At the end of Maker Faire 2007 on Sunday, Survival Research Labs had a mini-show in the parking lot of the San Mateo Fairgrounds. Featured machines included the Hovercraft, Running Machine, Dual Mule and the Bomb Loader with the new Mr. Satan Head.
Here are my photos of the show as well as some photos from SRL from earlier in the event. There are more photos and video on the SRL show page.
More coverage of the SRL show:
- Violet Blue
- r3v
More photos from the SRL show:
- Violet Blue
- Karen Marcelo
- Lori Dorn
- Amy Jenkins
- Jef Poskanzer
- r3v
- Ed Hunsinger
Video of the SRL show:
- Wired: Gadget Lab (Dylan Tweney)
After the show the San Mateo Fairgrounds hit up SRL with a hefty clean-up bill of $6660 (the amount they calculated appears to be in honor of Mr. Statan Head). SRL is currently talking donations to offset the costs. If you were there Sunday and enjoyed the show or just want to support SRL in general, please consider kicking down some $ to help keep this legendary art organization going strong so they can do more shows in the future. The costs to produces SRL shows are quite considerable, even without these bonus expenses.
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hey i know SRL is considered by many here to be godstars, and everyone here has probably seen more than enough enough burning objects to have enough sense to get out of the way, but did anyone think that it was pretty uncool to let a flaming ball in high winds blow burning fragments into a bleacher full of people? probably including children.
did anyone in SRL actually consider that this was a moment to act on behalf of safety for (a non-burner) public?
we witnessed medics assisting one woman who apparently got a burning piece in the face and very close to her eye. anyone have any updates on that ?
The woman in question received a 4cm square 2 nd degree burn on here face near mouth/right cheek. I met with her the following day and paid her medical expenses and a pain and suffering payment. The burn looked funky, but according to the doctors at the eroom, the burn is non scarring. We have made our share of stupid mistakes at SRL but I try ro rectify them as much as possible. As far as I know, there were no additional injuries on this level.
Because we always need more photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrabbit/sets/72157600250441772/
http://flickr.com/photos/rubin110/sets/72157600241051461/
Some Maker and some SRL sort of close up. I thought it awesome to stick around right in the stream of smoke coming off of the ball to get some cool photos. Sadly my memory card didn’t see eye to eye with me on this and I didn’t notice till the smoke had cleared.
I have known Mark for a number of years and I talk to him on a personal level all the time.
I know that he is considered a superstar by a lot of people, and that he does some pretty crazy performances.
But in no way would Mark ever put someone in harms way. I have seen him yell at people at shows when they are getting too close to a potential hazard zone. I have seen him get right in the middle of burning stuff, putting himself in harms way to de-fuse a potential dangerous situation.
Mark has a small child that he loves dearly, and I doubt that he would ever do anything intentional to put anyone in harms way. Mark himself has been through a lot. (Ask him about his right hand some time) And would never want anyone else go through he has been through.
Oh and Mumbley Peg, I really don’t see the president of BMW coming to you and offering to pay your hospital bill because you were hit in a crosswalk by one of his cars while going to work.
Sergio… are you kidding??? Not only is your grasp of English poor but so are your analogies. The pics clearly show that the winds were quite strong AND blowing right towards the crowd. I’m 100% in support of SRL… but this was careless. Period. The show would have been great without the fire.
whatever “dude” at least I’m not some pussy hiding behind a fake name.
if you like I’ll give you my address and we can talk face to face.
BTW it’s my opinion.
Stay safe in your moms basement and keep bashing people on blogs.
Sergio… Maybe the reason so many people (not just me) use assumed id’s online is because people like you think violence is a acceptable way to solve their problems when presented with a differing opinion.
PS – Capitalize the first letter of a sentence.
YoU kNow i NevR sAiD anyThniG AboUt violins. butt you can bring yers if ya like.
I just figured out who you are, my 3rd grade english teacher.
woa, you must be over a hundred by now.
nobody ever said that san franCisco had the greatest school system.
talk to ya later…
hey mark,
one pt. of raising the issue was an attempt to measure the level of intelligence here among “Spectacle producers” as well as the usual suspect “spectators”.
My experience of Maker Faire was in part a revealing example of the new trend which is merging the 2, which is to say, the direction of technologies in the consumer and user-friendly sector is nearly as “dystopian carnival apocalypse” ( i.e. clueless or self-serving *) as the corporate, corporate-academia and military.
Years ago I considered SRL an ingenious and ahead-of-its-time culture jam on those themes (intended or not??) Now , without an evolving level of attack, it risks engaging people who never grasped the critique… and playing out an empty fetishizing of the power of machines… reducing high conceptual art to monster truck show mentalities.
A deep topic I don’t have time to fully flesh out here… maybe someone else would care to elaborate on the theme.
In any case your response is an admirable one, and somewhat unexpected. And for sure dangerous art needs a boost and all the support it can get … but primarily for putting the danger in the right contexts and at the proper vulnerable crossroads.
respects,
m.peg
* note: recently i read a very potent article from george monbiot
on global warming, which was full of practical new scientific approaches which according to many in the field Must begin asap or millions, maybe hundreds of millions in the global south will be devastated in our lifetime. One of these scenarios was to consider a system for electric and hybrid cars to have universal interchangeable batteries at filling stations to avoid the re-charging time of powering up a car… it was an interesting idea to push fwd the new technologies which have these consumer learning-curve obstacles in the marketplace.
when i discussed this with one of the hybrid car booths at MF, the main engineer there scoffed at it… he may have reasons that are beyond my knowledge, but it seemed as though his main antagonism was that it went contary to the path that his Company was invested in.
just a small taste of Maker Faire from another angle.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrabbit/510620976/in/set-72157600250441772/
ha ha … i love this pic. Science _can_ be funny sometimes :D
Now i can recall a few bits about Van de Graaff generator … :)
My friends polyester pants had a big hole burnt in them. Will srl pay for that??
note: never wear polyester to SRL shows
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