# What is EMF? EMF Camp is an event for makers, tinkerers, and anyone who is passionate about creating things. It runs every 2 years in Eastnor Deer Park here in the UK. This year it's running from Thurs 30th May to Monday 3rd June. ## Thursday 30th Thursday was arrival day! The weekend doesn't officially begin until Friday but there are some events and as the gates are open from 10am it's the perfect day to get set up with your tent, meet your friends, and chill out a little. Especially when the "Robot Arms" pub tent opens. ![[CleanShot 2024-05-30 at [email protected]]] Today was mainly spent doing three things: - Putting up tents (and bodging together a flag pole) with Hackspace friends - Putting in a couple of shifts in the badge tent to help get things ready for people to pick it up tomorrow - Watching the [1984 Dune film](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/614-dune-1984), which is so amazingly awful it's actually perfect ![[CleanShot 2024-05-30 at [email protected]]] Helping out in Badge tent! ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] The Blue skies are a welcome gift. ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] Do not fear Dune(1984), fear is the mind killer. ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] EMF Really comes alive at night! ## Friday 31st The first day of EMF-proper. Most things kicked off with the [opening ceremonies](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/550-opening-ceremony). Jonty once again taking centre stage to welcome everyone and give the story of how this year's festival came to be. The festival really is a testament to the passion and undying spirit of so many people who give their time and expertise, as well as a very passionate community of makers, hackers, and beautiful nerds who shower it with love and support. ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] Jonty on the main stage. ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] A personal favourite slide, a running tally in the crew tent of the victims of THE MUD. Talk highlights today included: - [Run your own Fucking Infrastructure](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/24-run-your-own-fucking-infrastructure-2024-edition) - by [Elmar mc.fly Lecher](https://github.com/mcfly) - Why it's a great idea to roll your own services - [Remote controlled Chaos Cart - How to motorise trash](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/421-remote-controlled-chaos-cart-how-to-motorise-trash) - Some fellow Hackspace friends took a shopping trolley and some motors from a hoverboard and made an amazingly beautiful unholy abomination, it even has car horns and a PA system - [The XZ backdoor - what, why, and how?](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/409-the-xz-backdoor-what-why-and-how) - By Matthew Garrett - An eye opening talk on the history of how the ZX backdoor came to be and the unique methods it used ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] Chaos Cart!! Then, in the afternoon the badges were available! Look at this beautiful thing: ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] The firmware is a moving target still, as some amazingly talent people type away furiously in IDEs. But the device itself is just gorgeous. Then the evening came around and... the [29th Anniversary screening of Hackers! ](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/656-hackers-introduction-with-iain-softley)Including an introduction and Q&A with the director... ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] Hack the Planet! I didn't get any pictures inside but Null Sector (the on site art installation and nightclub) was open tonight and is gorgeous. It's where all the lights into the sky, in earlier photos, originate from. I did manage to get a cool photo of the tesla coil situated just outside though: ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] ## Sat 1st This morning was an early start for me as I was lucky enough to get a slot in one of the [blacksmithing workshops](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/696-blacksmithing-1-5-hr-slots-throughout-the-day-fully-booked)! ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] Clang Clang Clang! ![[CleanShot 2024-06-01 at [email protected]]] It may not look like much but this is the piece I made while learning a few basic techniques, it was a really fun experience. After that I had a day of interesting talks to look forward to, highlights today (not with their official names, I'm going by scribbles in my notebook here, I'll go back and update them and link to video recordings where available then) were: - [Connecting Arduinos to websites: A sequence of chaotic live demos](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/173-connecting-arduinos-to-websites) - By George Cave - Including some awesome live demos on stage, one with audience participation that let people wirelessly DING bells on stage, beautiful chaos - [Gas boilers suck! Hack yours today, save money, save the planet!](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/161-gas-boilers-suck-hack-yours-today-save-money-save-the-planet) - By Lee V - a really interesting talk about making heating your house with your boiler as efficient as it can be and drilling down into the data to show the effects - [Digital Skeleton Keys - We’ve got a bone to pick with offline Access Control Systems](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/80-digital-skeleton-keys-we-ve-got-a-bone-to-pick) - A great talk through of how security researchers broke down the very lax security of an offline RDIF entry system and exploited it completely ![[CleanShot 2024-06-02 at [email protected]]] After all these I retired to the bar and had some lovely chats to people there. I helped a few people assemble and flash their badges, chatted with a few more. All in all this is where EMF shines, the community of people who attend are all so amazingly open, friendly, and genuinely interested in sharing their passions. I feel so content around people like this. In the evening I had signed up for a volunteer shift in the Null Sector, but alas this was cancelled due to the installations being a lot more reliable than they had anticipated. Instead I had a lovely evening hanging out at the Hackspace Village before an attempt at an early ish night after getting up very early for blacksmithing. This is where I have a brief aside with a recommendation for any future EMF attendees. If you do not enjoy staying up until 2am each night, and cannot sleep in close proximity to what is essentially a night club, then do not have your tent at the Null Sector end of the field. We aren't even that far down (being near ish to Stage B) but the noise basically means that any sleep before 2am is strained at best. I'm not complaining at the noise by any stretch here, it's amazing and so many people are having a LOT of fun. But nightclubbing has never been my scene and I do wish I'd have convinced the Hackspace to nudge the village back up the field a bit. ## Sunday 2nd The last day-proper of the festival! I will be very sad for it all to end. Today is another talk heavy day for me, taking in a few before the Closing Ceremony. - [From Makerspace to Outer Space](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/129-from-makerspace-to-outer-space) - By Neil Monteiro - A great talk about how the skills you can learn and evidence from participation in your local hackspace or makerspace can lead to jobs in the space industry - [I FOI'd every NHS board in England on autism assessment provision: here's how it went](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/325-i-foid-every-nhs-board-in-england-on-autism-assessment) - By Georgia Harper - Looking at FOI request data on Autism provision in the UK, showing just how far we have to go - [An Engineer's Guide to Parenthood](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/60-an-engineer-s-guide-to-parenthood) - By Ella Barrington - A lovely talk about becoming a parent and how it moves your life in a Newtonian manner ![[CleanShot 2024-06-02 at [email protected]]] ![[CleanShot 2024-06-02 at [email protected]]] - [Badge Talk](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/449-badge-talk) - By The Badge Team - (not including me, while I have technically been a part of badge team this year, designing the 3d printable case for the badge, the real amazing work was done by the awesome people on stage) - A lovely walk through of the process of designing and manufacturing the badge for this year's event - [Surface mount electronics assembly for terrified beginners](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/663-surface-mount-electronics-assembly-for-terrified-beginners) - By Kliment - Last EMF I took Kliment's workshop on how to do basic soldering as it was something I'd always wanted to learn but never had the time, this time I wanted to up my game and learn some surface mounting! Fab workshop! - [Infrastructure Review](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/552-infrastructure-review) - Some amazing insights from across the board of the EMF Infrastructure team as to how an event in a field comes together - [Closing Ceremony](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/551-closing-ceremony) - It doesn't feel like more than ten minutes since the opening ceremony but the time had come for Jonty to wrap things up ![[CleanShot 2024-06-10 at 13.28.52.png]] Surface mounting! ![[CleanShot 2024-06-10 at 13.29.30.png]] We were so lucky with the weather, espicially given the onslaught of rain the week before. After a wonderful day, and a wonderful event I drew the night into a close with another film. ![[CleanShot 2024-06-10 at 13.33.22.png]] This time [Silent Running](https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/620-silent-running) (1972). I hadn't seen it before and, well it's an odd one. I actually adore some of the designs and the basic premise but the pacing makes it drag even if there are amazingly adorable robots. I actually think this could do really well if revived and given a few rounds of script treatments. ## Monday 3rd Monday is packing up day, for which I took exactly zero pictures. Suffice to say it was a chilled time to say goodbye to friends, figure out how the heck tents fit in bags that seem physically too small for them now, and to bid farewell to the site. So, to make up for the lack of taredown photos here are a few more random photos from the whole event: Null Sector: ![[CleanShot 2024-06-10 at 13.33.48.png]] ![[CleanShot 2024-06-10 at 13.34.04.png]] Random Cool Photos: ![[CleanShot 2024-06-10 at 13.35.08.png]] ![[CleanShot 2024-06-10 at 13.35.43.png]] ![[CleanShot 2024-06-10 at 13.36.03.png]] ![[CleanShot 2024-06-10 at 13.36.34.png]] ![[DD0BBAE5-3E8D-4596-95D0-4C16302DA315_1_105_c.jpeg]] ![[CleanShot 2024-06-10 at 13.37.25.png]] ![[1A2DFE32-0AA7-4318-A171-5030103F1A90_1_105_c.jpeg]] This year's event was amazing and it's a huge credit to all the amazing volunteers who put so much hard work in. Here's to 2026! -42