Each year in Portland, Oregon, hackers, artists, and enthusiasts congregate at the behest of open-source crowdfunding platform Crowd Supply. This year’s event is a particular cause for excitement for me, a) because I’m attending and b) because they have handed the reins to my friend Helen Leigh, which implies a smashing good time will be had by all.
So what is Teardown? Put simply, it’s a three-day event focused on hacking, discovering, and sharing hardware. This is achieved by a combination of talks, workshops, installations, demos, and space and time to just hack. All are welcome and encouraged to attend, from artists to engineers, designers to educators.
Personally, I’m mostly excited by the amazing roster of people who are attending. A quick perusal of the schedule reveals a plethora of extraordinary makers and fantastic topics, including my friend chipperdoodles‘ Anwaar Faceplate workshop, a talk about using 3d-printed parts in production by my personal hero Carrie Sundra, a chance to go hands-on with Kevin Santo Cappuccio’s Jumperless breadboard, and the story of the “creation, design, manufacture, sales and eventual profit of the Arduboy” by its creator, Kevin Bates. And that’s just the first day!!
Helen and I also did a livestream recently about the event, if you’d like to get a feel for the flavour:
(pun not intended, but as you’ll see, Helen is really excited about the food, so now I am too!) Herein you’ll also learn more about the unique venue this year, which I think is going to lend itself to a particularly exciting vibe. You can also watch last year’s recap, or listen to The Amp Hour or Embedded.fm podcasts to learn more.
Photo credit Adam McCombs @nanographs@chaos.social
Intrigued? Head to Crowd Supply’s Teardown page to learn more or grab your tickets, which are also available at the door, as well as discounted or free for volunteer, low-income, or hackerspace attendees.
