Fun at the Mini Maker Faire!

Yesterday I had the pleasure to attend the Santa Cruz Mini Maker Faire to represent the Generative Art Studio, an independent study group that I participated in during the year. I had a really amazing experience learning about interactive generative art techniques during my independent study, and I made some cool pieces using the p5.js library in jsfiddle. My instructor signed us up for the Maker Faire so we could present our work, which turned out to be a really great experience and opportunity to show off my hard work!

I presented my generative dumb agents, which basically allowed users to generate geometric shapes on the screen that branch off into random directions, creating interesting patterns. It was fun to see people playing with something that I created and actually have fun with it. You can play with my generative dumb agents here!

 I also had a blast just being at the Faire and checking out all the "makers." It was a really inspiring experience, and made me wanna go out and just make some STUFF.  There was a very diverse collection of things at the faire, ranging from robots, an electric race car, to homemade jam and aromatherapy sand. Here were some of the most memorable:

http://www.bhencke.com/#/synthia-v2/

The Generative Art booth shared a room with Ben Hencke who made a super flashy and gorgeous LED Piano which was a blast to play with. I'm such a huge fan of the look of flashy rainbow LED lights, and matching that with a music-making piano made it even cooler. With this combination of sound and color, Hencke's intended to give listeners and players a sense of synthesesia.

UCSC Bioengineering students presented a Robotic Arm that responded to input from flex sensors in your own arm, allowing you to control it with your movements. It was a really cool example of what to do with flex sensors, and the little robot arm, albeit a little finicky, was impressive.

Idea Fab Labs presented an augmented reality sandbox, which used a kinect to measure the depth of the sand and dynamically change the projections onto it, allowing the user to mould and sculpt a sandbox environment with mountains, islands, and oceans.

Fab Labs also had a room with these gorgeous light fixtures that I really want as a decoration in my house. I also thought they would be really cool if they were made to be interactive, maybe by putting a motion sensor and dynamically changing the light and color patterns based on movement of people around it.

I was extremely fascinated by the work of Steamy Tech, who uses laser-cut wood to make intricate steampunk themed gizmos and gadgets. My favorite was this beautiful heart with turning gears inside.

All in all, the Maker Faire was an extremely rewarding and fun experience. There's also a HUGE bay area maker Faire event in San Mateo next month that I really want to go to to further fuel my desire to make, make, make!