Make It Work

So much of the weirdness at the ultimate DIY conflagration, The Maker Faire, has to be seen to be even remotely understood. Here's a short list of that weirdness: the Komegatone, the Electric Giraffe, the ChakraTron, Compubeaver, EepyBird, Dystopic Horizons Realty, Marvin the Babbage Concierge, Lepidodgera, Tower Electronique, the Moment of Divine Strake, and Hologlyphics. Uh, what? There's also a cyber sonic robotic talisman, the tandem recumbent fixie dicycle, the cellular automata video synthesizer, electric rainsticks, electrosparklaviers, and lots of other stuff we don't understand, thanks to physics. Things really get going from there.

It seems like everyone at the show -- made up of tinkerers, programmers, torch cutters, mind benderers, and everyone and everything in between -- just want to fuck with us, and good for them. A few things bear mentioning in more detail. The Power Tool Drag Races, for one, which pits creators of enhanced power tools against one another and all common sense. Another neat thing looks to be the Contraptors Lounge, featuring Steampunk's famed Jake von Slatt and a bunch of twisted hi-tech gear -- like Datamancer's 18th century laptop made of wood, copper, and brass, which has been lorded over in the mainstream press.
May 3-4, 10 a.m., 2008