I propose we bring together curious makers, creatives, hardware hackers, and enthusiastic tinkerers—people with skills and ideas to collaborate on projects simply for the thrill of making something different. This isn’t a new club, association, or formal structure, and there’s no gatekeeping: individuals and existing groups are all welcome to participate. It’s also not about launching startups, side hustles, or solving the world’s problems—though if something serendipitous and wonderful emerges along the way, we won’t stand in its way. It’s about play, experimentation, and the shared joy of creating and sharing ideas.
Sadly, many special-interest groups have disappeared in recent times for various reasons. However, my personal experience participating in these groups for much of my life has repeatedly shown me that when individuals with diverse skills and interests come together to volunteer their time for something they believe in and enjoy, they can accomplish remarkable things that would be difficult to achieve alone.
Instead, it’s just about connecting people who are passionate about making and creating things. Email me if you would like to be involved: robert@hardhack.org.au Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/paradoxicaltechnology
Projects might include:
- Whimsical machines, with movement, music and lights
- Parade and protesting floats with large animated caricatures
- Exciting science displays with electricity, vortex generators, laminar flow, water, light, magnetism
- Vending machines, fortune-telling jipsy with actual science, and convoluted functions
- Busking animatronics
- Random excuse generators
- Unusual robots, rolling, walking, hanging, water above and below, flying, hovering, etc.
- Random location displays in odd or unexpected places.
A regular meet-up to discuss projects and needs, set goals, review progress, help find solutions and collaborate to make them happen.
This may include:
- Identifying speciality skills like artwork, software, electronics, and other maker skills
- A mixture of working from home and working bees at a makerspace, community rooms or sheds.
- Organisers of transport and/or storage of materials, work-in-progress and components.
- Those inclined to promote, fundraise, recruit and network for people, materials, spaces and storage.
