> From what I know from german makers on youtube and IRL, the fair is pretty decent and well staffed with actual makers.
I can confirm. It has definitely gotten more commercial over the years, and I also wish they would get rid of some stuff that plain weirds me out (don't get me started on the BattleBot arena... also, some of the cosplayers...), but as I said: all in all, it's still OK.
Some definitions of "maker" are pretty expansive, including things like sewing, knitting, brewing, woodworking, jewellery making, upcycling, sculpture, ham radio, bicycle repair, and suchlike.
If you use such a definition, a cosplayer who makes their own props and sews their own costumes qualifies for sure.
Some costumes require custom mechanical props. Spiderman's eyes in recent movies have the mechanical-quirk. So reproducing that mechanism in real-life is certainly a Cosplay + Maker thing.
There's a lot of Cosplayers using LED Lights for highly color-accurate "glowing" effects (common for high-end Overwatch Cosplayers). Some cosplayers are just sewing / stiching things (which is fine: that's still a skill), but there are other cosplayers who are putting serious effort into their electronic components of their costumes.
True yeah, though personally, I'm very deep in the 3DPrinter/Electronics part of the maker community, so I'm not that exposed to the other parts. I do however do some woodworking and such. I was just surprised that there were cosplayers, wouldn't have suspected it myself since I've never heard of it.
No, this is not about people like Naomi Wu. She is a maker and she can dress as she likes. The German Maker Faire has actual cosplayers, and some of them have put an enormous amount of time into their costumes and so they fit well into something like Maker Faire. However, there are also these "romantic Middle Ages" people and yes, sometimes also scantily clad women. It's really no big deal, though.
Depending on what went into the costume, it may fit into a maker fare (ie, 3d printing parts of the costume, for example). I don't mind cosplayers all that much, they're generally fairly nice people.
If it's DIY, it's DIY, even if there's not a single bit of 3D printing, casting, forging, milling, or electronics involved.
One thing that has historically put me off about the maker community is these artificial distinctions where materials and ways of making things that have historically been considered "girl stuff" get less respect, or sometimes don't even get recognized as making at all.
True, if it's DIY it's Maker. I don't mind "girl stuff", nor do I like the separation. I don't see a reason why I should limit myself to socially preapproved maker topics.
I think you have to draw some boundaries on the topics you will celebrate in order to avoid being taken over by huge companies promoting their bland consumer products, but then a few people draw the boundaries in ways that exclude genuinely creative passion projects. In my opinion the goal should be to showcase the creative work of people who build things for the love of it, and avoid providing a platform for promotion of established products.
I can confirm. It has definitely gotten more commercial over the years, and I also wish they would get rid of some stuff that plain weirds me out (don't get me started on the BattleBot arena... also, some of the cosplayers...), but as I said: all in all, it's still OK.