Writing+Theory+EF

__**MEMO: Describing 'X' to Make an Analytical Point**__

__Describing Places to Make an Analytical Point -__ (Makerspace in Downtown Troy, Describing Instructables, Describing PLOTS)

The ‘makerspace,’ physical or non-physical entity is an idea, a wish of the people, transformed into reality. The idea presupposes the space, presupposes the communities in which it will eventually reside and often exists as a non-physical infrastructure before the space is settled, as was the case of the Troy Makerspace. It existed as a dream in the minds of garage tinkerers in Schenectady, an ethereal reality and virtual community that certainly had physical manifestations, but grew and strengthened in the minds of the community. It was a traveling workshop with tools, a bevy of soldering irons ready to be deployed in the act of ‘making,’ in the dissemination of skill-sets and the planting of seeds to germinate grander ideas of creation and fabrication. Yet, as much as the idea of the space was formulated and molded in the minds of the community, so too did the conception of ‘makerspace’ modify the eventually physically stable space that they imagined in their mind’s eye, that they began to build and establish. Soldering irons and 3-D printers; laser-cutters and CNC routers; multi-meters and drill-presses; a lather. These were all essential components for the constitution of what could be called a ‘makerspace’ and this idea of what it could and must be in turn transformed what the people wanted, what they perceived as possible, what they even understood as ‘makerspace.’ What about a sewing machine? Needles and thread? These tools also transform materials in a useful manner that one needs for e-textile work, for the manipulation of materials to realize an idea, a creative endeavor. Yet, it is not what ‘makerspaces’ are typically about, thus the sewing machine gets overlooked and forgotten as the ideal of what it might shapes the space that human agency brings into fruition.

__Describing Practice to Make an Analytical Point__ (soldering, using a lathe – cutting away of material & turning the piece of metal)

The act of ‘making,’ the moment of praxis within these spaces of skill-sharing is an important moment. Specifically through soldering, the joining together of disparate pieces of materials and components to create a working piece, a working material with agential potential that brings to life the idea that rested latent in the mind of an individual or group of people. The practice of soldering is a practiced craft. It is one of the first things to learn in the act of ‘making’ in terms of electrical and circuitry work, although it can also in other ‘making’ capacities for joining two pieces of metal together. The solder itself is malleable, but it also guides or informs the soldering individuals’ hands, the placement of the soldering iron. The individual is acting upon the soldering iron, solder, and disjointed metals, but at the same time, these multiple pieces are affecting and informing the way they accomplish the task and the efficacy of the practice. The agency of the material and the agency of the person work together to form the practice, to form the effort transformed into what Pickering might call ‘tuning,’ the agential dance of material and human objects, the back-and-forth pull of one entity against the other in a constant transfiguration of object and self. There are resistances within each entity and accommodations that must be made as the solder resists a person’s handling of the iron, as the material speaks to the movement and the action that must be done by an individual. This praxis, this moment of ‘tuning’ is also how one might view makerspaces and society, makerspaces and the communities in which they reside.

__Describing Events to Make an Analytical Point:__

Obsolete technologies, broken new ones, and half demolished hardware lay strewn about a few long tables. Screw-drivers are taken up and distributed, not many questions are asked, and if someone happens to ask the vague question 'what do I do?' the answer is ‘just take it apart.’ There is no concrete, instructional guide for how to go about taking these items apart, or for what innards will actually be of help. Luckily, I have done a bit of this so I am not completely lost, but there are moments when I look unendingly and hopelessly at the CD-ROM drive in my hand before finally giving up and asking for some help. When I do someone is happy to help show me what to do next, how to pop out the mechanism and get to the motor, and now I will know for next time. There is a definitely a culture of ‘figure it out for yourself!’ and try what you can before asking a question – although maybe that’s my own stubborn will.

This is the experience of a ‘Junk-jam,’ where members new and old gather to extract and salvage component parts for new use from obsolete, donated, or on the verge of garbage electronic hardware. Light chatter continues over the communal act and there is a sense of camaraderie, a happy hum of working together and accomplishing a task that will help the overall community of the space in the long run. This event, much like the act of soldering, entails some of the key components of hacker and maker communities. It demonstrates how through individual effort they can work together to keep the community going – without each person taking part, the task will not get done, the community will not have component parts. The ‘maker/hackerspace’ itself needs the group, the contribution of the community to survive – if it is built along on individual needs and self-centered mentalities, it will cease to exist.

__Describing People, to Make an Analytical Point:__

The position of the ‘hacker’ and/or ‘maker’ is often confused. They hope and dream of community, of a skill-sharing space where they might co-create and find a community of like-minded individuals. This mindset also ties into an anti-authoritarian and often anti-capitalist ethos structured on a grassroots, from the bottom up approach. But there is another bent to these people and to the more current rhetoric of ‘making’ as well. This other, yet deeply connected, side of the coin is focused on the individual, very often on the individual as innovator, as entrepreneur, as ‘maker’ tinkering and accomplishing outside of the system. Yet, the ‘maker’ or ‘hacker’ cannot survive without the community, without the other individuals to show their accomplishments to or to bounce ideas off of. The structure of the community informs the ‘maker’ or ‘hacker,’ and without it they may not have the skills, may not have the tools, may not have the full capacity to tinker and innovate toward an entrepreneurial or subversive goal. This often gets overlooked in today’s rhetoric around making that calls specific individuals of the maker movement as the ‘inventors of our time.’ What about the movement itself as a hive-minded individual, a collective group that culminates in creations and actions?