Dreamboat: Floating Makerspace

The DREAMBOAT floating makerspace for Dreamspace academy is currently floating in the lagoon! It’s an art+science field station in the middle of one of the most interesting ecosystems on earth, the baticoloa lagoon! It’s the home of the mysterious singing fish, and even lights up green when it hears the singing fish song (they weren’t singing tonight so we played a recording, but the visuals totally worked!)

We have been working at a super fast paced rate on a tight budget during numerous crises and managed to pull it off!

It will be there to work as an observation post to monitor the interesting creatures like the mysterious singing fish, as well as the destination for tourism! And a floating art project!

Harold Tay

Dates: 14/7/2022-31/7/2022

Project: Investigation into coconut husk burners

Bio: I’m a Singaporean mechanical engineer by training, but I later moved into (systems) software, and then electronics. I attended the inaugural Dinacon (held in Phuket, Thailand) where I ran my autonomous underwater vehicle (basically an underwater drone). This time I ran a workshop where participants made their own hydrophones (soon I’ll post details on how to make one for yourself). There is a pattern here! I’m still involved in underwater and terrestrial acoustics, but not so much underwater robotics any more.

You can read about my Dinacon project from the link. I was also involved in the Oven project where some of us got together and designed/built an outdoor brick oven. Well, we directed the construction rather than built it ourselves, we’re not skilled that way! Link on the way.

By the way, Sri Lanka isn’t the way the media has portrayed it. It isn’t a war zone, and people aren’t looting for example Tourists are not in any danger, and they can certainly use the foreign currency in this period. This isn’t to minimise the hardship the people are actually facing, but the solution isn’t to stay away. I found Sri Lankans as helpful and friendly this second time there as the first.