Maker Faire

 

At maker Faire on Saturday, there were three projects I really liked:

 

1. The Most Useless Machine EVER!

This was made by Brett Coulthard from Canada. His machine is quite simple, when a person turns the switch on, the box opens and a small hook comes out and turns the switch off, then slowly retreats back into the box. I found this box to be really amuzing, and I kept turnign the switch on, as if I could somehow out wit the box. It reminded me a lot of human behavior, how we can constantly do the same thing hoping for a different outcome. Also the mechanism and machine was super simple, but really effective.

2. flipbookit

This was a beautiful art piece turned open-source kit made by Mark, Steve, and Wendy. Its actually on kickStarter now, in order to create it into a sellable kit. The aesthetics were beautiful; touching on the current trend of nostalgia and analog machines, they created these illustrated flip books housed in industrial metal boxes. The kind of thing you would want hanging on your wall. I really liked the way they set up three next to eachother, so that the story continued from one book to the next. Very captivating.

 

       

3. Solar Symphony

I’ve worked with photo sensor cells to play with the sound of light, but I think Solar Symphony really took this idea a lot further. Created by Chris Kaczmarek,  he uses very small solar panels (that almost look like blown glass) to gain solar energy, and power circuits which create sound. Each of his objects were aesthetically different (though a lot of them used metal dowels) and also created different sounds. I was really drawn to the small egg installation, because although difficult to hear, it made a strong impact watching the delicate eggshells.