Lately I’ve been spending a lot of free time at Interlock, the hackerspace a bunch of us in Rochester have been working hard to get up and running. We’re about to move into our permanent space next month, and currently we’re in a temporary space until that point comes. We should be transferring to the new space on or before February 5th.
One thing I’m really excited about is an event called “First Friday” (firstfridayrochester.org) that happens on the first Friday (imagine that) of every month here in the city of Rochester, NY. First Friday is an event to promote the exposure of all of the awesome art that is happening in Rochester. From what I understand, it is an effort to maintain sustainability, promote the value of, and encourage collaboration amongst art venues and artists within the city. A large part of the mission is also to establish ties between university students and the wealth of art within the city. As soon as we heard about this event, we knew Interlock would be a regular part of it.
Interlock’s vision and goals are very much in line with the ideas of sustaining art and culture within Rochester and promoting collaboration between makers of all kinds. Many of our members are students and it’s certainly worthwhile to encourage them to make Rochester their home by providing limitless technical and artistic opportunities with the comfort of an open, socially collaborative environment outside of the university grounds. To accomplish this goal, a bus (or two or three? not sure on the details) takes people from universities to galleries within the downtown. The bus stops at the building that we’re located in, which is packed with many artsy organizations — 1115 East Main St. Exciting!
Organizations can register officially for the event for a small fee, or they can informally open their doors and welcome people with snacks, drinks, and a display of their art/projects. Last first Friday was pretty dead being that it was New Years day, but the previous first Friday in December at our building was booming. We had just moved in that night into our temporary space, so we didn’t have an event. This upcoming first Friday, on February 5th, we plan on having our doors to our new space open, with some projects and/or demos to show off to the public. We are in the basement of our building so signage will be key in trafficking people downstairs to check out our space. If we even get 3 people to come down, it will be a success. Next month, we will plan even bigger, given that we will be settled in and ready for a larger event. In general, I’m pretty excited that we’re positioned to become a significant part of First Friday festivities each month, and I’m anxious to see people’s reactions to Interlock’s dynamic and culture.
Currently computing: A simple ‘fortune cookie’ Sinatra app. More on that next time. 