Handmade Nation Screening and Peru FAB7 experience share

This Wednesday, December 14th from 7- 10 PM

at the AS220 Labs (on Martha Street next to the AS220 Printshop)

I'll be hosting a screening of Handmade Nation, Faythe Levine's documentary about contemporary DIY craft in the U.S. 
Locals also featured in this film are The Dirt Palace, and Deb Dormody of general awesomeness (If'n Books and Marks and Craftland.)

The movie is one hour long and will be preceded by a slideshow about FAB7, the fascinating international digital fabrication conference that took place this past August in Peru. The screening  will be followed by a conversation about the importance of DIY, and how Fab Labs are facilitating that all over the world! 

Snacks and drinks will be provided!

FAB 7 report back

FAB is the annual international convergence of the Fab Lab Network. Last year I was a student in the pilot year of MIT's Fab Academy at AS220 and our graduation was at FAB6 in Amsterdam. This year FAB7 took place in Lima, Peru at the National University of Engineering. I was thrilled to reconnect with folks from labs all around the world! Pictured above are traditional Tijeras dancers in Lima's Government Palace. Their performance was only one part of FAB7's fabulous welcoming event.

Fabsietecito (Little FAB7) took place before the conference began. Kids came to Lima's new Fab Lab and made cardboard robots with LEDs!

It's so valuable for us all to converge and communicate about sustainability, organization, and other issues. It was a relief to know that we each are not alone in our challenges in Fab Labs. People always share lab stories that project positivity, especially photos of smiling faces at parties. We don't speak as openly or as often of classes cancelled for lack of enrollment, threats due to lack of funding, or the situations most pregnant with potential for improvement.

Mostly, things are going swell! Labs are increasing exponentially all over the world, but it is still a challenge to get new members into the labs, to help people understand why these resources should be relevant to them, and to bridge the chasm of intimidation that many people feel because of a lack of experience with electronics, programming, or contemporary technology in general.

Here folks from 5 countries on 4 different continents collaborated to construct an Ultimaker, a great 3-D printer from the Netherlands. It took 8 hours to assemble it and start printing.

These forms were all printed on the Ultimaker, and the largest vase (clear and yellow, about 9 or 10" tall) only took about 15 minutes to print! All of the vessels hold water.

There are many stray dogs around Lima, and different buildings at the engineering university have adopted animals. Under the table above you'll see Fabita, one of that lab's mascots.

All over Lima it's easy to find ambulantes, or mobile vendors, especially in the form of food carts. The design challenge at this year's conference was to fab an ambulante. First prize went to Rachel Hamburg for her Bananalas (in English, Bananawings.) Rachel and Daniel Greene cut the wing form on a Shopbot, and hung the fruits to look like feathers. Those in attendance interacted with the Bananalas ambulante as if plucking fruit from a tree!

Next year, FAB8 will be in New Zealand, and FAB9 will be in Japan in 2013!

Food in Peru: Streets and Markets

A Peruvian microwave's control panel-- apparently stuffed peppers and rice pudding are popular dishes to heat up.

At Mercado San Pedro/ Mercado Central en Cusco, Peru many different vendors offered the same type of traditional pan (bread.)

Peru has such an amazing history of agriculture, and tremendous amounts of varieties. The dark maiz morado on the lower right is most popular cooked with lemon, sugar, and pineapple rind to make a dessert beverage. Maiz morado can also be used as a dyestuff!

This was a tamer image of the meat vendors at Mercado Central.

IF YOU CAN"T HANDLE DEAD MEAT, DON'T LOOK AT THE LAST PHOTOS IN THIS POST AFTER 7 PHOTOS DOWN. SUSIE, DON'T LOOK!

Ah, the ambulantes! In the foreground we see a vendor of fresh pineapple slices, to the right and below, a bakery on wheels, and in the background above to the far left is a music vendor whose ambulante is a big amp with CDs displayed on top!

A bakery on wheels

A really vertically integrated business: at the bottom, a cage of quails and their feed; hidden next to the quails, a propane tank; above them, raw quail eggs; at the top, boiled quail eggs for sale with condiments and salt! 5 eggs for one Peruvian Nuevo Sol, or $0.36 US.

Choclo is starchier than the sweet corn widely available in the US, but one ear of the large kernels is about as filling as a whole meal, also for about one Sol.

Crema volteada and leche asada are both types of baked eggy custards.

Churritos are little churros, just like you can find so easily in California. These are served with sugar, pero sin canela, without cinnamon. Dough was placed in the canister above and extruded into the hot oil below, heated with propane. Her perforated spoon was used both to cut lengths of dough as she squeezed it out, and to fish the finished product out of the fryer. This vendor was at the FAB7 conference, and her cart was decorated by a participant.

Perhaps the most famous traditional Peruvian dish is pollo a la brasa, or well- seasoned rotisserie chicken. This image is from a culinary museum in Lima.

Look out below, sensitive eyes and stomachs!

Another well- known traditional Peruvian dish is cuy, or Guinea pig.

I thought this hank of tracheas was striking.

Cochineal/ Cochinilla

Cochinilla is an insect that grows on paddle cacti. The females produce carminic acid, from which carmine is derived. This bright red dye is used to color food, makeup, and as demonstrated above, textiles! "Bug juice," indeed.

This was recorded in Chincero, Peru en la Valle Sagrada cerca de Machu Picchu.

Inca Písac

It's a lot of work-- climbing Incan ruins everyday. Okay, "everyday" so far is defined as yesterday and today. The greatest heights of this site are as much as 11,000 feet above sea level.

This is Inca Písac en Písac, Peru.

To give you a sense of scale, these tiny people are working on archaeological excavation and preservation of the steps, the same ones pictured above! These ruins are immense. It is so unbelievable to imagine how many people, and how much time & energy must have been spent to build and preserve this- only one of SO MANY oeuvres!

See the steps at the edges of the steps?

My foot is pictured here at the top of many stone steps. In this image I was already more than halfway down the mountain! I asked a local how many people die here each year, and she said, "Surprisingly few."

Hey Mom, I'm okay!

¡Estoy enamorada!

Yo y el Epilog con una cama que mide 36 x 24". No es una advertencia, pero me encanta.

Contrasts

Well, I didn't know about this until I got here. I'm doing okay, using the Buteyko Method to open my lungs. I haven't yet needed to use an inhaler. Today I walked about seven miles and took a few pictures along the way.

What a striking façade!

If you feel that you need to put bars on your windows, they might as well look good, no?

No, really.

Old and new

The tiny box on the left is populated by one person, who I think is trying to sell apartments in the building they plan to construct on that site. Note the banner of the fake outdoors that separates his shoebox from the palace next door.

Read every part of this image that you find legible.