A collaboration between the Exploratorium, MAKE Magazine, and Pixar Animation Studios, Open MAKE is a monthly program highlighting the tools, techniques, and ingenuity of local Makers. Visitors are invited to participate in tinkering and making activities inside the Tinkering Studio, where Makers from around the Bay Area will share their work. In addition, Dale Dougherty, founder and editor of MAKE Magazine, will interview Featured Makers in the McBean Theater.

This month’s theme will be trash. Five Featured Makers will be interviewed in the McBean Theater between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., talking about their work and process, and taking questions from the audience. The interview will also be webcast live! Please go to bit.ly/openmaketrash to watch.

Our Featured Makers are:

• Sudhu Tewari, who likes to make sounds with all kinds of materials, and was recently artist in residence at the San Francisco Dump.
• Cathy McEver, a local artist creating all kinds of stuff from found objects.
• Jeremy Mayer, who assembles stunning sculptures entirely made from typewriter parts.
• Paul Spooner, automatist extraordinarie, whose humorous and quirky kinetic sculptures are a delight.
• Nemo Gould who also uses found objects to create work that evokes a sense of childlike wonder.

Special Guest: Caine’s Cardboard Arcade!
Caine is a very awesome 9 year old boy who built an entire arcade out of cardboard in his dad’s auto parts shop. If you are not familiar with his story, watch this video! You won’t regret it…
Caine is coming to San Francisco for Open MAKE, and will be bringing his whole arcade! We’ll install the arcade in the Tinkering Studio, and he will be on hand to run the arcade and sell fun passes (it’s an awesome deal!). Caine will also make a special appearance at the Meet the Makers interviews at 1pm in the McBean Theater. He will be back at 3pm along with Nirvan, the filmmaker who made the documentary linked above, for the film screening organized by the Cinema Arts Program.

Scheduled Workshops

Swap-O-Rama-Rama!

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Come participate in a giant clothing swap where you get to re-make, re-use, and re-purpose yours or somebody else’s clothes! Instead of throwing them away or selling them to a thrift store, why don’t you bring your old (but CLEAN, please!) clothes to the Exploratorium and add them to the giant pile of garments we will be building? Then pick something that you want to alter in some way, and with the help of the fantastic Swap-O-Rama-Rama staff, we’ll help you bring your idea to life. We’ll have sewing machines, cutting stations, and a number of quick and awesome projects for you to do.

Trashion Show!

3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. in the Skylight area

What happens to old t-shirts, stained jeans, and tacky prom dresses? Local designers become inspired by these materials that would otherwise end up in the trash and craft them up into something new. Check out Loose Thread, Miss Velvet Cream, and Camp Couture at the Trashion Show, produced by Artiffact. Are you an inspiring designer as well? Spend a little time at the Swap-O-Rama-Rama digging through the swap piles, sewing on the machines, and printing at the silkscreen stations and you can show off what you made too!

Slash Revival — with Eva Inez Heule

10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Cut, Slash, Wear and go, or choose to re-weave old garments into completely new works of art!
Cotton jersey-knit or stretch fabrics work best for this demo.

T-Shirt Transplants — with Andrea Nemerson

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Love the image, hate the garment? Andrea Nemerson shows you how to to perform a graphics transplant and other one-of-a-kind embellishments. Bring your own t-shirt that you want to modify: great for outgrown kid’s shirts!

Jeans [or any pants] Into Tote — with Scatha G Allison

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Remake a pair of unwanted jeans, pants, or shorts into a quick and easy tote bag with Scatha Allison. Use your new bag for shopping, crafts, the beach, moonlight picnics, or for everyday. The project is simple but with options for customizations, detailing and pockets! Bring your old jeans!

Fresh Prints: Live screen-printing — with Homeygrown

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Don’t toss that stained t-shirt! Give it a second chance with a fresh print from Homeygrown. Choose a shirt from the swap piles, or bring in an old favorite, and they’ll silkscreen a design of your choice to turn your old duds into something new-to-you.

Super Hero Capes

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Up, up and away! Transform a button-down shirt into an easy super hero cape with Jessica Martinez. This no-sew cape is perfect for superheroes of all ages! Bring your own button down shirts and embellishments!

Plastic coral reel building — with Angela Pozzi of Washed Ashore

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Come participate in a large scale coral reel building using pieces of plastic that have been salvaged from Oregon beaches. Angela turns plastic scrap and bits of trash that end up on beaches into wonderful large scale collaborative sculptures: come add your piece to a coral reef that will slowly take shape in the Tinkering Studio every day from Wednesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. All ages and skill levels are welcome!
Also on display, right outside the Tinkering Studio, will be Lidia the Seal, a large sculpture by Angela, made mostly with discarded plastic lids (hence the name…)

Contact microphone building — with Sudhu Tewari

10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Do you ever wonder if there are sounds you can’t hear? Well, there are! Some sounds are too quiet to be picked up by human ears and so go unnoticed. Sudhu Tewari wants to share these sounds with you. He builds electronic devices and musical instruments that help us hear (and see) these special sounds.
Sudhu will give a demonstration of contact microphone building and show you how to make your own with components salvaged from discarded electronic devices. Come experience the most musical colander you’ve ever heard and see the sound on a vintage Wobble vision! All constructed from other people trash!

Kinetic Sound Devices — with Pe Lang

10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Pe Lang is a sound artist based in Zurich and Berlin. His work includes sound installations, live performances and compositions based on elegant and minimal kinetic systems, combined with different devices created by himself, which are used as sound sources. He prefers to experiment and build his artworks with inexpensive motors, small magnets, and the raw materials of bare wire, plastic tubing, metal plate and ball bearings, to allow viewers and listeners to appreciate the delicate and unpredictable movements and sound.
He will show some of the simple materials and construction methods he uses, including industrial surplus magnets, parts, and fasteners.
Special thanks to Swissnex San Francisco for their support in bringing Pe Lang to the Exploratorium

SCRAPPY Trash Puppets!

10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Visit the SCRAP table and use fabric, buttons and toys discarded by local businesses to create a Trash Puppet. Come with a character in mind or make one that looks like you! We’ll attach a pencil to the puppet’s arm so you can make your puppet come to life.

These days Cathy spends weekends dumpster-diving in deserted back alleys of industrial districts in Oakland and long afternoons wandering for miles down stretches of railroad tracks scavenging for strangely perfect scraps of rust or interesting, oddly twisted bits of metal. Regular visits to flea markets and salvage yards flush out her working materials.

Cathy’s artwork includes assemblage, textile art, installation/interactive pieces and fashioning things out of unlikely materials. Lately she’s been engaged in creating objects that are fleeting in nature and photographing them.

Artist’s Website

Cathy’s interview at Open MAKE Trash

In 1974, Paul moved to Stithians, Cornwall. He made weaving looms for his wife Sue, but mainly worked as a van driver. It wasn’t until 1981 that he made his first edition of automata featuring the Egyptian Jackal-headed God, Anubis. For the next two years he made small machines usually sold in limited editions through Cabaret in Falmouth. In 1983 Cabaret became a Mechanical Theatre and between 1985 and 2000 it was located in Covent Garden, London, with over 40 of Paul’s machines in the collection. The exhibits now tour around the world.

Paul Spooner’s work combines humour with delightful and intriguing mechanisms.

“My work as an artist / mechanic amounts to a constant pursuit of elegance and simplicity. I haven’t caught up with either yet because I don’t know how to finish things. Except sometimes. And even then I’m not sure.”

Artist’s Website

Paul’s interview at Open MAKE Trash

Jeremy lives and works in Oakland, CA.

Artist’s Website

Jeremy’s interview at Open MAKE Trash

Fusing plastic bags to make fabric, using scraps to build kinetic sculptures and floating devices, and building balanced mobiles out of found objects are only some of the fun ways we’re investigating the possibilities.

Scheduled Workshop

Plastic coral reel building — with Angela Pozzi of Washed Ashore

April 18-21 — 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Come participate in a large scale coral reel building using pieces of plastic that have been salvaged from Oregon beaches. Angela turns plastic scrap and bits of trash that end up on beaches into wonderful large scale collaborative sculptures: come add your piece to a coral reef that will slowly take shape in the Tinkering Studio every day from Wednesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. All ages and skill levels are welcome!
Also on display, right outside the Tinkering Studio, will be Lidia the Seal, a large sculpture by Angela, made mostly with discarded plastic lids (hence the name…)

As always, follow us on our blog for the latest and greatest adventure, and don’t miss this month’s Open MAKE: Trash event on April 21st!

Flower

For more information about stop motion animation, click here.

You can download a copy of the software we use to make animations, and continue playing at home! Click here.

In 2010 Sudhu collaborated with sculptor Bryan Tedrick to create an interactive light and sound installation to “breathe life” into Tedrick’s 50 foot tall climbable steel sculpture, Minaret at Burning Man 2010. Tewari’s installation used the movement of climbers to control LED lighting, pre-recorded sound and electro-acoustic instruments, creating an immense responsive interactive sculpture.

Tewari is currently pursuing PhD at UC Santa Cruz in the Cultural Musicology program and simultaneously a MFA in Digital Art and New Media. Sudhu has also been working as a team leader with UCSC’s OpenLab, a network for collaborative discourse fueled by academic communities, arts and science communities, and industry. As part of UCSC’s Mechatronic project group in the DANM department, Sudhu now leads AUX, a collaborative research group focused on sound producing kinetic art.

Most recently Sudhu spent most of a week in a tree creating a site-specific interactive, kinetic sound installation at Montalvo Arts Center and has been working on a series of sculptures for an interactive sound garden.

Artist’s website

Sudhu’s interview at Open MAKE Trash

Nemo earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1998, and his Master of Fine Arts degree at U.C. Berkeley in 2000. Once he was free of the constraints of contemporary art education he quickly threw himself into the pursuit of his childhood dreams. “My work appeals to the 7-year-old boy mind, because I still have one… I take silly very seriously.”

In the ensuing years he has produced a prolific body of work that attempts to reconcile the innocent wonder of youth with the dull complexity of the adult experience. “Most adults are dangerously lacking in wonder. As we age and learn more of the answers to life’s mysteries, I think we lose part of what keeps us alive. When I am working, I am always trying to make things that can produce a child like response from a jaded adult—it’s a matter of life and death!”

Nemo’s work has been featured frequently in national media and is shown in Galleries and Museums throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Artist’s Website

Nemo’s interview at Open MAKE Trash

A collaboration between the Exploratorium, MAKE Magazine, and Pixar Animation Studios, Open MAKE is a monthly program highlighting the tools, techniques, and ingenuity of local Makers. Visitors are invited to participate in tinkering and making activities inside the Tinkering Studio, where Makers from around the Bay Area will share their work. In addition, Gareth Branwyn, Editor-in-Chief of MAKE Magazine, will interview Featured Makers in the McBean Theater.

This month’s theme was tools. Six Featured Makers were interviewed in the McBean Theater between 1 and 2 p.m., talking about their work and process, and taking questions from the audience. The interview was be webcast live! Please go to bit.ly/openmaketools to watch.

• Tim Hunkin played with us last year, helping visitor solder and spot weld on the floor, and building the wonderful archway that adorns the Tinkering Studio. This year he returned as a Featured Maker, and his talk literally made sparks fly!
• Moxie is a wonderful artist who specializes in needle-felting wool to make it do strange and wonderful things.
• Chef Elizabeth Falkner, of Citizen Cake fame, is an expert at using kitchen tools and can stretch the boundaries of what pâtisserie can accomplish!
• David Lang and Eric Stackpole have started a community of tinkerers, engineers, and programmers to build an OpenROV, a remotely operated vehicle to go hunting for treasure at the bottom of abandoned mines.
• Benjamin Cowden builds delightfully quirky machines that accomplish human behaviors, like kissing or licking a lollipop.

And back in the McBean Theater at 3:00pm Cinema Arts offered Tooling Around, a selection of short animations and documentaries exploring the boundless ways that tools can be creatively used beyond function!

Scheduled Workshops

Henna Lounge – The Art of Mehndi with Darcy Vasudev

Sat, Mar 17 — 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Henna, or mehndi, as it is sometimes called, is both the name of a plant, and the name of an ancient form of temporary body decoration. Used mainly for celebratory events such as weddings, festivals, and holidays, henna is thought to bring good luck. Even after thousands of years, only the most basic tools are needed to create beautiful, intricate designs. Darcy Vasudev, founder of Henna Lounge, demonstrates how to mix henna using all-natural ingredients. Mixing will be followed by a short course on freestyle pattern creation. Participants have the choice to “try their hand” at creating their own work of body-art, or receive a small traditional motif from Darcy. Henna designs can last for 1-3 weeks, and are sure to be a conversation piece everywhere you go.
     

In the Tinkering Studio, we made needle-felted creatures with Moxie, created three-dimensional shapes by sewing sheets of fabric together with Judy Castro, fused plastic with clothes irons, used sewing needles and conductive thread to make circuits embedded in bracelets and badges, and used motors and other tools to take Light Painting to a whole new level.

In the skylight area, many local makers shared their passions. Henna artist Darcy Vasudev drew some temporary tattoos, Meredith Scheff showcased her soft circuitry, master puppeteer Dax Tran-Caffee hosted a large scale stop-motion animation with cardboard puppets, Tim and Nicole taught people to use some tools properly and creatively, and much more!

All activities and workshops ran from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

We are also privileged to have Tim Hunkin with us this month, who is a veritable authority on making, explaining, and taking apart tools (as he’s done here, for example), so keep up with our blog to see what we’ll get up to.

And, of course, don’t miss our extended celebration of everything tool-centric during our Open MAKE: Tools event, on March 17th!