CREATE 2013 – Ideas in Action
– By Tony Schmidt, exhibit designer
Last October, we had the pleasure to attend the ASTC 2012 conference (Association of Science and Technology Centers) held in Columbus, Ohio. The conference was brimming with enthusiasts of all kinds engaged in demonstrations from digitally configured augmented reality overlays to in-depth, content rich sessions featuring topics such as multi-lingual interpretive exhibits and informal exhibit program design. It was a feast for the science-minded exhibit goer. But nothing impacted us as much as our tour of the COLUMBUS IDEA FOUNDRY located near the conference. An incentive for the tour was clear when in their logo was written “Columbus Idea Foundry: Knowledge, Talent, Mischief.”
CIF is a facility where if you have an idea, this is a place to help get it built. We toured their shops to the sounds of a live band and witnessed demonstrations ranging from CNC routers, laser cutters, welding, glass forming, lock picking, old-school photographic printing, and many other available opportunities to make stuff. In one corner, a pair of high school students were operating a robot they built themselves and were gearing up for a competition. They explained to us in detail their process and their plans for a future robot. In another corner an instructor was explaining his battery powered motorcycle and road-worthy cars he and a team were assembling themselves. Invention was the call word. This was the DIY culture in action.
Prior to the conference, we’d already been aware of the Maker Faire festivals springing up across the globe – festivals offering a place for tinkering inventors to show off their creations and have an outlet to exchange their ideas. These are the people making things in their garages hungering to learn outside of the traditional classroom. From the Maker Faire website, “Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and who love sharing what they can do. It’s a venue for Makers to show examples of their work and interact with others about it. Many Makers say they have no other place to share what they do.”
Is the spark of curiosity to figure out how things really work still burning? Can we ourselves Invent? Can we create something entirely new? The answer is most definitely YES. And more than ever before. For us, the conference and tour of CIF inspired thoughts of a PGAV staff gallery show…a show of Makers. What if there was such a show where contributors were encouraged to challenge themselves to make things they are not only passionate about, but may not yet know how to fabricate? The opportunity to push ourselves to be inventors, to have an idea and to build these ideas ourselves. It begins with “so I’ve got this really cool thing in my head, but I’m not sure how to build it…”
There seems to be a trumpet call for a return to making things. CREATE 2013, a PGAV staff show currently in development, has a gallery opening scheduled for March 15th, 2013 and attempts to respond to this call.
Perhaps Chris Anderson said it best in his recent book, Makers, The New Industrial Revolution: “The idea of a ‘factory’ is, in a word, indeed changing. Just as the Web democratized innovation in bits, a new class of “rapid prototyping” technologies, from 3-D printers to laser cutters, is democratizing innovation in atoms. You think the last two decades were amazing? Just wait.”
We can’t help but agree. Let’s Make something!
-Tony Schmidt with Brian Pelcak, CREATE 2013 Curators
After the show opens, we will upload pictures featuring the contributors and their work with reflections on the show.
