What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1487788
DECEMBER 11-17, 2022 WHAT'S UP! 9 Students make structures and fly them in two cylinders equipped with fans during a tour of the new exhibit "In the Making" at the Amazeum in Bentonville. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe) Mused shows a display that creates an optical illusion. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe) Photographs become recognizable when they are placed next to a reflective cylinder during a tour of the new exhibit at the Amazeum in Bentonville. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe) A computer-controlled metal bearing carves out designs in sand during a tour of the new exhibit. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe) A prototype of the Amazeum's giant, hands-on SpongeBob SquarePants is part of "In the Making: Ideas Come to Life," a new, interactive exhibition designed to highlight the creative processes involved in turning inspiration into real objects, along with many of the messy steps, experiments, mistakes, and lessons learned along the way. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Monica Hooper) card. In the midst of the exhibits is a small reading nook. "In the Making" has strong local ties as well. Each hands-on exhibit was either built exclusively within or assembled in the Amazeum's vast maker workshop by either the museum's staff of makers, including Dayton Castleman and Tyler Altenhofen, who are makers-in-residence. Castleman created Space Puddle, which is a large box that hangs from the ceiling. When guests walk beneath the box, motion sensors cause water to drip and create a rippled shadow "puddle" around the users' feet. Altenhofen created a fun "Magic Mirror" that uses circuits to create a sort of photo filter mirror that changes based on the viewer. Guests can even look inside the exhibit to see how the whole thing works. Plus there's a giant kaleidoscope, built by University of Arkansas students, that allows little makers to create a unique moving picture using tangible objects under a large lens. By providing raw materials, interactive exhibits and allowing users to peek behind the scenes the "In The Making" exhibit allows guests of the Amazeum to see how raw materials become exhibits. "That's something we do really well in our Tinkering Hub, but we wanted to have an exhibit full scale about the stuff that we're making here," says Mused. "We feel that this exhibit is really an extension of our 'maker' ethos."