Project Empire
Maker Faire Bay Area 2025
September 26th-28th
PROJECT: EMPIRE - a captivating blend of art car mastery, avant-garde costuming, and spellbinding performance art, brought to life by the ingenious visionaries behind The Golden Mean and The Serpent Twins.
Prepare to embark on an extraordinary voyage into uncharted realms of creativity, where Empire of Dirt draws inspiration from the illustrious era of science fiction concept art, the enigmatic narrative of a NASA mission that never came to be, and the boundless optimism and chic vibes of the 1960s Apollo Rocket Age. PROJECT: EMPIRE, an abbreviation for Early Manned Planetary-Interplanetary Roundtrip Expeditions, serves as the tangible embodiment of a mythological spacecraft, and we proudly introduce a groundbreaking genre known as AEROSPACEPUNK.
Meet our sonic virtuoso, Kyrsten Mate, also known as Jet Girl, as she weaves an auditory masterpiece like no other. Armed with a formidable arsenal of 13 Meyer sound speakers, she invites you to immerse yourself in an auditory odyssey like n
Jon Sarriugarte
Born and raised in Boise, Idaho, Jon made the trip out to California to create the metal furniture company Form & Reform in 1987. He has studied and worked as a blacksmith, designer and fabricator for over 30 years; pouring his creativity into both work and the local community where he is a civic leader and board member of the West Oakland Commerce Association. He co-owns the Kraftworks building in West Oakland that houses over 20 industrial artists and craftspeople.
Jon also believes in plain old fun. His entries in the Power Tool Drag Races have been featured on the Discovery Channel, and his work on Vortex generators were featured on the History Channel. He continues to be active in the Bay Area art group, Survival Research Laboratories. He has collaborated and worked with a number of artists and arts/crafts organizations throughout the years including American Craft Council, Burning Man, MAKE, Eric Paulos, Pepe Ozan, David Therian, Robo Dock, California Blacksmith Association, John Law, Christopher Brooks, Lighting on Demand, Therm, and the Crucible, to name a few.
In 2007 Jon and his wife Kyrsten Mate founded the Boiler Bar Theater. This Oilpunk group built an entire bar from a turn of the century oil town and along with a bevy of stage talent, has taken the show on the road. The Giant Iron Snail Art Car, the Golden Mean, was added in 2008, mixing Jules Verne and Dr Doolittle into a hot rod car. The Electrobite, a personal transportation fossil was built in 2009, the Zepelini, a personal flying machine was created in 2010. In 2011, Burning Man provided a grant to build the honorarium art cars: the Serpent Twins.
Jon is married to Kyrsten Mate, a sound designer who has worked on Oscar winning films and whose work can be heard in Pixar's animated film, The Incredibles, Sam Mendes' Jarhead, TRON, War Horse and more. Jon and Kyrsten have a wonderful daughter named Zolie Mae.
