Technology exhibition, innovation forum, DIY heaven, and nerd playground are just some phrases used to describe the Shanghai Maker Carnival. The 19th and 20th of October witnessed a huge gathering of nerds, makers, and engineers at Songhu Road, all of whom had come to celebrate one of the weirdest things on Earth: The Maker Movement. Arriving early and leaving at sundown, I spent an entire day in this environment where robot-like heads gazed at me from the corner of their eyes and lego statues blocked my way to Family Mart, making it a mind-bending and awesome experience. And it’s also rather hard to wrap my head around it: it’s not that something different happens wherever I look, but rather I observe bizarre occurrences everywhere. The diversity of exhibited products is dazzlingly wide: from simple toys to engineering experiments, armchair bikes and fake legos (best purchase of my life) to forms of interactive entertainment and top-notch devices. Hence, there is a myriad of ways to pass time. One can find both amateurs and professionals, or old and young individuals. However, everyone was there to have fun, exchange ideas, or mingle in a crowd comprising of like-minded personalities. “No one feels as if they are too cool for you,” explains NYUSH’s very own Prof. Marianne Petite as we walked through the small square stuffed with pavilions and people. She could not have been more accurate: the whole event had an overwhelmingly welcoming atmosphere.

And of course, you can find some NYUSH students wherever entertaining events are taking place in Shanghai. At the fair, several Interactive Media Arts (IMA) students exhibited their midterm projects at the university’s pavilion. Featuring an alternative version of Flappy Bird, a game controlled by the player’s breath, a ton of bioplastics along with other fascinating articles, I often found NYUSH’s table hard to approach due to the crowd gathered around it. And I must say that the students perfectly fit into this fantastic community in terms of both quality and enthusiasm. Two of our professors, Marianne R. Petite and Clay Shirky contributed to the day with their presentations. Professor Petite spoke about the history of Interactive Media at NYU and NYU Shanghai, and Professor Shirky spoke about the differences between maker culture in China and the US, followed by a discussion with Yushiu Yang, producer of the documentary ‘Maker’.

At the end of the day, I returned from the Shanghai Maker Carnival feeling better than my expectations, and with the sense of having experienced something extraordinary. And realizing now that I praised the event like someone being paid to do so (the critic inside me just wants to think of something negative), it would be appropriate to anticipate that some readers may ask whether the Maker Carnival was that great or not. I can’t think of another answer besides 'hell yeah!'. More photos of the event @ shanghairandom.tumblr.com. This article was written by Máté Mohos. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Máté Mohos