Abstract_EF_2


 * Abstract MEMO - **Part Deux

 The aim of this project is to explore sites of public scientific engagement, focusing on the changing imaginaries of technological empowerment that occur in Maker culture and Citizen Science groups. It looks at current trends of 'Maker' culture insurgence, which focuses on the physical act of innovation and making technology and artifacts on a individual and grassroots level, while considering the future possibilities for public involvement and technological citizen inquiry, possibly through more reflexive, critical-making practices. Here, 'Technological Citizenship' is defined on Frankenfeld's terms of rights and obligations, but also involves not just policy intervention, but physical praxis of technological innovation as well. I will examine these issues through workshops, interviews and participant observations at various sites including local Makerspaces, communal spaces for tool and skill-sharing, and online communities. I will also engage in discursive analysis of these spaces and public engagement venues such as science museums, online journals, and online citizen science resources. This study examines the intent behind different makerspaces and skill-sharing communities, while demonstrating whether there is room within present Maker culture to create a more technological citizenship, thus further involving the public in scientific decision-making and local innovation. These issues are relevant as technology becomes more ubiquitous in communication mediation and the accomplishment of menial tasks -- it is quite prevalent in our day-to-day lives and there are interesting cultures taking shape around these practices that further shape the technology. Also, what are the implications of some of these communities as digital, online entities focused on creating physical objects? Do spatial settings versus virtual settings make any difference and how might they in terms of embodiment? Maker culture and DIY workshops have now overtaken spaces such as libraries, museums and high schools, but often through funding by DARPA and larger corporations -- a stark contrast to their traditionally grassroots foundations. What are the implications of such funding sources for the intention behind Makerspaces and in this situation, who is exploiting who? How might large-scale funding give maker and hackerspaces a more prominent role in innovation on a global economic scale, and could these energies be focused on local issues and that of building a stronger technological citizenship?