29 May 09
Going to Meet the Makers
We’re off to the Maker Faire in San Mateo tomorrow morning. This is the annual gathering of creative types who make stuff — kind of like Burning Man with a point, but without the dust, wind, and gratuitous nudity.
I’m going to look for the spinners, the bookbinders, the printers. Numenius has his own agenda and we’ll be taking radios to coordinate.
The Shy Turtle is a good example: using technology to teach children how to respect nature.
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My parents called themselves “designer-craftsmen.” They were artists really — he in metal and she in batik — but they needed to sell to people who didn’t have enough money to imagine themselves buying “art.” So they needed to revive and clarify the ancient confused title of “craftsman.” It was a worthy struggle. This sounds like an event where you would have found me 35 years ago, helping mom sell pillows.
Even then, I should add, there was no gratuitous nudity, at least not in front of the boy. Nudity should always have a clarity of purpose, I think.