Mondo Spider's adventures thoughout the world

Friday was gloriously sunny, and the team took the morning to do some sightseeing at popular sites like the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam War Memorial.

In the evening, we moved into the Wonderbox, an art space located in a rough yet colorful part of town around New York Ave and North Capital Ave. The Wonderbox is a 5,000 square foot space consisting of lounge spaces, a photo studio, a stage for shows, and a workshop.  In short it’s amazing.  Our first night in the cube, Peter directed the team in a stop motion dance video using an old school projector.  Thanks Peter!

Saturday morning, one half of the Spider team was on duty at Energy Alley.  The Spider, located adjacent to the sidewalk on Constitutional Avenue, served as the face of Energy Alley and attracted many passersby into the USA Science and Engineering Festival.  The team had loads of fun talking to kids and families and letting them see the Spider up close.  Spider demos happened every 10 minutes or so to the delight of the crowds.

Energy Alley was packed with other great exhibits related to sustainable energy and technology such as: the Copenhagen Wheel, a device that turns any bike into a hybrid electric powered bike; the Uno, an electric-powered vehicle that bears resemblance to a motorized unicycle; and a music improvising robot.

Our hosts Andy and Sandy were extremely hospitable and accompanied us to fantastic restaurants and other great DC spots in the evenings.

The entire Mondo Spider DC team was united on Thursday morning at the Holiday Inn on New York Avenue NE.  After a red eye flight, the air team were in varying stages of sleepiness.  Polly, Moni, Anton, Jon and Kate ventured off in the suburban at 9:30 AM to deliver the Mondo Spider to the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium located on Constitution Avenue.  We were greeted by the enthusiastic team headed by Dan Dubno, the man behind Energy Alley and person responsible for the  Mondo Spider’s presence at the USA Science and Engineering Festival.  We deployed the Spider right straight onto Constitutional Avenue and walked her up Energy Alley, her home for the next few days.

Then the action started.  First, the suburban gave a jump to the Doppler on Wheels: Storm Chaser as seen on the Discovery Channel (pictured above).  DOW 6 will also be exhibited in Energy Alley. Then, Spider operator and media maven Jonathan Tippet gave three successive demos of the spider, the first two for groups of school kids (pictured above) and one for the TV cameras.  The team flanked the Spider dressed in lab coats and talked to the kids who were full of excitement and many, many great questions.

Then we grabbed some supplies and headed back to the hotel with a significantly lighter trailer load to rejoin with the group and plan the next day.  The evening consisted of a trip to the Wondercube to meet Sandra and Andy, coordinators of both the Wondercube and the Wonderbox, each of which the Mondo Spider Team will stay in during the next few days DC.

Since arriving back in Vancouver, the trip has seemed like some sort of far off dream. The people we met, the projects we saw and the talks we had are a set extraordinary experiences. Now, after 17 hours of straight driving to arrive back home, I’ll try to recount the last bits of this epic adventure.

Saturday night held a wonderfully gratifying party at American Steel called Breaker Faire. We set down and walked in the spider to a crowd dressed for Halloween. People with obscenely furry coats, Victorians, rocker, grease monkeys and more parted ways to admire the giant walking machine. Soon after our arrival, a bid for the destruction gingerbread house city (and two Burning Man tickets) began. The lucky lady tromped like Godzilla over the city. Halfway through it was set on fire to much fan fare.

That was only the beginning. A beat up car came rolling out for its last days. We all took a turn smashing it with our feet, hands, hammers, axes and basically any tool that could be swung. Fire spinners and dancers kept the crowd entertained while we went to another part of the shop to check out Doyle’s latest art car.

On the second day of Maker Faire the media was out in full force. Attack of the Show, from G4, absolutely loved the spider and interviewed Jon for a spot on Thursday’s show (4pm PST / 7PM EST). A few other news organizations came to talk to us; we’ll keep you updated when we hear the others will air or be posted.

Part way through the day, Charlie noticed a crack in one of the legs. Our team quickly assembled and, soon enough, Ryan was doing some on site welding. We patched up another little crack on another leg and we were back to strutting around the Faire.

We met many distinguished guests and had a five of the editors of Make Magazine (both on and off line versions) come and give us Editor’s Choice blue ribbons for being one of the best in show. We were even lucky enough to have a visit from Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of Make and founder of bOING bOING. He was jazzed by Prothesis and, of course, enjoyed riding on the spider.

To rap up the evening, Ok Go did a special show with the H2O Boy crew. Dan Busby from Syyn Labs came back with the band to hang out and partake in a ride on the spider. What a blast. Unfortunately, it couldn’t last forever. We put the spider back on the trailer and took the long trek back to Vancouver. It feels good to be home, albeit too soon.

It’s Friday.  This week is flying by.  Maker Faire is tomorrow.

On top of boxes at the Box Shop

On the way, we have an important stop.  We make a bee-line for the Box Shop – home of Charles Gadeken and the Flaming Lotus Girls of Burning Man fame.  The Box Shop is an array of shipping containers surrounding a shop with all the accouterments, including an shiny new CNC machine with a plasma cutter. We had a lovely meet-and greet in which we geeked out over the Mondo Spider, their space and the troubles of condos constantly encroaching of developers of condos on art spaces. It was time to head over to San Mateo to set up for Maker Faire.

We are greeted by the lovely and very enthusiastic Goli Mohammadi, a managing editor for Make Magazine, who chats with us as we wait for our badges and information on our assigned space. Score!  We are set up right next to the Electric Giraffe, designed, built, and lovingly tended to by Lindsay Lawler and crew.  Mondo Spider has a friend in these fine folk.  Our spot is also facing an incredible automated rock band that uses massive Tesla coils to modulate the electric field frequency to create sound – i.e. the Tesla coils add more than just a light show, they are an instrument in the band!

Our neighbours, the Electric Giraffe Project

A haunting sound cuts through the background din, and we spot a man seemingly creating music out of thin air.  As incredible as it seems, it is not magic.  It is actually a Theremin, which creates tonal music by manipulating an electric field with your hands.  Movement of the left hand raises and lowers the volume of the tone, while the right hand changes pitch as well as volume.

Would love to stay and see more, but we have to meet up with our friend George Mueller and Kim to tour a new space. After meeting them, we take the scenic route where Kim shows us one of Banksy’s brand new murals placed around San Francisco.

One of Banksy's latest pieces

We arrive at the Other Lab, where Saul Griffith, holding his beautiful baby boy, is madly working away on his latest project to change the world and the way we transport through it. His lab is modest and intensely engaged space. After a couple of beers and a bit of tinkering, we took turns trying out the beta version of the Onya Cycle. It had quick pick up and handled like a dream. It gives me true hope for replacing cars, and even electric scooter, in cities.

After that rush, its off to experience San Francisco on a Friday night! We have Maker Faire all weekend to blow our minds even further from our bodies.

Neverwas Haul at The Shipyard

Today we met up with our friends from the Madagascar Institute went to see the American Steel building and the Neverwas Haul.

One of the many huge sculptures at American Steel

In this 250,000 square foot, the American Steel building houses equally giant sculptures. Many artists and visionaries have space throughout this building that seems to never end. There were pockets of excitement throughout the space as people prepared for Maker Faire this weekend. There was a 17 foot tall swing that, surprisingly, reached near to the endless ceilings. There were also many previous art projects stored, waiting for a permanent home.

Robot sitting in America Steel

After that we toured to The Shipyard. Shipping containers surrounding the main building housed tools, art pieces, materials and many other goodies. The city didn’t believe that these were up to spec so, through further disagreements, they turned off The Shipyard’s power. This didn’t discourage them in the least. Instead it set them off on a quest to build and foster alternative power, including solar and bio-diesel. For six years, they continued to live happily off the grid until the city realized they wouldn’t be giving up anytime soon.

Outside of the Shipyard

Brad in the VR Ball

Day breaks in San Francisco with palpable excitement on the day we are due to present the Mondo Spider at Google IO. Rj loaded the spidered onto a huge elevator. As they the elevator doors open on the 3rd floor of the Moscone Centre’s massive convention center space.  For a brief moment the comic ballet of people setting up this massive space comes to a screeching halt at the sight of a giant, and altogether alien, walking spider as it stomps its way across the carpet to our designated Mondo Spider playpen.

Eva in the Telsa roadster that was beside the Spider pen

The GadgetFest gala space is exactly what one would expect from a party put together by perhaps THE most influential company in the world today – Amazing!  Awe-inspiring!  A pair of screens the width of a football field blasts images controlled by the DJ at the front of the room, who is dwarfed by the scale of screens behind him.  The Mondo Spider is in good company, nuzzled up to a Tesla Roadster, just past the VirtuSphere presented by Ray Latypov, and shouting distance to a human powered merry-go-round-of-death, aptly named “The Terror-Go-Round” put together by our friends from the Madagascar Institute in New York.

Madagascar Institute's Terror-Go-Round

Before we even get a chance to really drink in our surroundings, Dan Dubno shows up with a very special guest – Sergey Brin!  Let me tell you, it is not an every day experience to be in the company of a creative giant.  It might have been more nerve-wracking to be teaching Sergey to drive the Mondo Spider if it weren’t for the fact that he was sporting a pair of wicked Vibram’s shoes (or anti-shoes, more like it).  That small detail kind of strips away the cloak of power and influence that comes from guiding a Fortune 500 company, to reveal the man underneath.  That’s right folks – he’s one of us!  After a brief tutorial by Jon Tippett, Sergey was tearing up the carpet with the Mondo.  As if that wasn’t enough, before the blush wore off we were introduced to Chad Hurley – founder of YouTube!  Truly, we were in the company of giants tonight.

Sergey Brin riding the spider

The evening was incredible!  The response to the Mondo Spider was outstanding.  Thanks to Dan, we had a steady stream of special guests coming by to get up-close-and-personal with our creation.  We had Aoi and Matthias – two champion programmers of the Mondo Spider Radar App – took the spider for a spin.  Brad Sieber, who has been volunteering with eatART for several months had his first ride in this charged atmosphere.

Jelly goodness

As the evening wound down, we swapped a ride in the spider with Ray Latypov for a spin in his other-worldly VirtuSphere virtual reality ball, and sampled from the other inspired exhibits with childlike excitement.  By the end of the night, we reflected on the amazing place that we’ve been blessed to be in. Thanks, Dan and San Fran!

We’re in the right place. While driving through the city, many questioned and commented on the giant tarpped structure that we’re towing.

“That looks cool, what is it?”

“Are you guys Burners?”

Eva even exchanged cards (from truck to truck) with a man who helped build the Neverwas; an amazing steam punk house on wheels.

After settling into our new temporary home, we went to check a tech start-up party at Twilio, where programmers, developers, and investors from around the world check out what the next big things are. Finally, after 2 months of chatting online and developing the Mondo Spider Radar app, Matthias, Aoi, and myself met up and were able to talk in person.

Dennis, a friend of Jon’s from the Ireland carnival ride building, showed us around the town to a few colourful bars and many laughs were had.