have a question for you guys who here
considers themselves a maker maybe just
a handful of hands we’ll get back to
that so I am an organizer I am a
researcher but most of all I’m a maker
and I’ve been making my entire life from
starting out with Legos and blogs and
maybe a little bit of soldering to crazy
robots as parts first robotics he’s tall
120 pound machines tons of fun in high
school to now making LED wearables and
masquerade masks in some large art
installations but making doesn’t have to
be just electronics and robots it can be
painting and soldering it can be sewing
it can be art it can be tinkering
tearing things apart but it can also be
drones it can be sculptures and crazy
crazy puppets but it can be taking apart
board games or making your own it can be
both video and board can be wearables
and fashion and it can be programming
hacking and tearing things apart can be
music it can be your own science
experiments it could be cooking and
baking trust me one of my favorite bits
of making but it can also be crazy
contraptions and it can be social
activism so I’m going to ask this again
who here considers themselves a maker
good all of your hand should be up
because everyone is a maker Dale
Dougherty the father of the maker
movement once said that makers are the
producers and consumers they are the
shapers of the world and out of after
talking to hundreds of makers bays are a
few tips that I recommend number one
look at everyday materials in different
ways this can be cardboard everyone has
cardboard it is easy to find its
accessible it’s easy to manipulate and
it’s everywhere it is one of my favorite
materials I’m sure a bunch of you have
played with cardboard as a kid or have
dealt with it as an adult when the
holidays come around and you get all
those amazon boxes trust me you can do a
lot with it to take another thing from
around the house is recyclables easy to
find as a challenge for myself I let a
team this past year for the Rochester
Fringe Festival to build a room out of
just recyclables and easy to find
materials here’s kind of what we started
out with no lo prototype and this is
taking it to the extreme we use 1151
gallon jugs about a hundred to 150 soup
containers for a chandelier and 35
pounds of hot glue yeah a little extreme
and here’s the final result that is all
recycled materials and materials you can
find around the house please look at
materials and unusual ways number to
make with others don’t think of it as
do-it-yourself think it think of it as
do it together making this all about
community it’s essential it’s the
makerspace it’s it’s the large art
installations it’s sharing what you love
in building together think back to the
green room a second ago do you think I
collected all of those containers myself
it took between 75 and 100 individuals
organizations and events to collect
those jugs and another 20 or so people
to build it please make with others
actually who here remembers TEDx
allendale columbia from last year in the
LED experience maybe a handful of you so
an LED throwie is just a battery and LED
and a magnet all held together using
electrical tape it basically lights up
and you can throw it at any magnetic
surface that you want
well yet again to take it to the extreme
two years ago at the Rochester street
light festival we had a 20-foot by
60-foot wall and we had anyone who
wanted to come in at 10 make their own
so there was the beginning of the night
you can see some people working on their
own maybe midway through the first night
you know people having fun a lot of
people were really tossing them and
here’s the final result magical things
happen when you make together every
single one of those LED throw is is a
different individual and we had two
thousand LED throw ease number three
share what you make making is all about
sharing what you’re doing how you’re
doing it just look at youtube and
instructables and you can find tons and
tons of projects at the Rochester Mini
Maker Faire you can find so many
different unique stories because makers
just want to share what they’re working
on tell their stories share their
passions and tell them all about your
their experiences on how they came to be
and what they wanted to do as someone
who grew up with the Magic School Bus
and I hope some of you also did this
this line might ring a bell take chances
make mistakes and get messy miss Frizzle
set this in just about every episode and
it’s a phrase that I whole clearer to my
heart so making can be physically messy
it can be Legos and paint and I’m sure
for those who have worked in Lego it
might have some painful experiences
trust me you step on one once you learn
forever but making can also be mentally
messy it can be dealing with problems
that come up it can be tackling issues
that you never thought would occur for
anyone who’s made anything I’m sure
something has gone wrong one way or
another you need to deal with these
difficulties and making can help you
think through it step-by-step can help
you troubleshoot and that is something
that can carry on in every aspect of
your life but it all starts with making
making can be fun and can be done to
improve the world Adam Savage is one of
my favorite makers you probably know him
from mythbusters but he does a ton of
making elsewhere i highly recommend you
look up his other work online he once
said that it doesn’t matter what you
make or why you make it it just matters
that you’re making and I would say
that’s pretty true because making can be
done to both improve the world such as
enable and their 3d printed prosthetics
and that has helped hundreds and
hundreds even thousands of people around
the world but it can also be less than
serious with a test of strength machine
that shoots out flames just because so
making can be both serious and silly and
I like to leave with this curiosity is
at the heart of all makers it’s that
what if question it stands really strong
at the heart of everyone what if I was
to build this with this different
material well if i was to tear this out
how does it work what if and curiosity
is really at the heart because we
wouldn’t really get the chance to
explore new making new ideas without
being curious and with that i like to
say please go out and make at the end of
today go home tear something apart bake
a meal together sheer experiences and just make thank you very much