Work in progress for Hillhacks presentation.

1. WHY MAKE (IN INDIA)?
Asking all the boring questions

2. Makerspaces
 Makerspaces, generally collaborative working
spaces equipped with basic engineering workshop
tools (for carpentry, soldering, molding, cutting
etc) but also with incoming experimental
technology such as 3D printers as well as sewing
and craft supplies.
 They provide access to such spaces and
technologies at nominal cost or for free.
 Often involve an educational component.
 Since the inception of the first FabLab in Pune as
a result of the collaboration between MIT and IIT-
Kharagpur in 2002, many nonfranchised
makerspaces have emerged across India.

3. Who makes
 Is making an educational activity, an innovative
act, an entrepreneurial culture or a political
statement?
 Why Make?
 DIY making cultures emerged in response to:
 Disengagement with STEM subjects
 Consumerism and mass production
 An urge to learn and physically explore

4. What is made?
 An emphasis on hobbyist technology making:
 Use 3D printers, laser cutters, sewing
machines and other tools
 Making fun science and art projects with LED
lights, metal, wood, cloth – fabrication
 History and legacies in community science
centers for children, artisanal cultures

5. Labor, hierarchies and making
 Issues of focus: sustainability, health, food,
consumer technologies
 Understanding ‘detournement’ – the path to hell is
paved with noble intentions
 Who is being “taught” making? Students,
engineers,
 Makerspaces as gendered and class specific
 How sustainable is making and running a
makerspace?
 The underbelly of making – pirate makers,
craftsmen, women, blue collar work

6. Make in Indi a
 What can making do for a community and
country?
 In India, what do makers view as their
contribution or role socially?
 Given the massive investment and rising
government and academic interest around
social justice hackathons, innovation sprints as
well as makerspaces (FabLabs and others),
how can we assemble a coherent picture of
the movement?
 Make Zine ™? Integrating within existing
practices vs disrupting?