Maker Faire Hannover opens on 15 and 16 August with more than 200 booths.2 Two installations share something more interesting than their size: they need an audience before they properly come alive.
Flower Power is a monumental flower made from old car hoods. The organiser describes the recycling project as spitting fire when enough people gather around it.1 Human presence is not scenery around the machine. It is part of the input.
BuzzBird, another installation built for this edition, is a metal bird with a five-metre wingspan and also invites direct interaction.1 Nearby, Voltronics pushes spectacle into physical demonstration: electrical discharges of up to three metres are synchronized to music and lasers.1
These are fairground projects, so attracting a crowd is part of the job. But they also demonstrate a useful rule for interactive fabrication: do not bolt a button on at the end. Design the object around an action people can understand. Approach, gather, trigger, watch a consequence.
The distinction looks tiny on paper and enormous in front of a prototype. A machine that moves by itself gives a demonstration. A machine that waits for something from you creates a situation. Electronics, welding and mechanics suddenly become social design too.