Local inventors showcase work at Mini Maker Faire
By Imaan Ladipo, September 10 2015 —
Local inventors and artists will take over the Telus Spark Science Centre on Sept. 12 and 13 to present their homemade creations at the Calgary Mini Maker Faire. The expo features homemade creations like wearable technology, vacuum tube guitar amplifiers and robotic beavers.
Maria Hoover and her husband Shannon spearheaded the creation of the Calgary Mini Maker Faire in 2012, and have been running it annually ever since.
Maker Faires have existed in North America since 2006. They give independent inventors and artists a venue to showcase works that intersect art and technology.
The Maker Faire coincides with Beakerhead, a festival that combines creative and scientific disciplines.
Eric MacCallum
The couple first became interested in Maker Faires shortly after opening their downtown gallery, ARCHEloft, where they design technology-inspired fashion. Hoover is excited to display her own work and see what other local artists are creating.
“We have people who do robotics so we’ll have workshops that will teach you how to build a robot and we’ll have robot competitions,” she says. “There’s some really cool projects that we have this year. We have a steampunk group, game developers, 3D printers.”
Many pieces this year are made by kids — one group of three young girls are presenting a technologic playhouse they built with their father.
Hoover says she’s excited to see all these projects come together at the Faire.
“It’s really overwhelming to see all these different projects coming to life,” Hoover says.
Admission to the Maker Faire is $20 and comes with admission to the Telus Spark.
A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Shannon McClennan-Taylor, Maker Faire’s publicist, as Maria Hoover’s husband. Additionally, the article stated that the focus of the event was on helping children become interested in building, which is only one aspect of the Maker Faire. It was also stated that admission to Maker Faire was $25.
The Gauntlet apologizes to our readers for these errors.