Young Makers @ MOV Postponed…

 

The Young Makers Club at the Museum of Vancouver will be postponed till Fall 2012. Come to Vancouver Mini Maker Faire on June 23 & 24 at the PNE to see some of our current Young Makers. There will also be a sign-up sheet to keep you informed about future Young Makers programs at the Museum of Vancouver.

 

We are excited about the future possibilities of this youth program and will need your support. If you are inspired to start your own Young Makers Club in your garage, backyard, workshop, or community centre you can find more information at www.youngmakers.org.

 

Check out what some other communities are doing with their Young Makers Clubs!

Saphira - A fire breathing dragon built by the Central Marin Young Makers Club

 

 

Written by on June 18th, 2012


Arielle Fraser is an education professional involved in outdoor, experiential and hands-on teaching and learning programs. Outside of work she can be found creating, making or fixing things from costumes to photographs to scooters. She is excited to be the Media Facilitator and Education Outreach Coordinator for Vancouver Mini Maker Faire. She wants to MAKE stuff happen!


Posted in Event Details, Events in Vancouver, Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2012 |





Insane for Indie? Hysterical for Handmade? Got Craft? is Too!

 

Got Craft? is Andrea + Robert: a husband and wife event management and wedding coordination team based in London, UK and Vancouver. Providing crafty wares to young, trendsetting individuals, they share a love for handmade indie craft that goes beyond the simple charms of the macaroni art piece.

 

Got Craft? aims to bring together a community that fosters handmade and DIY culture by supporting like-minded events such as DIY @ Museum of Vancouver, the Austin, TX and Vancouver Premiere of Handmade Nation, Swap-O-Rama-Rama 2009 and 2010, Vancouver Mini Maker Faire and the Sweetie Pie Press 2011 Summer Craft Tour.

 

When they’re not busy filling their blog with field trips and beloved crafty things, you can find Andrea and Robert selling their handmade goods at local events, or hosting fun and interactive badge-making workshops.

 

We recently caught up with Andrea to learn more about what Got Craft? is all about, and to find out what they plan to demonstrate at this year’s Maker Faire.

 

Can you talk a bit about what Got Craft? and Lotus Events is all about?

 

Lotus events inc. is an event management and wedding coordination company that Robert and I started in 2004 to work on a mix of corporate, independent contracts, and self-produced events such as Got Craft?. Got Craft?, aka myself and Robert, is a husband and wife team that shares a love for handmade indie craft. We are devoted to the Vancouver handmade community by supporting like-minded events such as DIY @ Museum of Vancouver, the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire, the Vancouver Premiere of Handmade Nation, Swap-O-Rama-Rama, and Indie I Do.

As designers ourselves, we wanted to curate a boutique event to showcase some of our favourite handmade artists and provide Vancouver the opportunity to shop for one-of-a kind goods in a casual environment. Attendees are able to meet the makers in person to talk about their handmade goods and creative processes, as well as craft their own take home DIY project.

Aimed at bringing together a community that fosters handmade and DIY Culture, Got Craft? was founded in 2007 and is held twice a year in May and December featuring 50+ handmade designers and an average attendance of 3000+ a year.

 

What events do you host in the city, when do they happen, and where they are located?

 

As I mentioned above, we are we have been involved with events such as DIY @ Museum of Vancouver, the Austin, TX premiere of Handmade Nation, and the Sweetie Pie Press 2011 Summer Craft Tour. We are also happy to have had the opportunity to produce events such as the Vancouver Premiere of Handmade Nation, Swap-O-Rama-Rama 2009 and 2010, and the Sweetie Pie Press 2011 Summer Craft Tour. As well, we are super excited to be a part of the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire again this year!

 

What do you plan on bringing / demonstrating at Vancouver Mini Maker Faire this year?

 

Got Craft? will be hosting a DIY button-making workshop at the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire! We’ll have two sizes of buttons for you to choose from including a large selection of pre-made patterns and custom Got Craft? images, or you can draw your own unique design! We’ll be on-hand to turn those creations into your own custom button!

 

Who are some of the crafters that came out to Got Craft’s event in early May? Any highlights, or new features?

 

Last May was one of our busiest Spring shows ever with the swag bag line up starting at 5:15am for a 10:00am door opening. We even had a special guest, Carol, that flew in from Chicago for the second time to attend the show!

 

We truly believe that it takes a village and we heart each and every one of our vendors! It wouldn’t be fair to us to have to choose our favourites, so you can check out our website for a full list of vendors that joined us for our Spring show.

 


Any exciting plans for Got Craft? in 2013?

 

We are always tweaking different aspects of the event or working on ways to make Got Craft? event better. We do have a few big announcements that we are working on, but you are just going to have to wait a bit longer!

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To learn more about Got Craft?, preview their upcoming events on their website or check them out on Facebook.

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Photo credits: [stu-di-o] by jeanie.

Written by on June 8th, 2012


Lena Ross is a communications officer, writer, volunteer publicist and avid arts and culture enthusiast. When she's not out enjoying live music, inspiring art or locally designed fashion, she spends her spare time thrifting, sewing, promoting the arts, learning photography, and tinkering around on the interwebs.


Posted in DIY, Meet your Makers, Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2012 |





‘Biopoiesis’ Project Profile: Carlos and Steven Invite Makers to Help Create Cybernetic Art

 

 

Carlos Castellanos and Steven J Barnes will be showing their project Biopoiesis at this year’s VMMF. They are members of Dprime Research and Carlos is a graduate student at SFU’s School of Interactive Art and Technology. You can see Biopoiesis at the SFU booth, or check it out June 5-10 during an interactive exhibition at Gallery Gachet.

 

Biopoiesis is an electrical device that grows its own wires. Before I saw it in the gallery I didn’t even know that was possible. Can you tell us more about how it works and where the idea came from?

 

The project is based on cyberneticist Gordon Pask’s work in the 1950s on electrochemical computational devices [in electrochemical solutions electricity causes a chemical reaction]. In Biopoesis, the solution is held between two plates of glass with wires running into it. When we send electricity into it, the solution grows its own wires, or “threads” as we often call them.

 

 

The threads are made of conductive crystal structures and they grow unpredictably, but we can make them react to their surroundings by hooking the wires up to a sensor, like a microphone. So in Biopoiesis, the threads are capturing information about their environment in the way they grow. We’re also recording the growth of the threads with a video camera and using that to alter the electricity going into the solution. This is a classic cybernetic feedback loop, the threads grow based on electricity in the wires, and the electricity in the wires is altered based on how the threads grow.

 

The project is part of an exhibition called Proof-of-Process where visitors can interact with and change the work on display. What led you to organize a show like that?

 

Much of interactive or new media art is what they call “process-based”; the work is often characterized by continuous prototyping and testing. Typically the artist creates several pieces that explore a central concept, and then displays them in an exhibit.

 

We wanted to open that process up. Basically reversing the standard gallery exhibit, where you see the finished product but not all of the work that went into it. This is pretty common in the art world these days, and this is just our particular take on it. When we started DPrime Research we wanted to try and make interesting/weird art-science projects but also bring them and the ideas surrounding them “down to earth”. So there is this tension between our complicated ideas and theories and this sort of community-based, open-sourcing of the work, where people can come and change the art without knowing all the theory behind it. I think having that unresolved tension can be good.

 

I’ve often heard members of local makerspaces talk about how diverse the maker community is, and the School of Interactive Arts and Technology is an interdisciplinary department. Has working with people from different backgrounds had an impact on your art?

 

I think it has but probably not in the way I may have imagined. I should say that my background is originally in music, I never really wanted to be an “artist” in the stereotypical sense. And I have always been interested in technology. Being at SIAT is probably what got me interested in alternative modes of computation like Biopoiesis. It’s like I said to myself, “everyone else is coding all the time, let me try and NOT do that”.

 

What’s your favorite part of the project so far?

 

It’s open-endedness. All of the projects in Proof-of-Process can be configured in so many different ways. We are really looking forward to others coming in with their ideas. I’m sure they will come up with things we never would have thought of.

 

Written by on June 6th, 2012


Andrew Milne is a graduate student at SFU's School of Interactive Arts and Technology. He's currently doing a fellowship at Science World to help develop maker programs at the museum. He is a member of the Vancouver Hack Space, where he makes 3D printers and starts long conversations about education. You can find him at the VHS booth teaching soldering and Arduino workshops.


Posted in DIY, Events in Vancouver, Meet your Makers, Meet your Sponsor, Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2012 |





Less than 2 days left of Call for Makers!

 

All good things must come to an end, and the Call for Makers for Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2012 is no different. We’ve had some excellet Makers apply over the last 10 weeks, and I can’t wait to share some of them with you via this blog!

 

But it’s time to finalize the planning for the event, and as such Saturday May 19 will mark the end of the Call for Makers. If you’ve been putting off applying, now’s your last chance to get in! So head on over to the Call for Makers page, and fill out one of the application forms.

 

Written by on May 18th, 2012



Posted in Call For Makers, Event Details, Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2012 |





First Volunteer Meeting of 2012

These people had fun last year. This could be you!

Have you registered yet to volunteer at this year’s Vancouver Mini Maker Faire?

 

Yes? That’s great!

 

Still not sure? Want to talk to a real person before making a virtual commitment?

 

Registered or not, you’re invited to our Volunteer Meeting on Saturday May 12 from 3-5 pm at the W2 Media Cafe.

 

We’ll be talking about the volunteer opportunities available, both on Maker Faire weekend and in the weeks leading up to the Faire. (Art Bikes anyone? Yarnbombing?) We’ll talk about our new venue and what it means for the volunteers. We’ll answer your questions to the best of our abilities and hopefully provide a few laughs.

 

Sign In begins at 3 pm with the meeting starting at 3:15 pm and going until 4:30 or so.

 

We’ll be meeting in the basement Performance Space at W2. If you’ve never been to W2, its entrance is inside the atrium at the new Woodsward’s complex, next to London Drugs.

 

And if you’re on Facebook, head over to the event page to let us know you’re coming.

Written by on May 4th, 2012


liisa hannus is a photographer, teacher, writer, theatre rat, troubleshooter and people organizer. She is the Facilities & Logistics Coordinator for the 2013 Vancouver Mini Maker Faire.


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Posted in Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2012, Volunteers |





Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2012 Call for Makers is live and Applications are open!

We’re excited to announce that the Call for Makers for Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2012 is now live! Applications are now open for Individual Makers, Maker Groups, Startup Makers, and Commercial Makers.

 

Please pass on the news to all the makers, doers, and creatives in the community!

 

 

Call for Makers

 

For makers, Vancouver Mini Maker Faire is a community-run event aimed at bringing Vancouver’s Makers, Doers, and Creatives together for a weekend of sharing knowledge, inspiring each other, exhibiting projects, and community building.
For attendees, Vancouver Mini Maker Faire is like a science fair meets farmers’ market meets Burning Man (with pants) – for families!

 

The 2012 Vancouver Mini Maker Faire will be held on the weekend of the 23rd and 24th of June at the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE). Early-bird applications from Makers are due by April 21st, and qualify for a 20% discount. Final applications close on May 19th. But don’t delay until the last minute as the earlier applications will help direct how we layout and allocate the space; so the sooner you apply, the more weight your requirements will have on the event and the better we can work to accommodate your needs!

 

 

Application forms


NEW! Short-form Application for all Maker types.

Use this form if you don’t know what you will be showing yet or don’t have time to fill in the detailed application forms below.

Application form for Individual Makers and Maker Groups

Application form for Startup Makers and Commercial Makers

 

 

Check out the Call for Makers page for full details. Any questions, or anything else Maker-related, can be directed to the Maker Coordinator at makers@makerfaire.ca.

 

 

Written by on March 1st, 2012



Posted in Event Details, Organization, Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2012 |





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