Organized by do-it-yourself tech quarterly Make magazine and its sister publication Craft magazine, the second Maker Faire hit San Mateo, CA, in May, attracting everyone from automotive hackers to robotics gurus and fans of knitting. They represent a growing movement blending DIY attitude and renewed futurism.
Musicians are becoming one of this movement’s most passionate groups, hacking their own hardware and software for performance. On the show floor, Jeremy Boyle presented an entirely robotic three-piece band (drums, bass, and guitar). Students from Stanford showed off oddities like a giant turntable made out of bicycle parts and audio tape, and a flexible, digital musical saw. OpenSoundControl advocate Adrian Freed showed musical control via Nintendo Wii remotes and webcams. On the main stage, TradeMark G played Reaktor with a digital glove built with sewing thimbles, and MC’ed Thereoke performances (think Theremin plus karaoke). Homemade instruments and software were everywhere.
Carrying the banner for Keyboard and musician Makers everywhere, I demonstrated how affordable new hardware makes it easy to create your own instruments, showed a sock monkey rigged to transmit MIDI via flex sensors, and wowed infants and small children with a fluid, interactive webcam mirror built in Max/MSP/Jitter. San Francisco performances at Robotspeak and Edinburgh Castle followed as well, featuring home-built hardware and software, Theremin, hacked and circuit-bent gear, and more.
For more on the musical side of Maker Faire, visit createdigitalmusic.com/tag/makerfaire.