I know we haven’t been keeping you peeps updated nearly enough. Let me make it up to you… we’re going to (at least) THREE shindigs soon!

First up, we’re going to Yuri’s Night at NASA Ames (http://sf.yurisnight.net/) Saturday April 12th from 2pm-2am!! They’re so excited to see us that we even got nice billing on some recent invitation emails. Groovy!

Next… we’re performing at this little music festival thing in SoCal. You’ve probably never heard of it. It’s called Coachella. Yessire! That’s right, 6 shiny metal orbs will be bounding around at the Coachella Music Festival (http://www.coachella.com/) Friday April 25th-27th! And us swarm-herders get to rub elbows with a bevy of music and art greats!

There’s talk about the orbs rolling to other festivals but it hasn’t been totally lined up yet so I don’t want to set the bar too too high. :-)

If SoCal is too far to go to catch orby delights, you’ll ALSO find us at Maker Faire (http://makerfaire.com/) Saturday May 3-4 in San Mateo.

Keep em rollin’!
Lee for SWARM

From Coreyfro:

While NASA is still bragging about teleoperated robots such as DEXTRE, DARPA continues to push the boundaries on autonomous robotics.

That’s because NASA nerds (or, well, two of us here at Ames, and technically, I’m a contractor) make autonomous robots for fun in our free time!

Auto choreographing, music composing, and light show generating orbs of gleaming aluminum!

Come see Orb Swarm at Yuri’s Night!

Legs? PFT! Legs are SOOOOO Precambrian era!

There is a tentative agreement for SWARM to attend the Coachella music festival this April  25-27th in Southern California!

More info as it becomes available!

Here’s some SWARM Glamour Shots that Mark Alexander shot. It’s mid-August at the Box Shop

The machine art community in the Bay Area is one of the most vibrant scenes in the world. We’ve benefited enormously from our talented friends and colleagues in the area. Now it’s time to give back: we will be appearing on two consecutive nights at the SomArts gallery, to benefit two very worthy causes. Here’s the scoop:

Who: Those mavens of lipstick and accelerants, The Flaming Lotus Girls

What: A Gallery Show Fundraiser for the FLG’s!

When: Friday, November 30th, 2007, 7pm-1am

Where: Somarts Gallery 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco

Why: Because YOU want to see more super giant fire art!

Come join the hot ladies (and gentlemen) of the world-famous Flaming
Lotus Girls fire art group for an evening of art, flame and fabulous
outfits.

Over 40 different photographers and a handful of local artists have
donated their art for a silent auction benefiting the FLG’s, so they
can continue their quest for world domination through stainless steel
and kerosene.

The rest of the world deserves to see The Serpent Mother in all of her
168-foot majesty. Come enjoy the all the art and make this and other
amazing projects possible!

See more at http://www.flaminglotus.com

And also this the very next night:

The Blue & Green Ball – fundraiser for Todd Blair
Saturday, Dec 1st
SoMarts Gallery
934 Brannan Street
SF, CA
8pm – 1am
$10

Todd Blair is an artist extraordinaire, producer, curator and teacher
at California College of the Arts who needs your help. Todd was
injured in a tragic forklift accident in September at an arts festival
in Amsterdam where he was working as part of the Survival Research
Labs team. His condition remains serious and his recovery long. Todd
is still in recovery at a hospital in Amsterdam.

The “Blue & Green Ball” fundraiser for Todd will be held Saturday,
December 1st at SomArts Gallery, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco,
CA. The event will take place from 8pm – 1am, entry fee is $10.

Entertainment will include DJ Vordo, Gibson Pearl Bellydancing, Art by
the Flaming Lotus Girls, Electromechanical, robotic, and interactive
art and more! There will also be a Live Auction of selected Fine Art,
Talent, and Collectibles. As part of this event, there will be a Shopping
Bazaar- including lots of unique crafts and art. Food and cocktails will
also be available.

Event website: http://srl.org/shows/events/todd/

Come join the SWARMies. No really, it’s just a mailing list to keep you up-to-date with SWARM performances and parties.
Sign up here: http://orbswarm.com/swarmies.php

A little too early to confirm, but there are rumors of a serendipitous SWARM at the Flaming Lotus Girls fundraiser. Should be a great time for a good cause, so see you there!

We created and submitted a video for the VIDA 10.0 international competition.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

VIDA 10.0 is an international competition created to reward excellence in artistic creativity in the fields of Artificial Life and related disciplines, such as robotics and Artiftcial Intelligence.We are looking for artistic projects that address the interaction between “synthetic” and “organic” life”.

In previous years prizes have been awarded to artistic projects using autonomous robots, avatars, recursive chaotic algorithms, knowbots, cellular automata, computer viruses, virtual ecologies that evolve with user participation, and works that highlight the social side of Artificial Life.

This video is also available on Youtube.

A high quality version can be downloaded (mpeg4, 1kbps, 74megabytes)

A (0.5 gb) DVD quality version of this video is also available for the asking.

I linked them back to the Flickr pages from whence they came… go there to see more

So we’re all set to give a short presentation at Ignite SF on Tuesday 10/16 at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco. It looks like it will be something like Dorkbot on meth: presenters are limited to 5 minute talks and 15 seconds per slide. As you might expect of something organized by O’Reilly, a lot of the cool kids will be there. Come and join them, oh and us too!

Details here.