Thursday, February 12, 2015
Maker Faires’ Greatest Hits, 2014 Edition
Make:: In 2014, there were 131 Maker Faires around the world. In addition to Maker Faire Bay Area and Maker Faire New York, I visited perhaps a dozen other Faires, from Oslo to Tokyo. At the end of last year, I started to go through the photos I had taken and organize them into a slideshow. Then I began looking at photos from many other Maker Faires, and I had the idea of creating a yearbook (some high school extracurricular skills came back to me) that would show the scope and variety of Maker Faires around the world. I was proud to look at the many different instances of Maker Faire, and seeing how much they shared in common. Yet each one has its own unique cultural context.
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4 comments:
While I think that Maker Faires are one of the best and most worthwhile public events that currently takes place, I think that it in haunted by a sense of non-seriousness, and that it is viewed as a convention for hobbyists, and not as a hub of cutting edge innovation. I realize that in its current form, there is no way that Maker Faires can be a hub of real technology. A century ago the Worlds Fair was the seat of scientific and technological marvel, and people that were there tell stories about how they were inspired to change the world through technology and science. Those people went on to spark the industrial revolution and the technological booms of the early and mid 20th centuries. While we still have world expo’s they are the phenomenon that they once were. I hope that Maker Faires and the innovative atmosphere they inspire can spark the next technological revolution.
I remember being able to see these guys at Disney World, they were definitely one of the highlights of the show. Who wouldn’t enjoy being able to have fun and goof off, show after show. Yes, there are mistakes from time to time, but if you’re able to make it work with the show, no one would be able to tell the difference. Acrobatics have always been fascinating, of course usually I see those types of people with the circus, or in a more competitive form in the Olympics. The amount of training that they do, far exceeds what I do, of course they have been training for years. But it also seems as though even when they are practicing they are having a fun time doing it. You get paid to do what you love, and with that, isn’t that the goal of it all, to be able to do what you love?
Maker Faire looks like an amazing collaborative artistic and technical undertaking and I’m really surprised I have never heard of it before. It’s not as if they are that small- there were 131 of them last year. While that was around the world and so a lot more spread out than if it was just in one country, the scope of it is amazing. The costumes are especially impressive. There is just so much going on in each of these photos its crazy! There was even one in DC and Obama came out to the event. From what Chris and Evan said, it seems like they are in the realm between a convention of hobbyists and being on the cutting edge of technology. It would be amazing to see them succeed at being both- a place for people who love to tinker who show off the newest and best technology from around the world. How amazing and unstoppable would they be then?
Makers Fairs are some of the coolest gatherings of people I can imagine. The room is filled with tons of people who just love creating. Coming up with brilliant ideas and making them. The one thing I noticed from the slid show is there were a significant number of projects that just didn't seem innovative. Makers fairs are supposed to display groundbreaking ideas and innovations and a giant hamburger on wheels doesn't really fit that description. I hope to one day participate in a makers fair or at least attend one. There is so much you can learn from makers because by definition a maker is someone who works with a lot of different mediums. He or she must be a great inverter, craftsman, engineer and business person. These are all traits that I hope to one day have or expand on and working on maker projects can help. this article and writing this comment has inspired me to work on some maker ideas and see if I can come up with cool innovations.
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