by light dependent sensors that modulate audible pitch and volume. Integrated into the projection system, the function of these Opto-Theremins is the real-time synthesis of discrete but complimentary dyadic sine-waveforms that are directly proportional to the intensity of the projected light—hand processed film images that are inverse matched but not mirrored pairs. Entropic by nature and not readily reproducible, this Super 8 film material exists in a state of continuous variability. The generative and reactionary conditions of Circles of Confusion create a hyper-awareness of the boundaries that exist between two distinct processes of sensory perception and blur the conventional divisions between them by suggesting that they are at once complementary and transmutable.

Kyle Whitehead is a media artist working with small-format film, alternative photographic processes and lo-fi electronics. He prefers a careful and considered approach to image making; which should not be confused with best practices, as his work is about embracing the potential of an indeterminate process. What he wants is the definitive by chance—leveraging lo-fi or DIY technologies often with unusual or startling effect. He is a graduate of Alberta College of Art and Design and currently resides in Calgary where he spends most of his time in the dark.

Many thanks to Protospace for heling us out with the space to present this month.

Richard Reeves

http://flickerfilms.ca/

Richard uses electric light to make sounds and reuses classic film technology and equipment to create new ways of presenting sound, especially for performance works. He will be talking about handmade optical sound creation as well as the 16mm magnetic film violin. He will be bringing in samples of sounds for demo as well as the violin!

He will be doing a demo of human projection screens to complete a mini performance. He said “This way others can pick up on the concepts and hopefully use and expand the ideas for themselves.”

Lindsay MacDonald

http://lindsaymacdonald.net/

Lindsay will be talking about her experience at the Eyeo festival. This conference brings together the most creative coders, designers and artists working today. The conference included the likes of Nicholas Felton of the Felton report. Robert Hodgin, the guy with the hacked Kinect, Ben Fry and Casey Reas from processing.org and Gloan Levin and way too many others for me to list.

Lindsay just finished her Masters in Computational Media Design at the U of C and is starting her PhD. She is an artist and new media researcher/practitioner born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. She has a BFA in painting and digital media from the University of Calgary, another BFA in Interdisciplinary Studio Practice from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is currently working on her MFA in Computational Media Design at the University of Calgary. Prior to beginning her masters studies, Lindsay served as the Production Coordinator for The Banff New Media Institute at The Banff Centre. Her work focuses on engaging viewers through interaction and participation.

Many thanks to EMMEDIA for donating our space this month.

And no, the machine won’t have any electricity, but we’ll turn on the lights so that counts right?

Many thanks to EMMEDIA for donating our space this month.
Remember, Google maps moves EMMEDIA to the wrong place, so look at the EMMEDIA site for a real map.

http://www.essense.ca/

Sharon Stevens is an award winning activist, an award winning video artist, and a community collaborator.

She has been an independent video producer since 1989 and is committed to production values that include collective process and a feminist analysis. She has made a dozen collaborative and solo videos in as many years, and has received two Alberta Motion Picture Industry (AMPIA) nominations, winning one in 1996 for her documentary, Doodlebugs: the Video. Sharon’s work has been broadcast on WTN and screened at various festivals across Canada and was included in the 1998 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art.

Sharon has volunteered for artist-run organizations in Calgary including herland feminist film festival and co-founder for herland’s InCamera Film/Video Production Workshop. Currently she is on the Folk Music Festival Board, a board member for AMAAS and has served on two Steering Committees for the Calgary Arts Development Authority. Sharon was recently awarded the William Irvine Justice Award to recognize social and/or environmental justice work by a person or group in the city of Calgary.

She has integrated art, activism, feminism, and social justice into her life, and still has fun.

Shiori Saito

http://shiorisaito.com

Born and raised in Japan, Shiori Saito is a Calgary-based new media artist and researcher. Shiori graduated from the Media Arts and Digital Technologies program at the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2009.

Her work explores emotional narrative and interactivity through digital technologies such as video and bio-sensors. This exploration often blurs the lines between “body and space” to create a intimate human experience.

Shannon Hoover

Shannon Hoover is involved with Endeavor Arts http://endeavorarts.com/exhibitions.html. He will be talking about his experience at the Bay Area Maker Faire.

Many thanks to EMMEDIA for donating our space this month.

Dana likes making exhibits that people like playing in.  She came to Calgary to develop exhibits(with the help of Calgary’s helpful population) as part of the team at the New Science Centre. Before arriving in Canada she worked as a designer, prototyper and fabricator in Childrens Museums and Science Centers in Philadelphia and New York.  Dana is dedicated to using maker-based models for developing museum exhibits that are fun, relevant and hopefully meaningful.  She would also very much like it if you came to Dorkbot to try some of the exhibits we’ve been working on.

Katherine makes exhibits that remind you why it’s so great to be curious. She is part of the team developing exhibits for the new science centre. Before that, she developed exhibits and programs for children’s museum and science centres across the United States.

Here’s our New Science Centre blog. Check out what we’re up to.

Lon Parker

Lon will be talking about Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus.

Garrett Baumgartner

I’m a new media artist and an all-round creative guy residing in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Originally from a small town called Nipawin located in northern Saskatchewan, I moved to Calgary to attain my BFA in the Media Arts + Digital Technologies program at the Alberta College of Art + Design (ACAD). Currently I am donating my skills as a Researcher in Residence and as a Technical Producer to the Creative Environment for Emerging Electronic Culture (CE3C – pronounced “seek”) at ACAD.

My expertise and interests stretches across several areas of digital media creation — from website development, video art and animation; to electronic textiles, photography and interactive installations. As a new media artist, I enjoy exploring and pushing the bounds of technology as a means to create memorable and enjoyable human experiences. I am always open to new challenges and I look forward contributing to projects and organizations that share a sense of creative discovery.

When I am not busy working on projects I can be found reading the latest current events stories, playing a few songs on my guitar, or spending quality time with my girlfriend, Shiori, and my cat, Tabi.

Garrett is online at http://gogogarrett.com/

Many thanks to EMMEDIA for donating our space this month.

Noel Begin

Noel is a Calgary based media artist.  He has a site. Shotgun Review put out an article about an installation he did a while back. We don’t know what he is going to talk about, but it is sure to be interesting!

Alex Moon

Alex Moon will be presenting artwork as part of his ongoing project called Uni-Farm, focusing on the Macintosh Tractor; technically, in context of global trends in farming, and as a satirical element in the narrative of the Uni-Farm.

Alex was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta and received his education from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2008. Although trained as a printmaker he creates highly detailed narratives through video, performance and installation with largely salvaged materials. He has shown nationally and participated in a number of exhibitions including Uni-Farm: Boardroom Forefathers at the Alberta Printmakers Society, and Ok Quoi!? in Sackville, New Brunswick. On a part time basis he assists the Illingworth Kerr Gallery and on commission provides a wide range of custom technical support to his fellow artists.

Many thanks to EMMEDIA for donating our space this month.

We’ll have motors and supplies to make automatic drawing robots. Sorta like these ones: http://www.instructables.com/id/Drunken-drawing-robot-/ but we can try to design something better, or more creative.
 
We hope to see you there!

I have batteries and motors for about 5 robots. Materials will be $5.

Many thanks to EMMEDIA for donating our space this month.

Al Cameron
3 Birds Software Inc.
Al was born in one place and raised in a couple other places, but for the past few decades has thought of Calgary as home. After performing a variety of computing-related roles for a couple decades, Al realized that playing “LDAP Server Admin” wasn’t all that much fun. Around the same time, Steve Jobs decided to let others write software for Apple’s shiny new iPhone. Zoinks!

Now, I’m pleased to give Dorkbot Calgary a hands-on preview of 3 Birds’ soon-to-be-released first App –
a 3D variation of the classic letter-tile word discovery game (at which you may boggle! and discuss some of the technology and issues involved in creating it.

Gerry Straathof
Test magazine is a collection of content to test a publishing concept whose primary goal is get as many creating content for mobile devices as possible. There is an example of a photo portfolio, an example of written content with a unique flow, several conceptual advertisements and a test of a table of contents. This project uses as many of the new, modern web technologies as possible, including HTML5, which allows you to save this file to the homepage of most mobile devices (not implemented just yet, however). There are extensive CSS3 concepts being used within, as well as advancements in font management using webfonts.

Many thanks to EMMEDIA for donating our space this month.