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| ArielLeviSimons.Credit.SusanLutz |
Ariel Levi Simons co-founder of LA Makerspace was nice enough to answer a few of my questions about the organization, what they do and where they're going.
Ariel could you state your position in LA Makerspace and what you do in your position?
I'm
one of the founding members of LA Makerspace. My big focus in getting
the space started was to have a community lab space and tool shop for
students in Los Angeles to work together, and with outside research
groups, in order to help connect them to the world of research. This is
all run under the banner of our citizen science program, and we have
worked with four high schools and research groups affiliated with such
institutions as the Natural History Museum and Safecast (An
environmental monitoring group.).
When did your organization come about and was it from a Kickstarter? Sorry, I missed it.
Our
organization formed in May of 2012 from a group of people who were
already active in the hacker community, but who wanted to make a space
which was also accessible to a younger crowd of future engineers,
artists, and tinkerers. Generally, hackerspaces have memberships which
are restricted to adults, and the goal of LA Makerspace was have a space
which went beyond those norms.
The
Kickstarter campaign came about at the end of 2012 in order to purchase
our big ticket items, such as a laser cutter some 3-D printers, as well
as bring on dedicated staff to help run the space.
What does the group do currently? It's for kids and adults?
LA
Makerspace is for people of all ages. We have a number of classes,
workshops, and events which go on in the space. We've done everything
from wearable tech to molecular gastronomy. On a more regular basis we
have classes on programming, such as with Scratch and Arduino, our
citizen science workshop, where we share out our current work in the
scientific community, and our Evil Genius workshop, where we work on
robotics projects towards our longer term goal of world domination.
I
was just at LA Mart for Scare LA, I didn't see anything about
LA Makerspace when I was there. Was one reason leaving due to the low
visibility of the place. With so many Kickstarters in LA I suggest
banning together and finding a place here in the city, sort of
a Kickstarter district, where all the Kickstarters can grow and welcome
each other.
If
we can get some super cheap live/work space it would be great to make a
Kickstarter district for Los Angeles. Kind of like the Brewery, but
with more of a Mad Max feel.
One
of the reasons, yes, for leaving LA Mart was the low visibility of our
space. We are looking to relocate to a space which would be much more
directly accessible to foot traffic. We would actually like to set up
in a library space somewhere along the Metro in Los Angeles for that
reason.
Badges! I want those stinking badges! What with the Make Badges?
This
is all part of our quest to help with the gameification of all human
existence. One of the cool things about working in a hackerspace is
picking up new skills and, in the process, sharing and showing off your
new found knowledge. We have been working with http://openbadges.org/ in making and posting new badges for our mad skills. Whether
it's making conductive origami or building a skateboard, there's a
badge for your most recently step on the path towards total creative
enlightenment.
What are your future plans when September ends. I see it's mostly having LA Makerspace around the city at different venues.
We
are currently searching for new spaces to set up shop in Los Angeles in
the coming months. Wherever we set up we would like to have a space
that's plugged into the community and easy to get to on foot, Metro, and
by car. Los Angeles is a large city, and our plan to eventually set up
a network of makerspaces around the city to help spread the wealth.
Are there any similar organizations like yours in LA?
For a full directory of makerspaces in Los Angeles, and around the world, please check out hackerspaces.org . That being said, our closest ties are with CRASH Space in west Los Angeles and Deez Makers in Pasadena.
