Crown Heights artist in finals of Ford automotive maker contest

One Brooklyn maker is in the hunt to win a national contest that will enable him to makeover a Ford Transit Connect and turn it into an engine for STEM education. Ben Light is a Crown Heights artist who has made it to the finals for the Make: Ultimate Vehicle Challenge.

Vote for Light’s project here.

The challenge was to come up with a design for a Ford Transit Connect to use for civilian applications that show the maker spirit. Winners will get a considerable redesign budget to customize a Ford Transit Connect and put it to some sort of maker good.

Rendering of a Ford Transit Connect.

Light’s idea emerged from a project he had already undertaken with his nephew. He started building robots from coffee cans and giving them a really tactile, attractive look, using powder coating like classic toys. The first night he gave one to his nephew, he took it to bed with him.

The plan was for the robot to work but to also eventually break down, too, as toys do. Light, trained as a mechanical engineer before moving into art, wanted it to break so that he could show his nephew that things that can be broken can also be fixed. In fact, it became a game the two played called “Robot Hospital.”

When the opportunity to apply for the latest Make challenge arose, he decided to scale the idea into a mobile center where he could both show kids how to make robots and how to repair them.

Putting the concept into a Transit Connect made “Robot Hospital” into “Robot Ambulance” — a vehicle that could visit schools and show kids the fun and useful spirit of mechanics. He may be onto something. We’ve already seen that kids are compelled enough by robots that another engineer has built a successful business out of the same program.

See Light’s pitch video here:

Here are a couple photos of Light’s Crown Heights workspace. Rosenthal is one of the artists working from the same space as Michelle Temple, co-creator of W EAR. Both of them went to NYU-ITP.

Light’s workbench

Shared tool space, right as you come into the group studio.