Meet the Maker: Digital Harbor Foundation

Project Egress isn't the first time Adam Savage has called on the Digital Harbor Foundation for help.

This isn’t the first time Adam Savage has called on the Digital Harbor Foundation for help. Tested viewers may recall that it is the Baltimore youth makerspace where he (and Jen Schachter!) assembled the SXSL letters with 50 kids back in 2016.

Luckily for us, they’re always ready to pitch in. Here’s what they did for Project Egress.

About: The Digital Harbor Foundation is dedicated to fostering learning, creativity, productivity, and community through education. In 2013, we transformed a closed-down Baltimore Rec Center into a Tech Center, where we provide youth-focused technology education programs, work opportunities, and career and college pathways.

PART #15-G: LEFT HAND LATCH ASSEMBLY G

Artist Statement: “At the Digital Harbor Foundation, we’re always excited to get a call from Adam Savage and his team. Word got out quickly and our Print Shop 3D printed the parts in record time.

With time on our hands (a rare thing), we wondered how we could spruce them up. I had a plan. I primed the parts and started sanding. I kept sanding, and then I sanded some more. What gaps I couldn’t reach by hand, I filled with epoxy resin and plastic putty. Still, I sanded.

When the parts were smooth and the deadline was nigh, I primed the parts one last time. I used automotive spray paint to coat them. I like the way it levels, resists chipping and gives objects a metallic look. In a former life, I used to do this exact work for newer NASA models.

While this isn’t the first piece of space hardware I’ve fabricated, it is certainly the coolest. My job had always been to make the parts look pristine, brand new and shiny, but I always wanted to rough them up and make them look the way I imagined space travel and alien terrain would pummel them. I was thrilled to beat these parts up after working so hard to get them smooth. It was cathartic, and it started to feel like an artifact, like the real thing. And when it was all put together, it moved! The entire process filled me with joy.”

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