On the second day of Maker Faire, my friends Tom Sepe, Qais Fulton, and I were interviewed by a television crew from CBS for a science show called BRINK. This specific episode will air tonight on the Discovery Science Channel at 10:30 pm (7:30 pm on #284 for Seattle locals with fancy teevee). I look forward to re-viewing bits of the Maker Faire experience! Hope you’ll tune in.
Here’s a great shot of Molly and Robin, two of our talented bellydancers, at Carnivale Mechanique, the steampunk area of Maker Faire.
It has taken me the better part of this week to edit and upload just a small portion of the images I shot at Maker Faire last weekend (I took about 1,235 pictures in two days!). I wager I’ll spend at least another few days putting up the best of the set but you can take a sneaky peak at my Flickr album now.
I had so much unabashed fun and delight running around with my dear friends from all across the country and causing a ruckus that I can still hardly contain myself. As Qais so deftly put–Maker Faire is the new Christmas. Hell, it’s better than Christmas, because everyone there is smiling and creative and outgoing, and nearly everything is on fire, it seems.
Check back often! I’ll be posting random shots here at the blog, too.
Thank you.
Carnivale Mechanique, originally uploaded by exoskeletoncabaret.
I will be representing Steampunk Magazine at this weekend’s MAKE Magazine Maker Faire (San Mateo, California), which is the largest DIY festival worldwide. I think there were approximately 65,000 people there last year.
We will be one aspect of Carnivale Mechanique, which is an enlarged version of last year’s Steampunk Contraptor’s Lounge. We won an award at the 2008 faire for this area, and received attention in an issue of MAKE Magazine earlier this year. I covered a bit of the Maker Faire experience as part of my interview with the Chronabelle folks in Issue #5.
SPM will be joined by many of our extended family members: Jake von Slatt, Datamancer, Deshret Dance Company, Suzanne Forbes, David S. Dowling, members of the Etsy Steam Team, and more.
I will have print copies of Steampunk Magazine Issue #5 available for barter or purchase.
If you will be in attendance, please come say hi, brainstorm, dance with Nathaniel Johnstone’s band of wayward musicians, have a snack with us, etc.
Three weeks later, in between packing everything I own in cardboard and bubble wrap, I’ve managed to get the finest of my Maker Faire photos uploaded to the web. Some of these appeared two weeks ago on a MAKE blog post, but many are new. Please have a look.
I really can’t adequately explain the experience I had at the event — I think so far the best I’ve come up with is “internet family reunion” and “like Burning Man, minus the illegal drugs and naked people”. It is so inspiring to see such an epic quantity of passionate people displaying the projects and objects over which they’ve slaved. I’m totally brimming with new ideas now.
Abney Park also performed a gig Saturday night of the event, and I shot them again, both on stage and posed on the Neverwas Haul, which I’ve decided to commandeer and go toddling about…or at least covet excessively, because everyone needs a steampunk mansion on wheels.
Many thanks, and see the whole Flickr set here.
–or– Good Lord, My Life Is Crazy
This week has quite possibly been the wildest one I’ve had in a while. A few days ago, I was asked to participate in The Heather Gold Show live from the Maker Faire. It will be streamed live from the main stage on this Saturday, May 3 at 4:00pm PDT (watch online at heathergold.com).
Through the lens of Steampunk, a meta-subculture that is currently at its tipping point of growth, we explore the inevitable question a subculture faces as it grows from disparate DIY roots. Who and what belongs? Can it transform permaculture?
Conversating with Heather will be computer and car modifier Jake von Slatt, Abney Park singer Captain Robert, yours truly (on behalf of Steampunk Magazine), and the live/web audience. Expect hijinks.
Item Number Two of OMG Insanity is that I learned yesterday that my photography of Seattle artist Molly Porkshanks Friedrich will be featured in the New York Times in a week or so as part of her interview. I’m not yet certain which image will be featured but it will be one from this set, which we shot last fall. I will post more details when the article is published.
Call this my 4.23 seconds of fame. Um, squee.
I just returned from the Left Coast, only to travel back again next week for the Bay Area Maker Faire!
For those of you who are out of the loop; “Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It’s for creative, resourceful people of all ages and backgrounds who like to tinker and love to make things.” Make Magazine, the event’s sponsor, has allotted a number of my friends and I a Contraptors Lounge , a space where a variety of steampunk makers will congregate to share projects, spread the brass gospel, and encourage ideas amongst old pals and new friends alike. Along with our gang, there will be all manner of tinkerers, hackers, artisans, performers, creatives, and mad scientists demonstrating their projects. Projected number of attendees might top 50,000!
Appearing with me in the Lounge will be Datamancer, The Legion Fantastique, Magpie Ratt of Steampunk Magazine, Molly ‘Porkshanks’ Friedrich, Meredith Scheff, and my good buddy Jake von Slatt. Abney Park will be headlining the evening’s festivities, which will no doubt involve many shiny surprises.
Maker Faire will be in San Mateo, California, on the weekend of May 3rd and 4th. If you’re in the area, please stop by our booth to chat and get your photo taken!
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