For kids ages 8–14 with an adult
Offered Wednesday, July 20 – 1-3 pm
Thursday, July 21 – 1-3 pm and 4-6 pm

Join us for a hands-on workshop for parents, children and teens where participants will learn to break into a car, hotwire it, and escape from its trunk.

For most kids (and adults), modern cars are simply these gleaming, aggressive-faced jellybeans that house air-conditioning units and MP3 players while they idle in traffic. But underneath their shiny surface lurks all manner of exciting machinery that needs some demystification. That’s where we come in. In this class, we’ll focus on a few key aspects of cars while learning a bit about the physics and mechanics behind how it all works. This is a hands-on workshop, with an actual car to break in and out of. Taught by car historian and inventor Jason Torchinsky, who has already successfully guided at least six children in Los Angeles towards future grand theft auto. Pre-registration required; call 612.375.5812.

Jason Torchinsky is mostly an artist and writer based in Los Angeles. Jason has built a functional, 15x-scale Atari joystick, a hoax Kyrgyz arcade machine, and several kinetic sculptures that have been exhibited at LACMA and The Hammer Museum. Jason writes ideas for the Onion News Network and is the author of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor’s Guide to American Consumer Culture. Jason has worked with Machine Project for years, giving talks and teaching classes, usually about odd mechanical things and the loons that made them. To fund his lavish, decadent lifestyle, he teaches design at the School for Visual Arts and Humanities to sullen, apathetic teens.