In its 2nd year of production by South Korean media outlet Bloter & Media, the 7th edition of Maker Faire Seoul will take place this coming weekend, September 29 & 30, at the Oil Reservoir Culture Park. A unique performance and exhibition space that highlights the ethos of the Maker Movement, the new location is a disused oil depot transformed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government into a public space—simultaneously preserving the historically important site and raising awareness about sustainability and urban regeneration. This year’s show will feature 150 Maker teams—made up of over 400 individual makers—exhibiting their projects. Last year, over 10,000 attendees enjoyed Maker Faire Seoul and, given the buzz throughout the community, the production team expects this year to draw an even bigger crowd.
Here’s a walkthrough of Maker Faire Seoul 2017 to give you an idea of the scope of projects.
Kart Adventure by the FabBros.
Back by popular demand, Maker Faire Seoul 2018 will host the 2nd year of Kart Adventure, a DIY electric kart racing game (think, Korea’s version of Power Racing Series) brought by FabBros. The 12 selected teams have created vehicles bound by a series of rules, including building a vehicle for under 500,000 won (about $450). The Maker Faire Seoul audience will vote for the “Best Design Award.”
Here’s a preview of what to expect featuring last year’s contestants:
Garage M.
From automobiles to ships and submarines to helicopters and satellites, Garage M. makes anything that moves. The group launched its new makerspace in April 2018 in a remote factory in Gongju-si, a small city about 1.5 hours from Seoul and an ideal place to build large projects. The team, lead by Jung Hyun Song and Sung-min Lee (who created the first handmade sports car, Spirra, in South Korea), have taken projects as far afield as Maker Faire Nantes and participated in Maker Faire Seoul 2017 with a cardboard dinosaur car for children. This year’s project, which has a final destination at the Bridgestone World Solar car Challenge in Australia in August 2019, combines the Korean paper craft of Hanji with autonomous driving and solar technology in one vehicle.
MECHAND by Jang-ho Kim
Inspired by Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) and Lucius Fox (aka Batman’s business manager), 3D printing specialist Jang-ho Kim dreams of creating a full-body superhero suit. For his first run as an exhibitor, he is bringing MECHAND, which transforms a glove into a mechanical hand, and ‘ARM_BAG’, which transforms a bag into a full length robot arm. Visitors to Maker Faire Seoul 2018 will also have the opportunity to test ARGIOPE, a four-legged robot equipped with a rubber band gun that can also be transformed into a robot arm.
Exp. D & A
Father-son maker team Seong-yun Park and Chong-jong Park—aka Exp. D & A—are back at Maker Faire Seoul (last year they brought Miniature Reality) with their Lunar Exploring Robot, made of a novel plastic material called Plaplus, ultrasonic senors, and equipped with goggles so that users can become as lunar explorers. Engineer, Seong-yun, and coder, Chong-jong, work together toward the ultimate goal of building an autonomous mobile robot.
Upcycle Classic Car
Suk-bong Kang is bringing his project Upcycle Classic Car to Maker Faire Seoul this year and sharing his experience of “riding” it from Cheonan to Seoul, a distance of 84 kilometers which he estimates will take about 8 hours. Inspired by a classic car he saw on a trip to New Zealand, he will upcycle a 1906 Ford Model N by equipping it with several bicycle frames.
Haja Center’s Life Bike Project
Makers Vigoro and Natsu from the Seoul Municipal Youth Work Experience Center Haja Center are bring the Life Bike Project to Maker Faire Seoul 2018 with the hope of shifting bicycle culture in Korea toward transportation for daily life. Out of this idea the ‘Social Innovation Living Lab Project’ of Seoul City was born—an experiment on how to make better use of bicycles in urban life
These projects, along with many more, await you at this year’s Maker Faire Seoul. For all the information you need to attend, check out the website!
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