Dorkbot San Francisco: Todd Blair Fundraiser :: October 10, 2007; 7:30 pm :: Kyle Minor Design, Pier 33 (walk till the very end of the pier), Embarcadero @ Bay, San Francisco CA :: (415) 399 9333.

Machine artist Todd Blair suffered a catastrophic brain injury after the recent Survival Research Laboratories performance in Amsterdam. Todd has not awoken since the accident and remains in an Amsterdam hospital surrounded by family and friends. To help with his medical expenses and recovery, Karen Marcelo has organized a special Dorkbot-San Francisco. Speakers include Ken Goldberg, Eric Paulos, Mark Pauline, Joe Grand, Steven Lassovszky, Monochrom. There will also be an auction.

Todd Blair has worked in multiple capacities on a wide range of creative projects, designing, fabricating, managing, and implementing technology-based interactive artworks and exhibitions for nearly 20 years. These have included a diverse range of public artworks, museum projects, performances, installations, workshops, and festivals as well as his own work, all with a special focus on the convergence of art, technology, interactive media, emerging genres, and cross-disciplinary art practices.

Recently he was awarded a public art commission for the city of Oakland, for which he is developing a responsive sculpture that visualizes the energy of the estuarine tidal flow. Todd oversaw the acquisition, design, and fabrication of 40 innovative artworks for phaeno, a science center designed by Zaha Hadid that opened in 2005 in Wolfsburg, Germany. He has served as a creative consultant and fabricator for numerous North American and European artists, including Lynn Hershman, Chico McMurtrie, Survival Research Labs, Gordon Monahan, Jim Whiting, Laura Kikauka, and Just Merritt, to name only a few. He was also the program director and part of the curatorial team for Rearview Mirror to Reality, part of the 1996 Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria. He is Adjunct Professor, Media Arts, Sculpture, and Interdisciplinary Studies.BA, University of Kansas.