I love being surprised and delighted at Maker Faire. The event in general is always one giant delightful surprise, but after being involved in the event for the past twelve years, what I remember from each event tends to be the things I wasn’t expecting, the little things, the clever and off-beat things that take me to some unexpected place.
While waiting for Mark Frauenfelder to interview YouTube maker Laura Kampf yesterday, I saw a 15 minute presentation that really tickled my need (now more intense than ever) for a little whimsy, some levity and absurdity in an increasingly dark world.
Danielle Baskin, a San Francisco-based artist who describes herself as a “professional prankster” and a “situation designer,” gave a mini presentation on her drone sweaters and sending her drones (in sweaters) on actual Tinder dates.
Drone sweaters started out as a joke. As Danielle says, it’s so easy, if you have a fun, goofy idea, to quickly create a professional-looking website, put it up, and see where it takes you. She did that with Drone Sweaters and this joke started getting serious attention, and even interest from drone owners looking to buy sweaters. So, Danielle opened up shop for real. You can get a fashionable Danielle Baskin sweater for your drone for $89.
Danielle’s next foray into fun drone foolishness was creating Tinder dating profiles for her drone. Again, she didn’t know what to expect, but she started getting matches. Within a few weeks, the drone had gotten 200 Tinder matches. And the matches started flirting(?) with her drone. Some suitors wanted to go on actual dates, so Danielle set up a viewing blind so she could see the drone (without the date seeing her). A baby monitor, hidden beneath the drone, inside the sweater (see, that sweater is handy), allowed Danielle to hear the date and respond. She even sent out at FAQ before the dates informing the drone’s suitors of proper drone dating etiquette. At least one drone dater asked for a second date.
We’ve covered Danielle’s work here on Make: before. Years ago, she was doing beautiful, hand-painted bike helmets. She’s also done projects like swag bag branded fruit (logos laser etched onto produce) that companies give out at events and sending wizards and soothsayers to the Oracle OpenWorld programming conference to read fortunes.
You can see more of Danielle’s wonderful art and pranksterism at her personal website.
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