What is the Maker Faire? It’s bad-ass-art and tech-as-art.It’s steampunk and 8-bit. It’s hackers and coders. It’s robots and lasers and explosions. It’s cities built of legos or recycled cardboard. It’s the art of Burning Man without the burning heat. It’s zinesters, knitters, stitchers, and crafters. It’s virtual reality and 3-D and glow-in-the-dark LEDs. It’s giant Tesla Coils. It’s long-lost arcade games and the technology of tomorrowland. It’s gadgets and gizmos a plenty, whosits and whatsits galore. And more specifically, it’s Make Magazine’s huge conference celebrating acts of glorious creation.

I was fortunate enough in that this year I was able to attend both days for free because I was helping out with my pals at Simbol Rides. So I alternated between helping folks in and out of their personal motion simulators and checking out the hundreds and hundreds of booths that make the Maker Fair so overwhelmingly nifty. Our booth was in the big room between the woman who grows her own sheep to make her own wool, the museum of Pinball, and the city of Legos.

Legos and Maker Cars

Ancient drums playing automatically by computer

Dub Machines: builds his own musical instruments with microprocessors and industrial gadgets

Children defeat the (cardboard) robot uprising

Tesla coils and other electric fun in the LED room

Robot chess, a rocketship and A peice of the Milleneum Clock

Hand-printed messages and personalized poetry served on demand

Posted via web from The Bay is Better