Category: Blog
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Dynamicland: physical computing in shared space
I wrote a couple of days ago about how I’d like to see more making activity out ‘in the real world’ By which I meant, moving beyond the typical makerspace communities. In the same post, I also mentioned thinking with our hands, and in particular, “how can we use handwork to help people explore or…
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Looking forward to 2018
I’m going to put a few stakes in the ground about interesting things I’d like to work on in 2018, by reflecting on the year just gone.
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Making the network work
Back in February I was asked to contribute an article to a forthcoming publication documenting the life so far of the Maker Library Network, … a British Council project that connects designers and makers around the world. It facilitates knowledge and skills exchange amongst professionals and encourages public engagement with making. A Maker Library combines three elements…
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Frictionless copying
Two weak signals in one day means something worth noting on the blog: Firstly, this in the Maker Pro newsletter: “And if you can’t win by coloring inside the lines, check out this profile of a pseudonymous hustler who identifies up-and-coming crowdfunding campaigns — and then does whatever it takes to beat them to market. We’ve discussed this moral…
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Making trends, past and future
I spent some time in earlier this year trying to sketch some sort of Venn diagram of my interests with larger trends: within the realm of things that interest me, what the issues that have urgency, which directions are we moving in, what are the forces that I should engage with? This was in large part to…
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Body Augmentation and Prosthetics at Make Shift
I was lucky enough to be invited to chair a panel at the Craft Council’s innovation conference, Make Shift, which took place this November at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. We had a very small amount of time to cover a huge amount of ground with three smart and interesting guests. So…
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Who is the digital revolution for?
The University of Sussex’s SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit) are running this event as part of Brighton Digital Festival: Who is the Digital Revolution For?: How can we re-discover our sense of enchantment with digital technology? For many of us, digital technologies have been revolutionary. Yet at the same time, some feel disenchanted with the…
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Talking at Make:Shift
I’ll be taking part in this year’s Crafts Council biennial Make:Shift Innovation Conference. I went to the 2014 event at Ravensbourne in London, which was one of the best conferences I’d ever been to, with inspiring talks, a lively atmosphere, and the sense that you could say hello to anyone there, and be sure to have just…
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Is all technology authoritarian?
The Terminator franchise draws from a deep well of mythology – preying on our fears that humans will be crushed by the technology that we ourselves create. The horrible inevitability of our fate makes it a compelling story. There is a converse myth: that through ever-advancing technological progress, rational man (and we can go down…
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Does digital fabrication technology lower the barriers to making?
(Note: this is part of a series of half-formed thoughts. The usual caveats apply.) The question is left intentionally generic. In practice, the sentiment takes many more specific forms, often unstated, or expressed as a sense of optimism, rather than explicit arguments. Nevertheless, I have talked with many people who are either proponents of digital…
Andrew Sleigh 