Open MAKE: Motions and Mechanisms with Michael Brown, Ernie Fosselius, and Brad Prather
A Program to Inspire Young Makers
Saturday Series at Exploratorium
April 24, 2010
Meet the Makers (McBean Theatre) 11am-noon
In the Studio 12:30pm-3pm

“It is those things that are found through one’s own exploration that often tend to seem particularly one’s own.” —Frank Oppenheimer, Exploratorium founder

Get ready to rev up your inner inventor. On April 24, 2010, the Exploratorium presents Open MAKE: Motions and Mechanisms, another in a series of informal talks and activities designed to inspire young inventors and introduce visitors to a long-standing Exploratorium tradition of tinkering. This month, makers Michael Brown, Ernie Fosselius, and Brad Prather will be on hand. Open MAKE will introduce visitors to a variety of tinkering possibilities while encouraging middle and high school students to realize their own inventions in time for this year’s Maker Faire, held at the San Mateo County Event Center on May 22 and 23. From 11am-noon, Dale Dougherty, founder of Make magazine, will interview the featured makers, and then, from 12:30-3pm, drop by the Exploratorium’s Learning Studio to talk with the visiting makers and see their work.

Through construction-based activities and provocative discussions with expert Makers, Open MAKE hopes to inspire a pilot group of young people to pursue their own ideas and visions and, in the process, develop future tinkering programs for a wider teenage audience.

Since its inception 40 years ago, the Exploratorium has fostered a culture of tinkering among staff and visitors alike. From prototyping new exhibits to building collective chain reaction activities, making things through experimentation and play is seen as an invaluable means to building individual understandings of art and science.

This video, from March’s Open Make, shows Exploratorium Artist Walter Kitundu as he talks extensively about his work, from DJ-ing to turntable explorations. Walter has designed and/or built more than 20 turntable-based instruments, including some earthquake, water, and wind-powered ones. He concludes the interview by premiering his latest creation: a digital version of a kora, a traditional West African instrument.