Last year at Maker Faire Bay Area on Mare Island, we came home with a picture of two awesomely masked makers. We put out a call in our Maker Faire newsletter hoping to elicit the evidently skilled makers behind these fanciful masks (see middle below) and, lo and behold, they answered. The pair were none other than Mel Ho and Kayte Sabicer, who were on a panel at Maker Faire chronicling their Bethesda Starfield Frontier Ship Build (see video below) and who not only work under their (super spy) alias MKULTRA, but also in Adam Savage’s Tested workshop. They were gracious enough to share a bit more with us about their work and we’ve kept an eye on what they’ve been up to.
In addition to their day jobs, the breadth of their skills and imagination is evident in the work they did last year for the short film Neon Vowels. They shared the delightfully retro animatronic robot they built for the film with Adam Savage on Tested’s YouTube channel last year. We checked in with them to learn more about why (and how) they do what they do.
Where are you located?
San Francisco, CA
What is your day job?
Adam Savage’s Tested.com contributors
Do you use or participate in a makerspace/fablab/hackerspace?
Adam Savage’s Cave
What kinds of stuff do you make?
MKULTRA is a design and fabrication house that specializes in creating high-quality animatronic props for the film and entertainment industry. We gravitate towards retro and handmade aesthetic with bold colors and fun electronic features. Anything creature related or psychedelic is our specialty.
How did you get started making stuff?
Mel is a multidisciplinary artist who is fascinated with robotics and animatronics. Kayte is a miniature model maker, fabricator, and paintress with a background in visual effects. When we met in 2017 in Adam Savage’s shop – we instantly bonded over shared love of all things weird, creatures, art films, and animatronics.
What is something that you’ve made that you’re really proud of?
We worked on a short film making the animatronic main character of a taco drive thru robot. It had a telescoping stand, and rotating base, the body cavity opened (for delivering food), a remote controlled head that could pan and tilt with a telescoping eye mechanism, multiple lighting features, and a robotic arm.
What is next on your project list?
We want to try some modular hanging pod creatures. But the papier-mâché masks were so much fun we’d gladly keep iterating on these as well. We tried them out walking around Maker Faire Bay Area and got such a warm response.
What is something you’d like to work with but you haven’t yet?
We are both interested in learning some metal working to be able to fabricate better structural bases for future projects. Otherwise between the two of us we’ve probably tried just about everything.
Any advice for people reading this?
Be as weird as you want to be with everything you do. Use the bold colors and the unusual subject matters. And stop waiting until you feel fully prepared to start a project. Start it now! You’ll be far happier with the imperfect finished result than a pile full of research and nothing to show for it.
Are you going to show off at a Maker Faire in the near future? If so, which one?
We don’t have any specific plans but we had such a great time at Maker Faire Bay Area and such a warm response we can’t wait until the next one comes!
You can join in the fun this October 18-20th on Mare Island in Vallejo by sending in your Maker Application now…the Call for Makers closes soon. And if you spot some masked makers, maybe you’ll be able to guess who they are!
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