Makers are some sort of label-less, degree-less, classification-free, profit-free aspirational creatures that anyone and everyone can become at any time, anywhere.
I spent majority of my research project with an organization known to mankind at Maker’s Asylum, in a quaint village in the state of Goa, India. By simple existing in this space I began to question what (in this oddly hyper-specialized society we developed) are makers and what makes them special? Well this starts with, how are they even special?
I noticed traits growing up within characters around me that signified what maker culture devises as this broadly categorized species called maker. Now to clarify, I do not call makers creatures simply for comic relief (while that may very well be a part of it, you are reading a blog may I remind you) but more simply since labelling yourself as a maker offers you no benefit whatsoever. Theres no job requirement you are satisfying by being a maker, and nothing is entering your wallet for that either. In fact calling yourself a maker is bound to drain you of funds almost instantly. Yet, makers are so outward and flashy about being makers.
The design challenge has presented itself. Firstly, being a maker is essentially a free title that carries a certain responsibility. Let's further break that down?
The title:
To be a maker enables you to access the tools and techniques of a community that is willing to share and expand exploratively. For example a chef can cook, but a maker chef can develop a device that automatically tests the temperature of stew and lower the flame accordingly. More importantly the title carries a mindset with it. The intuition to more than quick fix, upskill in the process, and place ownership at the end. Developing this mindset is not only the key goal of becoming a maker, it's also the toughest to embrace without practice.
The responsibility:
To be a maker means to be more or less a sponge and a saint simultaneously. You should be willing to accept when others may know more, absorb what they know into your lexicon, and share it through your vocabulary to the next person seeking information. It means being environmentally responsible and socially adept as well. Without these main personality traits, claiming the maker role would need more work.
Of course the list could very well go on yet based on my observations at one of the largest maker communities in India, this is what stood out first. The design challenge prerogative in the contrary was more along the lines of something like:
This would ideally be a world where an engineer or a designer who may be very involved in ‘makership’ could meet a wandering specialized role such as an accountant or musician and pave the path for creations we may have been blinded from by our existing social system of education and specialization.
This may sound juvenile at first, yet my experiments intend to push my to make a statement on the same for a while. Playing around in a makerspace points out some obvious zones as specified earlier which have been waiting for a ‘what if..’ moment to light up. One such artefact from my experiments includes a new look at a rolling dice for a boardgame, an object rarely looked at.