A two-day, family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.
A two-day, family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.
What is it like to sculpt with motion? Topobo is the world's first construction toy with kinetic memory, the ability to record and playback physical motion. Snap together Passive (static) and Active (motorized) pieces into a creation, and with a press of a button and a flick of your wrist, you can teach your creation how to dance or walk. The same way you can learn how buildings stand by stacking up blocks, you can discover how animals walk by playing with Topobo.
Hayes Raffle is a product designer and inventor specializing in hybrid physical/digital objects. He works at Nokia Research Center, Palo Alto where he invents new technologies to support family communication. Hayes enjoys teaching, windsurfing, mountain biking, cooking, and spending time with his wife and daughters.
Amanda Parkes is a designer interested in the relationship of gesture, form, materiality, and computation in the context of hybrid physical-digital objects with a research focus on developing intuitive and investigative learning and design tools. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (Product Design) and a B.A. in Art History from Stanford University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT. Amanda has developed exhibits at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, freelanced internationally in multimedia design, and developed installations and programs for the Science Museum in London and the the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Her work has been featured in various internationally recognized design and art awards including the ID Magazine Annual Design Review and the Prix Ars Electronica. Outside the lab, she likes to sew, surf, and amass exquisite shoes.
