EMF Camp 2014

ElectroMagnetic Field 2014
Near Milton Keynes, last weekend of the school holidays.

The light saber workshop kick-started the weekend and broke the ice with all the kids - swimming pool noodles + tape.

Kite-mapping was fun - we attached a camera to a picovet hanging from string of kite and launched it from the field.  The resulting photos showed the landscape emerging every 3 seconds as the camera rose.





There was a very popular retro gaming tent where kids tried Pacman ("it's great!") and Indiana Jones pinball (I had the top score) for the first time.

A gigantic LAN tent with Free Quake for Linux; a badge made from a micro-controller with LCD screen -  TiLDA MKe -

We hammered silver rings, played with makeymakey, learned how to pick locks and tasted freshly made Dutch waffles.

Laser-cutting was cool - perspex dragons sketched on paper, drawn in Flash, exported to Inkscape and tidied up for the hardware.  These were inspired by hanging birds and mobiles.



Press comments: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/03/electromagnetic-field-camp-emfcamp-drones-arduino-burning-man

laser cut dragon pair

Technology Will Save Us DIY Synth

My sons are way better at soldering than me after about 5 minutes...

We went to Technology Will Save Us and Little Bits Global Make-athon at Limewharf, Vyner Street.  DIY little synths were very successful, and we also constructed Snowkilla the Iceman with revolving chainsaw...

Cardboard record player

 

Wood Festival 2013, DIY cardboard record player workshop from www.ifoundsound.com.  We left them on car roof but more to follow...

EMF camp 2012

The first EMF Camp (https://www.emfcamp.org/) in Pineham Park - blacksmithing, soldering, hammock-knotting, SuperCollider, lock-picking, stoves from beercans, hacking the Tilda (http://blog.emfcamp.org/) - otters running along the canal underneath the M1... 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenrocket/sets/72157631365691028/

Vibrobot Saturday

Homage to Evil Mad Scientist.  We scuppered old motors from toy cars instead of using mobile pagers.  The manufactured track is from a Hexbug Nano set.

Run marble run

Thanks to Renzo the Toymaker http://www.toymakingactivities.com/english/homepage.html for the original idea of making a marble run from cardboard.  

We built this one from cornflake packet, glue, sellotape.  Designing it was fun, testing it was better.

SuperMario gets real

Hard to explain ... but they set up their own Mario Kart Racing Game (inspired by the original) using toy cars, toy rockets for boosters (Bullet Bill), brio, lego and cushions for tracks and mushroom jumps, gold coins to collect and spiders to avoid.  It was an epic race with a lively soundtrack, requiring no consoles, controllers or screens.

Watching that spontaneous leap from virtual to actual was a profound inspiration for toy development, how to utilise embedded technology and how to avoid manufacturing more plastic ...