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It's part underground art, part secret society, and kind of ... strange. Walk into Milwaukee Makerspace and you're guaranteed to see something new.
Inside a massive Bay View warehouse, its 65 members are constantly at work. They call themselves "makers," and they create art, electronics, robots, sculptures -- anything you can imagine.
"Really the common thread is you like to make something. And all of our equipment here is all member-donated. It's actually leased to the space, so it's all owned by the members," said Jason Gessner, Vice President and Treasurer.
From woodworking and welding, to sodering and laser cutting, there's a tool for nearly every project. The diverse pool of members brings experts from a variety of fields, and the projects are just as diverse as the people who make them.
During my visit, I crawled into an full-immersion acoustic chamber, saw a colorful visualization of the magnetic data stored on credit cards, watched a modified Power Wheels pop wheelies, and learned how to play the cacophonator.
Interested? To see it for yourself, you can drop on on Tuesday and Thursday nights after 7 p.m.
For directions, visit the official Makerspace Website.