The Maker Movement
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The document discusses the rise of the DIY movement as a response to mass consumerism and the desire for authenticity and self-sufficiency. It highlights how individuals, including celebrities, embrace crafting and self-production, from making beer to handcrafting chocolate, as a means to connect with the origins of their products. This shift reflects a broader cultural trend towards valuing unique, handmade goods over processed items and seeking deeper, more meaningful experiences amidst rapid technological changes.
The Maker Movement
- 1. Kuliza Do you remember the heavy metal band Anthrax? The lead guitarist Dan Spitz left in 1995 because he was “severely disinterested in playing the guitar”. He is now a watchmaker, and claims that it is an unending skill to learn. Antonio Banderas, Sir Cliff Richard, and Sting all make their own wine. Even US President Obama makes his own beer, the Whitehouse Brew. Well, he instructs and pays for it at the least. There are plenty of regular people who grow fruits and vegetables on their own, raise chickens, and keep their own bees. Others are buying them from farmers’ markets instead of supermarkets. Some have even made it their business: The Mast Brothers craft delicate chocolate by hand and Makers and Brothers sell beautifully designed objects for everyday use. Even education is becoming DIY. Online websites such as Coursera, Duo-Lingo, Khan Academy, and Audacity offer free courses. ‘Classes’ are online videos or multiple-choice questions. Discussions, tests, and assessments ensue. Certificates are sometimes awarded; other learning happens for the purpose of learning itself. Mike Doherty, in his article, ‘The Story Behind the Stuff: Consumers’ Growing Interest in ‘Real’ Products’, says “There is a powerful urge to get in touch with what they believe is a more ‘real’ world, and it’s leading us to a place where signs of realness take on greater value”. He thinks that this movement is bigger and more lasting than the usual trend and counter-trend shifts that we see. He also mentions Melanie Howard’s Future Foundation reports that indicate that many consumers are also seeking the “simplification of complexity which is about the urge people feel to get in touch with what they believe to be a more real world.” Doherty gives the example of Icebreaker Merino Garments that come with a ‘baacode’ Communities The Maker Movement The DIY movement has come to encompass broader skill sets, defining a whole new philosophy and appreciation of self-sustaining forms of living. by Payal Shah
- 2. Social Technology Quarterly 06 to allow customers to trace the merino wool in their garment back to its source in New Zealand. Customers can see how the sheep live, read about their growers, and follow production through to the finished garment. Similarly, wooden cutting boards from Banbury are proving very popular in Ireland. Each cutting board has a number that customers can enter into the website to get a full history of the tree that the cutting board is made from, where it grew, what the environment was, and how many other cutting boards were made out of the same tree. We live in a world of the instant. There is more ready-made, processed food in our supermarkets than fresh food. Fresh food takes work. Factories do that work for us; from coffee to pre-cooked vegetables, almost anything can be bought ready-to- consume. In the 1960s, everything started becoming instant. Women were slowly starting to enter workplaces and this left them with less time to spend on planning and doing household chores and cooking. Time became scarce. This meant that the easier and less time consuming something was, the better. Thus began the advent of instant food. But in a world of manufactured clones and standardisation, quirky, handmade and exclusive is good. Slowly, instead of just accepting ready things, we take the time to understand where things come from and how they become what they are. The DIY movement is an adverse reaction to the instant movement, a sort of a reverse consumerism. People have become tired of buying the same old mass produced goods manufactured by corporates giants. The movement started small in the early 1980s in England, influenced by the DIY philosophy of the punk movement. Its popularity rose in response to economic downturns, such as during the early 1990s. The volatile economy of the subprime crisis has accelerated the movement by urging, if not forcing, people into being more frugal and self-sustaining. It also acts as a rejection of the mass- consumption of the boom years in the 2000s. People have become more interested in how to do things themselves, understand where Top: Mast Brothers Chocolate Above: Merino Garments
- 3. Kuliza food and materials come from, their impact on the planet, and produce products to a higher quality than large conglomerates do, even if it is at a smaller scale. They end up being better designed, unique, and more personal. People are unmistakably innovating and evolving personally with the thought: “if I do it, I will do it better”. Is it a small attempt to control our lives and the exact way we want them, and not controlled by consumerism. People take pride in understanding how products work, crafting them from scratch, and knowing that their development is under their control, even though there is so much else in life that is out of their control. This is a shift to a more holistic lifestyle that provides some meaning. Doherty opines that gardening and knitting, as holistic activities, have been on the rise for the last ten years. People are seeking to create deeper and more meaningful experiences. This is why both online and offline communities like Brooklyn Brainery, Kick Table (which has unfortunately closed down) and Maker Faires work so well. The image is almost that of reverse avant-gardism, yet is still avant-garde. It is a dynamic culture that is going back to basics, minimalism, and self-sufficiency. “Right now, we all crave authenticity” says Kurt Andersen in his article ‘You Say you want a Devolution?’ in Vanity Fair. He talks about how few things have changed in the last 20 years - clothes, music, T.V. shows, architecture, hair styles. Everything has not evolved as it did decade after decade before the 1980s. He believes this is happening as an “unconscious collective reaction to all the profound nonstop newness we’re experiencing on the tech and geopolitical and economic fronts.” As the world moves technologically forward at lightening speeds and deals with changes of all kinds, we cling as hard as we can to familiar things so we have control over something. References Andersen, Kurt. “You Say You Want a Devolution?.”Vanity Fair.Jan 2012. Doherty, Mike. “The Story Behind The Stuff: Consumers’ Growing Interest In “Real” Products.” Fast Company.18 Oct2012. Farrier, John.“The Lead Guitarist for Anthrax Is Now a MasterWatchmaker.” Neatorama. 07 Sep 2012. Kass, Sam. “Ale to the Chief: White House Beer Recipe.” The White House Blog. The White House,01 Sep 2012. Wright, John. “Barack Obama’s beer: White House to brew house.”Word of Mouth Blog. The Guardian,24 Sep 2012. “Cheers! Celebs Who Make Their Own Wine!.” Posh24. N.p., 09 2011. Web. 20 Oct 2012.
- 4. Social Technology Quarterly 06 Right:‘I think therefore I am’ by Barbera Kruger