Kelly Trom
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Crafters, artists, technology junkies and scientists alike will come together at the second annual SLO Mini Maker Faire on May 10 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the San Luis Obispo Mission Plaza.
The faire will include demonstrations, interactive activities, performances and vendor booths dedicated to different areas such as home goods, art pieces and new technologies.
The event is co-produced by numerous community partners in the broader San Luis Obispo area, including the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (SLOMA) and iFixit, as well as individuals and organizations at Cal Poly.
Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies co-director Jane Lehr is coordinating with the different organizations to bring the faire together.
“I think it is a great fit for the relationship between Cal Poly and the surrounding community,” Lehr said. “Cal Poly with its commitment to Learn By Doing, San Luis Obispo’s with its commitment to building community and shared experiences really comes together in something like the Mini Maker Faire.”
The larger maker movement that inspired the event is centered around the idea that anyone can make any product they want with the correct knowledge and materials.
“It’s a response to the standardization of products available and the ways in which we, as people who live in the U.S., are often positioned as consumers,” Lehr said.
The faire is an attempt to bring together the resources, tools, expertise and inquiring minds to teach anyone various skill sets that might spark their interest.
More like an interactive set of workshops rather than a school lesson, the Mini Maker Faire teaches participants a myriad of ways to make different products.
“We don’t need to go through years of schooling in order to be experts in some areas,” she said. “You get involved in making through one area, and then it cascades. I think it can be really transformative.”
However, there is an emphasis on process rather than the finished product.
“The big component of the maker movement is that people are reclaiming their ability to be producers and also taking advantage of emerging technology like 3-D printers,” Lehr said.
Lehr organized a booth about e-textiles for this past year’s Mini Maker Faire.
“We had participants create simple circuits using conductive fabric,” she said. “They would create circuits by sticking a needle through two layers of fabric and turn on a LED.”
In the end, they could walk away with a stuffed ornament they could turn on or off with a safety pin.
This year, there will be more than just emerging technologies and fields. Lehr and other committee members reached out to makers in the community that weren’t represented in the faire this past year.
“I am really excited that in addition to sort of the robotics focus, we also have more people involved with crafting and art as making this year,” Lehr said.
Cal Poly organizations and students will contribute in both the technology and more artistic types of making:
- Liberal arts and engineering studies senior Alex Burns of Magellan Sculptures will display and sell her sculptures
- Solar Club will demonstrate the use of solar ovens
- Audio Engineering Club will host a booth
- KCPR DJs will help participants create art by spinning records
- Materials Engineering Booth will host a booth
- Learn By Doing Labs will demonstrate the work they have made with 6th-8th graders
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers will be helping participants learn to solder
Cal Poly architecture students will also contribute to the event by conceptualizing and building a central structure for the faire. Participants will have the opportunity to write a part of their story on a flattened origami shape they can fold up and put on a larger tetrahedron structure that will emerge organically throughout the day.
In addition, the Cal Poly Science Cafe will be organizing three performances by special guest Pete Hawkes, a designer at Oblong Industries. Karen Lauritsen, communications and public programs coordinator at Robert E. Kennedy Library, is coordinating and emceeing the performance.
“He is going to lead us in a binary dance which teaches people how computers work in ones and zeros,” Lauritsen said. “We will be doing a bunch of different dance moves, have a dance-off. It will be interactive, fun and educational.”
Hawkes works in an intersection of games, play and interface design that he uses to help people of all ages understand technology.
“The emphasis is on the process, which is something that is important for all of us,” Lauritsen said. “I hope people take away a fun experience as well as an understanding that even very complex things can be demystified.”
In addition to performances targeted toward children, there will be booths run by members of the San Luis Obispo community involved with teaching.
SLOMA Community Engagement Manager Erica Ellis organized outreach to teachers, youth mentors, etc. to get their clubs or classes involved in the faire in some way.
“We have more young makers than we did last year,” she said. “It’s getting your local students involved in tech, math, engineering and art.”
The original Maker Faire boasted 200,000 visitors. This faire, though mini, is growing in size. There will be approximately 50 maker booths, 10-15 more in attendance than this past year.
The event is free and open to all ages.