A visit to Dorkbot

Dorkbot – a worldwide movement dedicated to doing strange things with electricity – seems to have settled well into Bristol, having held its second meeting at Watershed on Thursday, 9th November.

Clare makes patterns with light. Photo taken by John Honniball

With an attendance of 40-odd souls – including several members of Bristol Wireless – it was far better attended than the first meeting in October.

We were entertained and intrigued by the following guests:

• Adam Neiman, creator of Bristol’s Space Signpost, a combination of sculpture, multimedia and patent pending technology that helps people to reach out to the solar system without leaving the surface of the Earth;
• Cardiff-based artist Carolyn Ryves and her pedal-powered inflatable sculpture (complete with burning rubber odour if you pedalled hard enough!);
• Tom Bugs and his Buzz Box – a nice, noisy hands-on synth with lots of knobs to twiddle and leads to plug in;
• John Honniball – a familiar face from the BBLUG – doing artistic things with LEDs.

Anyway, I’ve definitely been inspired and shall be attempting to build a junior theremin (from a kit!) before the next event.

You can follow progress on the Dorkbot Bristol blog or view the pictorial record of the events as they happen on Flickr.

The next event (subject to confirmation) will be on Thursday, 7th December.