Last weekend was the Cambridge Mini Maker Faire, which took place as part of the Cambridge Science Festival. A bunch of Boston-area makers were there to demo their projects and talk with the kids, families, and science-curious who came to the festival. I made the trek down from New Hampshire and spent the day hanging out and talking about my Soft Circuit Saturdays projects. Here are a few pictures from the event:
Photo by Chris Connors
I brought an improved Drawdio Jellyfish Puppet
some LED Jellies (though with the bright day they were hard to see light up)
Temperature Sensing Tea Sleeve (not functioning for the faire, I didn’t want anyone getting burnt)
and the Soft Circuit Scrapbook (with some additional pages since last week’s post).
The visitors to my booth had fun interacting with the projects and they inspired some great conversations. I had a chance to talk to an aerial dancer who was working on incorporating a LilyPad and accelerometers into her performances. I also met a few teachers who work with kids and engineering, lots of parents who loved the idea of using technology with crafts, and kids who build their own electronic projects. A lot of people asked if I held workshops or classes. I don’t right now but I’d like to organize some, so that is now on my to-do list. I was even invited to a kick off party for a new community workspace/makerspace happening this weekend. I’m so glad for the opportunity to participate in a mini maker faire and I think I’m going to apply for the World Maker Faire in NYC this fall to meet even more makers.
The best part about the whole day was really the kids. Most of my projects aren’t necessarily made with kids in mind, they are more for my own explorations and play, but they were engaging and accessible to a younger audience as well. I think the only child who had interacted with my pieces before the faire was my younger sister. I was happy that the kids enjoyed visiting my booth and a lot of them knew some of the technologies or had kits with similar bits and pieces (such as the Drawdio).
You can check out more pictures from the Mini Maker Faire over at the Boston Maker Faire Flickr Pool.
This weekend I’m heading back down to Cambridge for another Science Festival Event with the High-Low Tech group at MIT. My friend and I signed up a few weeks ago but were waitlisted for the Paintable Electronics Workshop; I just got the news yesterday that there was a cancellation so we are in! It’s going to be a lot of fun and I will be blogging about it later on in the week.