Maker Faire is the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth — a family-friendly festival of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the maker movement.
Part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new, Maker Faire is an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and commercial exhibitors. All of these people come to Maker Faire to show what they have made and to share what they have learned.
Explore below to see the best of Maker Faire, and head to makerfaire.com for more information.
Charles Gadeken demonstrates Aperion, a large sculpture depicting a flower resting on three large leaves. Aperion is a large tesla coil which processes sound into electrical impulses. At Maker Faire Bay Area 2011 he uses an electric guitar as a controller for the massive Tesla coils that are part of Aperion. The sculpture detects the […]
Fledgling is an avian kinetic sculpture designed and built by Christian Ristow. Participants at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011 climb up the spine of a metal bird that is anatomically similar to an eagle, then sit in its head where they can pedal furiously in order to slowly move the bird’s wings in mimicry of flight.
Jeremy Mayer’s typewriter assemblages are sculptural pieces made purely from typewriter parts. In a process he calls “reassemblage”, Mayer fits the pieces together into likenesses of living creatures using no welds, glue, solder, or external parts. He taks about and shoe his work at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011.
World Maker Faire is next month in Queens, NYC, and we’re currently looking for Volunteers to help us before, during, and even after the event. That’s right the World’s Largest DIY Festival is also a DIY production in a lot of ways…
The day before Maker Faire Bay Area opened, we ran into Kurt and Bobbi Pires putting the finishing touches on a unique quadricycle in the South Lot of the fairgrounds. Dubbed Opabinia Regalis, the vehicle is named after an extinct Precambrian creature and has now been reborn as an angry, fire-spewing art bike.
During Maker Faire Bay Area 2011, we caught up with Lindsy Lawlor, creator of one of the most popular attractions at the Faire– Russell the electric giraffe. With the help of his English programmer, also named Russell, the rolling, walking, talking giraffe bot gets better every year with new sounds, touch sensors, and lights.
Brett Levine has been fascinated by fire since he was a boy, coming close to setting his house on fire several times during his learning process. His latest creation, the DIY Flame Tree, is a freeform construction of copper tubing with gaseous vents that can be lit for visual effect. Maker Faire Bay Area 2011 participants were invited to created their own additions to the work and then stand behind the fence to watch the pyrotechnic results of their labors.
