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The Great American Hacker Camp
Toorcamp is a social technology event populated by hackers and makers, held at Neah Bay in Washington state. I am writing from the fog covered mountains of the northwestern most point of the continental US, so close to Canada that you can see her coast from the kelp covered beach. This moist outdoor paradise provides a wonderful analogy for the intersection of man, her tools, and nature.
I wasn't sure what to expect before coming to Toorcamp. It is great mix of people who have converged to share, create, learn and generally enjoy humanity. The event is structured around a series of talks and workshops that range from robotics and agriculture to local Native American culture and social revolution. Beyond the structure there is also an air of intense creativity, where anything you want to make will be discussed, and considered.
The geographic location chosen for this event is of utmost significance, not only for its seclusion, but for the history of the people who have lived, fought, built, and flourished here. It seems throughout the event, the history of this land gives certain purpose to our activity. This history belongs to the Makah people. A people who are closely connected to the local environment, through thousands of years of tradition, survival, and invention. This nature-technology connection runs so deep in Makah culture that they consider their boats to be living entities.
In any environment, people will tend to venture out to explore and take advantage of the surrounding resources. Occasionally this exploration provides with entertaining results. As a part of hacker culture, the aim in all action is to change, innovate, and exploit to create a better quality of life. In this case, music. The kelp horns, (shown in the image above) can be fashioned, by cutting a hole in either end, one for the "horn" and another as a mouth piece. The sound emitted is both beautiful, harrowing, and iconic of the kelp-horn.
The natural setting and tribal presence is an exciting setting for a technology conference. This juxtaposition of nature and technology accurately represents a shift that is occurring in humanities relationship with technology and the environment. Traditionally, western society has assumed that man, technology, and nature are irreconcilable to the other, but perhaps we are compatible. It seems that these three elements are one in the same, and ought to exist in parallel. It will be interesting to see how this setting shapes the discussion here at Toorcamp and elsewhere.