How do you mix paper bag crafts with technology? Our usual answer to a question like that is “put a light on it!” Basically, we tried to figure out what we could add to a paper bag puppet to make it more “techy.” Rebecca created a very cool example that combines a paper bag with an electronic circuit. When you close its mouth, two paper clips touch each other and complete the circuit allowing the LED eyes to light up. This is a great example of taking something fairly ordinary and making it extraordinary.
I struggled with adding technology with shadow puppets. They seem so simple. I remembered a long time ago that Paul, a former employee at the Museum, created a shadow puppet stop-motion video in the Curiosity Lab, the space that existed before MAKESHOP. I figured that we could revive that kind of animation in MAKESHOP. I had a visitor help move the puppets while I took the pictures. It was Groundhog’s Day, so we made a simple video using a ground hog puppet.