Maker Faire Newcastle 2009

This two-day, family-friendly event celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset and features interactive exhibits organized by individual enthusiasts, hobbyist groups and clubs as well as student groups. It's for creative, resourceful folks who like to tinker and love to make things. Maker Faire is an opportunity to share what you do with others.

Arts and Crafts

In this section you will learn -

• How to use the famous "Hat Hack" to find friends at music festivals and play the Honkatron, an exciting musical instrument housed in a cigar box
• The secret of print Gocco, how fabric scraps and thread can turn into works of art, or original t-shirts or bags
• That graffiti can be legal and fun with use of 'WiiMote Whiteboard' software and some custom built infra-red spray - FriiSpray, allow people to create digital, or virtual grafitti as an interactive media installation
• That plants can dance, or can they, when rigged up with sensors providing a kinaesthetic user experience based on movement, touch, sound and light. See more »
• To paint a beautiful silk greeting card or sun catcher, no skill required!
• That by speaking into microphones you are able to create unique visual compositions using CODA -- fun for people of all ages.
• How a cooperative group of women from different backgrounds, artists, embroiderers, textile artists and enthusiasts support and encourage each other and share varied interests and skills
• How true proverbs are. The Curiosity Collective will show you that --A Watched Pot Never Boils, Curiosity Killed the Cat, The Grass is Always Greener and more.

Electronics

No Maker Faire can be without Electronics or Robots, Maker Faire Newcastle is no exception!

The 2009 Fighting Robots UK Featherweight Championships are coming to the Maker Faire!

40 machines from across the UK will be travelling to the Centre for LIFE for the ultimate robot showdown! See teams from the hit TV show Robot Wars battle it out in a bullet proof Robo Challenge Arena with their featherweight machines. With £500 up for grabs, competitors will be going all out to get their hands on the trophy and be crowned UK Champion.

Other exhibits include:

• The Mazzini project helping you understand and control your energy usage. How would your life change if your electricity bill was itemised like your phone bill?
• Can robots communicate using light? Find out with LightResponsiveDevices
• Self-Balancing Electric skateboard - a fun project based on Segway self-balancing principles.
• Sparkletubes and Nixie Clocks - unique and beautiful clocks based on unusual old technology displays and plastic tubes housing different colour LED's
• The North of England Arduino Group shows you how to make both magical and weird sounds using sensors, switches and LEDs.
• Computkit UK 101 is 30 years old! Come and see it in its original form and also modified.
• Anyone can learn how to make cool things with microcontrollers! Blink lights, hack your brain, play video games, turn off TVs in public places -- microcontrollers can do it all. This is for all skill and experience levels. Ages 5 to 100.
• Create delightfully fun open source products
• Sarah Angliss (Spacedog UK) presents a selection of her playful experiments with robotics, sensing and music. See a live performance with Clara 2.0, the 'polite' robot thereminist and that of uncanny Valerie, the all-seeing robotic oracle.
• The latest development in Owl Project Technology --Made from a log and fitting in the palm of your hand the m-Log has a range of built in sensors and plug-and-play compatibility with a wide variety of applications. The design of each log strongly echoes contemporary products such as iPods and advanced mobile phones.
• How to track and save energy usage around the home by adding "smarts" in new places with added microcontroller technology to everyday objects.
• BBC Weatherbot build remote controlled robots that explore a map of the UK and display the weather where they are in the form of graphics on LED arrays. Visitors will be able to design weather symbols for the LED arrays, see how we build the robots and write the code, and drive the robots around the Map during demos.

Engineering

• The Pachube service enables you to connect, tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices, buildings and environments around the world. The key aim is to facilitate interaction between remote environments, both physical and virtual.
• CamBam is an application to create CAM files (gcode) from CAD files or its own internal drawing editor for use in CNC routers, mills and laser cutters. CamBam has been put to many uses: RC modelling, model engineering, woodworking, jewellery making, electronics, robotics, engineering, signs, and mould making to name a few.
• Build the 'Jetsons' digital lifestyle today. Robotic personal assistants, natural user interfaces for computers with multi-touch technology, all connected to the Internet to make using digital services like TV guides, shopping and communication easier and more useful - not to mention more fun! Watch out for the 914 PC Bot from White Box Robotics as well as everyone's favourite movie robot, R2-D2.
• Shapeways is a 3D printing community that is helping to bring mass customization and personal production to consumers.
• The KNEX challenge - Over the course of the day there will be several different challenges for you to work as teams or individuals. You will be invited to design and build a variety of constructions such as bridges, houses, catapults etc. These will then be judged or tested and a winner chosen.
• Superpants will present a range of small projects ranging from practical items lamps & speakers, to furniture made from aircraft parts along with more esoteric items such as foam machines and giant games.

Music

Listen to and play with the latest music innovations

• Chiptune Marching Band presents a public workshop and subsequent performance, inviting attendees to explore localized energy generation, public sound performance and DIY power... Chiptune Marching Band is a 2 hour workshop + 1/2 hour performance where participants build a small tonal sensor (light, temperature, distance, etc.) driven sound making circuit, itself powered by an alternative energy source (solar, human-kinetic, wind, etc.). With noise-makers at the ready, we take the group to the streets as the Chiptune Marching Band.
• "Objects of awesome" is an interface for remixing music with physical objects including an old Gameboy and a bottle of tomato ketchup.