Maker Faire: Interview with Raygun Gothic Rocketship Crew

Craft & Design

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Maker Faire Bay Area, the world’s largest DIY festival, is right around the corner, taking place at the San Mateo Fairgrounds on May 22nd and 23rd. One of the biggest new projects coming to the Faire this year is the Raygun Gothic Rocketship, pictured above and hand-crafted by a large and dedicated crew. We sent seven questions to the crew’s three lead artists, Sean Orlando, Nathaniel Taylor, and David Shulman. Here’s what they had to say.
1. Tell us about the project you’re bringing to Maker Faire.
The Raygun Gothic Rocketship is built upon a future-rustic vision of yesterday’s tomorrow. Aesthetically based on 1930s – early 1950s science fiction, the rocketship is a 41-foot-tall immersive environment, designed to carry explorers into the realm of rayguns, strange planets, and aliens, friendly or otherwise.
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With 3 habitable decks, visitors can view and interact with a variety of ships systems and alien specimens. Visitors can enter the ship via the Engine Room & Life-Sciences Bio Lab. Once inside the engine room, look down into the engine compartment to see The Uira Plasma-drive engine. Cases and cages on the walls contain various creatures we’ve collected in our travels. Check on the ships status with the Systems Monitor, or speak to the Pilot via the tele-com.
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Moving up a deck, you’ll find Crew Quarters, Navigation, Communications & Remote Sensing. Check our approach trajectories using the Neutronium Scanner, confirm our location using one of several navigational devices, or deploy a remote probe via the Hollis 9000 Remote Science System. Finally, you can climb up to the flight deck and pilots chair. Take command of the ship and prepare for launch!
Read the rest of the interview over on our sister site, makezine.com, and hope to see you at Maker Faire Bay Area!

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I'm a word nerd who loves to geek out on how emerging technology affects the lexicon. I was an editor on the first 40 volumes of MAKE, and I love shining light on the incredible makers in our community. In particular, covering art is my passion — after all, art is the first thing most of us ever made. When not fawning over perfect word choices, I can be found on the nearest mountain, looking for untouched powder fields and ideal alpine lakes.

Contact me at snowgoli@gmail.com or via @snowgoli.

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