Maker Faire UK 2011

[chebe]

I'm back from Maker Faire UK in Newcastle. It was a fun, but exhausting experience! We flew in Saturday morning and went straight to Maker Faire, which was very conveniently located in the Life Centre beside the train station. We fought our way through fire-breathing dragons, water-shooting wheelie-bins on wheels, and a really long queue which made me really glad I'd pre-booked the tickets!



Inside was a maelstrom of people streaming back and forth between exhibits. We got a little turned around initially, distracted by the Life Centre's exhibits before finding Arthur the Scarf, brave and kind, who led the way to Maker Faire proper. There is too much to talk about, hell, we didn't even find one of the rooms until shown it at closing time!

My personal highlights were the O'Reilly stand where I played 'have-that-have-that-ooh-want-that', the Sugru stand where I finally picked up a packet, the hardware hacking area where they were teaching soldering and where we assembled our Maker Faire badges! There was a giant Geiger/Matrix-esque sphere in the middle of a tree-like structure of wires, cables and el-wire that when you placed your hands upon it 'zoomped-zoomped' loudly to your heart-beat. Nearby was ProduceConsumeRobot with their biofeedback ... apparel? I loved the el-wire heart-beat dress and wrist-band.

Downstairs I found the only stand proudly displaying their Lilypads; rainycatz with her Twinkle Tartiflette shirt that plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when you touch the corresponding conductive-thread words with the stylus! It was a bit loud to hear the other projects, but I was won over already. And in the room we couldn't find lurked CyberSpice, with their motion-sensitive knitted (or was it crocheted?) Lord Cthulhu! They also had LED hats, RGB earrings, and a bunch of other stuff. I'm looking forward to going through their website in more detail.





There were so, so many other stands; all with things to see, things to do, touch, make, it was glorious! But there is a darker side to this fairytale, for in the vicinity of the battling robots lurked the Daleks. One tried to fool me, wearing as he did a fez and bowtie, but I knew. The guys of Northern Charity Daleks are lovely, but kept trying to get me to voice one of the Daleks. For some reason I was just a little apprehensive.



After it closed for the day we went to dinner with a good group of people, including, but not limited to; DIYBio, IndieBiotech, London Hackerspace, and of course, TOG, the Dublin Hackerspace. There was a stop-in at the Union Rooms where we took over a Family Room. It was very interesting listening to, and getting involved in all the techie discussions, and realising that everyone was interested! There were murmurs about a possible spaces-crawl (like pub-crawl only with hackerspaces) that I really hope manifest.

Next day we went to see Arc Attack. I can tell you about it, but it won't seem interesting. I can (and will) show you pictures, but they look fake or uninteresting. Basically, you have to see them perform to really get it. Awesome. But I recommend you bring a pair of earplugs with you :)



We then wandered about the Discovery Museum taking in the history of Newcastle. There were many exhibits, on clothing, military life, Cromwell and the Civil War, ships, the ship building industry, there was even a detailed, contoured, map of yesteryear taller than me, and about ten-times as long.



Then we wandered back through the Life Centre (once we managed to get past the two Daleks that had escaped!), we caught a show at the planetarium (narrated by none other than David Tennant), before wandering off to look at bridges and monuments in the last of the daylight.

It was a really, really good weekend! And I'm already pencilling in my diary for next year.

* Photos copyright John H. Not for distribution.

Comments

Daleks

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for the mention Chebe......pleased you had a good time.
and those pics are great, thats the best pic of Dalek MACKs eye ive ever seen...

hope to see you at the next one

Rob aka Dalek MACK...

http://www.northerncharitydaleks.co.uk/

Re: Daleks

[chebe]

Not at all, Daleks were half the reason for going! So thank you for being there! And for the excellent work. Next time I might be slightly less star-struck and pick up tips on construction; I think a mini Dalek would be just adorable :)