Heading to Artbots this week in Dublin, Ireland (my old stompin grounds!), where Kaki and I will be running one of our MIDI Scrapyard Challenge events during the 3-day festival! Should be a fun event with projects ranging from the industrial dj-spinning Jukebots to Garnet Hertz’s “Cockroach-controlled Mobile Robot #2” (pictured) which “uses a living Madagascan hissing cockroach atop a modified trackball to control a three-wheeled mobile robot. Infrared sensors also provide navigational feedback to the insect to create a semi-intelligent system, with the cockroach as the robot’s CPU.”. Also in the show is Sabrina Raaf’s “Translator II: Grower” that “responds to the carbon dioxide levels in the air by drawing varying heights of ‘grass’ on the walls in green ink”. This years show takes place in a church in Dublin which are about as ubiquitous there as pubs are.. so it should make for an interesting venue! My full report will be up on Rhizome after the event is through.