World Maker Faire 2014
This past weekend I got a chance to go to the World Maker Faire in New York for work, researching makerspaces and their citizens. I was unprepared for the sheer size of the event: if last year's event is any predictor, it was tens of thousands of people. It helped that the weather was great and they were inhabiting the site of the 1964 World's Fair. A V-2 rocket loomed over the exhibits just as it did when my father visited as a 15-year old. Supposed to be Robert Moses' crowning achievement, it was instead crippled by his intransigence, and has now been converted into the New York Hall of Science. SITU Studio has built out some Design Labs in the museum as permanent exhibits.
The Maker Faire could be seen as a revival of that spirit, but honed in on a narrower audience. This year continued long-standing exhibits such as the Power Racing series and 3D Printing Row, as well expanded into new ones, like a group of Kickstartered small businesses. Following are some pictures and videos of my favorites.
Shana Siegel did these gorgeous portraits with a paintball gun.
Hard to get a good picture because SeeMeCNC's PartDaddy 3-D printer had a 16'(!)- tall by 4'-diameter build volume.
The Tinkerine tent had We the Builder's crowdsourced George Washington bust. They're now working on a Ben Franklin.
Beautiful solar-powered, flat-pack, LED lamp made from sailcloth by Solar Puff.
Homebuilt showcased screw-together CNC-ed shed kits that had routed part numbers for each framing element, locking together with a self-registering system of simple joints.
Shane Hope twisted a 3D printer to artistic ends, mapping out molecular structures of graphene.
The Instructables booth was handing out cards with a dozen or so different projects from the site. One of them was my very own Bandsaw Taxidermy.
Local Motors showed off its working 3D printed car. All-electric, less than 100 parts.