Last weekend, after going to Annalise’s 1st birthday (which Amber wrote about in the last post) we headed over to Maker Faire. Now what Maker Faire is exactly is a little hard to explain. It is kind of like a mostly sober Burning Man with an emphasis on technology. Basically there is a magazine/website called Make, found at makezine.com. The site and magazine showcase do-it-yourself projects of almost every variety. From electronics to woodworking to customizations of all kinds. There motto is “If you can’t open it, you don’t own it”. A few years ago they decided to hold an expo of sorts. The first one was in California followed shortly by one last year in Austin.
The Faire showcases bike modifications, robots, electronics, invention and lots of crazy art involving welding, wiring, and wow! I was probably the most mainstream person there. I had neither a degree in computer science nor was I dressed up in steampunk costume. I have neither a ponytail nor was I wearing a shirt with a joke on it that requires advanced calculus to understand. It may be the perfect mix of hippy, hipster, artist and geek.
Luckily for us they were back in Austin this year. We saw lots of fun stuff. Maybe a quarter of what we could have seen, but still lots. The kids had a great time. Here are the highlights in mostly chronological order. Next year I plan to spend the whole weekend (please come back next year!).
When we first arrived eepybird, the guys that made the diet Coke and Mentos thing so popular, was getting ready for their show. We watched from about 500 feet away. The crowd was so large the view was better from the little hill we were on. And we, unlike a lot of the crowd, stayed dry. The diet Coke was shooting 30-40 feet in the air.
After that we watched the Life Size Mouse Trap (more on that later) and then went inside and watched fighting robots. Wesley loved them. He was so excited by the first match I took him down on the floor to get a better view. He got so pumped up he would bounce up and down on my shoulders and then pummel me in the head. I would say it was his first taste of testosterone. He wanted more and more and more. I do believe he could have watched them all day. His favorite was “The Judge”. A 300 pound class robot that had a pneumatic spike. It would hit the steel floor so hard it would sometime make holes and would always bounce off the ground. Tons of force. We saw one bot catch fire. Not a good smell.
Here is a YouTube video of the Judge to give you some idea.
After the robots we got some dinner and did a little hula-hooping.
Then we headed back into the arena to watch Arc Attack a local Austin art group mixes music and electricity. In this show they were using two Van De Graaff generators to shock an electric guitar suspended above the floor. The sparks were several feet long. It was surprisingly entertaining. They finished up by doing the theme song to Dr. Who, one of Amber’s favorite shows.
Inside they had some cool displays. Lots of no-touch instruments you play by breaking an infra-red beam, robots and such. Wesley got to interact with R2D2. After that we went back outside to explore more of the grounds. We saw some of what the Austin Bike Zoo had brought. Including this enormous six person bike snake.
We explored the barn. Lots of stuff we missed in here. Some good live music. A guy who covered his entire car in yarn (yarncar.com) and some blacksmithing just for a start. And of course these guys and their pirate ship that shoots flames from the cannons.
Unfortunately by this time the kids tent had closed for the day, as had the food tent. So we totally missed those (next year we’ll go earlier in the day). But we did get to see the Life Size Mouse Trap again. This time up close.
The event/art piece/sculpture/stage show is a replica of the game we played as kids. Only life size. It uses a real bowling ball and bathtub. It apparently took the guy 13 years to build and about 6 people to run it. The evening show got a little bit “blue” with a skit about naughty mice. Instead of catching the mice in a trap though, they use a 2-ton safe to crush things. We got to see them demolish a clothes dryer.
Last but not least we stopped by the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir. An art car that caught Wesley’s attention by the gate. The car is covered with 250 fish and lobster that dance and sing opera. It was hard to turn away from. The kids were a mix of fascination and fear. They didn’t want to leave it.
Wesley has asked me no fewer than a dozen times already to go back next weekend. I wish we could.
Link: All of our Maker Faire Austin 2008 Photos on Flickr
Tags: Austin, Maker Faire Austin 2008
This looks really cool, and I hope that next year we can come and join you. OR, we can all fly there FROM SEATTLE.
Seriously, wherever you are living by then, I hope we can all go to this!