Maker Faire!

Only the coolest faire ever!

I came out of Maker Faire wired with excitement, inspired to the gills, and ready to make – make – make! I felt at home, I thought I was born in just the right time to experience the fruition of this culture. The culture of the makers and the breakers, where art and science are one, where a science museum shows off the vitality that it attempts to explain. The museum oozed with imagination, everyone was happy to be there together, participating in a huge show and tell. I was inspired to culminating some ideas that have been brewing in my brain for a while, like the sound sculpture albums, and the rain room, and the photo-sound performance wall. In a way I wished I had my own project there, but I am glad I had free reign to explore and find all the knickkancks, experiments, and projects. I loved so much of it, it was hard to pick just 3 to talk about. So to do the rest of the projects justice, I will post pictures of the rest.

Interfaces:

1) Swinging in the Rain

The most amazing, beautiful, poetic piece in Maker Faire NY 2011. This swing set had a curtain of rain that would switch off as the swing would pass directly under the curtain. This work reminds me of a piece I’ve been wanting to make for a while now, a rain room that partitions the rain as you walk through. As far as interfaces, this is the most successful blissful work. Though I dared not to try it, since I saw a few girls get wet. I think the switches were not always working properly. Regardless of the switches, if it wasn’t for the cold or the line, I would have loved to swing by.

2) Imaging Scope

This piece created by Luis Violante is also endearing to me, since I have an utter fascination with microscopes. I’ve had one since I was a kid. In the Imagine Scope, Violante used a mini projector to play movies through the microscope viewfinders. The slides each had a magnetic chip that one could scan by placing it under the lens. Then depending on the slide you picked a movie would play. This interface is successful in many ways. Conceptually, it is taking the situation of watching films and redirecting it to a different point of view, perspective. It invites us to analyze these short films as carefully as biological specimens in a petri dish. Also I find the use of the mini projector a very clever way of displaying affection to the miniature world. This piece is just fantastic, the video selection was wonderful. I had the delight to see a compilation of  images collected from one of the earliest space explorers.

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 ArcAttack-

This Austin band is so cool. They use 4 huge  tesla coils to amplify their sound. I had seen a video of their performance before, and luckily got the opportunity to dee them live at maker faire. The only disappointing aspect, was that instead of having a band member in chain maille and armor conducting the band between the 2 coils, they had a metal cage. Members of the audience were invited to hang out in the electrocuted cage for the duration of a song- and honestly  this was boring. It made a spectacle of a perfectly awesome band.