22.10.08
On Makerfaire
Well, we a-traveled to Austin this past weekend to take part in MakerFaire.
Rather than show you photos of what was there, I thought I'd scan in some gestures from my sketchbook. Gesture drawing is something that we'll be coming to (eventually) in the how-to-draw posts, but for the moment, suffice it to say that gestural drawing is a way to capture a person or thing as quickly as possible; important in these circumstances because everyone was a-movin' and a-shakin'.
It's not a terribly long drive to Austin from here, but long enough that we drove well past sunset Friday night. I drew things in the dark. This is one place and time when your blind contour drawing is more than just an exercise. I particularly like this one, because it was drawn as we passed the truck; you can see I drew clockwise from the right, and by the time I got back around to the wheels, they were beside us instead of in front.
The next morning we grabbed coffee before heading out to the Faire; the fairground opened at 10:00, so we had plenty of time. Lisa had some trouble getting a truly dry cappuccino, but the wait staff was eager to remedy the problem. Scarily chipper. Really.
The human-sized mousetrap was impressive --- I got a front-row seat to the first run. This was just before the actual performance; the young man was about to make his stage debut as the strongest boy in the world. He did a fine job.
It was an interesting point, though, that very, very few of the performers at the faire were particularly good showmen. All the tech and engineering was excellent --- really neat --- but if you didn't already know how it worked and why it was so impressive, the presentation would have been a bit off-putting. Several performances had everything right and were just missing a P.T. Barnum to turn it into a real piece of buskering.
When hats were passed, I am sure that they suffered because of that.
There was a lot to see, and much of it is recorded elsewhere. I'm hoping more to capture the spirit of the place than give an exact recounting of what we saw. The highlights for me were the Mice Pace Maze --- a maze made entirely out of sound. I wished it had been much bigger; the concept is really lovely to me. Hats off the them. Cyclecide's guitar/bike machine was also much fun. I think my favorite part, though, was just wandering and listening to people talking, exchanging ideas, learning new skills, and building community. Many of my sketches were just people talking.
It's my hope that next year, that sense of community-building is enhanced. Many of the booth-persons stuck to such a rigid script that it was hard to get into a real conversation. The times when that shell cracked were far more exciting. A lot of time was spend chatting with the people willing to chat.
After Makerfaire on Saturday, we drove up to Dallas, where some of the group went clubbing. I wasn't that well aquainted with downtown Dallas, so I went for a walk. We agreed to meet back at a cafe where this man was on the wait staff.
It was pretty late. While I walked I spent some time thinking on what I had seen at makerfaire, and about the nerdy community in general. It has always been striking to me that only some people are interested in how things work, and that only some are interested in how they express themselves. Ti seems to me that whatever our occupations and whatever our interests, we should understand what we are doing, and do it with a practiced body and a focused mind. Even if you make washers in a nut-bolt-and-washer factory, you ought to make washer-making into an art. Make masterpieces of your life.
When I got tired of walking, I sat under an overpass for a while. Then it was time to head back to the cafe for hot chocolate.
After Dallas we did the Modern and the Kimbell in Fort worth. I might write another post about what we saw and said there, but I think I've said enough.
This was drawn while getting still more coffee, and wondering at how many people are apparently fueled entirely by the stuff.
I don't know whether I discovered anything new this weekend; but time will tell. As a church sign told me at 2:00AM, "This is a test, Joe Clifford."
Rather than show you photos of what was there, I thought I'd scan in some gestures from my sketchbook. Gesture drawing is something that we'll be coming to (eventually) in the how-to-draw posts, but for the moment, suffice it to say that gestural drawing is a way to capture a person or thing as quickly as possible; important in these circumstances because everyone was a-movin' and a-shakin'.
It's not a terribly long drive to Austin from here, but long enough that we drove well past sunset Friday night. I drew things in the dark. This is one place and time when your blind contour drawing is more than just an exercise. I particularly like this one, because it was drawn as we passed the truck; you can see I drew clockwise from the right, and by the time I got back around to the wheels, they were beside us instead of in front.The next morning we grabbed coffee before heading out to the Faire; the fairground opened at 10:00, so we had plenty of time. Lisa had some trouble getting a truly dry cappuccino, but the wait staff was eager to remedy the problem. Scarily chipper. Really.
The human-sized mousetrap was impressive --- I got a front-row seat to the first run. This was just before the actual performance; the young man was about to make his stage debut as the strongest boy in the world. He did a fine job.
It was an interesting point, though, that very, very few of the performers at the faire were particularly good showmen. All the tech and engineering was excellent --- really neat --- but if you didn't already know how it worked and why it was so impressive, the presentation would have been a bit off-putting. Several performances had everything right and were just missing a P.T. Barnum to turn it into a real piece of buskering.
When hats were passed, I am sure that they suffered because of that.
There was a lot to see, and much of it is recorded elsewhere. I'm hoping more to capture the spirit of the place than give an exact recounting of what we saw. The highlights for me were the Mice Pace Maze --- a maze made entirely out of sound. I wished it had been much bigger; the concept is really lovely to me. Hats off the them. Cyclecide's guitar/bike machine was also much fun. I think my favorite part, though, was just wandering and listening to people talking, exchanging ideas, learning new skills, and building community. Many of my sketches were just people talking.
It's my hope that next year, that sense of community-building is enhanced. Many of the booth-persons stuck to such a rigid script that it was hard to get into a real conversation. The times when that shell cracked were far more exciting. A lot of time was spend chatting with the people willing to chat.
After Makerfaire on Saturday, we drove up to Dallas, where some of the group went clubbing. I wasn't that well aquainted with downtown Dallas, so I went for a walk. We agreed to meet back at a cafe where this man was on the wait staff.
When I got tired of walking, I sat under an overpass for a while. Then it was time to head back to the cafe for hot chocolate.
This was drawn while getting still more coffee, and wondering at how many people are apparently fueled entirely by the stuff.
I don't know whether I discovered anything new this weekend; but time will tell. As a church sign told me at 2:00AM, "This is a test, Joe Clifford."
posted by Sam Bleckley # 15:54 
