Maker Faire was a great opportunity to prototypehomopolar motors, an activity we discovered earlier this year for the Tinkering Studio after a visit by Tim Hunkin.
Since visitors had so many things to try at the Exploratorium Booth , I wanted to set up a simple activity that doesn’t require a lot of time but can turn into something more involved for those who can stay longer.

The basic pieces to make a motor are a battery, a washer, a magnet and a piece of wire. Adding other materials, the simple set-up can become anything from a fast spinning motor to a kinetic sculpture. I was happy to see that visitors set their own goals for their creations which resulted in a lot of variety throughout the day.

It was also nice to see some designs propagate from one visitor to others. For example folks learned from each other how to balance their sculptures by adding small and large weights at the bottom.

We are going to prototype this activity further with our Explainers and summer camp kids this week and next. Our focus will be to try new materials, especially things that attach easily to the basic wire shape and allow to be adjusted. We are also working on a small stage where the motor sculptures can be presented next to each other and perform together as a group of electromagnetic dancers! We will share photos of the performance in the next blog post.

The Tinkering Studio offered four workshops in two days at Maker Faire 2011, and set up a photobooth where participants could be photographed with their creations. This is an account of every single item created in two days of fervent tinkering (minus a couple that escaped our attention…)

Needless to say, it was a thoroughly exhausting and greatly fulfilling weekend!

Day one of Maker Faire wrapped up without rapture, but with plenty of tinkering! We did a wire bending and soldering workshop in the first half of the day, and a cardboard costume workshop in the second half. I set up a backdrop and a hanging frame for people to take portraits with their creations, and I think the photos turned out awesome! Check out the Tinkering Studio in action in the slideshow above.

Courtesy of the madness that is Maker Faire

We were greeted by the Make robot…

…and a lot of work to be done.

Once the Marble Machine wall was up and in position we were able to place the workshop space and other exhibits around it.

The booth will have a dark space again this year, this time for Nicole’s extraordinary colored pixel wall.

A tremendous amount of thought and care went into making the booth fun, functional and aesthetically pleasing.  You might say we really rolled out the cardboard carpet this year.

Setting up a booth like this wouldn’t be complete without testing out the exhibits.  Folks will recognize a bunch of old favorites, but there will also be some exhibits in prototype phase to play with, like this awesome superball wave machine.

Finally, with the Tinkering sign in place, our work was done for the day.

Hope to see everyone there this weekend!

And here it is! I’m very happy that Scott is getting the recognition he deserves, and agree with the people being interviewed: this is definitely art!

So come by the Tinkering Studio to check out this amazing sculpture, on display until June 19. And, if you want to meet Scott and see him in action as he builds an addition to the sculpture (the Exploratorium’s next home, Piers 15 and 17!) come by our booth at Maker Faire this weekend!