ha ha … i love this pic. Science _can_ be funny sometimes :D

Now i can recall a few bits about Van de Graaff generator … :)

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.

talk to ya later…

PS – Capitalize the first letter of a sentence.

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.

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.

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 ?