Category Archives: Speaker

4pm // Making the Ability to Make

Sea freight containers move around, are well built, water proof, and secure…and yet they are piled up in growing numbers all over the world. Their steel construction and structure allow for almost any modifications. The need is apparent and the ability to provide benefit is clearly present all around us.

I do Make things also…In fact I have had 7 studios since ASU, well…8…and that leads me to this, no longer only, “a theoretical project presentation.” George Ettenheim’s 10aC 8 Ball Studio is an example of the potential, ingenuity, and “can do attitude” that we all can benefit from. 8 Ball Studio is based in a 45′ High Cube Surplus container.

3:15pm // Makers in Monrovia

Makers in Monrovia is an ongoing effort to build ties between community and technology through the establishment of a mini-makerspace at iLab Liberia, a community-driven technology hub in Monrovia, Liberia.

A successfully funded Indiegogo campaign helped provide a variety of tools, components and materials to use during a 7-week stay at the iLab where Zane Cochran taught free Arduino-based physical computing classes, Python programming, and DSLR photography. In addition to an initial deluge of interest from participating students, the community in Monrovia showed and outpouring of support as students developed their own innovative projects which the exhibited during a public open house.

Despite the many technical challenges Monrovia faces as it continues to recover from its 20-year civil war, community-centered efforts like Makers in Monrovia continue to help create strong bonds between members of the community as the principles of creative thinking and problem solving inherent to making continue to spread.