MAKER FAIRE: CCA’s Inaugural Booth a Big Success
Egg by anthony quivers (MArch 2014)
by JIM NORRENA (MFA Writing 2013)
Dozens of CCA students, faculty, and staff showcased their work this past spring at the 2013 Bay Area Maker Faire— to a whopping 120,000 attendees—and were rewarded with much enthusiasm and two blue ribbon awards for demonstrating great creativity, ingenuity, and innovation. Maker Faire is an annual event produced by Maker Media, which also publishes Make magazine. Founded in 2006, it is one of the largest exhibition events in the United States that specifically showcases innovative projects melding science, engineering, craft, art, and performance. CCA’s booth occupied a choice position, immediately next to Autodesk.
that the CCA work was really inspirational. And since Maker Faire is such a family-oriented event, thousands of kids were introduced to CCA as a place where art and technology come together in creative ways.” Attendees were fascinated to see things actually being made before their eyes at CCA’s booth: AutoDesk president and CEO Carl Bass, who is also a woodworker, was drawn to the wood steam-bending demonstrations led by Furniture studio manager aimee graham. Bass has since toured CCA’s San Francisco campus and was particularly impressed with the new Hybrid Lab. The organizers gave CCA’s exhibition a blue ribbon for overall excellence. And there was a second blue ribbon for a specific project: Serpentine by Architecture students Shawn Komlos (MArch 2014) and Alex Woodhouse (MAAD 2013), who hacked a 3D printer to make it extrude clay rather than the usual plastic. They used it to create 3D model fixtures, which they applied to a map of San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood.
Architecture faculty member andrew kudless reported afterward: “Promo materials about CCA were flying off the table. I was completely overwhelmed by the flood of people— parents asking on behalf of their middle-school or high-school students, venture capitalists, the program director of the National “The project is about the future Science Foundation’s Innovation of cities,” say Komlos and Division—wanting to know more Woodhouse. “How can we make about what we do at CCA and a 3D printer that is open-source, how they can be involved. These inexpensive, and accessible to are really crucial connections for architects, designers, and everyCCA to be making. day citizens? What if an entire “I heard so many people saying building could be 3D printed,
in situ, out of local materials? Could we revitalize an entire neighborhood and make it a test bed for a new kind of architecture?” Another Architecture project that proved popular was a group of 16 unique, beautiful, highly detailed eggs. They were made by students in Andrew Kudless’s SEAcraft advanced studio course using a variety of techniques: plaster casting, CNC milling, laser cutting, 3D printing. “People were drawn to the eggs,” Kudless reflects, “because they speak to the core topics of maker culture: craft, technology, and experimentation.” Approximately 25 of the 40 or so students whose work was showcased were from the Architecture programs. Fashion Design, Furniture, Jewelry / Metal Arts, and Textiles were also represented. Additional works were culled from Barney Haynes’s Emphasis Fabrication workshop and Interface course, and the popular Urban Mobility Program taught by Rafi Ajl. CCA has committed to supporting Maker Faire next year as a Blacksmith-level sponsor. And the college will be expanding its booth and outreach, showing an even broader cross-section of projects and soliciting student input on the booth design itself.
college news
35