EMF Camp prop making

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picture by @JamesHarrison

This years EMF Camp had a large cyberpunk themed area featuring art installations, a bar, DJ and lots of other interesting things. It takes a lot to set this kind of thing up in a field though for a weekend, and the team pulled out all the stops to produce an epic experience. The 'Cybar' or 'Null Sector' really came alive at night time though when all the lights came on and the lasers and flamethrowers came out.


The base encampment was laid out using twelve shipping containers, the whole campsite was circled with security fencing with tarps making it hard to see inside the camp. Truss and scaffolding was placed along the edges of many containers and between containers allowing power and lighting to be run overhead and down into each container. A large metal dome was built in the open area and a 10ft container was stacked on top of another 10ft container to provide an elevated DJ booth. Once the basic structures were in place the whole area still needed decorating according to theme. I made a selection of props to go in the area which I'll detail over the next few days.


After some initial discussion about me running my laser cutter from the back of a Luton van the team was actually kind enough to let me set up a workshop in one of the 10ft containers. I'm a bit of a sucker for a theme and decided to go all out with my setup. For the basic 'workshop' aspect of the container I just took my laser cutter and some work benches but for the shop aspect I decided I really needed to get some Detolf glass cabinets from Ikea. A quick ebay find later and I managed to get hold of a pair of the worst possible furniture items to take to a field. 


I built a few other items to go inside the container, took my wooden crates and bar top, I also strung 1200 neopixel lights across the roof to give the whole place a nice glow. I'm pleased with how well my space turned out and the the whole area was a fantastic thing to be part of. The flamethrower on the roof of my container did a good job of keeping it warm. Because I was cutting badge cases I was pretty popular all day and all night so I was glad I made the extra effort to fall in with the theme.

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