Revvin’ up for Maker Faire: Maker Day
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
What an inspirational, revelational way to kick off Maker Faire–this will be my 3rd year as a Maker, but my 1st time attending Maker Day, thanks to the invite from organizers Sherry Huss and Dale. Fellow Maker, Shana Astrachan and I drove down to my ol’ stompin’ grounds of San Mateo for an afternoon of presentations by innovative minds on the Future of Making.
We arrived just in time to catch Garth Johnson’s talk on Extreme Crafts, a curatorial collage of craft artists who are pushing the envelope–topics such as Craft Extending its Middlefinger and ManCraft, to Cozies and OMG WTF? The eternal debate of Craft vs. Art: “Craft is the greatest Trojan horse out there”, says Johnson, “craft masquerading as art”. Why can’t it simply Be Art? That question aside, I could have listened to another hour of Garth, and so you see his blog is in my “craft must see” links.
Next up, the co-editor of Boing Boing and editor of Make Magazine, the mighty David Pescovitz guides us through The Future of Making map, which I’m eager to see in print. Representing the Institute for the Future, IFTF has created a map outlining future drivers and trends in Making. He summed up with these 6 concepts for success: Network your Organization, Reward Solution Seekers, Err on the Side of Openness, Go Transparent, Engage Actively, and Celebrate Hackers.
A few speakers later, String Theory’s Autumn Wiggin showed us a glimpse Cradle to Cradle philosophy and how indie crafting can be a vehicle for change in consumerism. Being conscious of our environmental footprint with the supplies we buy, sourcing our materials in alternative ways to hopefully turn the heads of big corporations our way to what we really want to see as consumers. The concept of Bio Craft–making goods that will decompose and actually enrich the earth, not poison it. You go, girl–enlighten the Midwest for us, please!
Break time! Maker Media had a full on photo set up in the front entrance of Fiesta Hall, to shoot Makers such as ourselves. check out the other photos on flickr.
One of the last speakers (where did the last 4 hours go!?!) was Mister Jalopy, seen here to the right of Dale, who MC’d the afternoon. Man of various talents & businesses, Jalopy’s talk, Authentic Innovation, touched upon many of the day’s recurring themes, the major points being: 1. Design for Life–make original, quality items that will last; 2. Authentic Innovation=Shared Innovation, as he says, “Admit you are not good at everything–collaborate”; 3. Build Honest; 4. Build Open; 5. Circle back the the True Believers. His final words still resonate in my brain, “When you build Open, your success comes from individuals connecting Beyond Consuming”.
There you have it, folks. My 1st blog post ever–it was well worth the wait. Time to put this cold to bed–12 hours from now we’ll have Maker Prep madness in the kitchen!
