Mark Wrigley

Mark Wrigley is an active member of the Sheffield makers community. A semi-retired Physicist and creator of 'PiKon' - a 3D printed, Raspberry Pi powered 'astrocam' link', the first 3D printed telescope (cool!) A master of open source and keen advocate of disruptive technologies, Mark will be joining us to talk about the 'Magic of Serendipity': How connections and disruptive technologies keep us lucky, learning, innovating and making.

Practising as he preaches, the PiKon project uses disruptive technologies Raspberry Pi link X 3D Printing (together with Sheffield's We Do 3D Printing) link and has been developed using open source programme Free CAD link. It involves collaborators such as Sheffield's own Pibow creators Pimoroni link , hardware development platform Wevolver link and funding from crowdfunding site Indigoo link and University of Sheffield's superb Festival of the Mind link. Pretty fantastic.

Mark Wrigley graduated in physics in the 1970s in the days when 'coding came on punch cards and pocket calculators were an expensive luxury'. After a long and varied physics career spanning UK, China and the USA he is now Physicist in residence at Bank Street Arts link exploring the concept of physics-as-culture. To show how physics is as much at home in a gallery or arts setting as in a laboratory with similar creative processes involved in both science and the arts. Mark is also a councillor and outreach champion at the Institute of Physics link, runs his own company Alternative-Photonics link, which works to democratise science and technology. Oh, and he is also founding a makers science fair for Sheffield later this year celebrating the magic and wonder of science and creating.

A bit unstoppable really, just how we like 'em. Get your creative geek on. Hear some inspirational stories from Mark over a Steam Yard coffee down at the exciting new home of the Sheffield Institute of Arts. Magic.