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[Music]
the next talk is the critical making
Movement by Regina M shipus and S shinoy
and please give them a great Round of
Applause and welcome to the
stage
you'll do wonderful thank you very
much hi
everyone my name is Regina and that one
over there is sad um Ricardo
unfortunately couldn't come today so if
you wanted to see him exclusively then
you are now free to go and get a mate
for yourself um that means though that
we are going to have a bit more time for
questions so if you already want to
start thinking about what you want to
ask us uh we would be we would be
delighted to to have an open round with
you my name is Regina shiposh uh and I'm
doing my PhD dissertation writing it
about um the social innovation in
critical technical practice at the
Technical University in
Berlin in the session today we would
like to give you an overview of what
critical making is um or what it
actually could be it is a relatively
recent notion so there is still a lot of
space um for um for for different
versions of this idea we will also
present to you how around the world
academics artists citizens and
Grassroots communities are engaging in
this
activity the point of such practices in
Academia is to teach critical thinking
about socio technical relations in art
it is to get wider audiences to think
about our relationships with technology
and in Grassroots movements people focus
on how to help people understand that it
can also be used for social change and
to improve the lives of their
communities DIY and making is a
fantastic way to allow people to better
understand this in inaccessible black
box that we today see technology as and
so it can help create a better
connection between society and
Technology but it is actually a
relatively recent notion to use critical
things in the DIY culture to as Garnet
Herz puts it look beyond the idealized
picture of the maker and to reintroduce
a sense of criticality back into post20
maker culture to
unsanitized
it firstly let's talk about making in
general if you define making and maker
spaces as Community spaces or third
places where people can make things
things these have actually existed for a
very long time the American libraries
magazine starts a timeline of the
history of making with
1873 in New York uh with the Ganda
ladies National social society which was
formed to Kilt knit saw socialize and
talk about
books now that was almost 150 years ago
uh and today we're talking about this
phenomenon called The Maker movement so
how did that actually begin there are
two main events that I would like to
point out and I know that a lot of you
have already heard about these one was
the maker space uh which has its roots
uh in mit's Center for bits and atoms
and the course how to make almost
anything the other one is the Make
magazine which really kickstarted the
rapid growth uh of the movement in 2005
together with its maker
fairs so maker hacker Innovation spaces
whatever you want to call all them are
actually a rapidly growing phenomenon
and really rapidly between 2006 and 2016
only in 10 years the number of such
spaces worldwide has multiplied by
14 there are many of these spaces um
that rely on their members and want to
create communities for them and they
want to use these communities to create
um artifacts that improve the lives um
of people in these
communities maker spaces though don't
necessarily self-identify as Spa spaces
of social Innovation uh but a lot of
them still have effects on societal
issues because they they engage in a
number of different
areas for example educating people they
make knowledge about technology
available for everyone through local
events and workshops and even online
materials this picture I mean not in
this picture is me at the age of 33 last
summer trying to figure out what a radio
how a radio actually
works they also strengthen democracy
they offer third places for communities
and they support Civic
engagement they do this through Notions
of activism and critical thinking and
thus they unlock Grassroots
capabilities like these four people here
soering or not in
Singapore they also create and support
new models of production through access
to personalized manufacturing and rapid
prototyping they also engage in the
Commons and create open source solutions
they produce open source software
Hardware or use peer production and make
blueprints available
online this example from the open from
open source ecology um is on the global
village construction set that makes
tools for building and sustaining a
whole civiliz ization this is available
for free online one of the examples is
for example how to how to how to build a
machine that you can use to press
bricks the members of maker spaces also
create Innovative artifacts by using
critical thinking and different design
methods they they support the creation
of socially relevant works this is an
example from caral um called made for my
wheelchair
um which is a very interesting thing
because um there hasn't been a lot of
innovation going on um for users of
wheelchair for a very long time and so
by these people by collaborating with
the users themselves added appropriate
Technologies like lights or this trolley
that you can see in the picture and so
improved um the lives of the of
wheelchair
users by focusing on awareness raising
for example example on
sustainability um in terms of Hosting
repair cafes or operating by default as
Eco faab Labs or simply allowing local
manufacturing instead of long delivery
routes they actually some of them um add
to
sustainability so more and more people
are starting to see making as a tool for
empowerment and change and it is really
such a great tool that can de that has
the uh option to democratize technology
however these solutions that they come
up with are often neither sustainable
nor long lasting or
impactful let's explore some of the
reasons
why there is obviously a lot of hype
around making Chris Anderson even called
it the new Industrial Revolution whether
that is true or not is
debatable it is very nice that more and
more citizens feel engaged that for
example Obama endorsed making by hosting
a maker fair at the White House
this shows that it really has become a
mainstream
activity however for example when
MakerBot became closed Source or the
maker culture started being co-opted by
the military by DARPA a lot of people
have become
disillusioned unfortunately what we see
more often than not is especially a DIY
type
consumerism this is an idealized new
world of empowered consumers who are led
to believe that they can take things
into their own hands but they do not
engage in critically thinking about the
effects of their Hobbies like is it for
example really the best way to use um 3D
printing technology to print hundreds of
plastic yoga fig Yoda
figures a lot of this criticism can be
seen on Garnet herz's hilarious version
of the make of a fictional ma magazine
uh with the subtitle technology on
affluent Leisure Time such as say open-
Source secret revealed everybody just
buys the kit or how to use the maker
butt to make a 3-cent piece of
plastic as Herz defines it this version
of maker culture is Makers equal hackers
minus the
controversy this picture M painted of
the maker movement definitely lacks
hacker Visions as we know them it is
very difficult to find the
countercultural aspects in maker culture
today
this mainstream n has also bought with
itself a Silicon Valley AOS Make
magazine is indeed a fantastic
publication but it only focuses on a
particular apolitical Market driven
segment of
DIY through predefined activities and
kits there is very little space for
creativity speculative processes or
reflection we should also not forget
that wherever is funding wherever the
funding is coming from for maker spaces
the this will have an effect on the
practices and so a lot of maker spaces
will be forced to go into directions
that their members might not agree
with what people start to see is that an
alternative is needed to the Silicon
Valley type of ways in which we innovate
social Technical
Systems makers often use standard
engineering practices and this is why
they are actually Limited in their
societal
impact if we want to innovate for
society it is required for us to rethink
how we innovate we have to maybe start
from a different
position because reproducing industry
practices has clearly been
insufficient critical making as a term
was initially de developed about 10
years ago by Matt
RTO he was inspired by EG's paper on
critical technical practice Lessons
Learned trying to reform uh artificial
intelligence from
1997 R originally wanted to develop
Innovative scholarly PL practice as he
put it critical making is an alision of
two typically disconnected modes of
Engagement in the world critical
thinking which is often considered as
abstract explicit linguistically based
internal and cognitive ly
individualistic and making which is
typically understood as material tacd
embodied external and Community
oriented so the roots of critical making
are in critical technical practice but
also in critical design and critical
engineering even though today critical
making seems to be an umbrella term for
a mix of such activities Al all three
are also still alive and well and and
thriving in their own
areas as I mentioned before Egra wrote
about critical technical practice in
1997 this was a critical theory based
approach towards technological
design he aimed to increase awareness
and critical reflection on the hidden
assumptions ideologies and values
underlying technology
design critical design has also been
around since the mid99s
as done and Rab's book called
speculative everything writes critical
design uses speculative design proposals
to challenge narrow assumptions
preconceptions and Givens about the role
products play in everyday
life what you can see here um is their
work called designs for an overpopulated
planet foragers and it's dealing with
the question of the world running out of
food due to overpopulation by about 20
2015
if governments and Industry are
incapable of dealing with the
situation which is the case in the
speculative Vision um Can a group of
people take the Fate take their own fate
into their own hands and start using
their knowledge to build DIY devices to
put simply suck Nutri nutrients out of
nature so foragers is about the contrast
between bottom up and top down responses
to a massive problem but also the role
played by Technical and scientific
knowledge from the
Grassroots this is all speculative so
later on the solver raised the question
during his robot project what should
actually come after these imaginations
of possible
Futures in critical engineering we see
two two directions one is the
pedagogical way incorporating critical
thinking into engineering studies and
the teaching process and asking
questions about the engineering itself
like the the production of technology
and our relationship to it who does
engineering and for whom who benefits
and who loses from
engineering what you're seeing here is
um the critical engineering Manifesto by
the critical engineering working
group some of the most important points
that they raise in this Manifesto are
raising awareness about technopolitical
literacy deconstructing and inciting
suspicion of two Rich user
experiences how each work of engineering
Engineers its own user proportional to
the user's dependency on it or what the
critical engineer notes um or that the
critical engineer notes that written
code regulates Behavior between people
and the machines that they interact with
by understanding this the critical
engineers seeks to reconstruct user
constraints and social action through
means of digital
excavation this leads us to one of my
favorite examples on CR of critical
engineering which is Julian Oliver's
Harvest this is a work of critical
engineering and computational climate
art it uses wind energy to mine
cryptocurrency the earnings of which are
then used as a source for funding
climate change research
what do we see in
teaching teaching critical technical
practices in critical making can mainly
be currently found in the United States
at Berkeley Stanford and NYU and Canada
at the University of Toronto and Emily
Carr most focus on helping students with
Theory and methods to think more
critically creatively or even radically
and to to think creative critically
creatively or rically about possible
future human technology
relationships and explore the social
issues that are inherent in Technical
Systems interestingly I actually also
found some examples um of critical
engineering practice in posts Soviet
countries like Kazakhstan where critical
thinking already seems to be cultivated
by the Ministry of Education maybe some
we can learn
from there is also more and more going
on in research there is a Dutch critical
making Consortium a 4-year project
titled bridging art design and
Technology through critical making in
which they are trying to figure out how
21st century creative practices like art
design and making can overcome the
industry logic of techno optimistic make
ability and aestheticized products of
the creat cre ative
industry another direction is taken by
the by a research group at The whitenb
Institute in Berlin in which they focus
on the production opportunities of maker
culture for example through DIY
development they research maker spaces
and open Labs with a societal impact not
only in industrialized nations like the
USA or South Korea but also in emerging
economies in Brazil and China as well as
developing
countries
the other direction we see today in
critical making is looking at the wider
World questions for example how access
to Technologies can create active
citizenship um or looking at Art and
Design and how it is used in activism or
even Grassroots and critic and driven
practices this might be familiar to some
of you it's right right outside our door
here um
as retto and bowler put it in their book
DIY citizenship DIY citizens understand
their work to be socially
interventionist and ask themselves how
do we engage with Society politically
through
technology individuals and groups who
are self-organizing enabled by social
media networks to scale up and cross the
borders of the state DIY citizenship has
become a prominent political theme in
the face of rising disillusionment with
politici ions to act effectively on
behalf of
citizens one example in the book is also
the the craft communities of knits who
form and express citizenship identities
which might if you think about it be
dismissed as just groups of
hobbyists but actually their online
networks provide opportunities for new
forms of collect connective engagement
to emerge and counter the pessimistic
Trope of Civic Decline and and
apathy this example from Goen L from the
Carnegie melon University is called free
Universal construction
kit he made it for his son to be able to
put together different toys and assemble
something new create a bridge between
closed systems as he puts it the kit is
a matrix of 76 adapter bricks that
enable complete interoperability between
children's Construction toys by allowing
each piece to mate with each
other the kit encourages totally new
forms of intercourse between otherwise
closed systems enabling radically hybrid
constructivist play and the conception
of before impossible designs it is a
Grassroots interop interoperability
remedy uh that implements proprietary
protocols in uh order to provide public
service unmet or possibly even unmet by
corporate
interests he calls this a reverse
engineering as a Civic activity where
objects prompt critical
reflection he actually Compares it to
the VLC media player and its ability to
play different formats across different
platforms
it was garard herz's objective to expand
the term ktic making as an appear to as
an appeal to Hands-On makers in maker
spaces to be more critically engaged
with
technology um he has been actually
collecting a lot of really good projects
from around the world in the following
two
booklets the first one critical making
uh which consists of 10 pocket Siz
booklets and the creation of this was a
critical making project in itself uh
originally one PDF per day was released
through the Twitter account um at
critical PDFs the topics of these zins
were um for example manifestos terms
projects and conversations and it also
included some of the interviews that
he's been conducting for example with
Phoebe sers Who develops a new new kinds
of interactive technology that respond
to and encourage critical reflection on
the place of technology in
culture or with Natalie jenko who Blends
art engineering and invite and
environmentalism to create real life
experiments that enable social
change followed up by disobedient um
Electronics protest um this is a Zen
showing projects with the aim um to
point out other different um foods for
thought all of it of course available
online so last August um at the Visa
eban studio in Berlin um including me a
number of people spent three hot days
while it was raging a heat wave outside
35° with uh Brett Bok building um the
Wilderness wireless
device this is a device that is um a
solar powered plain simple little Wi-Fi
access point and web server it has
inspired by the free radio movement and
this this these three days actually gave
us a lot of opportunities to discuss and
share thought about social technical
questions questions of power and
creativity and
sustainability also who owns radio
frequencies and who has the rights to
use
them of course we also had to talk and
think about where the parts that we
built together were coming from and how
the metals for these parts were
sourced if all goes well my critical
access point is online now and I would
actually like to ask you to take out
your phones and look for this in your
list of available Wi-Fi networks people
in the front rows might actually have a
better better chance at getting at it
but what I'm trying to show with this is
that this is a simple device that you
can use to tell people
about about issues that are important to
you that they might otherwise not
actually hear
about is it
working all right I highly encourage you
um to look for the hashtag on
Twitter
so now I would like to zoom in um to the
to critical making um that is done by
Grassroots because these um following
examples that we will that um are going
to be presented by sad um are actually
going to be coming from that sphere what
you need to know from an academic point
of view the trouble with these is that
they are difficult to research because
of course most such activities are
decentralized there is not just one
keyword that you can look for uh and
this is what makes them so difficult to
locate the taxonomy is simply not there
yet once institutionalized they are also
influenced by where the money comes from
and often the PO political activist
roles they play
diminish societal impact is in fact high
in those Grassroots spaces and movements
that use critical
making they not only use this to raise
awareness and hopefully change the
status quo but also to have the capacity
to minimize negative effects on society
and the environment that technology
might
have it is the Ingenuity of human
creativity to hack for society what s is
going to tell you now about in the
following case
study and I thank you very much for your
[Music]
attention well
then
so my name is sad and I am very much uh
an example of all of the things that
Regina's criticism is directed at I am a
technologist I'm the stereotypical it
guy from
India um I I live and work in Singapore
but I'm also a maker
um my day job uh keeps me going and I
work in digital publishing but um we
like to work with nonprofit
organizations and that kind of is my
approach to what technology is and and
should be and it should be uh used for
good um the area that excites me the
most is the overlap between the physical
and the digital and this is an area that
uh lots of people are exploring but in
particular the internet of things and I
know from talking to people here uh that
there are many in the room who are
excited much in the same way as I am um
but what this is about is about making
things and looking at technology in a
more Hands-On accessible kind of way
where you could imagine putting together
a a digital recipe much the same way as
you would put ingredients into making
something delicious and edible not
unlike a raspberry
pie um so I like to play with things I
like to play with tangible physical
things even though my day job is all
about technology building for the web
ebooks that sort of thing but the
tactile tangibility of technology is now
something that is uh a lot more real for
us I am a maker like I said and this is
a probably something that people are
familiar with technology does go bad um
it goes wrong sometimes and that's kind
of the fun part of it when things um are
unexpected uh when when things happen
that are unexpected something new comes
out of
it um and I am also a big huge fan of um
3D printed rubbish but it doesn't always
have to be rubbish uh I'm I'm a Star
Wars fan but I haven't to date printed a
Yoda head which I think is something I'm
proud of now having uh heard what Regina
had to share just now um but I do like
make aairs and fairs that that bring
people together using these sort of
tangible aspects and you know you get to
meet with meet people and this is kind
of what uh Congress has been for me
where you have this interdisciplinary
kind of thing happen I mean yes the make
Affairs are uh attract a lot of
criticism for being incredibly
commercialized and this is Justified um
but you also have spaces where this kind
of thing is possible where you can get
people that you are familiar with makers
to pose for an Instagram photo by
pointing at things and pretending to
look very interested at something that's
3D
printed um but I make things I'm a
crackpot as the original uh word
describes a crackpot is a in an an an an
inventor and I invent things this is a
true product of my geek background uh as
a lot of programmers know a programmer
is someone that converts caffeine into
code uh a lot of the time times not all
the times um so the caffeine thing made
me make a caffeinator which is a coffee
machine made out of um clothes
hangers and of course there are strange
things this is a jellyfish uh it's
actually a shy jellyfish made out of an
umbrella uh as somebody approaches it it
shies
away and it's off it's also connected to
the internet uh as everything should be
um I'm unfortunately also
um guilty of contributing to the world
of selfies which is a world that we very
much live in um with this tangible thing
which is a selfie Booth you go into it
and it um is triggered by a
button you sit down on this button and
it takes a picture using um what is
known as what has come to be known as
the world's lowest energy consumption
purpose built highest resolution selfie
display also known as a
[Music]
mirror it then uploads said selfie to
its own Instagram account and that's
kind of what you look like when you're
in there it's a bit ridiculous and it's
open it's open in a familiar kind of
context which you know you probably have
seen this in uh catalogs and you can get
most of these pieces that are
mass-produced so what I really like
about this is that by just adding a
little bit of digital nness to something
that is ridiculously mass produced
you're able to create something
completely new and interesting and fun
out of
it what also allows me to do is to work
with other people um the interactivity
that takes place around the the the
artifact the object the technology is
what makes it fun and interesting and
engaging to me I mean what I like to see
is how uh kids and other people who are
clearly inspired by selfies um the way
they interact with these objects is not
how they would normally approach a
Raspberry Pi they use the thing and then
they ask the question is how does it
work um this is another example of uh a
dinosaur which was designed specifically
to ruce um as an educational thing to
introduce children or young people to
cloud services um so there is a paper
folded origami dinosaur which is a T-Rex
that is connected to the internet using
very simple connections and so it's an
iot
T-Rex which you can trigger from your
phone and sometimes it
works um last but not least there is the
cloud cloud which is an example of uh
something intangible made tangible when
we think about the cloud we think
about many different things um
especially in this context it's digital
nature there's layers of abstraction I
tried to make this manifest in a
physical form um where it's a lamp that
is connected to uh the cloud and it is
here at Congress if you use the hashtag
if you tweet with the hashtag 35c 3 um
it goes all
sparkly and if you use the hasht lab
mobile it turns rainbow and some of you
probably have noticed the lab mobile
parked right outside uh the bog it's
just behind uh the chios westage so I
encourage you later on to take a look uh
this very happily lets uh links me back
to why I'm here and um uh what what I
would like to share with you is a story
about a button but I'm part of a group
of
innovators um the global Innovation
gather Gathering is uh of which the lab
mobile is actually part of this is the
family and I absolutely love uh
everybody in it um because the minds and
the frequencies that we think in are
along the same ways it's all about
Innovation and sharing so in
summary um this is what I'm about I love
the idea that hacker spaces and maker
spaces can overlap and there is this
delicious layer that forms when these
things overlap and of course I needed
day job to sort of make this sustainable
and these things kind of wobble around a
little bit so these when diagrams are
not static um but the thing I wanted to
talk to you about is a story about a
button um there is a small group of
people and when I say small it's two
employees in Singapore um which is a
nonprofit organization called
engineering good and they take after the
engineers Without Borders uh but they're
based in Singapore and is composed of
Engineers from all backgrounds not just
off
um who do various kinds of
infrastructure projects but also in
Singapore um they focus on this overlap
which
is about the use of appropriate
technology and customization for working
with persons with disabilities and that
is the story about the button that I
like to
share the good people at uh engineering
good um have several uh projects both
local and international um but the key
Focus here is a story about assistive
technology for pwds which is persons
with disabilities and the workshop that
I got terribly interested with is the
hack a toy workshop and Mickey miy is
kind of what drew me to this because
it's one of those techy things that's
made into the Tang tangible space um the
problem that was
defined was that um assistive technology
is
is expensive this is a snapshot from a
website and you'll notice the prices are
ridiculous I mean if we look at the big
red button on the bottom right corner it
says
$65 and that's a button there's nothing
complicated about it it doesn't make
breakfast it just is a button when you
press it it either turns something on or
turns something off that's what it's
designed to do so the um people who use
these buttons and assistive devices are
the caregivers um this is an example of
the community of people that uh
engineering good works with and they are
usually in community centers or uh
social Enterprises where children and uh
persons with disabilities come and spend
the day and are uh taken care of by
these people so these are individuals so
this what engineering good does is to
train the
trainers and they defined a situation
where the children needed to play with
things and we are incredibly privileged
we have fine m control and I don't mean
you know the ability to drive cars I
mean the ability to use our fingers the
the digital
dexterity fun intended um but with
persons with disabilities they have no
fine motor control they have gross motor
control that's why you need a big fat
button you can use your entire hand and
these things tend to be very practical
like opening a door or um tur on a light
or turning off a light or turning on the
air conditioning cuz Singapore is very
hot um but there's nothing playful about
it so what the engineering good team did
was to find a way to merge the two by
taking apart a little toy and plugging
in one of these big red buttons to make
it fun and interesting you know the same
button that you would use to open and
close the door you can now use to sort
of activate a
toy and these toys are cheap and
cheerful they're very easy easy to to
buy in large quantities and then modify
so you don't have to make something from
scratch the other problem was that the
cost of this button is still incredibly
high and for people who H who are taking
care of persons with disabilities the
cost is a limiting factor and so the
engineering team did um uh sort of you
know uh design thinking approach and got
all the mines together and again I just
want to point out that we're all
volunteers right they all have day jobs
they all come from like corporate
companies where you know the stationary
is expensive um but they noticed that
all of these buttons have a fairly
standardized connector and you probably
all familiar with this this is a sort of
headphone jack it looks slightly
different because it's mono rather than
Stereo cuz it's just got two bands um
sorry one band and two metal pots and
each button is connected with one of
these things so you can
interconnect uh different buttons to a
toy um also we realized one of these
works exactly like a button I mean it's
a tap light or a touch light they're
known as and these are mass-produced to
Ridiculousness so they're incredibly
affordable and they're everywhere so
what we did was we took it apart and
found a way to connect that touch light
to the system that is used for assistive
devices using that common connector and
so the ability to sort of look into
things and take things apart and then
rethink it um without having to 3D print
or reinvent or uh do something that has
been manufactured we just take something
that's already been ubiquitous and
manufactured and modify it which is a
lot easier and this is effectively the
solution so what you have on top is a
little piece of copper which goes into
the
toy and acts as an interruptor it
basically blocks the connection for the
battery uh to make the toy work and on
the bottom you have the other half which
is a light that's been turned into a
button and you have the connectors so
you can interchange them and so what you
have is something that is cheap cheerful
very easy to uh hack manufacture uh
sorry to modify and also to
teach so this is what we do uh at with
engineering good we teach the caregivers
how to modify these lamps and it's fun
you can do because you're playing with
not only the idea of rethinking
something but also with the thing that
you've made it's a toy that you can then
trigger and turn on and off and this is
the moment that sort of makes everything
worthwhile everybody's trying to get
just this to happen so you have this
little tactile thing you touch the two
contacts together and it activates the
toy you don't you're not limited to just
buttons you can use something like a
clothes peeg this is used to hang
clothes outside to dry and that you can
put a switch inside so there are various
kinds of switches these are the four
that we've come up with you have a
little doorbell there which is again
very commonly used used in house in in
in Singapore uh clothes Peg um little
alligator clips and a light a touch lamp
again the same basic idea the common
connectors in between so they're
interchangeable and depending upon the
tactile abilities uh you can make these
but the idea behind that is you
accidentally learn how to work with
these tools and when you are a caregiver
and in and you're doing Physiotherapy
and things like that you don't usually
have the time to go and attend uh a
skills training course where you learn
how to solder for the first time um but
when you put it into context and we're
talking about modifying things or
hacking things it becomes interesting
and you sort of accidentally learn how
to you work with these tools and it's
fun which is the cool part cuz you've
got these little toys that have been
that are mass produced and they're just
you know when you turn them on they're
just always on but the minute you add a
little button to it they become
interactive and suddenly you have this
sense of of control which somebody with
uh disabilities or uh is having trouble
um coping with it's incredibly rewarding
the feedback mechanism is brilliant just
the fact that you're able to control
something for
fun so this is us this is a a group of
um this is what we typically look like
and um all the toys that we've we've
built um they are constantly looking for
help and support and I think the the the
PO potential in this room is phenomenal
um in just uh the brain capacity but
also in the uh capabilities of what we
able to do so uh engineering good is a
nonprofit organization it employs two
people it's based in Singapore uh it's a
registered charity and they're always
open for donation so if you're
interested do contact us at any of these
addresses and that's all I have for now
thank
you
questions thank you so
much so now we have time for some
questions from the audience please queue
up by the
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microphones don't be
shy great microphone number one please
hey I like the presentation very much
and I have a question for the audience
actually who would really consider
working in Asia in one capacity or
another please show
hands okay anybody interested in China
can find me later thank
you thank you for that okay but actually
I was wondering like I think it's really
great like um empowering people
especially with disabilities considering
how hard that can probably be so I was I
mean you've been working with this now
so what was your biggest surprise
through this project I guess that you
must have stumbled upon something that
kind of made you think oh why wait I I
didn't consider it like like
that that's an excellent question um
thing that led me to this was a
volunteer job it was uh a way to get
away from the mind-numbing mundane
day-to-day job of working in technology
um but also trying to you know be
amongst other Engineers that were not
maybe software Engineers so it was
accidental that I stumbled upon uh this
idea of hacking the toys and then I
found myself drawing parallels between
the hacking physically versus the
hacking that we do with technology the
code uh uh is a lot lends itself a lot
you know easily much easier to being
modified and change so you get somebody
else's code for free and then modify the
hell out of it and then try and make
money from it that's roughly what it
says on the tin but when you do that
with uh something that's tangible and
physical it becomes #l it is it's
immediate and that is intensely
rewarding I wasn't expecting it to be
rewarding so just this act of uh doing
what I do in the digital space doing it
in the physical space was very cool so
maybe just essentially like how little
it actually required to to to do this
much of a much of a like empower of of
of of this group nice great I think we
also have a question from microphone
number one so thank you for the talk and
I have a question for both both of you
um because uh sad you've you said that
you're working with ebooks with books
and uh uh I also have a question uh
towards the critical making so how can
we actually uh teach other people The
Narrative of uh critical making
especially to the kids because I find
that uh a lot of what is being promoted
towards the kids a lot about books about
making they are about uh this uh really
non uh just playing with technology
without criticizing it without thinking
how it is designed without thinking
about uh the disabled people and how
they are excluded out of it how can we
tell uh stories how can we teach uh
young people to think about technology
as something they can mod ify and they
can take a part of in
designing I have some ideas um should I
repeat the question or or is it no no no
yeah okay perfect um right
so this that's exactly the thing we're
so much at the beginning of of this
whole you know critical making thing
that I think people who are um who are
engaging with it are the people who are
already in technology and are like
trying to make trying to make a
difference there or in engineering
studies um or you know in some maker
spaces at Big Rich universities and so I
I really like your question about how
can we essentially start earlier with
that and maybe what we need is you know
a critical making playbook for um for
children it's definitely going to have
to be something so to say
interventionist so classes you know even
at why not why not at maker bases they
already do so many classes for children
why not bring in some of some of the
critical thinking tools into this the
problem is of course that a lot of maker
spaces also don't engage in this
generally so you know focusing on
children's education would be even a
further step than that I think that you
know we us here as parents have
absolutely have a perfect opportunity to
start doing this at home even even if it
just starts with minor critical
questions about how we use technology
why do I not know what is in my phone
why can I not take it apart why don't I
know where the parts of it are coming
from how does it influence me why you
know I'm teaching at the Technical
University in Berlin the question of how
do we get the children to get off of
their phones um keeps on coming up so
there are there are a lot of questions
some people who start thinking about
this and I think that um I think that
there there are good opportunities but
people have to start doing
it I agree I mean I think the uh the to
address the the question yes it is
there's definitely a need for more of
these stories to be out there and the
examples uh that we we shared are some
of them it's a snapshot of them and
people relate to things that are that
they find relatable so uh these stories
need to come out and it's a challenge
that even in Southeast Asia we are
trying to deal with where there is no
good content that represents the
Southeast Asian mindset um especially
for children and so when it comes to
persons with disabilities there is there
are very few stories that are well told
and so there is a a need for this and
there's a constant search uh that we are
on the lookout for for good content and
what we find with children though is um
a very interesting um
uh sort of retro thing going on I mean
yes technology digital natives yes and
uh parenting is is often Whittle down to
just give them a a screen and that'll
keep them quiet for a while but the
content on that screen needs to be part
of your parenting you have you have to
choose what your children are exposed to
not just the fact that they're looking
at a screen um but what we looking into
now is very interesting and exciting uh
which is the comic book format and that
seems to be working really well not just
in the digital space but also in print
um so children would like to have
printed out comic strips in sort of
Instagram IED format if you like which
is a bit weird retro thing going on but
that seems to be interesting that's what
we're looking into now great thank you
and microphone number three please thank
you um I think my question is kind of
similar uh I always wonder do we see the
real problems because I think um this
all is focused onto some very limited
group of technically interested people
and I constantly see myself not really
understanding the problems or perceived
problems of uh the Common working man
and woman um so my question is uh how
can we get out of our a very educated uh
and really create things that are
important to many
people that is so such an interesting
question too I spent half of my
Christmas debating the exact same thing
with my family at home um and I mean I
don't know I don't know because we live
in our own bubble as you said and that
is such a different bubble and that's
actually where a lot of the changes that
we are creating kind of you know trickle
down to and affects the lives of those
people so how can we actually engage on
eye level with those who are influenced
by the technologies that we are
creating I don't know do you I don't
have a direct answer to that but I can
share what works for me which is that um
I found that stepping out of my comfort
zone uh really had unexpected uh
benefits as in like the question you
earlier what was unexpected about this
um which was that you know just the
participatory design approach I think is
we're onto a good idea here the the idea
of uh having design be participatory you
know instead of this whole trickle down
top down waterfall model all that
rubbish if if it is participatory by
Design I think you know that's a step in
the right direction and all it it
requires for my part was to recognize
that I'm in a bubble and then try and do
something about it I think I think
that's a good place to
start thank you microphone number two
please thank you very much that was such
a good talk and um my question goes into
a similar Direction um probably more
tailored to people here at Congress um
would you have uh suggestions for like
if if I'm a German hacker maker that
wants to get more engaged in critical
making because it's personally rewarding
and socially important um where do I go
except for talking to you guys yeah um
you're a German
hacker I mean I ended up going to the uh
to the summer uh intensives at the Visa
Visa Ze studio um in Berlin I am afraid
that there's very little of this going
on still in Germany and that's actually
one of my um one of my research
questions too I would like to write a
case study about critical making in
Germany I find it extremely hard and so
I wonder if um there is a level or lack
of democracy for example that's needed
for critical making um to happen where
people actually have to take things into
their own hands um and drive drive
Innovation forward for themselves um
from a you know from a Grassroots
perspective so at the Visa Visa zeum uh
student it is about critical engineering
it is still you know very close to very
close to critical making um and that's
that's definitely a good starting point
yeah just add to that I mean with
Singapore cuz you know the question is
about Germany uh with Singapore there
are few options it's not just here that
there are lack of options where you can
uh explore this sort of thing because it
still needs more attention um but
there's a nice overlap between Art and
Science and it seems to me that artists
seem to be the ones asking these kinds
of questions so I guess my response
would be to engage with artists but I've
just
realized events like this are plural
they are inclusive they are
participatory by Nature I mean it is it
is incredible what I've experienced in
the last couple of
days how this this this Congress has
come together and you just have to look
at at Angels be an angel I think would
be the perfect thing because then you're
volunteering you're stepping out of your
uh comfort zone and you are exposing
yourself to ideas that uh would
otherwise you would not expect you don't
know what to expect as an angel so you
don't know what you're going to find
yourself in uh and it's a problem
solving Challenge and I think it's it's
been I think that's a good uh way to
start it is a good way to start also
maybe um you know when it's not Congress
um hacker spaces are supposed to be
politically more engaged than playing
maker spaces and so maybe you know maybe
there I had a really good discussion
with the hacker space recently and they
said well hey if you want to come here
and do this yourself then that's fine
with us uh we don't really know what
you're talking about what you want from
us but you know you can do it so maybe I
will and then I will invite
you
nice thank you microphone number
two I really liked
him ention between the first and the
presentation have to and you have
to I I definitely get people but I'm
worried about the space that's left for
failure and trying stuff that might make
no sense so my question is um how can
you be critical about critical making
and what are the scientific publication
on it where I can see the size effect
the size effect and and the validation
of those
practices
right so critical critical making yes
um I think failure the nice thing about
uh a nice thing about generally about
critical technical practice is that it
does not necessarily push for a for a
successful artifact it's not about
creating something brand new that then
millions of people are going to buy a
lot of this is just non-market type of
exploration of Technologies you're free
to play You're free to fail and create
you know even monsters if that's if
that's what you want to create um so
that's I think that that that's
definitely I think also often inherently
in make in making generally um failing
um and making weird things is is allowed
um what was the second part of the
question I couldn't um
then it's
actually right right right um I mean
scientifically seen yeah this is why
this is why I like to I like to research
Grassroots groups because they make up
their own rules and I think that that's
just a fantastic approach to how we
actually want to run our own
world thank you microphone number one
please just one please move please move
closer to the microphone yeah I I buy
everything EX this trickle down approach
so this is from the opposite of
grassroot so you don't have an academic
idea and then it trickles down to of if
you are in Berlin there are examples
like Open Wheel map.org from the project
so they are handicapped people building
their own application and and looking
for funding and they are quite
successful so uh it's possible you need
people who are really involved and and
uh this inclusive approach is is working
but um additional funding is another
problem you need funding for this
and there are established models to get
funding yeah thank you very much I think
zatia is is just a fantastic uh a
fantastic group group of people um and
yes you need funding and maybe that's
something that you know we should kind
of try to reinvent for the whole world
that people who are doing good for other
people don't have to look for you know
don't have to struggle to look for
funding and be able to pay their own
bills on a daily basis so yeah great
last question from microphone number
three
please thank you very much for the very
interesting talk it was very relevant
for me I am an occupational therapist so
I work with people who have disabilities
grown-ups and children I'm curious do
you work with the occupational therapy
TS uh with engineering good yes um we
train the trainers as in we work uh we
don't directly work with uh the the
users of the assisted devices but we
work with the therapists or the
caregivers the primary caregivers uh cuz
it's a skills transfer thing so uh you
know how to hack things and how to
solder things and how to rethink
something so what happens a lot in these
workshops is that these therapists or uh
Prim caregivers they learn this new
skill and then they immediately start
thinking about what else they can modify
or they can change where they can apply
these new found skills so you get all
these ideas coming out because they
understand the context they know what uh
is required they know what's available
in the market and what's available in
the market is expensive and also limited
so yeah the the focus of engineering
good is to work with the primary
caregiver
thank you please give sat and Regina a
great Round of
Applause also Ricardo Rel Ricardo hi
Ricardo thank
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you
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oh