There’s a lot to see and do at the South by Southwest Conference and Festival 2016, and hidden among the tech demos and startups are some hands-on demonstrations for those who make. Set apart from the main conference center is SX Creative, a hacker and maker expo that’s free to the public. Companies and maker groups have a variety of activities available there for both kids and adults from Friday through Sunday. If you’re in Austin like I am this weekend, here are some must-see projects at SX Creative.
Play the Bananas
Makey Makey used their quick-start software to turn bananas into a keyboard. It’s a super simple project, but drew a pretty large crowd at SX Creative because of its oddity and interactivity.
Solder On
Several groups have stations set up where kids can learn the basics of electronics and soldering. The one at the ATX Hackerspace booth was a nice project that covered turning on a LED light and soldering it to a board. Sparkfun also had a lot of space and equipment for kids to work on soldering projects.
Game Against the Machine
IBM’s Cognitive Studio does require a SXSW badge, but once inside there are a variety of apps and experiences to check out. The humanoid robot Pepper is powered by IBM Watson’s supercomputing, and can perform simple interactions as well as leveraging Watson’s intelligent ’emotional’ responses. Both Peppers weren’t at 100 percent when I visited, with one slow to start and the other, an IBM representative told me, having trouble with its truly intelligent functions in the high noise level from the crowd. I was able to play a game of rock-paper-scissors against a smaller robot, and fist-bumped Pepper.
Paint with Light
Artist Joey Ficklin brought an project to SX Creative that he described as a “Bob Ross painting” experience. Paintbrushes programed to interact with LEDs can be swiped across a board studded with lights, making a constantly-shifting work of art as different people contribute to the pattern. Ficklin’s project is part of a promotion for Maker Faire Austin, held in May.
Draw Your Own Circuits
Circuit Scribe invites creative design in its circuit-and-drawing kits. Silver lines drawn with a rollerball pen create conductive lines between any pattern imaginable when placed over a metal board. Logic gates and robotic parts can also be added to make the patterns more useful and more complex. This project was one of the smoothest combinations of electronics and art that I saw at SX Create.
Keep it Weird
In conclusion, here is a lizard riding a robot.
