Dioramas at SudoRoom Hack Night Preparation: We are not Coconuts!

We are not coconuts! Creating dioramas inspired by the city we live in (Oakland) and Kota Ezawa, an artist on display at the Oakland Museum.

We’re tying together some tech tools and bundles to run our theme for our next hardware hack night: Dioramas of all kinds. As part of preparations, we’ll be putting some inspiration and laying out some tools, both “tech” (we are a hackerspace after all), and old school (we have tons of sewing machines in our media room!)

Dioramas have a long history in both school projects, museums and in people’s homes. They were the original “virtual reality” in a way, and provide mini museums that people can learn from and observe on shelves of their home.

One of 120 Dioramas from the American Negro Exposition (1940)

Often the There are historic African-American Dioramas still preserved. A remarkable exhibit were dioramas displayed at the American Negro Exposition in 1940, a rare display of African Americans created by African Americans at the time.

Make Something You want

In this workshop we’ll try to find meaning and purpose. Before starting a diorama (whether digitally or physically), are we making something that is meaningful?

And even if it’s not meant for anything other than fun, you never really learn about dioramas or anything really just by surfing YouTube videos or reading examples as well as when you actually make it on your own!

Inspiration: Kota Ezawa

Kota Ezawa is an artist living in Oakland, and one of his most powerful pieces National Anthem is on display at the Oakland Museum. https://www.bartalos.com/2012/04/07/imprint-of-the-sfcb-kota-ezawa/

Kota Ezawa discusses his art that is on display at the Oakland Museum

While super important, bring tissues, because it always makes me cry when I see it. His work involves paper cutouts, animations and stereoscopic images that are similar to many experiments currently seen in virtual and augmented reality.

Kota Ezawa: The Curse of Dimensionality (2012) at the Haines Gallery

Dioramas by a Cool Rapper P.LOCZ. from San Jose

Bay Area rapper P.LOCZ (@_p.locz_) from San Jose mixes hip hop culture and local flavors to reflect the creative environment we live in.

A man in a black hoodie and cap holds a small diorama of an art gallery storefront, standing in front of the same art gallery in real life — The artist in a KQED article

An artistic depiction of a mural, on a street corner, that reads 'The Jacka' and pictures a Black man surrounded by illustrations — KQED: a miniature memorializing the Jacka

We are not coconuts in Oakland

We exist not as a lone tech hackerspace but also in the context of the city of Oakland. It’s very easy to forget this, especially during lockdown when so many of our meet-ups went remote. Over time the only time references to Oakland came up was during conflicts at meetings, and there hasn’t been as much space to work on meaningful tech projects that discussed Oakland as we would have liked.

So in preparation for our next hardware hack night, themed Dioramas, let’s look at inspiration by the artists working and on exhibition in our lovely city!