A trip to Maker Faire Detroit 2010 and look at Ann Arbor participants
Note: This post has been updated to include disclosure that the author received a free ticket to attend the Maker Faire.
Last weekend was Maker Faire Detroit, hosted in Dearborn at The Henry Ford. I went there on Sunday afternoon with my two boys; here's some of what we saw, some of what we missed but heard great things about, and as much about the event as I can reasonably find.
Maker Faire Detroit promises to be an annual affair, at least for the next few years. There is no Michigan State Fair this year in Detroit, after that long-running event was shut down because of state budget cuts. The Maker Faire fills some of that role, especially if you know how to solder or would like to learn.
Comprehensive coverage
Thanks go to Ryan Burns, organizer of Ignite Ann Arbor, for a complementary pass for one adult to Maker Faire Detroit for the author of this column.
A full set of event photos are in the Maker Faire Detroit photo pool on Flickr, with more than 350 pictures in the set.
There is a Maker Faire Detroit group on Facebook, with 1,530 friends.
Mark Frauenfelder's show review on Boing Boing gives a good flavor of the event, with lots of photos of happy people building things.
The most interesting coverage was not from journalists, who mostly looked at the event from the outside and tried to draw some bold conclusion about the future of Detroit. The Time Magazine coverage inexplicably leads with problems that the writer and driver had with their GPS unit in navigating the city streets, and the New York Times coverage leads with descriptions of art projects built on the rubble of post-industrial Detroit.
Highlights
Hands down (or hands up), the Eepybird show which featured fountains made from 2-liter bottles of Coke Zero and Mentos was the highlight for children of all ages. OtterWise took photos and a video. The scientific principle illustrated is nucleation; Science Buddies has a science fair or summer camp project idea for turning this into a science experiment of your own.
Mark Perez's Lifesize Mouse Trap was also a crowd pleaser. The board game Mouse Trap was first published in 1963, with players building a Rube Goldberg style device. Scaled up to real life size, this is a perfect science carnival sideshow. The MLive roundup of Maker Faire Detroit videos has footage.
Local organizations presenting
The Ann Arbor District Library brought the BITDRAGON, which was made out of 34 5-gallon buckets decorated by kids and adults using scrap, CDs, and pop rivets. The first few segments of this creation are now on display in the youth section of the downtown branch of the library.
All Hands Active, a hacker space located in downtown Ann Arbor on East Liberty Street, was at the event with a giant cardboard castle. The Wreck Lab was an opportunity for kids and adults to break down equipment to see what is in it. Craftzine gave them an Editor's Choice Blue Ribbon.
Backyard Brains, a desktop neuroscience experiment kit maker based in Ann Arbor, brought its Spikerbox to the Faire. (Warning: links lead to pictures of cockroaches.)
Mike Gould brought his laser lunch boxes to the event; a video of the show doesn't quite do it justice.
The Tin Lizzy Club, otherwise known as the Ford Amateur Radio League, was conducting examinations for people to get their ham radio license. I passed my technician exam while my kids were waiting patiently, after studying for it through the practice tests at QRZ.com.
Afterwards we went to Cedarland in Dearborn for a huge plate of delicious Lebanese food.
Thoughts for next year
It was hot in the parking lot. Next time, we'll bring water bottles.
There's a huge set of wonderful displays in The Henry Ford, and Maker Faire admission includes museum admission. We could have spent twice as much time there as we did.
The food at Cedarland was much more delicious and came in much larger quantities than food at the fair; next time, it would be worth packing snacks.
I missed a lot of exhibitors who are local, and the note to self for next time is to make the big list ahead of time instead of afterwards.
Edward Vielmetti is the lead blogger at AnnArbor.com. Contact him at 734-330-2465.
Comments
Sam I Am
Sun, Aug 8, 2010 : 9:37 a.m.
The Maker Faire was a BLAST!! I was in the Young Maker tent - I let kids make bracelets with pony beads and pins out of puzzle pieces for free. When I had help I walked around and spent most of my time either saying WOW or what the heck is that???? It was amazing!!! If you are wondering how I made it to Maker Faire - my husband, Rick was in the Metalworking tent - he is the Prez of Detroit Metalworking club. Plus we had the Rickomatic CNC and did a bunch of aluminum casting pours during the Faire (if you go to the Maker Blog talking about Ann Arbor listed above - he is the guy holding the MAKE sign he just casted in aluminum at the GOTECH meeting). Make sure you post when the Mini Maker Faire will be in Ann Arbor next year - it is SO cool - and the people are great!
Larry Works
Fri, Aug 6, 2010 : 7:02 a.m.
Dale Grover organized about 20 people to help in the Learn to Solder area. I brought out some Nixie tube clocks and set them up in Bob Stack's booth. Peter Jensen, owner of Tubeclock.com, came by to answer questions. He was also helping Roger??? demonstrate his fabric laser cutter. A 25watt CO2 laser mounted on a saw mill base. Tom Root (zingermans) was on hand with Dale to promote Maker Works. A new workshop scheduled to open near the Zingerman Bakeshop in Spring 2011. Go to http://maker-works.com/ for more info. Techshop Detroit recently announced a partnership with Ford and they're very excited about helping people make their tech dreams marketable realities. Due to open in Winter 2010 at 800 Republic Drive in Allen Park. Go to http://techshop.ws/ts_detroit.html for more iinformation about the Techshop chain of clubs or check out this article in the New York Times http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/diy-detroit-a-hands-on-approach-to-fixing-the-auto-industry/
Ryan
Thu, Aug 5, 2010 : 9:02 p.m.
If you want to check out a GO-Tech meeting: http://www.annarbor.com/events/go-tech-meeting/
Ryan
Thu, Aug 5, 2010 : 8:55 p.m.
A big ovation for Dale Grover and Bob Stack at the A2 Mechshop who organize a monthly GO-Tech meeting for the DIY crowd, one of which was attended by Dale Dougherty a year ago and was part of his excitement about mounting a Maker Faire in SE Michigan: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/07/making_detroit.html I should mention that O'Reilly 'sponsors' Ignite in the sense that they provide the logo and some organizational cohesiveness around spreading the Ignite meme, but they don't provide monetary support. Also, I'll clarify that Ed claimed an extra ticket I had offered out and I didn't know he'd be writing an article, but I'm glad he did! Maker Faire can play a big role in remaking Detroit. There are only three across the country this year.
Dug Song
Thu, Aug 5, 2010 : 4:24 p.m.
a2geeks board members and other Ann Arborites had a lot to do with the Detroit Maker Faire, from the Ignite event that was held onsite, to the hacker/coworking spaces represented, to the CanDoCamp warm-up, to the Faire itself (the Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire events these past two years have attracted several thousand attendees, which gave some confidence to do one an order of magnitude larger in Detroit). I'm super-excited to see the successful crossover appeal of tech/geek culture, and the broadening of community ties across the region through events like this. Geek out!