Become a maker during Curiosum's festive special weekend

Everyone who is curious about Curiosum, what the making culture stands for and what a maker does is welcome to the special weekend Makerspace 5-6 March.

ImageMattias Petterson

A maker creates and builds using all forms of craftsmanship and brings their ideas to life with the help of various tools and machines in a makerspace that is a physical (or digital) place.

"Everyone who develops something is actually a maker! The goal of our special weekend Makerspace is for visitors of all ages to get a feel for the concept of making and try new techniques and materials. Visitors should also experience and see that Curiosum is a place for making where we can learn from each other and learn together. It is a central part of the maker movement," says Jonas Olsson, project manager for the special weekend Makerspace at Curiosum.

The maker movement has always existed. The modern interpretation of making means that traditional techniques such as sewing, painting, welding and weaving are now combined with digital techniques such as 3D printing and programming.

For the weekend, Curiosum is filling up with many creative making-try-out activities. Some examples from the program: Create and shape using thermoplastic material; Sew a corked cloth cube and juggle with it; Draw and cut out puzzles with laser cutters; Create delightful music with electronics and programming; Make a buttoned bracelet in leather or felt; Pick a used device in Breakerspace and disassemble it; Let something used start a new life in a new form (called "hacking" in a maker context).

For the weekend, Curiosum is filling up with many creative making-try-out activities.

ImageMattias Pettersson

In the café Nyfiket, artist and maker Rowan Dignam shows off his unnecessarily complicated decision-making machine. It gives the same answer as you get from flipping a coin (ie 100 percent random outcome), but is much more impractical and hopefully a little more fun. Visitors get the opportunity to be curious and ask questions about what it means to be a maker and not least about how the tricky decision machine works.

The immersive film Making Magic is shown in the dome theater. It is a story about how visual effects are created for film and computer games - and how they are affected by the laws of nature that govern the real world. The film is produced by the WISDOME project by Norrköping's Visualization Center C.

In addition to focusing on the creation process during the special weekend, Curiosum also introduces its own Makerspace, which consists of two fully equipped workshops. Visitors can check out the workshops and perhaps be inspired by the equipment and digital technology available: laser cutters, vacuum presses, embroidery machines, soldering stations, tuft guns, 3D printers, welding machines, and a lot more.

There are also makers on site who work on their projects in the fully equiped workshops.

ImageMattias Pettersson

"Makerspace is a very important part of Curiosum. We use the workshops to build our own material for our activities and environments," says Madelen Bodin, director of Curiosum at Umeå University and continues:

"The maker approach, to test oneself along with different technical solutions and materials, is also a way of learning things. As a science center, this is exactly what we want to be: a place where knowledge thrives and grows by exploring and discovering. By presenting all of Curiosum as a makerspace for a weekend, we hope to continue to show young people that the university is a very cool place to be."

Makerspace is the last of four festive special weekends at Curiosum. Through these events, Curiosum wants to showcase its range and arouse curiosity and interest in science and technology.