January 17, 2006 When Art and Science Collide, a Dorkbot Meeting Begins By BRIAN BRAIKER

The artists may have ceded SoHo to swanky shops and million-dollar digs, but once a month the scene at one of its remaining galleries might best be described as Revenge of the Nerds.

On a recent Wednesday, "dorkbot" was holding the first meeting of its sixth year at the Location One gallery. Scruffy hipsters toting six-packs, blinky Web developers arguing the merits of their preferred P.D.A. and an inordinate number of dreadlocked heads packed the gallery beyond capacity to hear three brief, charmingly unpolished lectures.

Founded five years ago by Douglas Repetto, the director of research at Columbia University's computer music center, dorkbot is an informal club of artists, techies and geeks who do "strange things with electricity,"[...]