Tinkering at Quai des Savoirs

Earlier this month, I teamed up with a collection of artists, educators and tinkerers at the Quai de Savoirs in Toulouse for their annual Lumieres sur le Quai festival. For the event I collaborated with Catherine Villeret from je{UX] sais FAIRE to lead tinkering workshops (art machines and chain reaction) in the Plateau Creatif, a new space for making and tinkering at the science center.

Catherine made a bunch of amazing chain reaction elements at her makerspace and packed them along with a bunch of random materials on the overnight train from Paris in two humongous suitcases.

We spent the first day setting up the two spaces for the two activities. The space already had colorful decor, movable tables with extendable boards on the sides and comfortable seating around the room to create an inviting feeling. Over the course of the day, we arranged the materials and the tables for the two days of workshops.

On Saturday morning we opened up the space for families to create art machines. For this activity we had even a larger selection of possibilities with the addition of salvaged motors from some dissected electronic fish that I got in Dubai. There was so many cool projects and interactions between parents and kids.

In the afternoon we ran the chain reaction workshop in three one hour sessions. We had a bunch of tables and each set of participants made their own contribution to the imaginative installation.

For this workshop, I tested out a new version of a portable finale using the micro:bit radio function to release a series of balloons from different locations around the room! We always like to experiment with new ideas for finales and although this one might need a little work it’s a fun direction for a portable experience.

The next day (Sunday) we repeated the experience again for both activities and again were impressed by the collaboration and intentionality of young and old tinkerers participating in the activity.

I think in the afternoon session on the second day we were a little more well organized with introduction and example for the chain reaction machine and it seemed that the quality of the projects were a little more imaginative and risky (but also seemed to work a bit better).

We captured both the tables of the machine and again filmed the entire chain reaction set off!

At the Lumieres festival there were other really cool performances and installations that relate to tinkering workshops and activities. I enjoyed the precise kinetic sculptures made by Didier Legros and the dramatic aerial dance performance with a projector lightplay background.

It was a really fun weekend full of tinkering experiments with lots of kids and families. It was great to collaborate with Jeux sais Faire and Quai des Savoirs and I’m already looking forward to the next chance to connect!