Maker Faire Milwaukee will return virtually on Oct. 13 and 21, and at Discovery World on Oct. 22 and 23. It will kick off Friday, Oct. 14 with Education Day virtual programs for middle and high school students, young adults, and educators. It featured scientists and engineers from NASA and the Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Lunabotics Team. On the day, over 650 students participating in these talks about engineering and science for space. We learned about the efforts to study the moon, Mars, and safely traverse space and return home of NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration, JAXA: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Langley Research Center, and NASA Johnson Space Center.
Check out some highlights from this weekend’s live show below!
The Curiosity Cube® is a retrofitted shipping container that we have turned into a mobile science lab. We aim to bring hands on science experiments to kids all across the country. Get curious and gutsy and learn about your microbiome at Maker Faire Milwaukee.
It wouldn’t be Maker Faire Milwaukee without a DALEK or five in the asylum. This year come meet The Dalekorn — Megan Colby’s a life size replica of a Dalek from Dr. Who but with a unicorn twist. Come hang with the Dalekorn and other replica friends in the Dalek Asylum!
Power Racing returns for 2022! After a great run of events across the country starting at our sister Faire in Sheboygan, Power Racing hits the home stretch in Milwaukee.
MUSX offers you the experience of not only seeing lighting created right in front of you, but using it to play music! We partnered with Tesla Knight Productions to bring you a theatrical performance of science and the arts!
Join Pete Prodoehl, a former Maker Faire Milwaukee producer and Milwaukee Makerspace maestro, in the dark room on a sonic journey in the dark with analog and digital synthesizers and drum machines. Sounds will be made, and sounds will be heard. Bleep, Bloops, Beeps and Beats.
On Hands film premiere - Saturday 1:30pm CT
“On Hands” is a poetic film that documents the work of 20 artists and examines the quiet power of hands and the beauty of what they create. That ability to transfer feelings into what we create with our hands is fundamental and essential to humans. Lajwanti P. Waghray (Director/Producer), is a 2022 Marquette Filmmaker Fellow producing a film on the life of Arthur Byas an 80-year-old formerly incarcerated peer support counselor. Waghray was a resident artist for ARTservancy, creating films around nature conservation, and produced a 2-minute film: Together, Alone documenting one doctor’s experience during the pandemic.
Prusa Research was founded as a one-man startup in 2012 by Josef Prusa, a Czech hobbyist, maker and inventor – and now one of the most famous names in the 3D printing industry, there are more than 700+ people working in Prusa Research
Musical Synthesizers: don’t be scared to try it!
Musical synthesizers use analog or digital electronics to create sound and can have as much complexity as you want. “Modular” synthesizers are inside-out: those dozen major components of a musical synth are broken out into separate bits you can rearrange, replace and rewire to create unique sound-making machines every time you play. Musical instruments are expensive, and boutique electronics are expensive, so when the COVID pandemic closed my day job, I looked towards Do-It-Yourself electronics.
The basic components of a musical synthesizer were patented before I was born and designs are now available freely on the internet. The workings of an electronic filter are complicated and you might want an engineering degree to work out exactly how to make one perform, but in the case of noise-making, we don’t need precision and trial and error can get us close enough.
I was inspired by the YouTuber Sam Battle, AKA Look Mum No Computer, a reference to what crazy things you can build with really basic components. His motto said after every video, “don’t be scared to try it!” shows us that for the cost of burning up a few pennies worth of resistors and capacitors you can get an intuitive education on electronics design. All it takes is perseverance.
Initial circuits are soldered messes of wire. When they get too complicated, the transition to printed circuit boards is straightforward with free computer-aided drafting software and very cheap overseas fabrication services. They have a minimum order count of 5 or 10 boards, and I found myself duty-bound to set up a website to detail build instructions for anyone who gets a hold of a copy of one of my PCBs. Thus Karltron synthesizer company was born. Karltron.com sells circuit boards and parts kits to the DIY synthesizer community and assembled modules to musicians who appreciate unique hardware.
As a person who makes things in the Milwaukee community, I want to show the public both how electricity can be fun, and how sound synthesis works. I hope it inspires you that it’s not impossible to really make something you may have thought was intensely complicated just a few years ago.More on Karl Stamm in our Maker Spotlight
Sam Makes is a small maker YouTube channel. This year i made a real life functional Pokedex that identifies real life objects. Powered by a Raspberry Pi and OpenCV. I would love to share this awesome project with fellow makers!
UWM Print Club students will offer “steamroller printing”. Emerging artists will carve, ink, and print colossal woodcuts using an asphalt roller in place of a traditional press. We will also offer free make-n-take block printing activities.
Meet more makers HERE or on the floor of the Discovery World Museum!
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