What is MakeMini[…]?
MakeMini[…] is a community art platform.
Participants at a MakeMini[…] event are invited to construct various things that comprise their community such as: people, dogs, houses, trees, and buildings. They construct things like people and dogs by putting by together MDF pieces using small nuts and bolts and then “decorate” them with custom hand drawn stickers. Pieces like houses and trees only require decoration.
A blank scene is provided for the completed things to go in. The scene is made up of MDF slats with gaps that can accommodate the things. The scene accommodates things of different real world size at the same model size by having separate foreground(F), middle-ground(M), and background(B) areas. For example, people go in the foreground and buildings go in the background.
How it works in detail
Participants are given the option of making two basic types of pieces: 1) simple single part pieces (houses, trees, buildings etc.) or more complex multipart pieces (person or dog). They are then given the instructions for how to make that piece.
Participants collect the parts from the various compartments.
I provide pencils, coloured pencils, pens and scissors for participants to make the pieces with. As well as some reference photos of things they will make.
Features of the MakeMini[…] platform
There are five key attributes of the “MakeMini[…]” platform: 1) It can be localised, 2) it is designed with sustainability in mind, 3) it is portable, 4) it is modular, and 5) it is flexible.
1) Localised
“MakeMini[…]” is localised for the different places the interactive is run at by using some bespoke pieces. For example, in MakeMini[Wellington] there was custom pieces for the cable car, Beehive, observatory, Te Papa, and the ferry.
2) Sustainable
Sustainability is a key part of the “MakeMini[…]” platform. The size of everything is REDUCED. Pieces are REUSED from one event to another. Paper and paper stickers that cannot be REUSED are RECYCLED.
3) Portable
By making all the individual pieces small, the platform is very portable. So it can travel around to various events.
4) Modular
The way the base scene fits together is very modular, it uses 500mm threaded rod and 600mm MDF slats. This means it could be constructed to make a small 500mm by 600mm scene or any large scene (e.g. 1m by 3m), by simply adding more threaded rod and MDF slats.
5) Adaptable
The “MakeMini[…]” community art platform is very flexible in nature and I have a many more ideas of where to take it in the future.
MakeMini[…] Events
Check out the webpages for MakeMini events: