“Persistence is what makes me a maker. If I were lazy or had a fragile ego I would have found something more leisurely to do long ago.”
How did you get started as a maker?
I learned how to be a maker at a very young age. My parents and grandparents were always crafting things, sometimes for fun and sometimes out of necessity, so the idea of making things was never foreign to me. My Dad had a woodworking shop in our garage. I would use the shop tools and leftover scrap wood to make small boats or forts for my action figures. My Mom always had me helping with her different craft projects. My Grandmother came out of the Depression era, so she didn’t have any tolerance for expensive toys. If I wanted something to play with, she would hand me a box of used sewing spools, pencils, and rubber bands and say “You want something to play with? Here, make a car.” And I’d do it! That’s how I played and had fun as a kid: putting things together, taking things apart, and figuring out how stuff worked. If it ended up not working, I never cared too much. The act of making was the most fun part. I’m basically doing the exact same thing now that I enjoyed so much as a kid with all the resources of the internet era!
Making electronic devices and analog synthesizers are fairly new things for me though. I was living in Lexington, KY at the time, and going to lots of experimental music shows. I saw a couple of acts tour through town playing homemade electronic noisemakers. Seeing people perform music entirely with equipment they had made themselves instantly resonated with me. It was just obvious to me that it was a something I wanted to do too. This was around 2005. I had no idea where to start, but I dove in blindly, started googling and researching how to design electronics. Before I knew it, I was making my own circuit boards at home and building synthesizers. It kind of snowballed from there.
Given your background, it would appear to be a foregone conclusion that you would continue to be a maker as an adult. However, do you have any experiences of being an unlikely maker?
It’s unlikely because I really don’t have a natural talent for it! For every project in progress, there’s a pile of at least three previous attempts that didn’t work. Most of the time I choose a project that’s way over my head. It’s anguishing when it doesn’t work and I have to troubleshoot it. There’s lots of cursing and grumbling as I turn it over trying to figure out what’s wrong. Engineering is a tough technical art, but that’s what makes the victory so much sweeter!
Do you have any examples of how the folks and/or resources at LVL1 helped you get over those making hurdles?
Absolutely. I’d been toying around with different keyboard designs for a year when Tim from LVL1’s Soundbuilders group came up with a breakthrough for a velocity-sensitive keyboard design. Someone from LVL1 donated really nice Lithium-ion battery packs towards my electric bike project. I’m able to use the 3D printer at the space to print out bicycle parts for that same bike and I’m using a variation of another LVL1 member’s design for those parts! The resources at LVL1 help me every single day.
What projects are you currently working on?
Too many!
A couple of people from the LVL1 Soundbuilders group and I designed an isomorphic MIDI keyboard. It’s an esoteric design for a musical keyboard: the basic idea is that it’s a 2-dimensional grid of keys and all the musical intervals are exactly the same shape across the keyboard. It has velocity sensitive keys which is pretty difficult to do. I’m putting the finishing touches on the keyboard and then I’m going to build another modular synthesizer around it. This time I’m going to build something small enough that I can carry it around by myself. My current homemade modular synthesizer is so big I have to get help to move it anywhere. It’s huge.
I’m also working on an electric bicycle project. I’ve been scrounging parts for a motor, controller, and batteries. I’m taking my old 80’s Schwinn Worldsport and adding the motor so it’s a pedal and electric
hybrid. It will make climbing hills much easier and help me get my top speed faster. I can’t wait to ride it all around town. On top of that, another LVL1 associate and I are working on a project to make Louisville safer for bicyclists. We’re working on a design that uses a smartphone GPS and distance sensors to figure out where cars are too fast and too close to bicyclists. As we’re riding around Louisville, we’ll constantly collect data on every street in real-time. The idea is that we can collect enough data to say, “This street is not safe for bicyclists. The cars here pass too close and they’re going too fast. Use this side street instead.” When the prototype comes together we’ll be able to provide some real citizen science to the city of Louisville. My hope is that city planners and fellow bicyclists will put it to good use.
–Grace Simrall
Bio:
Co-founder and President of LVL1 Hackerspace. One half of Louisville synth duo Nzambi. HPC Systems Administrator at the University of Louisville’s Cardinal Research Cluster (CRC) Supercomputer.
Title:
Micro Colonel (President) of LVL1
Age:
32
Location:
Old Louisville
Contact:
@ccprek
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Great article! LVL1 is an awesome Louisville organization, it’s good you are getting the word out about it. I’m a maker myself, and the electric bike/identifying dangerous roads idea is inspiring me to do something similar.