There’s nothing better than the tactile pleasure of cracking open a gadget and messing with the bits and bobs inside. Nothing, that is, except for making something new and better from the carnage you’ve created. Brooklyn collective NYC Resistor exists for that very purpose. It’s a group of like-minded individuals who get together to, in the words of the group’s co-founder, “make awesome things happen.” From creating their own 3D printer to building bizarre open-source robots to inventing a reverse Ouija board, they’re getting back to the basics of the very idea of hacking.

Our friends at Motherboard visited the group’s Brooklyn workshop to speak with the members about their projects and their reasons for being involved with the group. Overwhelmingly, it seems that the reasons creators have for being part of the collective center around stretching their creative muscles. They’re not in it to get rich or make names for themselves; they just want a place to tinker.

Besides making projects for their own amusement, NYC Resistor hosts workshops and classes, teaching interested parties to hack things like guitars or Chumbies. The collective is still growing, and they continue to get together regularly to tinker, share ideas, and build on the ideas of others. It’s part open source development, park hacking, and part art – and it’s giving a diverse group of creators the chance to dig in and get their hands dirty.