Hey Efe!

Really nice reflections on "Maker Culture".

There is so much to say - and I only have a few minutes now - but I
would really like to contribute to this critique...

Yes, in the media Maker Culture is completely viewed through the lens of
generating "scalable" startups. But that's not necessarily what Maker
Culture really is! More and more I believe we're beginning to see just
how far away from lived reality mainstream media channels have moved.

Recently I went to visit some friends at the local University Union. Now
when I was a student I was very familiar with this building - it was a
place where me and my friends could buy cheap beer, and get outrageously
drunk! This seemed to be its major purpose - oh, and maybe a place from
which well-intentioned and very serious students would run positive, if
doctrinaire, political campaigns.

But what did I find when I entered the Union? Not hundreds of students
drinking beer! I found that the whole place had been refitted like some
kind of academic version of Starbucks - with coffee lounges (coffee!)
and hipster styles.

And there were young people, doing ballroom dancing! (Yes, and none of
them were drunk!)

And perhaps even more surprising, here were about thirty students, of
both genders, sitting in circles doing crochet and knitting.

Wow. It's like there's been a complete culture-change!

Now the kind of making that they were doing was definitely not "startup
culture". They're not clever "wool hackers" looking to get rich from
their latest knitting app. They're youngsters who have never been shown
how to use their hands at school. They've never done classes in DIY or
cooking. They don't know how to change an electrical plug, or put up a
shelf, or sew on a button.

So all that stuff feels like it's just supercool to them! They're
interested in remaking, reuse, crafting and making in a way that the
mainstream of our generation maybe wasn't. To them it's forbidden
knowledge, underground skills, or prepping for the economic apocalypse.

And maybe they're meeting cool kids while they darn their socks.

So stuff's changed - and it's changing more.

I have now left Access Space (a hundred-and-fifty reasons - but 15 years
is enough) and I'm working on two new maker-related projects.

(1) Lowtech Laser Lab. Following on from the success of my 2014
Kickstarter, I've set up lasers to investigate super-local manufacture.
One of my core questions is whether we really can set up sustainable
local micro-manufacturers. We have a couple of very promising product
lines. (More on this later - maybe in another post).

(2) "Makers". I and my wife Lisa have bought a shop. (Yes, a real-world
shop! On a main street!!) We're looking to make a place where people can
sell things that they make and repair, and can do workshops where they
can meet people who've made the things in the shop, and can have fun
learning how to make their own versions. We plan to open it in May.

In both of these cases, I'm really interested to see whether interesting
results can emerge from activity that's completely self-funding. Can we
REALLY set up a thriving, making, learning, remaking system that isn't
supported by grants?

It's also worth reflecting that this move is pretty much the OPPOSITE of
what market economics pushes you to do. You're encouraged to develop
narrow, but transferable skills, characterise yourself as a
single-purpose worker, and to hop from employer to employer, filling the
short-term requirements of the labour market. We're doing the opposite -
trying to take control of the whole value-chain, all the way from
factory (Laser Lab) through to the moment that a consumer pays for an
item, taking on all of the roles that we need as necessary.

It's also all about relocalisation. We want to see whether we can make a
difference by reconnecting buyers with makers and remakers, buy buying
from local suppliers, and by selling to local people.

This is nano-scale "vertical integration". I'll let you know how it
works out.

Oh, one more thing. We're considering running residencies at the shop
(there is a workshop in the back, with a laser cutter, textile stuff,
electronics goodies, and a bunch of other tools; there's also a flat
above the shop). We're looking to help artists and designers to explore
making and remaking, and to develop salable products, so they can start
to make an income from things that they make, and make their own
practice more sustainable.

If you're interested in this, either individually (you want to come!) or
institutionally (you'd like to be a research partner) let me know.

All the best,

James
=====

On 02/02/15 03:49, Felipe Fonseca wrote:
> Ah, sure. The attachment :P
>
> On 02-02-2015 01:47, Felipe Fonseca wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Happy 2015, everyone! Those of you in the northern hemisphere: relax,
>> winter is already on its way out. My fellow southerners: is summer
>> treating you as well as us?
>>
>> I'm again in Ubatuba after a month in the mountains, almost away from
>> everything. Now there's internet via radio in our hideaway up there, but
>> it is fortunately unreliable - especially when the rain is followed by
>> lightnings.
>>
>> Anyway, I'll spend another period away from Ubatuba as we're expecting a
>> second child due this march (Alejo, I still remember what I learned from
>> you about children once in Genebra - thanks for that!). But next june
>> I'm planning another small edition of Tropixel - working theme is 'open
>> science - small data'. Those of you willing to stop by can already ask
>> me invitation letters and the like.
>>
>> But I send this email looking for comments on a text I've been working
>> on after my residency in Qatar last november. It is about 'repair
>> culture'. You bricos are the first people I'm sending this ever. Sorry
>> in advance for the predictable misspelled words or sentences.
>>
>> Best, hope to ever see all of you here in Ubatuba
>>
>> efe
>>
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>
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