Battlestar Galactica contest – DVICE, SCIFI.COM, MAKE present the “Make a Cylon” contest – Cylons Tricia Helfer (Number Six) and Grace Park (Boomer) will judge!

Battlestar Galactica contest – DVICE, SCIFI.COM, MAKE present the “Make a Cylon” contest – Cylons Tricia Helfer (Number Six) and Grace Park (Boomer) will judge!

Makecylon2
Makers, we’re so excited about this Battlestar Galactica contest with DVICE, SCIFI and MAKE!

DVICE, SCIFI.COM & MAKE present the “Make a Cylon” contest Cylons Tricia Helfer (Number Six) and Grace Park (Boomer) will judge!

The Cylons were created by the people of the Twelve Colonies. Intelligent robots, they were used as slaves and soldiers to fight humanity’s wars. But the Cylons became sentient and they rebelled. Man and machine fought to a bloody stalemate, then the Cylons withdrew to a remote region of space. A truce between the Twelve Colonies and the Cylons lasted for 40 tense and silent years. Then, on the 40th anniversary, a stunning blonde – a Cylon in human form – met the human envoy … moments before the Cylons vaporized the station and launched a genocidal attack on the Twelve Colonies.

Now DVICE, SCIFI.COM and MAKE are giving you the opportunity to create (or re-create) the Cylons for fun, a chance to win prizes, and the possibility of seeing your creation on the Sci Fi Channel.

HOW TO ENTER
“Make” a Cylon: Use whatever you like: blinking lights for eyes, metal armor as a costume, toasters … anything to show the world that you’re a Cylon maker. The only caveat is that it has to be something physical (no Photoshop/art entries). Your Cylon can be of the humanoid or robotic variety, real or abstract, or anything else you can think of. We’ll also accept entries for creations in the general Battlestar universe (ships, devices, etc.), although our preference is for Cylons.

To enter make your Cylon or Battlestar “related project” and put photos/videos online. If you use Flickr and Youtube tag your project with “dvicemakecylon” and add it to the MAKE magazine Flickr photo pool.

Or just email a link to the project(s) or photos to:
dvicemakecylon@gmail.com

PRIZES
The best entry or entries will be featured on the Sci Fi Channel. Other prizes include:

  • Battlestar Galactica DVD box sets for seasons 1, 2 and 3 Battlestar
  • T-shirts, posters and other exclusive schwag
  • 10 MAKE year one box sets signed by the MAKE team!

JUDGING
Cylons Tricia Helfer (Number Six) and Grace Park (Boomer) will judge the entries.

RESOURCES
You can design your Cylon any way you want, but here is an “open source” kit that makers have used to make things more “Cylon-y”.

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Cylon MiniPOV kit – The MiniPOVs were created by AdaFruit Industries. They Rebelled. They Evolved. And now, they may be invading your planet. This special version of the MiniPOV has the custom firmware from Evil Mad Scientists which makes the MiniPOV a Cyclon POV – blinking lights now pulse back and forth!

Each week on DVICE, SCIFI.COM & MAKE we’ll have examples, projects and ideas for building your own Cylon, you can enter as many times as you wish.

DEADLINE:
Last submission by the mid-season finale, winner announced the following Monday.

20 thoughts on “Battlestar Galactica contest – DVICE, SCIFI.COM, MAKE present the “Make a Cylon” contest – Cylons Tricia Helfer (Number Six) and Grace Park (Boomer) will judge!

  1. Vrogy says:

    “DEADLINE: Last submission by the mid-season finale”

    I don’t, err, watch TV.. when is that?

  2. Phillip Torrone says:

    we’ll post exact dates, i’m not sure either – i will watch tv for this though :)

  3. Erik says:

    I like BSG. I like MAKE. I don’t particularly like this contest, though, because this kind of commercial cross-promotion compromises the rebel spirit of MAKE. It’s all way off-brand.

    Phil’s subtle encouragement to watch TV in his comment is far from inspiring as well.

    If this trend (no Bre, ads embedded in weekend projects) continues, the “real” makers (if you haven’t already trademarked that term) will have to start their own grassroots spin-off of MAKE that does a better job of reflecting the core values of our community.

    Choose your next moves carefully, folks. I like it here, but I don’t like where this place is heading.

  4. Phillip Torrone says:

    @Erik – you don’t need to watch tv to do this contest and you don’t need to do this contest, it’s a fun way to get *more* people to make things – that’s the point. we had a flickr contest, we have contests all the time – this time we have an even larger (potential) audience that might make things, this is *good*

    cylons have been around since the 70’s – the winner of our halloween contest 2 years ago was a cylon pumpkin. it would be unfortunate for us if we didn’t find new ways to get more makers here – science fiction is a good way. dozens of makers wrote in and told us about arthur c. clarke passing away and how his books and film adaption inspired them.

    just to be clear, i don’t own a tv, but i do like bsg – it’s the last show i watch (before i was buying it on itunes). when it comes out again, i’ll buy it or watch it on the gym tv. i hope that clears it up, but if it didn’t – i want people to make cool things with electronics, if this inspires them great – 99% of tv is awful, please build a tv-b-gone, thanks :)

    there’s no trademark on makers, so please don’t punish us for something we didn’t do. bre went to work for etsy, etsy is a commercial site – they make money from each item on the site – they just received $27 million in funding. making money by supporting diy isn’t a bad thing is it? should they give that money back? an ad from radioshack in a video or us trying to one day break even from our videos isn’t bad either, right now we don’t make enough money to fund the videos on their own, never have — should we stop? will you fund them, know anyone? :)

    you don’t need to like everything on make, but i’d like you to consider that getting more people here is a good thing and if science fiction is one way, i think that’s pretty cool. we don’t get any money from scifi/bsg for this – we’re doing it because it’s fun.

  5. Abe S. says:

    “right now we don’t make enough money to fund the videos on their own, never have — should we stop?”

    Yes, please.

    They show up 3-4 times in the RSS feed, which I can filter, but it’s more effort to filter the feed than it is to drop the subscription.

    The appeal of an RSS feed (and really any electronic text) to me is that it can be consumed at any rate, at any time, is searchable, and is information-dense, in terms of information per unit time or area. Video has none of these benefits. The only advantage of video is that it is somewhat fashionable right now to put videos on the Internet.

    Videos are also performance-centric, rather than information-centric. If I want a performace, I know where the nearest theater is. If I want information, I don’t want to sit through a performance to get it, I want the information.

    If it’s breaking the bank to do the videos, then by all means, stop. I’d rather have no videos than no Make at all, and I’d also rather have no videos, full stop.

    “ad from radioshack in a video or us trying to one day break even from our videos isn’t bad either”

    No, it is not bad, in the sense that it’s not immoral. If a free market will support you doing videos in some way (ads, product placement, pay-per-view), then I won’t condemn your decision to do so. However, as the videos have no value to me, I won’t exchange things of value to me (time, money, mindshare) for them. Much of RadioShack’s product line falls into the same category, so I suppose it’s a good match.

  6. Phillip Torrone says:

    >>They show up 3-4 times in the RSS feed, which I can filter, but it’s more effort to filter the feed than it is to drop the subscription.

    what RSS reader do you use? no one else has complained about this, we’ll look in to it.

    >>The appeal of an RSS feed (and really any electronic text) to me is that it can be consumed at any rate, at any time, is searchable, and is information-dense, in terms of information per unit time or area. Video has none of these benefits. The only advantage of video is that it is somewhat fashionable right now to put videos on the Internet.

    we’ve been doing videos for over 3 years, it’s a good way to show a project and hopefully people will build it or consider subscribing to the magazine.

    the latest video showed how to make fireballs that shoot from your hands, good in print (MAKE 13) better in video with print.

    >>Videos are also performance-centric, rather than information-centric. If I want a performace, I know where the nearest theater is. If I want information, I don’t want to sit through a performance to get it, I want the information.

    maybe videos aren’t for you, you don’t need to watch the videos on MAKE – in my RSS reader there are hundreds of videos, i only watch maybe 2-3.

    >>If it’s breaking the bank to do the videos, then by all means, stop. I’d rather have no videos than no Make at all, and I’d also rather have no videos, full stop.

    it’s not breaking the bank (yet) we’re going to continue to do them.

    >>No, it is not bad, in the sense that it’s not immoral. If a free market will support you doing videos in some way (ads, product placement, pay-per-view), then I won’t condemn your decision to do so. However, as the videos have no value to me, I won’t exchange things of value to me (time, money, mindshare) for them. Much of RadioShack’s product line falls into the same category, so I suppose it’s a good match.

    luckily we have a few sponsors that are trying to serve the make community, i think it’s great a brand like radioshack sponsored us, so far 1 ad appeared in 1 video – i don’t think that’s bad.

  7. Abe S. says:

    @Erik:

    Make is a product that is sold to you. The rebel spirit is a brand, but it’s a sucessful one and one that is largely perceived as sincere.

    The folks at Make make a large amount of material available for free, which helps with the perceived sincerity of the branding (and is awesome), but at the end of the day, if you don’t like the product, don’t buy it.

    Like you say, DIY is inherently a DIY thing. I wish you the best of luck with your spinoff, and if it’s better than Make, I’ll buy it instead.

  8. Abe S. says:

    >> what RSS reader do you use? no one else has complained about this, we’ll look in to it.

    Google Reader, in Firefox, on Linux. I haven’t checked if the RSS feed XML actually has multiple copies, or if it’s some missparse at Google’s end.

    >> the latest video showed how to make fireballs that shoot from your hands, good in print (MAKE 13) better in video with print.

    good/better is a value judgement. I like print better, but, of course, that’s just me. De gustibus non disputandem.

    >> maybe videos aren’t for you, you don’t need to watch the videos on MAKE – in my RSS reader there are hundreds of videos, i only watch maybe 2-3.

    They aren’t, I don’t.

    >> it’s not breaking the bank (yet) we’re going to continue to do them.

    Good to know. You keep making them, I’ll keep not watching them :-).

    >> luckily we have a few sponsors that are trying to serve the make community, i think it’s great a brand like radioshack sponsored us, so far 1 ad appeared in 1 video – i don’t think that’s bad.

    “Bad” is an interesting choice of word. I don’t feel that advertising is immoral (one use of “bad”). I do think that it decreases the value to me of the stuff that it’s supporting (decreased value is also “bad”). I don’t pay for things with ads in them (obviously moot in this case, since I don’t pay for or watch the videos and am not being asked to). I concurr that sponsorship from a large corporation is a good thing, in that it increases money going to support things that I do value, such as this site (less the videos, obviously :-).

    The problem is rather, brand management, and avoiding the appearance of money-grubbing. Everyone knows that Make magazine is a product that is sold to make money for a corporation. There is nothing “bad” or “wrong” about this. “Business” isn’t a moral category. If, however, the customers have managed to sell it to themselves as a sort of stick-it-to-the-man resistance movement, there is a dissonance between what they wanted to buy and the fact that it’s a thing they can buy.

  9. Phillip Torrone says:

    >>Google Reader, in Firefox, on Linux. I haven’t checked if the RSS feed XML actually has multiple copies, or if it’s some missparse at Google’s end.

    you can download the RSS feed, it’s one item.

    >>”Bad” is an interesting choice of word. I don’t feel that advertising is immoral (one use of “bad”). I do think that it decreases the value to me of the stuff that it’s supporting (decreased value is also “bad”). I don’t pay for things with ads in them (obviously moot in this case, since I don’t pay for or watch the videos and am not being asked to). I concurr that sponsorship from a large corporation is a good thing, in that it increases money going to support things that I do value, such as this site (less the videos, obviously :-).

    thanks, we try and only work with companies that are part of the MAKE world, i don’t think nike will be sponsoring a video where we blow up something any time soon.

    >>The problem is rather, brand management, and avoiding the appearance of money-grubbing. Everyone knows that Make magazine is a product that is sold to make money for a corporation. There is nothing “bad” or “wrong” about this. “Business” isn’t a moral category. If, however, the customers have managed to sell it to themselves as a sort of stick-it-to-the-man resistance movement, there is a dissonance between what they wanted to buy and the fact that it’s a thing they can buy.

    i don’t see why you can’t make a great business, make money to pay people, be independent and “stick it to the man” – i’m pretty sure based on the cheers and jeers i personally get from my antics, projects and things i like to write about we’re doing a good job doing all those things, or at least trying. one of the reasons i work for make is that we’re independent, dale is the publisher tim is the ceo (that’s it), they’re great to work with and we’re free to do what we enjoy and help makers get their projects out there and share information – sometimes people don’t like what we do and the things we write about, but that’s ok – there’s room for everyone.

  10. Abe S. says:

    >> i don’t see why you can’t make a great business, make money to pay people, be independent and “stick it to the man” – i’m pretty sure based on the cheers and jeers i personally get from my antics, projects and things i like to write about we’re doing a good job doing all those things, or at least trying.

    We appear to be in violent agreement.

    Make produces content that is of value. I’m hardly going to take it personally that people want to get paid for their work (Value for value, as I’ve been going on about in my previous posts).

    >> one of the reasons i work for make is that we’re independent, dale is the publisher tim is the ceo (that’s it), they’re great to work with and we’re free to do what we enjoy and help makers get their projects out there and share information – sometimes people don’t like what we do and the things we write about, but that’s ok – there’s room for everyone.

    Independent from what? I’m hardly saying that Make is funded by kickbacks from corrupt senators in the pocket of Clear Channel Communications and the Trilateral Commission.

    My thesis is simply this: If you produce something people like, they may “pay” (in time, money, whatever) to get it. If people don’t like videos, they won’t watch them, and the value of the videos to advertisers will drop. I don’t like videos, so they are not a way to get at my money. Other people may like them, so it may end up profitable for Make in the long run.

    Since it’s not losing you money at a catastrophic rate, my dislike of videos isn’t enough to get you to stop making them or adding them to the RSS feed. I don’t run the site, so it’s not my decision, but I’ve made my opinion on the matter known (in response to what appeared to be a direct question). Like you say, I don’t have to watch them. Also as you point out, I can get the RSS feed and fold, spindle, and mutiliate it to get whatever I want, or more precicsely, not get what I don’t want. It may be more effort, but hey, if you can’t get exactly what you want, make it!

    I feel that video has the disadvantages I listed above as a way of conveying information, which has nothing to do with the running of corporations or the relative anarchaic tendancies of any particular publication. My opinion of Make (positive) doesn’t change my opinon of online video (kill it with fire).

    Do you get an e-mail every time I post some longwinded tirade in favor of free markets in a hijacked thread that was ostensibly about a contest?

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