Dorkbot #000002 Tokyo

Finally, someone posted a report on dorkbot #000002 tokyo (in Japanese). So, here’s a quick summary in English.

This dorkbot took place as “Dorkbot Hour” in bend++. bend++ is an event about bending anything (including electronic circuits.)

Anyway, the first performer of dorkbot tokyo #000002 was quarta330. He did some live music performance using colorful (bended) kid’s electronic toys as well as a sequencer made with a gameboy and a mysterious cartridge.

The second performer was Nao Tokui, he’s currently working on “Phonethica”, a unique phonetic search application. When a user inputs a word (in any language), the application retrieves words with similar pronunciations in many different languages, and then displays them as a collage. This software could potentially make the user interested in various languages in the world.

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[People watching Manabu Suzuki’s performance.]

The third performer was Manabu Suzuki. He is known to make strange DIY electronic circuits and use them for live performances. This time, he showed a device that integrates oscillator circuits with “unstable elements” such as photo sensors and water. One of his devices was a musical instrument that uses a kettle and a tub, in which electric contacts are inserted. Water running through the kettle and the tab transmits electric signals that encode sound/music. Another device integrates a water decomposition process and an electronic circuit.

The last performer was The Bread Board Band. They use bread boards (boards with lots of holes, commonly used for assembling electronic circuits.) Yes, the band uses bread boards as musical instruments. Five members play various things including an analog drum machine, iPod, PSoC (Programmable System-on-Chip), magnetic tapes, and of course bread boards. Using palm-sized bread boards, they produced extremely violent and vivid sound. In the latter half of the performance, it was even combined with intense flickering light effects in the darkness.

(based on the text by Kanta Horio)

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