Oasis

• What’s the project story?

Göra Makerspace is located along the main road where thousand of buses pass every day. We suffer a lot from the pollution. So one day, we got the idea to use our competencies and creativity to translate our feeling in a scientific and artistic way to catch people attention on this issue. We wanted to make an interactive wall where data of pollution were displayed in an artistic way to attract people and then raise their awareness about the bad quality environment they live in. During environment meet-ups, I discovered that the Medellin hackerspace Unloquer has expertise in such pollution sensors so I offered them to join us in this project. A friend who works in a big telecommunication company encouraged us to send the project proposal to his contacts which were looking for a new way to develop their reputation in the maker movement with their high tech technology (sensors, …). Few months later, we had an agreement to develop the project with the support of the company (financial help, donation of sensors, macerating campaign, …). Unfortunately, the company canceled their participation when almost half of the project had been completed.

• How the workshop was useful to the maker(s)?

We use the space to find the competencies required to design the plans, make prototypes and building the final structure. We got help from Unloquer hackerspace for the electronic part related to the sensors and from another company for the metal work.

• What’s the project’s greatest success so far?

This project was a great opportunity for us to realize that we have a great capacity of doing big projects. It built our confidence and strengthen our team.

• What’s your greatest failure(s)& lesson(s) so far?

The biggest mistake we made was to not sign a contract with the company and counter-parties before working on it.

• What’s your vision for the project & next steps?

We will find a way to finish the project without the company’s sensors because we are close to the final result and we believe in this idea. Our dream will be to work with new sponsors to use this project as a tool to raise awareness among citizens and engage an environmental program to offer them an opportunity to change their habits. We have already a lot of ideas: workshops for kids, talks to share experience and initiatives, concert, …

• How anyone interested can contribute to the project?

We are looking for financial support or donations to buy sensors, LED, painting to finish the project and to communicate about it (video, photos, …).