Make, Not Brand:
DIY Making after Big Data

Jentery Sayers | University of Victoria
Maker Lab | English | CSPT
@jenterysayers | @uvicmakerlab

12 June 2014 | ETUG Spring Workshop
Langara College | Vancouver

Outline for Today's Talk

Why Make Things, Now?: A Response to Big Data
Make: The Brand (Some Criticism)
Make: Not the Brand (Some Recent History)
Example Work from the Maker Lab + UVic

Follow Along?

This Slidedeck Is Online
uvicmakerlab.github.io/makenotbrand

Fork or Download It
github.com/uvicmakerlab/makenotbrand

Questions

Why Making, Now, in Post-Secondary Ed?
How Is Making Relevant to Teaching and Learning?
What Is Making Beyond a Brand? Beyond the Hype?

Disclaimer

Given My Background and Current Position at UVic,
Most of This Talk Has a Humanities
Research and Teaching Bias.

For Instance, Most of My Argument Is Likely
Obvious to Arts Practitioners.

So . . . Why Make Things, Now?:
A Response to Big Data

Big Data Relies Heavily on Abstraction

Usage Statistics (e.g., Google Analytics)
Graphs, Maps, Trees (a book by Franco Moretti)
Infographics (e.g., infogr.am)
Social Network Analysis (e.g., Klout)
Quantified Selves (e.g., Chris Dancy)
Attention Economics (e.g., Beller's "Paying Attention")
Computer Vision (e.g., Arnall's Robot Readable World)

Big Data Compresses the
Voluminous into the Communicable

While Maker Cultures Often Build
Situated and Small

Big Data Is Usually Screen-Oriented

While Maker Cultures Focus
on the Physical Mess at Hand

Big Data Invests in Processing Power

While Maker Cultures Invest in
Waste, Demanufacturing, and Reuse

Core Concepts for Understanding
this Tension

Scale (e.g., Micro, Macro, Distant, and Close)
Productivity (e.g., Play, Automation, and "Not Reading")
Materiality (e.g., Software, Platforms, and Bodies)
Modality (e.g., Hands-On, Algorithms, and Scanning)
Rhetoric (e.g., Nowviskie's "What Do Girls Dig?")

In Post-Secondary Education . . .

Big Data Is Often Deemed Scientific or Rigorous
While Making Is Relegated to an Elective or Hobby

Also, Consider the Absence of "Arts" from STEM

Identifying as a "Hobbyist" or "Tinkerer"

According to a Market Study of Selected "Makers,"
Only 10% Self-Identify as "Academic/Educator"

What Are Some Possible Explanations?

Make: The Brand

What Many People Think
When They Hear "Make"

Maker Media

MAKE Magazine
Maker Faire
Maker Shed
Makezine.com

Some Responses and Criticisms

Appeals to Affluent Leisure Time (see Garnet Hertz)

Ignores How Making Is Gendered (see Alison Powell)

Fosters Economic Individualism (see Sadowski + Manson)

Premised on Romantic Withdrawal (see Evgeny Morozov)

Disconnected from Labor History (see Radhika Gajjala)

A Challenge in Post-Secondary Education

How to Integrate Making into Collaborative,
Collective, Cultural, and Self-Reflexive Work?

Or, How to Blend Critical and Immersive Practices?

Make: Not the Brand

Some Recent Examples from DIY Cultures
(Before and After the Make Brands + Big Data)

Handmade Electronic Music

Tech Is Personal/Cultural History (see Tara Rodgers)
Hack Consumer Hardware (see Nicolas Collins)
Work Backwards, Document Change, Bend
Make a Self-Aware How-To
Avoid Instrumentalism and Determinism

Zines and Personal Archives

DIY Publishing Is Collectivist (see QZAP + Fales Library)
Write about the Everyday (see Cometbus)
Ambivalent Relation with Technologies
Immerse, Compose, Reflect, Share
Arrange by Hand, Trade, and Keep Zines Cheap

Not-for-Profit Music Venues

Space Is Made + Value-Laden (see 924 Gilman)
"House Shows" Stress Importance of Place
Events Often Anchored in Pop-Up Infrastructure
Foster Experimentation over Expertise

More Recently . . .

Indie Gaming (see Forest Ambassador)
Ethical Machine Recycling (see Free Geek Vancouver)
Open Source Printing (see Open3DP)

Example Work from
the Maker Lab + UVic

A Makerspace

Collaborative Experimentation and Co-Authoring
Space for Shared Materials and Mess-Making
"Culture First, Technologies a Close Second"
See Hello World! Or Makerspaces: A Journey

"Hello World" Workshops

Friendly Introduction to New Technologies
Free to All Participants
Involves Visiting Speakers
Directly Engages Cultural Questions
In Collaboration with the DHSI
See the "Hello World" project page

Kits for Cultural History

Applied Approach to Media History
Reconstructing Historical Mechanisms
Embedding the Legacy of Kits in Culture
Prompts Self-Reflexivity through Making
See various posts at maker.uvic.ca

Digital Humanities Courses

Open to All Students
Studio- or Lab-Based Approach to the Humanities
Students Build and Test Projects
Integrate Historical and Cultural Materials
See Digital Humanities 250, e.g.

Relevance

Learn through Platforms
Blend Abstraction with Application
Combine Lecture with Workshop Model
Technologies, But Where and Under What Assumptions?
Integrate Immersion + Experimentation into the Humanities

Thank You

Special Thanks to
Leva Lee, Kele Fleming, Tracy Kelly, and Jason Toal

Jentery Sayers | University of Victoria
Maker Lab | English | CSPT
@jenterysayers | @uvicmakerlab

12 June 2014 | ETUG Spring Workshop
Langara College | Vancouver