Hey Efe!

I just had a visit from your friend Pixel! He stayed with us for a few
days and found out all about Makers, and he helped us put up our
workshops banner!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGZNLV1GFAq/

I like the idea of "Transform" as a word - because it suggests not just
transforming matter, but transforming the people engaged in that
process, transforming activities and practices nearby the lab, and
transforming communities and economies around the lab.

Of course, "Transformers" suggest electricity, "Robots in Disguise" and,
of course, play.

The only problem with the word in the UK is that the word
"Transformation" has been over-used by politicians. It has become a
substitute for the word "change" which has become the euphemistic way
they describe "budget cuts" and "failure". "An industrial
transformation" now means "This factory is closing, you're all fired!".

But despite that, I still think it's a good word!

Cheers!

James

P.S. Did you spot my previous posting, "Partners for Making Research"
(pasted below)? I got NO RESPONSE AT ALL from this list - which suggests
that there aren't many people paying attention any more, (or I'm just
saying boring stuff).

=====
Hi Bricos,

Hope you are well!

As you may have heard, I left Access Space at the start of 2015 to start
a new venture. Access Space is still operating, but I'm resisting the
ever-present temptation to get involved - the last thing that the rest
of the team need is me making suggestions!

The new thing that I've started up is "Makers" - a variation on
makerspace design that brings together digital manufacturing, crafts and
upcycling in a high-street shop. The idea is to find a route to support
superlocal manufacture and remanufacture, arts and experimentation, that
is genuinely open, not a membership club, and that makes sense as a
commercial venture - creating a fabulous place to visit at the same time!

The shop has now been open for seven months - and early indications
suggest that the model is slowly starting to work. Each week we sell
stuff that local people have made and remade, run workshops including
sewing, crochet, felting, lasercutting, woodwork, mosaics and more, plus
we also provide 1:1 digital manufacturing support - helping people to
develop and produce new lasercut products and bespoke items.

This is partly to answer questions about digital manufacture. Right now,
the dialogue around lasercutting, 3D print, etc. sounds very like the
dialog there was when the web started to grow: "This is going to
relocalise skills and jobs! It'll create a whole, new, low energy,
locally autonomous, community-based utopia!" But what did we end up with
that time? The supercentralism of Facebook, Google, Amazon, GCHQ and the
NSA... and 6% of the world's energy consumption powering data centres.

Maker technologies have the potential BOTH to decentralise, AND to
centralise... And if we don't research how they can act to do the
former, then they will end up stripping making and doing out of
communities, and centralising even more than technology has before.

For us there are currently three big areas of interest: nanoenterprise,
weddings and wargames. Some of our makers are creating their own craft
products for sale; others want personalised, bespoke items for weddings
and special events; other people want scenery for wargames and model
trains. It's the SPECIFICITY of each of these activities which is
interesting, and that gives potential for nanoenterprises - which can be
local or global. For years everyone touched by digital tech has been
thinking about how to scale UP - how to devise a product or service
that's "the next big thing". Internet of Things is all about ubiquity.
Makers is starting to think about how to scale DOWN - making unique
products that maybe only a handful of people in the world want.

So, bearing all this in mind, I am seeking academics and researchers to
work with.

At Makers we are planning a residency programme. We have a space above
the shop which could become a space for visiting makers, crafters,
artists and researchers to come and develop their practice and share
creative ideas. We plan not just to provide the practical making
support, but also to help visitors to think about whether and how their
practice is sustainable, by making things that people want to buy. By
having a retail environment 3 metres away from the workshop, it's easy
to bring new products into the shop and test the market.

So, if this sounds of interest (and particularly if you have practical
ideas about how to resource this programme) then please, get in touch!

Oh... And I'd better leave you with some links:

* Makers: http://makersontheedge.com
* Facebook: http://facebook.com/makersontheedge
* Twitter, Instagram: @makers555

Hope to hear from you soon!

Cheers!

James
=====
=====

On 21/06/16 17:06, Felipe Fonseca wrote:
> (sorry if this email arrives twice - it seems I was not subscribed to
> the brico mailing list anymore - go figure)
>
> Heyall,
>
> Gathering spiderwebs this mailing list, isn't it?
>
> On the other hand, brico-themes are as relevant as ever. I thought
> often about you people recently. I'll allow myself to report on recent
> developments here... And I'd love to know what you're up to these days.
>
> A couple months ago I decided to write to some people in Brazil, most
> of them dedicated metarecicleirxs. Some of them are reading this
> email, BTW. I missed working more closely with those people, and
> thought we needed to articulate something anew. It wasn't
> MetaReciclagem anymore (to my account it is dead since 2012), but I
> had no idea what it should be. A general feeling was that expressed on
> this article: https://www.academia.edu/20808625/Gambiarra_Repair_Culture
>
> Some weeks on, I went to sleep wondering how we should call that new
> configuration. Later that night, while feeding the baby, a name came
> to mind. I wrote it down and went to sleep again. Next day I found it
> was nothing new: transformatório. In fact, I had read in this very
> mailing list about Fred's Trasformatorio in Italy. And naturally,
> Transformaking in Indonesia was naturally an influence. Anyway, it
> seemed to make sense around here (and I wrote Fred to feel what he
> thought of having the name he came up with being used by some people
> in Brazil ;)). Transforming matter seemed to make more sense than
> either "making" or "repairing".
>
> Anyway, this week we'll have the first meeting of Brazilian
> Transformatórios, as part of an event in Santos called Lab.irinto. I'm
> also about to release (with Carol, my wife - a designer and jeweler) a
> crowdfunding campaign for "TransforMatéria", a conceptual/critical
> project on those subjects. And if everything goes well I'll be
> spending about three weeks in Nantes, invited by Julien Bellanger and
> PiNG, also orbiting the same themes. The idea is to gather ideas to
> set up a Transformatório in Ubatuba in the coming years. I'm honestly
> more interested in how we can find ways to work together with
> craftsmen and repairmen by establishing a relationship of true
> interchange... but I still wonder how those ideas resonate on brico-list.
>
> All the best, miss you all
>
> efe
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