Hacking reality might be the new hacks to pull off. Last weekend, O’Reilly media’s latest publication, MAKE magazine hosted it’s first ever Maker’s Faire. For no more than $12, folks were able to get in and see all kinds of interesting things to see.
I was speaking with a mother of an 18-year-old boy this weekend, and we agreed that the new “cool” is in how to make things in the physical realm. Think about it: you might know how to hack Microsoft Excel to do some cool things. You might have figured out some tricks on how to make your Tivo run sweeter, but what can you do in the real world?
I was considering this with content the other day, most especially visual art, like paintings and stuff. Because I do most of my art in a digital medium, I’ve got the benefit that my stuff is infinitely repeatable, easy to ship, and easy to distribute. However, that means it’s in abundance, thus not rare, and thus not all that valuable, from the money sense. I’m okay with this. I’m not out to make a million, but it did give me pause.
Check out this person’s art, especially the round stones. They are gorgeous. You want to touch them. These little stones have set my mind to thinking about how we experience things, and especially how kids experience things.
Action figures. Why do these work? We see the movie? We align our minds with the characters on the screen, and when the movie’s over, we buy the toys to recreate our own little stories. Again, it’s a way to hack reality. You can make your OWN Star Wars movie in your head. Just get out your little plastic Luke (my brother went through seven Lukes because my dog used to eat their heads off), and start it up.
I’m rambling a bit, but the point stands. Hacking reality is the new hacking computers. I think that’s some of the spirit behind sites like Lifehacker and Lifehack.org. Have you seen Ready Made magazine? More of the same world-hacking experiences.
What’s your take?
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tags: makerfaire,hacks,oreilly,lifehack,lifehacker
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