We invited the Young Makers group first, and the public at large later, to experiment with us using conductive thread, LEDs, sewable batteries, magnetic clasps, and plain good old-fashioned embroidery to create digital wearable jewelry and garments.

Take a look at some of the photos from the event, and stay tuned for a fascinating interview with Adrian Freed and Grace Kim!

Open Make: wearables and soft circuitry

During Open Make, we put up signs at each table that relayed the name of the activity. Some had no age suggestion written on them, some did:

For the Circuit Necklace making activity that I led, I wrote ‘intended for ages 10+” on the sign. Then people with young children, and also children younger than 10 themselves, showed up and wanted to make necklaces. I was left to make snap judgments about who would be okay making one and who wouldn’t be. I told young children that they needed to bring their parent(s) over to help since there were semi-tricky tools (wire cutters, pliers, etc). These kids often came back with their parents and then I would explain to their parents that this activity would require a long attention span, tiny pieces, and the ability to troubleshoot and handle some frustration. A few parents decided their kids wouldn’t be into the activity. I was surprised, however, that a large number of parents and kids still wanted to do it despite my warnings and efforts to deter. And I was even more surprised that almost all of these kids and parents worked together and had great experiences!

This kid, for example, who was only 6, did an amazing job of making his necklace. His father worked with him closely, but never “took over” the project and really helped him learn how to use the tools properly and safely.

On the other hand, i let a few parents persuade me that their kids should do it, and their kids and i both struggled though the activity while their parents tried to do it for them. It was hard for me to handle those situations well, and when i had to spend lots of time focusing on these people,  i felt like i was not able to give enough help and information to the other visitors i was facilitating for (since i was teaching a few people at a time how to do it).

Another one of the activities we did that day, Make Your Own Bling, led by Ryan, did not have an age limit on the sign. When I’m off the LS computer, he can comment on how this went for him.

In general, it’s going to be an interesting challenge to plan and execute activities for the diversity of visitors that come to our wonderful museum to make things with us, and  I think we’re lucky that the public is so willing to try things out along with us! As a final thought, i’ll leave you with a (blurry) photo (sorry!) of the graphic on the wall that warns you that this area isn’t really intended for anyone under 12…or is it?

One of the many advantages of having a dedicated space on the museum floor is that it allows for quick and relatively easy experimenting with ideas for activities that do not need to be fully worked out yet. We tried out something last week that came about a little serendipitously.

A while ago, while visiting Leah Buechley’s lab at MIT, we saw a great little vinyl cutting machine, called the Craft ROBO. They were using it to design circuit and cut them out of copper foil, so that they would be easy to sew onto fabric.

Since it was relatively cheap, we decided to get one and play around with it. As mentioned before, one of the earliest application that excited me was cutting vinyl decals to decorate my laptop.

Last week, the Exploratorium hosted a three-day event called Rods and Mods, which invited computer hackers and modders to showcase their creations on the museum floor.

We thought it would be fun to set up a little station inviting visitors to design, print out, and apply their own mods for laptops, cellphones, wallets, water bottles, etc. Pretty much anything that would take a vinyl sticker was fair game.

Kids got to design their own creations, using the exceedingly intuitive software LiveBrush. and then go through the steps of choosing the type of vinyl that they wanted, sending the file to the vinyl cutter (often watching captivated as the machine did its thing), carefully peel away the background, burnish the design onto transfer tape, and finally transferring it to their object of choice.

The photos we took show the unmistakable pride that each visitor took in their creations, and the sense of ownership of the experience that results from that.

You can see more photos from the event by clicking the banner below:

Both bristlebots and blinkybugs are such attractive attention getters that the Studio was soon filled up with lots of kids. Once they found out their bots were alive (i mean when they saw the circuit goes successfully), they got excited and engaged in adjusting the location of the battery, motor, and wires to shift the weight and alter how the bots moved. They also used craft materials such as pipe cleaners and feathers. It was very exciting to see, as the activities went on, that the kids ended up making more customized bots to differentiate themselves.

Each kid enjoyed his or her own unique creation. When designing activities, it is always interesting to think about how to provide not only some structures (i.e., proper steps to make bristlebots/blinkybugs) but also openness for explorations!

First, we hosted the Young Makers participants in The Studio, and with the help of this month’s featured makers Ken Murphy, and Windell and Lenore, we made Blinkybugs and Bristlebots.

Then the featured makers were interviewed by Dale Dougherty, Editor of Make Magazine to a full auditorium, and took some interesting questions from the public.

Finally, we opened our space, for the first time, to the public, offering both BlinkyBugs and BristleBots making activities, as well as thematically hand-picked exhibits to play with. The Studio was full, bustling, and great fun!

Click below for a selection of photographs from the event!

Open MAKE gallery

And here you can watch the interview with Ken Murphy and Windell and Lenore!

We organized a 3,600 square feet booth, including exhibits, snack activities, demonstrations, prototypes, and two PIE activities: a giant marble machines fort, and an even bigger enclosure where we let visitors build their portion of a collective chain reaction machine.

Photos from the event are coming soon. In the mean time, enjoy these frantic movies: they are two time-lapse movies, each compressing a full day of chain reaction workshop in less than a minute. You will notice the ebb and flow of visitors, and twice during each movie, the crowd building up to watch us set off the whole reaction, and then us taking it all down and starting again. It makes me tired and happy just looking at it!

Day 1:

Day 2:

The big set-offs were web-cast live on Saturday! You can see the archived versions here:

• Saturday, 2pm
• Saturday, 7pm

Visiting artist Shih Chieh Haung (”CJ”) spent last week here at the Exploratorium, researching possible collaborations, sharing his wonderful work with the staff, and generally having a good time. On his last day, we convinced him to make one of his “organic concept” installations on the museum floor. These are incredibly evocative and fun, but the execution is surprisingly simple!

All we needed to make it happen were a box fan, some painter’s tarp (which is a really thin, long sheet of plastic), and a couple of bungee cords. One end of the tarp roll gets secured over the box fan, then the fan is turned on, and the ends of the tarp are knotted together at regular intervals. The organic shape that results was an amazing draw, and it came together in less than 20 minutes! Of course visitors (especially children) attacked it immediately, but it was also really nice to see the Exploratorium staff come out of their hiding holes and start playing with it as well.

Another great advantage of this construction is the the inevitable holes and ruptures that happen can be immediately repaired by simply tying another knot! So, what we thought would last only a few minutes, ended up providing a couple of hours of solid enjoyment and wonder to many people.