Concordia’s Mini Maker Faire features creativity
Concordia event celebrates hands-on, think-outside-the-box maker culture
Théo Chauvirey has made a métro car out of mushrooms. Inspired by the Société de Transport de Montréal’s 2016 call for proposals to give their retired MR-63 train cars a second life, the Concordia master’s student in Design and Computation Arts got to thinking about the ecological footprint of the vehicles, and how to create a greener alternative. Then he learned about mushrooms, or more specifically, mycelium, first used in the packaging industry as an alternative to Styrofoam. “Mycelium is the invisible part of the mushroom,” Chauvirey explained. “It’s fibrous and white, and grows underground. It gets its nutrients from decomposing organic matter like dead leaves, insects and dead animals.” Which made it a perfect material for a guy researching how to incorporate bio-materials into public transport design. Chauvirey’s mycelium métro car mock-up will be on display Friday and Saturday at Concordia’s Mini Maker Faire, a gathering of inventors and creators featuring more than 70 exhibits, talks and events. He’ll also be showing the Bucci, a dress made from dried bacterial culture used in kombucha, with collaborator WhiteFeather Hunter. Chauvirey, you may have gleaned, thinks outside the box, like pretty much everyone else taking part in the weekend. “Maker culture is a do-it-yourself movement of people who like to create and innovate, come up with new solutions to problems and exchange practices,” said Ann-Louise Davidson, who is Concordia’s Research Chair in Maker Culture, associate professor of Educational Technology and co-producer of the Mini Maker Faire. There have been two previous Mini Maker Faires in Montreal, the last one in 2014. With maker culture taking off worldwide, it was high time for another meeting of the minds — and makers — in Quebec Davidson picked up the baton with event co-producer Bart Simon, director of Concordia’s Milieux Institute for media arts, digital culture and information technology (of which Davidson is associate director). “Concordia has been gaining a lot of traction in terms of what’s happening,” she said. “We wanted to position Concordia in the maker ecosystem in Montreal.” The Mini Maker Faire is described on its website as “the greatest show (and tell) on Earth” but also a hub for creative types from various disciplines. That includes both exhibitors and attendees, Davidson emphasized. “We’re really pushing experiential learning,” she said. “We want to welcome all makers of all ages, strands of life and careers, people who are garage makers, tinkerers, engineers, startups, artists, educated people creating maker spaces in schools, librarians. We want to make it a big gathering, to see the amplitude and the variety of making.” Among the inventions on display this weekend are high-powered rockets; classic arcade games revamped with new-school technology; open-sourced, DIY synthesizer kits; and an award-winning, bargain basement laser printer. “We built and designed a 3D printer from the ground up last year for the National Design Competition, hosted by the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering,” said project director Matt Silverstein, a fourth-year Concordia student in mechanical engineering. “The challenge was to build a 3D printer that can be mass-produced for under $300.”
The maker ecosystem in Montreal is much bigger than we ever thought. And the creativity is out of this world.
Silverstein and his team took first place for their MilkCreator, which anyone can make using their software and a milk crate as a base. (Note: The MilkCreator team will be at the Mini Maker Faire on Saturday only.) “The real selling point of this printer is that it’s extra affordable, and it’s open-source,” Silverstein said. “Anyone can build it, using actual technology. There’s nothing next-level about it.” He and his fellow students are working on a second version, which he promises will be “more polished, better,” yet still opensource, and which may be purchased pre-packaged, or as a kit that people can put together on their own. Among the weekend events is a Saturday Speaker Series, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Concordia’s York Amphitheatres. At 1 p.m. is a talk called Youth and Maker Culture, hosted by Davidson and including students from various CEGEPs and schools. Immediately following the Mini Maker Faire, the Milieux Institute holds a two-day Conference on Maker Cultures, including a public symposium, Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. “We’re going to hash out what maker culture really means,” Davidson said. One thing is for certain, she noted: maker culture is thriving here — so much so that what she and Simon assumed would be a modest event has ballooned into a happening way beyond their expectations. “The maker ecosystem in Montreal is much bigger than we ever thought,” she said. “And the creativity is out of this world.”