Brief thoughts on Maker Faire 2011

Went to the Maker Faire this last Sunday (5/22). I'm a big fan of the faire and have been going since I've been down in the Bay Area, so... this is my 4-5th one?

I really liked last year's. It got out of the steampunk rut and was all about this whole eco/green thing and there were some really touching projects. I remember getting a little tear-y eyed looking at/reading about the high school projects. Such awesome sentiment there.

This year I wasn't quite as moved... maybe I didn't spend enough time there, maybe I was too drained by earlier weekend activities to get hyped up about it.... It seemed *really* crowded (though I could still move about/see things) and a little too over produced. As I was telling Adam- I've always enjoyed the home-made nature of previous Maker projects. The feeling that "yeah, I can kinda' see how I could do that myself!" However, this year everything was so polished and produced and professional looking that I was rather removed emotionally from a lot of it. There were neat projects, absolutely! But they didn't strike the chord in me of "Hell yes! I can do this too!"

Maybe this is just the side effect of so many awesome processes/resources becoming available to everyone that it is actually easier for everything to look better! I could believe that, what with the Arduino system being so accessible and neat, and the TechShop expanding and being cool... Maybe I just didn't visit the right exhibits...

Focus on the positive though (because there was a lot of positive things there and I'm very happy I went) :

Talking to the Halo costume guy. Not only talented but super friendly and informational. Best exhibit there. Loved the mix of kick-ass final products with loads of details about the process.

The Colossus. Highly amusing that so many children wanted to pull rocks around. Normally you'd expect an entertaining device to move it's users, not the other way around.

The Tesla coils... I remember ArcAttack sounding better last year musically but it's hard to be disappointed when there's lightening involved. The entire dark room in general was done very well this year, a huge improvement over last year's. The EL wire sharks were surprisingly cute.

The bubble man! There was a station with this dude making super huge bubbles and kids were playing with it and it was just an all around smile inducing situation.

Superconductor exhibit. There was a circular track of magnets with a superconductor floating around it (as seen in a video in this Makezine article). Super science to watch, but made better by the kids manning the table and explaining it to passer-bys. And by kids I mean a particular girl who was calmly handling every question, keeping the track running, and being generally awesome. I wish there were more science girls like her.

Am sad I didn't go Saturday instead. My bad. Am already looking forward to next year's...