Friday, May 25, 2007
Maker Faire: Day Two
I never got around to talking about the second day of Maker Faire, so let me fix that now.
In a nutshell, it wasn't all that fun. I didn't really have any help at the booth, so I had to stay and draw all day. I did do a yo-yo performance on the main stage (while Merideth watched the Cartoonist Conspiracy table). That went well I guess.
So I spent the day at the booth, chatting up anyone who stopped by while trying my best not to draw on every single page of the book. Sunday wasn't my favorite day of the event, but I do have to admit I had some of the most memorable conversations on that day. I met the gentleman how runs 24 Hour Comic Day. I met and drew with many new cartoonists. I met Will, the founder and CEO of Match.com. Actually, we talked a bunch, he was a swell fella to chat with.
Obviously my trip to Maker Faire was far overshadowed by running the Cartoonist Conspiracy booth, but I'm glad we did it. I think we might actually see more folks show up to a meeting than we did through the Alternative Press Expo, and I think the resulting comic is pretty cool.
You can get the 12 page pdf of our work from the Cartoonist Conspiracy page.
I had left a Robot Friend Jr on the table, and of course he worked his way into the comic. Above are some of the panels he was featured in. Of course none of these artists have any idea what a Robot Friend is.
Speaking of robots, Bre and Phil were demonstrating their DrawBot at the Maker Booth before I taught my yo-yo class there. So I got to chat with them a bit and asked if they could have their DrawBot (which is simply a device that draws pictures in real life from digital images sent to it) do a panel for the book. Once they handed me the panel, I knew exactly how I was going to work it in. Since it looks like they are looking at something in the first shot, I thought the camera could pull out and reveal that they are looking at a robot that is drawing them... when in actuality the first panel was really drawn by a robot. Meta.
Many folks came up to the table and asked if they could draw with us, but I sometimes had to turn them down because I was sure they would either not quite get the rules of the project, or just scribble with a sharpie and leave... So what I would try to do was have them "help" create a panel. We'd read the story so far and I'd say "Gee, I just can't think of what should happen next. Should I just write The End?" and the kids would tell me what to draw next. The above panel was done all that well, but it's one of those panels.
Me: What should happen here?
Girl: She's knitting a plane.
Me: She's knitting ON a plane?
Girl: She's knitting A PLANE!
The only thing that surprises me about Maker Faire is how few big companies take advantage of it. There's so much opportunity for marketing at this event, and yet very few companies get it. Yahoo! seemed to, they had a big booth there, but I think they were too "Yahoo!"-y. Marketing to this crowd is far more effective when done subtler I think, but I do have to admit their presence was effective. I would constantly hear people say things like "We are on the other side of the Yahoo! booth.", which is probably what they wanted. They offered hacking classes and stuff.
I think there should have been more cars and cola companies there, but not at a big booth. More like they were sponsoring a big project or something. For example, Adobe was there pushing their new product, but do you know who they did it? They had a booth set up with t-shirts were people would design an image using a copy of photoshop they had at the booth, then they would print it to a laser cutter and make a stencil of that image. They would then roll ink through the stencil and onto the shirt and get a crisp custom designed shirt.
How cool is that? It wasn't too Adobe heavy anywhere at the booth, it got people to actually try their new product, and it provided them with entertainment. They even gave 3 copies of their new suite to different designers throughout the weekend. The only mistake I saw was they didn't have their logo on the shirts before hand. It's the same mistake I saw those folks at Yaris Works do with their big Yaris promotion last year. If you are giving away hella shirts, spend a little extra dough and get your logo printed on them somewhere small and out of the way. Chances are, if you are promoting to digital artists they would actually appreciate having a piece of Adobe clothing.
Anyways, the instructables booth was sort of a dissapointment (I was really hoping to go there and see some cool new project I had never seen) and the Make booth seems like it could have been bigger (considering it was the MAKER FAIRE and all), but I'm sure I've bored you guys enough with all my marketing theory and viral advertising ideas. (edit: actually, now that I think on it, the Maker Boothe was fairly large. They had an ongoing robot lab in one area, and Bre and Phil in another. It's just that I talked to a bunch of people at the end of the event that didn't even know that Make had a booth there).
In a nutshell, it wasn't all that fun. I didn't really have any help at the booth, so I had to stay and draw all day. I did do a yo-yo performance on the main stage (while Merideth watched the Cartoonist Conspiracy table). That went well I guess.
So I spent the day at the booth, chatting up anyone who stopped by while trying my best not to draw on every single page of the book. Sunday wasn't my favorite day of the event, but I do have to admit I had some of the most memorable conversations on that day. I met the gentleman how runs 24 Hour Comic Day. I met and drew with many new cartoonists. I met Will, the founder and CEO of Match.com. Actually, we talked a bunch, he was a swell fella to chat with.
Obviously my trip to Maker Faire was far overshadowed by running the Cartoonist Conspiracy booth, but I'm glad we did it. I think we might actually see more folks show up to a meeting than we did through the Alternative Press Expo, and I think the resulting comic is pretty cool.
You can get the 12 page pdf of our work from the Cartoonist Conspiracy page.
I had left a Robot Friend Jr on the table, and of course he worked his way into the comic. Above are some of the panels he was featured in. Of course none of these artists have any idea what a Robot Friend is.
Speaking of robots, Bre and Phil were demonstrating their DrawBot at the Maker Booth before I taught my yo-yo class there. So I got to chat with them a bit and asked if they could have their DrawBot (which is simply a device that draws pictures in real life from digital images sent to it) do a panel for the book. Once they handed me the panel, I knew exactly how I was going to work it in. Since it looks like they are looking at something in the first shot, I thought the camera could pull out and reveal that they are looking at a robot that is drawing them... when in actuality the first panel was really drawn by a robot. Meta.
Many folks came up to the table and asked if they could draw with us, but I sometimes had to turn them down because I was sure they would either not quite get the rules of the project, or just scribble with a sharpie and leave... So what I would try to do was have them "help" create a panel. We'd read the story so far and I'd say "Gee, I just can't think of what should happen next. Should I just write The End?" and the kids would tell me what to draw next. The above panel was done all that well, but it's one of those panels.
Me: What should happen here?
Girl: She's knitting a plane.
Me: She's knitting ON a plane?
Girl: She's knitting A PLANE!
The only thing that surprises me about Maker Faire is how few big companies take advantage of it. There's so much opportunity for marketing at this event, and yet very few companies get it. Yahoo! seemed to, they had a big booth there, but I think they were too "Yahoo!"-y. Marketing to this crowd is far more effective when done subtler I think, but I do have to admit their presence was effective. I would constantly hear people say things like "We are on the other side of the Yahoo! booth.", which is probably what they wanted. They offered hacking classes and stuff.
I think there should have been more cars and cola companies there, but not at a big booth. More like they were sponsoring a big project or something. For example, Adobe was there pushing their new product, but do you know who they did it? They had a booth set up with t-shirts were people would design an image using a copy of photoshop they had at the booth, then they would print it to a laser cutter and make a stencil of that image. They would then roll ink through the stencil and onto the shirt and get a crisp custom designed shirt.
How cool is that? It wasn't too Adobe heavy anywhere at the booth, it got people to actually try their new product, and it provided them with entertainment. They even gave 3 copies of their new suite to different designers throughout the weekend. The only mistake I saw was they didn't have their logo on the shirts before hand. It's the same mistake I saw those folks at Yaris Works do with their big Yaris promotion last year. If you are giving away hella shirts, spend a little extra dough and get your logo printed on them somewhere small and out of the way. Chances are, if you are promoting to digital artists they would actually appreciate having a piece of Adobe clothing.
Anyways, the instructables booth was sort of a dissapointment (I was really hoping to go there and see some cool new project I had never seen) and the Make booth seems like it could have been bigger (considering it was the MAKER FAIRE and all), but I'm sure I've bored you guys enough with all my marketing theory and viral advertising ideas. (edit: actually, now that I think on it, the Maker Boothe was fairly large. They had an ongoing robot lab in one area, and Bre and Phil in another. It's just that I talked to a bunch of people at the end of the event that didn't even know that Make had a booth there).
Labels: busted laptop twitter shirt maker faire
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Cassette Jockey World Championships
I have a busy weekend ahead of me at this years Maker Faire. I will be teaching various workshops and running a Cartoonist Conspiracy table, but the single most exciting thing for me this year is going to be judging the Cassette Jockey World Championships.The event, which takes place this Saturday, is being organized by The Evolution Control Committee's TradeMark. Here is what he has to say about this year's event:
CALLING ALL: Cassette Jockies… Retro-Tech Lovers… Magnetic Media Monsters… Circuit Benders… Multi-Media DJs… Walkman Hot-Rodders… we want you at the:
2007 CASSETTE JOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
at the Make Magazine Maker Faire!
Like the popular DJ (Disk Jockey) competitions with record-toting DJs showing off their turntable skills, the CJ Championships showcases skills and styles in the venerable world of cassettes. CJs are encouraged to hot-rod their own equipment -- eviscerated boomboxes, disembodied tape heads, and overclocked Walkmans are all fair game… anything that used the standard cassette as its ammo.
Forget DJs, this is for the CJs: The CassetteJockey Championship is where YOU can show off your skills as a world-class CJ. This is your chance to show the world what the venerable and once-mighty cassette tape is capable of. The CJ who amazes the judges with their skill, technique, and knowledge will become the 2007 CASSETTEJOCKEY CHAMPION!
Full Details Here:
http://makerfaire.com/cj/
I've long been interested in the world of tape manipulation. Starting with my early indoctrination into the world of Musique Concrète, then into the more practical pop sounds of Jean Jacques Perrey, only to be brought back into it through my interest in experimental tape damaging and circuit bending.
By our standards, the cassette is one of the most limited mediums for working with audio, but it's those limitations that can bring out the most creativity in an artist. I'm excited to see what tricks competitors pull out of their sleeves. We'll probably see some CJs fade between cassette decks like a DJ mixes records, but cueing a cassette deck is much more difficult.
Here are some of the methods that can be used to work with cassette:
4 Tracking: The magnetic tape in a cassette actually consists of 4 tracks. The cassette head only reads two tracks at a time though, one side's left channel, and the right. 4 track home recording devices make use of all four tracks simaltanously. With a mixer, an artist can mix and blend tracks, but of course on a stock cassette 2 of the 4 tracks will be backwards.
Cut and Splicing: This is the method most used by the early musique concrete artists to create a sound collage. To splice tape, you would pull out sections of tape and cut them up, before assembling them back together with adhessive. Check out this cool tool. Splicing is probably the most time consuming method of tape alteration. It would be used to create random sound collages, or for assembling a verse from one song with the chorus of another, or it can even be used to create a new "beat" by making all the cut music the exact same length.
Hardware Alterations: This would pretty much involve circuit bending your cassette player and adding various methods of control over it such as a potientiometer to control tape speed/pitch. Oscillators and other circuits could also be added I guess.
Tape Damaging: Although the results cannot really be controlled too well, you can get interesting sounds by damaging the tape. Here is a good page about this method. Basically, stretching bits of tape, crinkling it, demagnetizing it, and/or dragging it over rough surfaces (like a set of keys) can be used for damaging the tape.
Non-traditional Cassette Housing: Loop cassettes used to be easily availlable from stores like Radio Shack. Generally used for answering machines, these are always fun toys to play with. Here is an article on instructables on how to make your own. But the cassette isn't even necessary, you could store the tape on larger external reels, as long as you still have a method of pulling them through the head.
Magnetic Head Instruments: These are great toys to play with. It redifines tape music by removing the tape head (which is usually very secure) and make the tape fixed. The coolest device I've seen was a tape head stylus that was dragged against a sheet of magnetic tape to play sound. Depending on the speed the stylus was moved, the pitch would change. Too cool, right? I can't find a link for this right now though.
I'm excited to see any of these methods used this weekend, but I really hope to see new methods that I haven't seen. It's going to be cool.
Labels: busted laptop twitter shirt maker faire
Sunday, May 13, 2007
How to Mod a Bolt Yo-Yo... and Maker Faire
I sell a lot of modified Bolt's through this site, but I always like to help teach folks how to modify their own yo-yos, so I've published How to Mod a Bolt Yo-Yo on Instructables.com.
Any feedback is always appreciated. I'd love to see more yo-yo instructables.
For those of you in the Bay Area, I'll be doing a yo-yo demo and a yo-yo workshop at the Maker Faire this weekend. If you are at the Faire, stop by and say hi.
Labels: busted laptop twitter shirt maker faire, yo-yo
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Emo Whale
Please note, my blog has moved to www.DocPop.org/blog Check it out for my newest writing. Please don't link to this blog entry, you can use http://www.docpop.org/2007/05/12/emo-whale.html instead.
I've been trying to put together an online portfolio of my pen and ink art.
Emo Whale is an older piece that I just colored last night. I definitely think my photoshopping skills need some major work though.
Last Thursday was a Cartoonist Conspiracy meeting here in the Bay... I wish I had pictures. We started a new book titled simply "Robots Versus Bunnies". We came up with a page by page plot breakdown, but each artist only creates a single panel per page.
I spent all night working on one large panel, the introduction of the pillaging robot on the utopian rabbit society. Man I wish I had a scan of it to show you guys. Hopefully, we'll finish the comic at our next meeting. Speaking of, our Cartoonist Conspiracy table has been approved for Maker Faire, but now I'm looking for volunteers to run it. Anybody interested in helping out, let me know.
Thanks.
I've been trying to put together an online portfolio of my pen and ink art.
Emo Whale is an older piece that I just colored last night. I definitely think my photoshopping skills need some major work though.
Last Thursday was a Cartoonist Conspiracy meeting here in the Bay... I wish I had pictures. We started a new book titled simply "Robots Versus Bunnies". We came up with a page by page plot breakdown, but each artist only creates a single panel per page.
I spent all night working on one large panel, the introduction of the pillaging robot on the utopian rabbit society. Man I wish I had a scan of it to show you guys. Hopefully, we'll finish the comic at our next meeting. Speaking of, our Cartoonist Conspiracy table has been approved for Maker Faire, but now I'm looking for volunteers to run it. Anybody interested in helping out, let me know.
Thanks.
Labels: busted laptop twitter shirt maker faire, cartooning
Thursday, May 10, 2007
It's just not Faire
When I arrived back from my trip to Minneapolis, I discovered that the drivers side hinge on my laptop has snapped off from my screen. There are a bunch of wires inside the hinge, that are now very unprotected. Sometimes if my screen gets bumped, it turns into a rainbow barcode... So I'm treating my compy like a desktop for the time being, until I can afford a new one.
As soon as I hit SFO, I started getting calls from Slutsky about our Vlog Death Match video. The music is finished (including our vox), so we spent all day yesterday lip synching and shooting. At one point I was actually in Twitter's offices rapping with all these web celebs in the back ground. They gave me this really nerdy shirt that says "wearing my twitter shirt". We did a lot of filming in South Park, right at the epicenter of the late nineties dot com bust. South Park is again flickering with the screens of dot commers. It's all about 2.0 this time 'round though.
The video should be online tomorrow I'll link it up on my DrownRadio.com site.
Now with the completion of the music video and my ebay auctions almost all taken care of, I can start focusing on my Maker Faire projects. I have 3 proposalls that I am currently waiting to get approved. Two are yo-yo related, the other is Cartoonist Conspiracy related.
Last night I received an email from TradeMark of the Evolution Control Committee, regarding the Cassette Jockey World Championships. This would also be at the Maker Faire. I'm really excited about this!
So with the demise of my laptop, I am desperately trying to raise about 1,000 dollars for a new one. Last week I sold about $1,100 of yo-yos on eBay, so tomorrow I will start documenting and selling the things that I didn't want to sell last week. Between yo-yos and music, the choice is very easy... but it's still going to break my heart to see some of these yo-yos go.
I'm also considering a job from The Go Game. It's an extremely hectic job that involves at least 10 days of travel a month. Needless to say, Shannon is not for it, but I really miss travelling and would like to think that I can use the time to work on my book and my new Drown Radio album (due in the fall). Lord knows I've done some of my absolute best work on airplanes and trains (mostly the former). Soon my computer will implode, leaving nothing but pixels and dust.
I feel so completely stressed all the time, but that's just the way I am, I guess.
I also recieved an email from a TV producer about doing an recurring role on a DirectTV channel. It sounds like fun, but at this point I have to be picky about what I can work on at the moment. If there is no pay involved then it's just not doable. The new web 2.0 business model doesn't mean only the producers get paid and all the people with drive will just work for free. Fuck that.
Labels: busted laptop twitter shirt maker faire
