rabble.ca - Maker Culture

Episode Eleven - What's Next for makerculture?

Wayne MacPhail — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:31:25 -0400

Issues and What's Next Podcast Show Notes

Hosted by Colin Schultz and Julianne Hazlewood

Produced by Savithri Sastri, Colin Schultz, Mark Melnychuk, and Julianne Hazlewood.

Total running time: 19:53

Introduction to the Issues and What's Next Episode (0-2:57) Duration: 2:57

• Excerpt from Cory Doctorow's Makers

• Mash up of interviews with makers at Doctorow's book launch in Toronto.

MakerCulture: What's the new world order?

Cathryn Atkinson — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:23:40 -0400

So what is maker motivation?

MakerCulture: Edupunks of the world unite!

Cathryn Atkinson — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:43:18 -0400

One night in 2008 at a Brooklyn bar, a drunk Jim Groom coined a term that has changed the way the world looks at education.

The word is EduPunk and it sums up the need for educational reform -- reform that, to some extent, has already begun.

Ordinary people are taking their education into their own hands. Using Web 2.0 tools they have a world of knowledge. And classrooms, lectures, and curriculums are changing, dramatically.

Episode Ten - EduPunks

Wayne MacPhail — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:49:56 -0400

We may be the last generation to attend traditional schools. Classrooms are becoming more reliant on technology and ordinary people are starting to take education into their own hands.

#102 - Olympics and epic struggles

meagan perry — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:34:08 -0400

In this podcast: talking election violence in Manila, a little more Olympic activism, fish farming on vacant city land in Toronto. We also bring you the music of Caracol and Alejandra Ribera, and you could find out who has called 360-566-2214 to tell rabble radio just what they think of us!

MakerCulture: Playing with our food

Cathryn Atkinson — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:17:36 -0500

It's an unusual Friday night at Grinder, a small coffee shop in Toronto. There is an alien in someone's cup, hearts in another and someone else sees their face in their mug.

What's even stranger is how local artists replaced paintbrushes and pencils with milk and cinnamon powder. The cause of this madness is an event called "Medium: Coffee Live Latte Art for Non-Latte Artists."

What these five artists did is part of the MakerCulture movement, the idea of taking things into your own hands, and producing new objects.

"It was different," says Abra Dolman, a participating artist. "I can't say I've ever used coffee, espresso, or milk as a medium before."

Episode Nine -- Playing with our food

Wayne MacPhail — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:59:08 -0400

In this episode, we really get to play with our food. What does MakerCulture have to do with food and how do chefs, artists, farmers and everyday people

interact with their own food? We try to pin point why so many makers have decided to turn to self-reliance and creativity when it comes to their food, rather

than just eating it.

Feature Interviews:

David Berg, artist participant of the Medium: Coffee, Latte Art for Non-Latte Artists event

Meredith Alex, fashion designer who uses food

Chef Don Kumarasinghe, a chef and Olympian fruit carver

John Sinopoli, executive chef at Toronto's "Table 17"

Joseph Watters, executive chef at Taste Restuarant

MakerCulture: Building communities through culture

Cathryn Atkinson — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:50:18 -0500

Last year, Linda Brown, a leathercrafter who specializes in the fine braiding and fancy knotting of kangaroo leather lace, left her home in Sooke, British Columbia, for Thailand. While she was there, she was working on some zipper knot pulls on the beach. "I'm not a wealthy person," said Brown. "I like to get away, but when I get away I have to work." Nearby beach vendors were all curious to know what she was doing, and soon after, she was teaching 20 people how to make zipper pull knots. "What a wonderful experience to share that with people in another country," said Brown. "It gives you so much joy, not just in making the product, but the joy of the kind of people you get to meet as a result of it."

Episode Eight - Makers close to home

Wayne MacPhail — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:40:10 -0500

Show Notes

Hosted and Produced by:

MakerCulture: Dr. Everyman

Cathryn Atkinson — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:12:51 -0500

Folding proteins at home

When his wife was diagnosed with a hereditary disease, Peter Johnson* wanted to help her. Using a program called Folding @ Home, he found a way to make a difference -- by doing genetic research on his home computer.

"I remember just going into a fix-it mode like most people do," he said." You try to look for things you can do to contribute or to help in some way. I couldn't throw money at the problem, so I thought I'd look at this, see what it does."

Episode Seven - Dr. Everyman

Wayne MacPhail — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:37:10 -0500

Show Notes:

Care about Alzheimer's research? Think you might be able to pick out a new constellation on a clear night? Have an answer to a math problem that is leaving researchers scratching their heads? Step right up, Dr. Everyman.

Maker Culture: Home-brewed media tastes sweet

Cathryn Atkinson — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:09:03 -0500

Literary Mash-ups
By Daniela DiStefano

What do you get when you cross 19th-century English literature with 21st-century biological monstrosities and ultraviolent sea serpents? You get something like Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters -- the latest in literary mash-ups.

Mash-ups are older than as Jane Austen herself. Although the formats vary -- music, film, literature, and art -- the process is mainly the same. Elements of different source materials, whether a classic novel or a widely recognized play, are mixed together to create a new composition.

Episode Six - MEdia

Wayne MacPhail — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:50:01 -0500

Produced By:

Episode Five - Political Change Makers

Wayne MacPhail — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:17:57 -0500

Show Notes

Hosted by Conal Pierse and Katie Atkinson.

Produced by Conal Pierse, Andrea Damiano, Shannon Kelley, Katie Atkinson and Alana Power

Total running time: 20:02

Introduction to the Politics Episode of Maker Culture (0-2:48) Duration: 2:48

One woman’s ordeal with biking in Toronto prompted her to step up and seek better bike legislation.

Clips from:

• Margaret Hasting-James, Member of the Toronto Cyclists’ Union and the Toronto Cycling Committee.

Music:

• Familiar Taste of Blood by Rachel Kann http://www.myspace.com/rachelkann

Making change from the bottom-up

Cathryn Atkinson — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:02:29 -0500

What happens when the political becomes personal? Then who has the power?
Does Stephen Harper because he's our prime minister? For sure. Does Oprah Winfrey because she's a billionaire media celebrity who likes to share her political views and ideas? Yep, she's got some sway. How about ordinary citizens who come together to champion certain causes, or try to tackle certain socio-economic problems? Do they have any political power? Darn right they do. And they're what Maker Culture politics is all about. People, united in cause, working together to spread a message and set changes in action.

Whether at the local, provincial, national or global level, examples of Maker Culture politics are everywhere.

London Activism: Empowerment Infoshop

History in the making

alex — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:35:22 -0500

If you weren't making things 100 years ago -- you'd be dead. Your home, your food, your clothes and even your toys were all made by you or someone you knew. Somewhere along the way, humans seem to have forgotten that we were makers, and instead became consumers.

Now, when some people build, sew and bake they are making a conscious choice to return to our maker roots. This movement is Maker Culture. Today, makers challenge the mainstream and make instead of buy.

What used to be a necessity is now a lifestyle. But how were these people inspired, how did they learn and how did they get to where they are now?

Here are the stories of some modern day makers.

Sewing it all together

Episode Two - The Fabricators

Wayne MacPhail — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:49:47 -0500

Produced by Geoff Turner, Matt Lundy, Christian Bergmeister, and Mike Kennedy.

Music courtesy of Free Music Archive

Links to show material:

RepRap, Neil Gershenfeld TED Talk, Dimension Printing, FabLab & Dr. Vladimir Mironov.

3D printers: The ultimate makers

alex — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:54:27 -0500

Neil Gershenfeld has been known to make some bold predictions about the future. But even by his standards, this one was a doozy.

"Twenty years from now," he told a 2006 conference in Berkeley, "we'll have Star Trek replicators that can make anything."

You remember the replicator -- the one that provided Captain Picard with his "cup of Earl Grey tea, hot," with a simple verbal prompt? It might sound like jet-age fantasy, but Gershenfeld was absolutely serious with his reference.

Meet your makers

alex — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:37:50 -0500

In Austin, Texas Cathy Wu is making jewelry out of dried fruit. In London, Ontario Brian Frank is educating himself in digital media. John Hammel. In St. Jacob's, Ontario, owns the last handmade corn broom plant in Canada. In the U.S. Rustbelt ordinary citizens are dropping by a community college to use laser cutters and 3D printers. And, in homes all over the world, people are connecting to the Internet to discover galaxies or unfold the secrets of Alzheimer's and Parkison's Disease.

Episode One - Meet Your Makers

Wayne MacPhail — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:34:47 -0500

Maker Culture? It's people taking things -- food, entertainment, technology, politics, and even science -- into their own hands. That's a simple definition and it's exactly where 45 Canadian journalism students began their journey in early September. That's when Wayne MacPhail, the instructor of the online journalism courses at both Ryerson University in Toronto and the University of Western Ontario on London, introduced us, his students, to the idea of Maker Culture. We discovered that a lot lies beneath that simple definition. This first episode explains Maker Culture and gives you a taste of episodes to come.