Hanging with Frank Gehry: Seattle Mini Maker Faire 2014

This was the third annual Seattle Mini Maker Faire, but the first one ever at the Experience Music Project (EMP).

The EMP is housed in an outrageous Frank Gehry-designed building just under the Space Needle in the Seattle Center. Gehry is known for violating all the right-angle rules about what we know as a “building.” So quite a fitting context for a Maker Faire, if you consider maker culture and its preferred mode of boundary-stretching.

Over 35 quality maker exhibits were programmed in 6 different spaces throughout the building, as well as a presentation lineup in the theater.  Not sure yet on numbers of attendees, but it’s clear it’s in the thousands. Take a peek of the fun that was had:

The main hall in the EMP held about 15 maker exhibits and one of the world’s largest HD LED screens.

Motion Sickness’ open source cinematic robot is the most affordable way on the market to achieve pixel-perfect repeatable motion. Great news for animators & moving time lapse makers. motionsick.org

Monty Reed’s robotic exoskeleton-as-physical-therapy project was born after Monty suffered a parachuting accident. http://bit.ly/1gsroRC

Awesome EMP stairway turned Battlestar Gallactica with simple runs of EMT conduit and some neon.

Forest Field Interactive dance troupe offered up EEG headbands with which you could team-control a quadcopter. http://bit.ly/1dIABzC

Ed Ivory started his laser cutting business after attending Maker Faire Bay Area 2013. He works out of FabLab Tacoma, a 100+ member makerspace.

Suspension of Disbelief with a little preview of their 40’x40′ knit rope play structure that is being made for this year’s Burning Man festival. http://bit.ly/1dqKuHI

Strike Models’ remote control battleships are armed with BB cannons powered by C02 or air tanks. http://www.strikemodels.com/

Darcy Paulin, Vancouver OpenROV contributor, brought down his depth-test camera module (the vertical cylinder). With Eric Stackpole, OpenROV co-founder. openrov.com

Faire organizer Christin Boyd a fantastic co-host with her own bug helmet. Note huge Twitter feed on view—fun to watch the impressions roll by!

Seattle scupltor Trimpin is a renowned master maker. His “If VI Was IX: Roots and Branches” is a permanent install at the EMP. Photo courtesy thetravelchica.com

Research Forester Peter Gould of Olympia Circuits showed his SODA Dendrologger—an Arduino powered, inexpensive, high-quality device to measure diameter growth of trees. olympiacircuits.com

Todd Schlemmer’s 3Dprinted pinhole cameras are super cool. This one in front is his P6*6—a medium format film camera that has a working winder and film index window. @theschelm

Roman Mach’s Arduino-powered Autonomous Toy Train was built just for the Seattle Mini Maker Faire.

HIveBio’s Smartphone Microscope Kit, a simple way to turn your phone into a 175X light microscope. From Seattle’s biohacking community lab. http://hivebio.org/

Koji Allen (right) and intern showed and worked on his DIY SuperCar. Watch for Koji’s forthcoming book, “The Working Man’s Guide to Auto Design.” http://on.fb.me/Q9lZnV

EMP building by Frank Gehry (2000). Photo by memoirsofasingledad.com.

Congrats to the independent Seattle MIni Maker Faire team at Penny University, a Seattle non-profit, who have developed the show to the point that is seems ready to blossom.  Looking forward to seeing what happens in 2015!