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

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We tried a pilot during E&I where we attempted to make our own light bulbs out of found materials. Our efforts kind of mirrored Edison’s experimentation with filaments (hair, bamboo, bits of wood.) I’d post pictures only unlike Edison’s attempts this one never got out of the lab (and that’s saying something for a pilot.)

A mind-blowing link Katherine sent me about 10 minutes ago sent me through a spiral of links until a Japanese site taught me the real way to make your own light bulbs.

In case you’re interested, here you go. This one’s for you, Dan.

http://www.hosobuchi-lamp.co.jp/

It looks harder than what we had in mind for the pilot.

hand made light bulb

-dana!

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I was so inspired by Arthur Ganson’s gear building techniques that I’ve become obsessed with bending gears. All of last week and over the weekend I created a pile of parts for visitors to play with.

On Tuesday I showed people how to create their own gears using the jig I’d made. We used heat shrink tubing and glue to assemble them. People were kind of into this but as Stacey noticed it requires a lot of spatial ability to complete. Honestly, I think staff enjoyed this part of the pilot more than anyone else.

Here’s Vlad building a gear.

On Wednesday I decided to see if people would be into assembling kinetic sculptures. Instead of asking people to build their own parts, I provided people with pile of pre-made gears and cams as well as tools to modify them. This worked so much better than the previous day and people made such amazing things! Even though the contraptions are make-shift and wobbly they have a certain charm.

Here is the worm gear powered contraption one grade-four girl assembled. I helped her with some of the wire bending but she really built this on her own. I was so impressed!

Last night at the Variety Show, in between bands I demonstrated gear building for an audience. They were pretty mesmerized by the fire.

-dana

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I’ve been researching the way Arthur Ganson makes gears for the wind-up kinetics pilot I’m working on this week. I came across a TED Talk where Ganson beautifully describes his art, being obsessed with making things move and how it feels to build things with his hands.

http://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_ganson_makes_moving_sculpture.html

It makes me proud to be a maker. Check it out.

-dana!

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