Well, this is strange.
Stacey and I spent a good chunk of the day trying remember how to build working Cyclotropes for a drop-in program in Open Studio. In theory this should have been easy, put the frames of an animation on a bike wheel and spin it in front of a webcam. If you get the wheel’s speed to match the shutter of the camera you get a neat animation. We got pretty good at doing it last summer when we ran a Cyclotrope workshop for Cyclepalooza, but somehow in the past 9 months we completely forgot the subtleties of the set-up.

After a frustrating morning of messing around with webcams and light sources I googled “cyclotrope troubleshooting” and the first hit was the Prototype Lab blog post Alex wrote about our process last year working on the same project! Even though I worked with Alex to solve these same problems last time, it was really helpful to re-read the things we figured out.

It actually took about 5 minutes to get our Cyclotrope working after reading Alex’s post. Ten points for documentation! And thanks Alex!

-dana

Comments »

Getting ready for Adult Night # 2: REMIX, with some pretty sweet record hacking.

I’ve been dying to try this Analog Vinyl Sampling project I read about a few months ago. What better reason for record hacking than REMIX night?

Here are some photos from the first test.

We are getting the rest of the records water jet cut tomorrow, at a sweet vendor Claudia found in South Calgary.  I can’t believe anyone agreed to help cut this stuff.

We’re not totally sure that this project is going to work, so don’t get your hopes up too much. But it is going to be really neat if it does!

-dana

Comments »

This weekend I was helping people make Toy Mash-ups at Market Collective when a girl named Georgia* came in. She was pretty stoked about the activity and as picked her toy parts she asked what we had to put them together.

I slid the big hot glue gun away from her as I gave her a low temp glue gun and explained how to use it.  She cut me off and said, “I already know how to use a hot glue gun. I learned at the science centre.”

Amazing! We almost never get to hear this part of the story–how confident and skilled people feel *after* a visit. With bells going off in my head I told her, that may be the very glue gun you learned with at the science centre. We’re from the science centre. She then took a closer look at the table and pointed out where we’d collected each material from Open Studio at the science centre. The wires and capacitors from “the place where you take apart electronics.” The buttons and sequins “from the place where you make stuff with glue.”

She didn’t use our fancy exhibit names, but she was carrying around a model of Open Studio in her mind–and a vision of herself as someone who definitely doesn’t need to be told how to use a hot glue gun.

*Yo Georgia, sorry if you read this and are embarrassed. But you are quite rad. Will you please think about volunteering with us when you are old enough?
-dana

Thanks to Ziff for help with this (and many) blog posts.

Comments »

At the end of the work day my husband will often pick me up to carpool home.  Often, I’m not ready to leave just yet; sometimes having to finish sending one last email, or in this case – working on the floor during the last week of Titanic.  He usually sits patiently in his truck listening to music or tidying up his paperwork.  That is, unless he knows we’re up to something big.

As I came off the floor finishing my shift; I took a look around the parking lot and noticed he wasn’t in his truck.  And so, I continued around the parking lot to our loading dock where I suspected Alex and Dana were up to something.  And something big  – Alex is testing some demonstration experiences, and today it was about exploding hydrogen balloons.  With rocket ignition.

Of course my husband is right in the middle of the action, helping to figure out the technique of ignition.  I asked how it was going, he replied, “I am SCHOOLING these two in science!”.  And under my breath, I murmured, “Well, they’re doing their job”.

Alex and Dana are not inept when it comes to science, nor were they playing dumb for my husband’s sake.  They were just doing their job well:  facilitating an experience.  Facilitating it so that my husband felt like he had viable answers, he had the opportunity to experiment and try his ideas, and all the while they were keeping the environment safe for him to test out these ideas.

Even though science demonstrations typically have a staff member displaying all the cool and dangerous tricks on stage; I have a feeling you’ll be amazed at what Alex is thinking up.  A demonstration where every bang, boom and whiz is performed by *gasp* a visitor in the audience.  Where visitors who wants to participate will have a chance to freely explore and test out their own experiments on stage.  I like to imagine the visitor who leaves the Presentation Theatre saying, “I’ve never got to do that before in my life!”.  Alex, don’t take it personally when someone proclaims they ‘were schooling you’ on the job.  It’s just a sign you’re doing a great job.

-stacey.

Comments »

I don’t know what we’ll use it for yet, but I know we’ll need this. It’s a hand held printer that you slide across the paper to print stuff. Amazing.

http://boingboing.net/2011/06/03/handheld-inkjet-prin.html

And here’s a more believable demonstration… look at its resolution!

http://www.youtube.com/user/PrintDreams#p/a/u/1/_eU8TEaXRlE

This hand held print on anything machine is pretty rad too.

-dana

Comments »

Its been a while since we’ve had the Prorotype Lab open, but you can still be involved.

Come to this DIY Instrument and Circuit Bending workshop this weekend at Local Library!

We’ ll be exploring the weird and wild side of DIY technology, Frankensteining beloved childhood toys and making our joints sing in a series of afternoon workshops.

The New Science Centre team will be doing a Circuit Bending drop-in program that we’re planning for the NSC. Our pal Craig Storm will be showing us how to make Light Theramins. I’ll be helping people (somehow) hack circuits to our bodies to make a giant dance piano. And there will be a free tour of Cantos at the end.

Come play and learn stuff!

This Saturday, June 4th, 1-4pm
Local Library
131 7th Ave SW. Entrance is from the alley behind the church.

-dana

Comments »

Comments »

We are getting ready for Market Collective where we want to create a time lapse video of the cardboard forest we’ll be building over the weekend. (If you’re in town, come by and help!)

We’ve used a lot of kludges to create time lapse videos over the course of this project. I’m here to announce there will be no more time lapse rdiculousness because I just found the best time lapse software in the world and it’s open source!

Gawker

Download it. This program is amazing! Seriously, it took me 45 seconds to schedule and make a time lapse video of the Lab. It can also do motion detected video, which I haven’t tried yet because I had to stop messing around with it to write this post.

Actually, it is taking infinitely longer to find a VGA adapter to connect it to a computer. Anybody have one we can borrow?

-dana

Comments »

When not at the science centre I help do rad things at a local all-ages space called Local Library. This weekend is our one year anniversary. We got a sweet write-up in FFWD and will be having a anniversary extravaganza this weekend! So if you’re in town and want to come to some every-age-welcome ridiculousness from 1-5pm on Saturday there will be:

bands
tacos
silk screening
button making
a wild dodgeball game
and cake!

-dana

Comments »

Present company excluded, the folks at Explora are hands-down my exhibit heroes. Their exhibits are thoughtful, contemplative and energizing.  This text from their website makes me so happy.

Explora’s exhibits
 are designed
 to engage visitors 
of all ages.

The scale of most exhibits 
is small, fitting on tabletops. 
The parts are hand-sized 
and made for handling.

We try to make exhibits 
with transactive qualities, 
such that both they and their users are changed 
even in small and unexpected ways by the encounter. 
There is evidence of previous activity for the next user.

When you play with Explora’s exhibits you feel like you are a better person. I know that sounds impossible, but its totally true. I strive to be as respectfully empathetic and thoughtful as you guys, Explora.

-dana

Comments »