The autonomous community of Galicia sits perched at the northwest corner of Spain, on the shores of the Atlantic, home to humans since the Stone Age. The capital city of Santiago de Compostela is a goldmine of historic significance, and in the past few years, the maker community there has been building on the past to forge a future ripe with creativity, innovation, and knowledge-sharing. For the third year in a row, the event at the crux will be Maker Faire Galicia, taking place on November 24–26.
The 2015 and 2016 iterations featured roughly 300 makers, drawing upwards of 24,000 attendees, bringing together established makers to form collaborations and planting the seeds of budding makers to be. The official video from last year offers a glimpse of the energy and enthusiasm of the community.
This year, the organizers — Enrique and Marcos Saavedra of Vermis Lab, Matilde Rodriguez of O Gato Cosmico, and Chus Prol of Doutroxeito Coworking — have upscaled the event even more. For starters, there is a new hosting location: the Gaiás Centre Museum at the City of Culture of Galicia, an architectural wonder that houses a complex of cultural buildings, designed to look like the surrounding hilly landscape. The second picture below shows the museum where Maker Faire Galicia will be held this year.
The team shares details of how else the Faire has grown this year:
In addition to the change of location, the 2017 edition adds one more day of programming, on Friday, November 24th. That day will be focused on the professional sector and Industry 4.0, favouring the contact between exhibitors and potential sponsors for their projects. The representatives of First Build, General Electric, and other important companies of the sector will attend the Faire, and makers will be able to show them their ideas and projects.
The weekend of the 25th and 26th, the event will remain open to the public as in previous years. This year the event will celebrate its third edition, consolidating its position as the most important of the Maker Faires of the country, both in number of makers and attendees. Maker Faire Galicia ranks among the top five with most visitors in Europe, after major cities such as Rome and Paris.
One of the objectives of the 2017 edition is to go one step further in the internationalization of the event. That is why world-renowned speakers and exhibitors will be present. One of the highlights of the Faire is the presence of Richard Stallman, who will give a talk on Sunday. With the dissemination of projects through the Maker Movement, Maker Faire Galicia seeks to increase the concern with innovation, while generating a gathering place for the transmission of knowledge between different generations.
On the Maker Faire Galicia website, you can see the lineup for the Friday Industry 4.0 event and register to attend, check out the weekend Faire schedule, and browse a number of the makers who will be exhibiting. Here is a selection to inspire you.
SATRAPA: FACTORÍA DE ANDROIDES
Satrapa makes unique handmade robot sculptures designed with recycling materials. Each piece, inspired by late 50s and early 60s comics in which men reached Mars with the help of robots, is lovingly made at the Factoría de Androides, a secret facility located in the rainy city of Compostela. Both images at the top of this blog post, as well as the one at the very bottom, are creations of Satrapa.
NACHO PORTO CERAMICS
Artist Nacho Porto has been making ceramics in the village of Cornido since 1979. Among his notable works are playful ceramic speaker docks for mobile devices. At the heart of Porto’s work is creativity and the search for varied forms of personal expression, together with the quest to learn and develop a variety of different ceramics techniques.
MINIMO SYNTHESIZER
MiniMO is an open-source, 8-bit, programmable synthesizer module that is PCB-based, 4x4x3cm in size, and runs on an ATtiny85. Power comes either from a CR2032 battery placed underneath, or from an external source up to 5.5V, and modules have a programming header that fits over the matching pins of an Arduino for plug-and-program operation.
B.R.A.I.S. (BOX OF REACTIVE AUDIO ILLUMINATION SYSTEM)
B.R.A.I.S. is a synesthetic device capable of translating rhythmic sounds in light pulses, made by Sintesis Creative Studio. This light and sound mixing table controls eight channels of 40 meters of EL wire each and makes them react with eight frequencies of a sound wave, precisely choosing where and how wide the division is and controlling each channel sensitivity. B.R.A.I.S is essentially a sound-to-electric-impulse converter.
ROBOBO
Robobo is the next generation of educational robot, featuring a mobile base to which a smartphone is attached, allowing educators to use state-of-the-art technology to carry out autonomous robotics projects in the classroom. There are also a series of applications that allow you to program Robobo easily from a computer or tablet.
KID’S KIT-CAR
Kid’s Kit-Car is a nonprofit association started at Maker Space in Bilbao, born in January 2017 with the purpose of promoting the development of technical skills in children and youth. Their goal is to create a unique ecosystem for the development of STEAM education, in which children and young people “learn by doing,” developing technical competencies while enhancing their creativity, the values of companionship, their ability to manage time and resources, economic management, and development of their communication and exposure capabilities. The builds are based around kit cars, and Kid’s Kit-Car follows the model developed by the Greenpower Education Trust in the U.K.
For all the information you need to join the community this weekend at Maker Faire Galicia, head to the website!
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