I’m hosting Dorkbot Vienna #9… and our guest will be Martin Kaltenbrunner. (Thanks to the Metalab!)

Martin Kaltenbrunner is a Human Computer Interaction Designer, currently finalizing his Ph.D. at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain. Recently he has been mainly working on the interaction design of the reacTable - a tangible modular synthesizer based on a multi-touch surface. He is author of the open source tangible interaction framework reacTIVision and the related TUIO protocol, which has been widely adopted for open source multi-touch applications. He is co-founder of reactable systems SL, dedicated to the development of novel HCI concepts and products, while he is teaching classes and workshops on tangible interaction at the Kunstuniversität Linz and at the UCP Porto.

http://modin.yuri.at/

reacTIVision is an open source, cross-platform computer vision tool for the fast and robust tracking of fiducial markers attached onto physical objects, as well as for multi-touch finger tracking.

http://reactivision.sourceforge.net/

TUIO is an open framework that defines a common protocol and API for tangible multi-touch surfaces. The TUIO protocol allows the transmission of an abstract description of interactive surfaces, including touch events and tangible object states. There exists a growing number of TUIO enabled tracker applications and TUIO client libraries for various programming environments, as well as applications that support the protocol. This combination of TUIO trackers, protocol and client implementations allows the rapid development of table based tangible multitouch interfaces.

http://www.tuio.org/

The reactable is a collaborative electronic music instrument with a tabletop tangible multi-touch interface. Several simultaneous performers share complete control over the instrument by moving and rotating physical objects on a luminous round table surface. By moving and relating these objects, representing components of a classic modular synthesizer, users can create complex and dynamic sonic topologies, with generators, filters and modulators, in a kind of tangible modular synthesizer or graspable flow-controlled programming language.

The instrument has been developed by a team of digital luthiers, the two Austrian researchers Martin Kaltenbrunner and Günter Geiger and their Spanish colleagues Marcos Alonso and Sergi Jord, working at the Music Technology Group within the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. This multidisciplinary team of researchers, musicians and designers  has been awarded with various international prizes such as the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica, two D&AD Yellow Pencils and the prize if the city of Barcelona.

After its overwhelming success on Youtube and since the Icelandic singer Björk has incorporated the instrument during her last Volta world tour, the reacTable has become widely known to the general public.

http://www.reactable.com/

Sunday, June 28, 2009.
7 PM @ Metalab Vienna (Rathausstrasse 6, 1010 Vienna)

Link

If you live in Vienna, or if you happen to be in the city on June 18, perhaps you would like to drop by and join. There will be a protest against the growing problem of racist activities in the city, or Austria, for that matter–from the politics, the media and the society.

Two students initiated this event. From their website, it says:

Austria 2009: Election campaigns with rabble-rousing posters at every turn.
Selective misinformation by political parties and several media. Extrem right-wing fraternity members in important functions and institutions.Assaults on victims of concentration camps… all this is ordinary
… Ordinary? It doesn’t help to worry about.
We don’t think that contempt for mankind and discrimination would be ordinary. Let us point the way:
PRO respectful coexistence
PRO humane treatment for all
PRO joy at diversity instead of isolation in simplicity
PRO civil courage instead of averting our eyes
PRO fair discussion instead of mendacious propaganda
with a PROtest campaign followed by a chain of lights round the parliament on
June 18th at 7 p.m. There will be a programme with music groups and speeches, followed by the encirclement of the parliament. We will provide torches.
lichterkettewien@gmail.com

If you have a Facebook account, visit their Events page and be counted as one of the protesters.

Wir wollen eine Bring-Your-Own-Beer Trinkaktion im Hof des Museumsquartiers
veranstalten. Dazu müssen wir Leute und die Presse mobilisieren.

­ ORT/ZEIT: Samstag, 20. Juni 2009, 18.00-18.05 Uhr. Innenhof des
Museumsquartiers (Museumsplatz 1/5, 1070 Wien).

­ VORGEHENSWEISE: Ab 18 Uhr wird 5 Minuten lang während des Trinkens
regelmäßig laut zugeprostet!

­ ZIELGRUPPE: Alle, die ein Interesse daran haben, ihre mitgebrachten
Getränke weiterhin im MQ trinken zu dürfen.

­ GRUND: Das MQ ist ein öffentlicher Platz und wird mit unseren
Steuergeldern finanziert, im Jahr 2005 mit ca. 11 Mio. Euro. Wir sehen
nicht ein, wieso wir dazu gezwungen werden sollten, das Bier vor Ort zu
kaufen!

Es haben sich schon mindestens 2 facebook-gruppen gegründet und es gibt ein
geplantes protestereignis:

http://bringyourbeer.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=89218829570

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=96081236267

Vienna’s hackerspace, the Metalab, is celebrating it’s 3rd anniversary - and of course, a birthday like this mustn’t pass unnoticed and uncelebrated!

Therefore, the Metalab is inviting to their party on Sat, May 23rd, starting 08 PM, under the motto ‘Stream Punk’ with a live alternative music performance of Pandora’s Hope and a DJ set by the fabulous Drum’n'Bass kids from Gaswerk, accompanied by the finest visuals in town. A midnight special and the meanwhile semi-famous Guitar Hero contest will top the event off.

Three days before this, from Wed 20th (starting at 07 PM - open end) to Fri 22nd respectively, the First Viennese Hackathon will take place at the hackerspace: It’s THE chance to finally focus on that project you wanted to start ages ago and never found the time to finish. More motivation and productivity through the Hackathon group challenge! A more detailed schedule & participants list can be found on Metalab’s Hackathon page.

Additionally, Metalab members will present some of their work and projects at the upcoming exhibition ‘Was bisher geschah’ (What happened so far) from June 11th - 13th.
Opening party: Thursday, June 11th, 06 PM

The address:
Metalab
Rathausstrasse 6
1010 Wien
Map

Have fun! ^^

In September 2008 the “Street Art Passage Vienna“ was opened on the initiative of quartier21 as a continuation of an already existing series of thematic passageways in the MuseumsQuartier Wien. The passageways are exhibition venues in public space which are each dedicated to specific cultural forms of expression (comic, sound art, etc). Moreover, the “Street Art Passage Vienna“ has a site-specific setting: the bridge from the Spittelberg – a center of the Vienna street art scene – to the 60,000 m2 cultural area of the MuseumsQuartier is accessible from the Breite Gasse.
Beside the permanent design of the passageway by french artist “Invader” this public venue benefits from its alternating program of exhibitions of both international and local street art and graffiti artists plus an accompanying series of publications. Each issue of the street art magazine “betonblumen” (”concrete blossoms”), designed by the artist who is currently exhibiting, is published by Schlebrügge.Editor, and is available at an integrated floral vending machine directly on site. Signed copies of limited artists’ editions of the magazine are up for grabs at the publishing house, at the SUBOTRON shop in the quartier21, at the INOPERAbLE gallery and at THE HOT DOGS in the 7th district. Once per year the works of art can be purchased by auction.

KRYOT @ street art passage MQ
Host: subotron
Friday, April 17, 2009, 7:00pm - 10:00pm
street art passage @ MQ / Übergang Breite Gasse
Museumsplatz 1, Vienna, Austria

http://betonblumen.org
http://betonblumen.org/artist_kryot.html

1961, on the 12th of April, the first human - Juri Gagarin - orbited the Earth. This event is celebrated every year in a world-wide event. The Schikaneder cinema shows two exclusive movies, experts will present a show discussing the influences on society, politics or law which arose from this first flight. Current space flight will also be presented. These events are embedded in the “YURI’S NIGHT PARTY” which takes place at the bar.

18:00: DIE WIEDERKEHR DES MARS - THE RETURN OF MARS
(Sebastian Voltmer, D 2008, 58 Min)
The director and amateur astronomer Sebastian Voltmer graduated from the art school Kassel with distinction with this movie.

19:00: JURI GAGARIN UND DER BEGINN DER BEMANNTEN RAUMFAHRT – JURI GAGARIN AND THE BEGINNING OF HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT
Space Show, duration: approximately 60 min (hosted by Johannes Grenzfurthner/monochrom)

22:20: IM SCHATTEN DES MONDES – IN THE MOON’S SHADOW
(David Sington, GB/USA 2007, 99 Min)
Astronauts from the Apollo programme talk about their experiences – 40 years after flying to the moon. The documentary has won several awards and will be shown fort he first time in Austria!

Attention, comrades! Our favorite Soviet republic (surrounded by Lower Austria) is showing off their newest piece of techno-propaganda: Soviet Unterzoegersdorf: Sector II. There will be a public walkthrough for the adventure game on April 9, 8 PM at Raum D (Museumsquartier).

Link

As the story of Mike Brennan unfolds, which I am pretty sure you know very well by now, I have the strangest feeling that if you are  a foreigner in this country who is not from the USA, the UK, etc.,  you are f*cked. Seriously.

Just by looking at the number of victims before Mr. Brennan, they shared the same thing–they were all black and all of them came from Africa. Their voices were too low for the whole society to hear. Though Mr. Brennan’s case has created a buzz surrounding this awful incident, the Viennese Police’s “apology” is half-hearted.

The simple question “Is there racism in Viennese Police” from last week’s “Club 2″ was left unanswered by the head of the police. Instead we heard propaganda and beating-around-the bush declarations that they are doing their best to combat it. True, they are doing their job but why they cannot accept is that there are bad apples in the force and somehow racism exists in the structure.

Someone told me I would have a difficulty if I were an African woman. Hearing it was not easy to digest but I understood where he was coming from.  I believed him. It is not easy to be a black person in Austria. It is not easy to be a black person in the US. It is not easy to be a black person in Asia.

But over the years, I’ve been seeing a pattern on how Blacks and Latinos are portrayed in the world of videogames and Japanese animation.

The pattern that I had noticed where how Blacks were portrayed and it carried onto other fighting games. Blacks were usually portrayed as brainless boxers and wrestlers. To add a bit of diversity there were Blacks portrayed as kickboxers and capioerists. But that got pretty old after awhile, yet the Japanese still continued to portray Blacks in that fashion. That was how they stereotyped Blacks.

And if we believe the Biber article that came out weeks ago, the blacks belong at the bottom  of the ethnic hierarchy of Ausländer in Vienna.

Wieder mal die beliebte „Neger raus“-Schmiererei in der U-Bahn entdeckt? Wenn ja,  muss der „Autor“ dieser Kritzelei nicht unbedingt ein „echter“ Österreicher sein. Bei den Jugos und Türken sind die Schwarzen in der „ethnischen Hierarchie“ ganz unten angesiedelt. „Der Schwarze“ lebt ohne Papiere hier, Asylstatus abgelaufen. Er dealt mit Drogen aller Art, am Urban Loritz Platz, vorm Flex und am Karlsplatz. Sonst sitzt ist er mit seiner Gang im Volksgarten, raucht einen Ofen und macht fette Schwaboweiber an. Aufenthaltsvisum gegen Riesenschwanz, da kriegt jeder was er will.

Could it happen to Barack Obama too? Haderer has the answer. (Link via Biber)

How much longer can Vienna take this kind of weather? We demand a larger sun-and-dry/rain-and-cloudy ratio. Definitely. Analogue weather forecast for Vienna can be found here (via swissmiss). Light rain, it says. Well, at least it isn’t snow, which was even more annoying. I used past tense intentionally thinking that there won’t be any further blizzards in Vienna. This season.

It  is a good day to go for a walk today. That is if you have nothing to do and you don’t know what to do. It is funny to look at the building snow hills in front of your neighbours’ roofs while sipping your tea but perhaps going for a stroll and listening to the Vienna guides is way much better to spend your weekend.

Welttag 2009 offers free guides and lectures about Hofburg and Albertina. The history of the Habsburgs dominate, of course, the event. One of the topics includes a discussion on the plight of the female members of the dynasty. It is an interesting way to find out how the archduchesses and princesses reacted to their fates through historical facts. Some of them rebelled openly. While others went to seek their Christian gods.

And for the first time there will be guides in English, French and Spanish though you need to register first in order to avail this guide in your preferred language.

The program starts at 10. This is another way of learning and re-discovering Vienna don’t you think? You still have two hours to prepare.

For all Vienna gourmets - and probably gourmands as well - there is very good and tasty news. A second Vapiano store is about to open its doors to visitors. January 28. Looks like the location is supersekrit. Keepin’ ya posted.

On the one hand I am still praying it’s going to be somewhere in the 7th district (close to my apartment), but one other hand a Vapiano-proximity might have a bad impact on my monthly (limited!) budget. Yet, dining at Vapiano is affordable and most definitely part of my life as a student in Vienna.

This got you all hungry? Looking for ideas where to go in Vienna? Check out tupalo.com!

Update: Wien 2 turns out to be PRATERSTRASSE 24-26 . A-1020 WIEN. And guess what, a third restaurant is on its way.

This last weekend, Roboexotica - the international festival for cocktail robotics - once again took place in the Freiraum/quartier21 at Museumsquartier Vienna.

Organized by Monochrom, SHIFZ and the Bureau for Philosophy, the year 2008 marks the 10th anniversary of the festival, which not only centers on the obvious thematics around robots and drinking culture, but also goes along with a series of panel talks, events and shows.

One of the most interesting and current topics the talks were dealing with certainly was the future of technology and DIY culture. Under the title Back to the Future – of Utopias in Cybernetics and Robotics, international artists, theorists, technologists and hackers discussed the importance of gaining more and more knowledge about (reverse-)engineering consumer electronic products and the change our world is currently undergoing.

The opening party of Roboexotica 2008 started off in front of the MQ, where the 25 foot tall interactive public sound installation RoboVox by media artist Martin Bricelj, speaking out text messages it receives via SMS, was set up.

As for the festival weekend, the exposition involved several recurrent ‘classics’ such as the Robomoji by Robert Martin or the enhanced Chassis by Jon Foote and Al Honig; as well as lots of new, shiny and superb inventions like Liquidator by recurring guest Mikhael a Crest Sator or Sloth by Kal Spelletich, only to name a few.

In the context of Roboexotica, Monochrom’s Taugshow #17 was dedicated to the subject, and held at Vienna’s collaborative technology/new media lab & hackerspace Metalab, featuring Mitch Altman, founder of 3ware and inventor of TV-B-Gone and the Brain Machine; maker/hacker/teacher/artist/podcaster/puppeteer/NYCResistor & Thingiverse co-founder Bre Pettis; SF-based Geek Entertainment TV producer, documentary filmmaker and technologist Eddie Codel, Monochrom’s artist in residence of November; and Krach der Robot, who provided the audience with noisy sounds and self-made attachable mini-antennas.

The official closing event of the Roboexotica 2008 festival took place at the MQ on Sun, Dec. 07th, and Chris Janka ushered the evening with a very special high voltage music show, performed on a Tesla coil connected to his electric guitar, followed by the awards ceremony.

The winners of Roboexotica 2008’s Annual Cocktail Robot Awards, ACRA v10.0, were announced as follows:

5 ‘CLASSIC’ CATEGORIES:
Serving: Fairy Juicer (Mitch Heinrich, David Fine) and Sloth (Kal Spelletich)
Mixing: Construction Wanker and K&K Kavalier Klavier (both exhibits by students of the FH Joannum)
Conversation: Chassis (Jon Foote, Al Honig)
Fire & smoke: Temporarily suspended!
Other achievements: Rim Shot Bot (CTP) and RepRap Shotbot (Marius Kintel, Philipp Tiefenbacher, Bre Pettis)

3 SPECIAL CATEGORIES:
Human subjugation: Gina (students of the FH Joanneum)
Most legally challenging: RoboVox (Martin Bricelj)
Reproducability: Lego Shot Bot (Anthony Fudd)

LIMES:
Most spectacularily breaking robot: Sloth (Kal Spelletich)
Stickiest, ickiest: Globo (Johannes Grenzfurthner)
Most displaced in cocktail environment: Drill-pro-mill (students of the FH Joanneum)
Most politically and genderifically incorrect: Construction Wanker (students of the FH Joanneum)

Some of the exhibits (unfortunately lacking US contestants who already had to leave home) will still be on display until Fri, Dec. 12th (closing at noon) at the MQ, so if you haven’t been there yet, go have a look!

Also, on the occasion of the event’s 10th anniversary, the retrospective Roboexotica in the form of a paperback was published by Edition Mono and can be purchased via Amazon.

* * *

More info and useful links:
More photos on Flickr
Pre-Roboexotica 2008 post by Scott Beale on Laughing Squid
Post-Roboexotica 2008 post by Eddie Codel on Laughing Squid
Announcement of the Annual Cocktail Robot Award winners on SuicideBots

* * *

All photos featured above have been taken by Eddie Codel, Bre Pettis, CTP, and SHIFZ, and are released under Creative Commos License AT-NC-SA.

With temperatures approaching the sub-zeros, it is an undeniable law of physics that things cool down and result in a freezed state. Due to our ability of thermoregulation largely supported by warm fluids like Punsch and Gluehwein only enjoyable in a narrow time window (The Gluehwein’sche Zeitfenster, I like to call it), we (Wieners that is) fortunately manage to get around, don’t we?

Not so on December 19.  After several actions like Freezes, Midnight Howling(s) and such have already taken place in Vienna, yet another Freeze is planned to happen on Stephansplatz (Plaza in front of Saint Stephen’s Cathedral) in the 1st district. Similar to the Grand Central Frozen initiative our fast paced life is asked to come to a sudden halt for a couple of minutes.

Several groups have been established on social networking pages (Facebook and StudiVZ groups) asking people to join happily and then to show up eventually. Not the most reliable source of information, my journalistic self complains. On discussion boards people are requesting a reschedule and claim it has to be more “of a surprise” and “flexible”. With major media having taken notice, I’m afraid this whole “Let’s have people freeze” thing isn’t going to be much of a surprise, nor is it going to be original. Yet, it might be fun.

So are you attending? Yes? No? Maybe?

Update (posted on Dec 11, 0633pm): There seems to be more information available now. I tried to sum it up for you as follows: There is a slight change of plans… The Freeze will take place on December 19 (FRI) at 0300 pm. In order to freeze at the same time, make sure your watch is in sync with the atomic clock ticking for you on uhrzeit.org. There will be a loud whistle in order to mark the beginning and ending of the Freeze as well.

Who doesn’t want freebies? Most of all, free books?

In this time of high prices and recession one after another it is nice to know that the city of Vienna is going to distribute 100,000 free books for the masses. The program “Eine Stadt, Ein Buch” is on its seventh year, to coincide with the Lesefestwoche and the International Book Fair. I think this is Austria’s way to save one’s sanity during the darker months of November and December, read a book.

Starting today at noon Ruth Kluger’s “Weiter Leben” a story of her girlhood in the Nazi Austria, her deportation, the antisemitism that was the rage then, and the death of the family members falling as victims of the Holocaust. It is also the story of her survival, hence the phrase, “to live continually.”

November also marks the 70th anniversary of the horrible Reichskristallnacht. The actors of this era are slowly dying and a stunning 30 per cent of Austrians today, mostly young people, voted for the rightwing parties, it is time to learn something from the past and think of the future.

It’s fun to be sealed inside of one’s work compound because of a demonstration!

Or should I say that UN organization employees in the Vienna International Centre didn’t get to leave as early as they had planned on Friday because security services closed Gate 1 due to a protest.

But the mystery remains: who was out there and what were they protesting?

We’re curious.