The organizers of last week's "cocktail robotics" festival in Vienna, Austria, the annual "Roboexotica" event, have posted the audio from the lectures in German and English. I gave a talk there called "A Singular Metaphor" in which I tried to delve into the reason that the idea of uploading our minds is so attractive right now. Sean Bonner had a fun talk on user power on sites like Digg called "The inmates have taken over the asylum...," while Jens Ohlig from the Chaos Computer Club proposed that robots should create all literature, David Fine pondered consciousness, and Make Magazine's Bre Pettis gave a talk called "Machines: If you can't beat them, join them," about the utopia of apocalypse.

Gehen wir einmal davon aus, dass etwas gar Schreckliches mit der Menschheit passiert. Gigantische Bomben, gigantische Fluten, gigantische Nacktschnecken... sucht es euch aus. Ich frage mich wie die schöne Landeshauptstadt Graz dann wohl aussehen würde, vielleicht ein Jahr später, vielleicht fünfhundert Jahre später, vielleicht tausend Jahre später. Naturhauptstadt 2203? Oder wird die Postgarage zur Postpostgarage? Wer tummelt sich in den Ruinen der FH Joanneum? Und was ist mit den barbarischen Horden, die in der UPC Arena um Ruhm und Ehre kämpfen? Stimmen die Gerüchte über den sagenumwobenen "Uhrturm"? Und so wurde grafisch nach dem postapokalyptischen Morgen gefahndet... (monochrom)

Dorkbot Vienna #4 features Bre Pettis who will build a Brain Machine.

This is a project that Mitch Altman put together and it's a brain wave machine that flashes LEDs and binaural audio to brute force your brain to achieve different brain wave states. Pretty much everyone halucinates in some way. A meditation sequence is programmed in, but the whole program is open source, so you can make it do whatever you like. It's built on Lady Ada's MiniPOV3 and I'll have one for you to try out and I'll have the parts for one to give away so that someone can build it to have on hand at metalab. If someone's got an EEG, it might be fun to bring it along and see it's effectiveness. Don't try this out if you have epilepsy.

Bre hasn't ordered too many kits! So if you desperately want to join, please put your name on the wiki page immediately!

***

MAIN AWARDS:

SERVING

Explanator / Misha a Crest - Breathing might be THE future way to ingest herbal/alcoholic beverages

MIXING

MindReading MartiniMaker / Chris Veigl - way of determining ratio & innovative approach to shaking and stirring

CONVERSATION

Chapok / David Calkins - the way he inspires drinking is quite authentic

FIRE & SMOKE

El Espanol Borracho / Simone Davalos - a) for not triggering the fire alarm b) only robot that includes flambéing in the preparation process

OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS

Blow Your Fortune / Chris Thomas Palmer - always knows what u should drink

PERSISTENCE

Gesundheit VI / Franz Ablinger - is hardheadedly trying to find a lasting configuration.

MOST WELCOME OFF-TOPIC ENTRY

Aktionsgruppe LN2.0 / FH Joanneum - good example of why and when humans are still needed in the cocktail environment

BEST SWISS ENTRY

The Holy Golden Milk+Wodcow / Roman Maeder - the milking proved to be a favorite human pastime

ENVIRONMENTAL

Perpetual Popper / Jaques Gallant - feeds people using only corn and sunlight

***

HONORARY MENTIONS:

PATIENCE:

Robomoji / Robert Martin - patiently adds assembling steps year by year

VISIONARY:

Robofriend 2 / Tom Heike first robot that combines mixing and mobile delivery

MOST CUTE AND SIMPLE UI:

Rabbit's Revenge / FH Joanneum

MOST ACCURATE DEPICTION OF A ROBOT PENIS:

Urinator / FH Joanneum

MOST VERSATILE:

Explanator / Misha a Crest

***

LIMES:

The Prisoner's Dilemma / David Fine - installation was a construction site
R.R. Shot-Bot / Bre Pettis - unfinished
Kalkohol: The Provider / monochrom - causing floods is not an achievement
BF Ice Cube Gun / FH Joanneum - Vodka theft and militaristic behaviour
Urinator / FH Joanneum - ghastly impression makes drink undesirable
Bic-o-Mat/ Adrian Dabrowski - no-show despite anticipated added features
Metalab - no-show

I'm headed to Vienna this weekend for the annual Roboexotica "cocktail robotics" festival, a maker show for people who build robots that drink, mix cocktails, light cigarettes, make bar conversation amd perform miscellaneous cocktail-related robotic activities. The event is put on by Monochrom and Shifz, two mad and wonderful net-art collectives based in Vienna's Museumsquartier on Electric Avenue.

I'll be speaking on Friday night at Taugshow, Monochrom's not-a-talkshow, and I'll be around the conference all day on Saturday. Hope to see you!

Mad professor Mark Frauenfelder shows us how to make a Curie Effect Magnetic Heat Engine from common household items. Then, Austrian art-pranksters Monochrom sing a song of love for Stanford law prof and famed copyright reform advocate Lawrence Lessig.

November 15, 2007. 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. @ Witte de With Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Arse Elektronika. Or: What's pr0nnovation?

Lecture by Johannes Grenzfurthner/monochrom (writer/artist, Vienna).
From the depiction of a vulva in a cave painting to the newest internet porno, technology and sexuality have always been closely linked. History indicates that sex will continue to play an essential role in technological development. The porno effect accompanies every new technological development. Is it going too far to assume that research in nanotechnology and genetic engineering will be influenced by our sexual needs? The surgical modification of sexual organs is no longer very unusual. The question is not whether these technologies alter humanity, but how they do so.
Language: English
Location: WdW Auditorium

Roboexotica gathers a wide variety of cocktail robot makers from around the world and bring them together for robot parties and presentations. I'm in Southern Austria in the city of Graz today visiting the information design college where a group of artists who are putting their cocktail robots together. The group shown above is in the process of putting together a scary evil bunny robot that pours drinks for you at the flip of a switch. There is also a group making a slot machine robot that pumps you a drink when you cash out your coins. I'm doing an internship in Vienna this month and will be reporting on Roboexotica as it happens. Stay tuned!

The American Dollar is losing value relative to other currencies. The IMF has warned that the currency could even collapse. We must do something to increase the value of American currency! Send an email to this address with links to pictures and video of you eating dollars. How does this help the U.S. economy?

Well, fundamental to capitalist economics is the idea that price is determined by interplay between supply and demand. If the supply is greater than the demand, price will decrease. It's beyond our ability to increase global demand for dollars, what with America's massive debt and trade deficit. So we attack the problem from the supply side.

click to play

To rectify the oversupply of American Dollars, Florian removed one from circulation -- by eating it. The harsh realities of currency valuation can be hard to swallow.

Yet there are still too many dollars out there. We need your help!
Send images and video to revaluate AT monochrom.at asap!

PS.: Florian is not a US citizen. Eating dollars may be against the law for you. However, it's hard to believe that Americans could do a worse job of managing the Dollar's value than their government has. We have the best wishes for their future.

Roboexotica 2007, the annual festival for Cocktail Robots, takes place November 22nd through 25th in the Museumsquartier district of Vienna, Austria. Roboexotica is produced by SHIFZ, monochrom & Bureau of Philosophy.

Speaking of monochrom, our good friends David Fine and Bre Pettis are their current artists in residence at monochrom.

Bre Pettis produces the show "Weekend Projects," which is released weekly as a video podcast for Make: Magazine. For his show, Bre makes something every week, and then makes a video teaching viewers how to make it too. In his recent past, he's been a schoolteacher, a multi-artist, and a puppeteer. Bre is passionate about invention, innovation, and all things DIY.