First aired: November 2, 2006.

What happens when you put together dozens of geeks, cosmic radiation, podcasting, and a pickle? The answer is, "Dorkbot".

Dorkbot is an international movement of creative technologists who make and show off wonderful things. Their motto is, "People doing strange things with electricity." There is an active Dorkbot chapter here in Austin (more info here) that meets about once a month.

On September 14, 2006 we visited a live Dorkbot to find out what happens. We found an amazing device called the Kosmophone, that creates music from cosmic radiation. We also found students using "podcasting" to bring creative media to the world. And—strangest of all—we found somebody trying to electrify a pickle.

Join us as Austin Technology Matters visits Dorkbot, and explores the place where technology meets creativity.

Wendell Ramsey took photographs of the event and posted them online.

Dorkbot

Dorkbot is a monthly meeting of artists (sound/image/movement/whatever), hackers, designers, engineers, students and other interested parties who are involved in the creation of electronic art (in the broadest sense of the term). Dorkbot was started in New York in 2000 by douglas irving repetto and has since spread to over 40 cities worldwide. Meetings are held on the second Thursday of every month at various venues in Austin. [www.dorkbot.org/dorkbotaustin/]

David Nunez specializes in creating, exploring, and evangelizing Future Media—the convergence of art, technology, and community. He is lobbying to bring Maker Faire to Texas. As co-instigator of dorkbot-austin, he turns nerds into heroes monthly. David builds robotic and multimedia art in his dark, twisted, dungeon of a garage in Austin, Texas. [www.davidnunez.com]

Rodney Gibbs is executive studio director of Amaze Entertainment, a full-service game development studio with offices in Austin and Seattle. Specializing in prominent movie-based games, including X-Men, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings, Amaze focuses on handheld game platforms, including the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. Before founding the Austin arm of Amaze, Rodney wrote animated and live-action television programs in Los Angeles, worked as an associate producer for PBS television in Chicago and as an IRTS Fellow for Time, Inc., Magazines in New York City.

Austin Community Technology and Telecommunications Commission

The Austin Community Technology and Telecommunications Commission advises the Austin City Council on communication and community technology issues, promotes technology availability and access in the community, and serves as a coordinating body for issues relating to the provision of different communication services. [www.ci.austin.tx.us/telcommission/]

Chad Williams is chair of the Austin Community Technology and Telecommunications Commission. He is a native Austinite and has worked in the high tech industry since 1990. Currently, he works at IBM as a Web editor.

The Kosmophone

The Kosmophone is a gamma-ray spectrometer operating in the range of about 3 to 7 million electron-volts (MeV) controlling a MIDI music synthesizer. This octave of the electromagnetic spectrum contains very little energy that originates in our solar system. Almost all of the energy in this band is a result of unbelievably energetic radiation coming from the far reaches of the universe. These "cosmic rays" smash their way through the atmosphere, creating energetic emissions the Kosmophone responds to. The energy level of each detected event is measured and that information is sent to the MIDI control port of a music synthesizer. [www.kosmophone.com]

Jerry Chamkis has been an electronics designer for about 40 years and always include artistic aspects. For the past 20 years he's been building AERCO microphone pre-amplifiers which are held in high regard by sound recordists. For the last 10 years he's been building purely art-related projects in his spare time. [www.texasbiennial.com/TXB2005/chamkis.htm]

The Electric Pickle

The Electric Pickle is an age-old physics experiment which demonstrates something, but we're not quite sure what. Probably something about energy being emitted as light when you excite the sodium atoms in the salty pickle brine. The experiment is dangerous because it is done with live house current. There is a real electrocution hazard if you don't know what you are doing. [home.nycap.rr.com/useless/pickle/index.html]

Student Film Showcase

Student Film Showcase TV is a showcase for student films that is created in participation with university students who have the unique opportunity to write, direct, shoot, and edit the show along side mentors from Austin, New York, Los Angeles and France. [www.sfstvvod.com]

A podcast is a web broadcast that you can subscribe to. It combines multimedia content (audio or video) with a structure called RSS (Really Simple Syndication). The name comes from the Apple iPod, because the associated iTunes software made it very easy to receive these podcasts. A recent program on Austin public access television called "Beyond Television" explored podcast production. [beyondtv.pactaustin.org]

Juan Garcia is an independent filmmaker and producer based in Austin, Texas. He is the Executive Producer and creator of the "SFS TV" video podcast, the first podcast of its kind in the world devoted to showcasing student films as well as giving university students worldwide the opportunity to be the creative voice of the production. Correspondingly, Juan serves as the Video Producer for the Faculty Innovation Center at the University of Texas where he has implemented a new series of educational podcasts.

Ceci Norman is a filmmaker and photographer in Austin, TX. She has a degree in Cinema & Cultural Studies from SUNY Stony Brook, and worked on her masters for a year at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Since moving to Austin she has worked on an independent feature called August Evening, been involved in numerous short films, and mentors/directs/PR photography for SFS TV, and recently started working for UT's Engineering Department's Faculty Innovation Center. [ceci.kempleton.com]

Other Information

Greg Most of Waxploitation DJs: Waxploitation DJs are Greg Most, Dr. Rhythm, Little Danny & The Soul Bandit spinning the heaviest soul and funk sounds of the late 60's & early 70's for your get down pleasure. [www.subculturepress.com/wax.htm]

Cafe Mundi: We are located at 1704 East 5th St., minutes from Downtown Austin, Texas. Quietly tucked away from the roar of the city, nestled in our beautiful outdoor garden along the tracks. You can enjoy parrot watching to wonderful local art exhibits, live music to quiet time under the crate myrtles, fantastic coffees and pastries to dynamic daily lunch specials, Wednesday evening poetry to Monday night movies...come see for yourself! [cafemundi.com]