Last week, we introduced you to our new Maker Annex, and I hope you are planning a visit soon to check out the lab and some of its machines. Perhaps, you’ve even got a project in mind already.
If you’re looking for inspiration or just want to see where STEM can take you, the Delaware Main Library is hosting a number of programs that showcase real-life applications of modern technologies found in the Maker Annex.
This Tuesday, Sept. 10, our friends at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium kick things off. The animal habitats don’t just spring up by magic; a team works closely to make the best home possible for each creature. They’ll be discussing how they use technology to create rich and comfortable environments for the animal residents of the zoo.
On Oct. 16, we welcome Caroline Karbowski, creator of See3D, to share her inspiration for 3D printing models to enrich the lives of blind people. Karbowski will bring some of her most popular models for participants to handle. For more about See3D, I highly recommend checking out her TEDx Talk where she explains her inspiration for these impressive creations.
Finally, on Nov. 13, Khamsa 3D will be visiting DCDL with the story of how a love of creating led to an opportunity to help others. They use 3D printing to create prosthetics for children and animals around the world. What’s better than technology for the good of man (and animal) kind?
These presenters take Maker Annex applications to the next level, and we hope they inspire you to get creating with us in the lab. They all also begin at 6:30 p.m., no registration required.
This week’s titles, although fiction, will hopefully get the gears going in your mind as to what you could create in the Maker Annex as well!
• “Space Opera” by Catherynne Valente. “Glamrock messiah” Danesh Jalo is fighting for mankind’s continued existence — by taking center stage in an intergalactic talent show bursting with glitter, lipstick, and rock and roll. If you like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, David Bowie, or the Eurovision Song Contest, you’ll like this humorous science fiction extravaganza.
• “The Lesson” by Robert M. Hazen. The alien Ynaa occupy St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, causing tension between the newcomers and the locals. This thought-provoking debut is at once an allegory for colonialism and a moving, character-driven first contact story.
• “This is How You Lose the Time War” by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Two time-traveling operatives from competing futures fall in love, expressing their longing through letters composed in lava flows, glasses of water, tree rings, and more. It’s Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time meets Ian McDonald’s Time Was in this lyrical epistolary love story
• “The Record Keeper” by Agnes Gomillion. Introducing Arika Cobane, the valedictorian of her graduating class, who has spent a decade training to become a Record Keeper. But then the arrival of a new student with dangerous ideas causes Arika to question her complicity in perpetuating the injustices of her racially segregated, rigidly hierarchical post-apocalyptic society. For fans of Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts, another lyrical Afrofuturist work that examines systemic racism through a speculative lens.
