Medium: Since Maker Faire Bay Area, I have had the privilege of participating in vibrant Maker Faires in Barcelona, Xi’an (in China), Singapore, Tokyo, and Moscow. Also, during that time, we did something of a test-run of a Maker Faire in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Maker Faires have spread around the world — over 200 this year in 40 countries. This weekend the World Maker Faire takes place in New York City for the eighth time.
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I LOVE the Maker Faire events. Although I have never been to one, I had the chance to explore a Maker Faire spin-off event as a part of the National Jamboree this past summer, and I'm dying to go to one. For much of my childhood, I was set on being an inventor, because I loved being able to create functional and creative contraptions and loved making thing with my hands. Honestly, the creative aspect of this past-time is probably what drew me to go into theatre rather than the STEM field. Maker Faires are a giant event of creative minds showcasing their contraptions and getting the public involved with it. What rang out as very true to me in this article was this: "Every child should have this experience for themselves. It opens their eyes and their minds. This is not something that they will experience on television or iPads. Or learn at school". I was very lucky to have parents who let me do things like tear apart old VCR systems and dig through reuse/recycle bins for junk and then turn them into (usually) functional creations, but with the way the traditional American public school system is currently set up, everything is more about learning facts and regurgitating them onto tests rather than creating things. Creativity and creation is so important for children because it shows them that anything can be made possible and that they should be thinking widely and outside of the box. Like the article says, the Maker community is open to everyone, and is a great way to spread art, science, creativity, creation, and culture. There's a Maker Faire at the Pittsburgh Children's Museum and Buhl Park October 14th & 15th, and you can bet that I will be there!!
This article presents maker fairs within the context of the past and the future, because I never really thought about them on that scale. There is a small Makers Fair that happens about 10 minutes from my house, and I went for the first time this year. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it, but this article put my experience in context. Physically making things, is less common because nearly everything can be mass produced by machines. As theater artists, one of my favorite things about being a technician is working with my hands. I find the process incredibly rewarding, and outside of theater I have never had the opportunity to build something, and in a world where that is disappearing I like that Maker Fairs introduce people to the joy of creating.
Maker faires are amazing events with even more amazing people and ideas. I have only had the pleasure of going to one faire in the past but I know that I have heard similar amazing experiences with them from other "makers". Makers faire is an amazing place for people and ideas of all different sorts and kinds can come together and can share and collaborate on creating things that we may never have thought possible or even conceived. Maker culture is something that provides people with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that very few other things in life can. The maker community and spirit is infectious and the desire and passion that each maker carries towards their craft is amazing to see and experience. Maker faire must be one of the biggest collections of collective knowledge available in the world for all to share and interact with. I'm so excited to see and go to as many as I possibly can in the future not just for the cool ideas and projects being shared but also to hopefully tap into the knowledge of some of the amazing people who attended the events.
From the first minute that I opened this article, it reminded me exactly of the Stark Expo from Iron Man. If anyone has seen the movie they would recognize the Unisphere from the closing scene of the second movie. One other interesting thing about the Faire is that it shares the same principle and goal that the Expo in the movie did. All in all, the idea is pretty great. It brings people with different ideas and different innovations into one community. Watching the video and seeing what all these people have to offer is truly eye-opening and inspirational. Whether people like it or not these events are the future of our society and the creations that these people come up with are what will shape the technology of the future. I wish I was in New York to see all that this event has to offer but I’m sure there will be many years to come for that.
I have been dying to go to a Maker Faire for the longest time. I am in a family of several brilliantly talented people who are makers themselves, and they jump at an chance they get to attend. I think it is such a fascinating event because it is so rare that we get to designate a time and space in which we can free ourselves to collaborate with strangers in a completely unrestricted and organic way. These sorts of events are the pathway by which I believe our society should continue. They are where problems can come to be solved in ways that equally benefit multiple groups of people, as opposed to an outcome that clearly favors the richest or best connected interest group. They give each creator a chance to shine and contribute in their own way, and they celebrate the idea that we all have different strengths, which results in an easier found solution through the combination of all of those positive attributes.
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