DIY

From Metaverse

One of the hallmarks of the cyberpunk genre is that it promotes active resistance of government or corporate control over individuals, dissent over top-down control of individuals, worship of individualism, celebration of the alienated outsider, renegades, "cowboys", and hackers.

Hacker "worship" (the word hacker originally referred to a person who was especially gifted at various computing tasks) can be compared in a general way to the present-day do-it-yourself (DIY) phenomenon. The DIY ethic (sometimes called DIY punk ethic) is an explicit rejection of the notion that people must buy the things that they want from corporations; instead, self-sufficiency is the more worthy goal. In cyberpunk, DIY often happens via computer technology.

It may seem that a DIY ethic is anti-technology (i.e., reminiscent of an earlier pre-technology era), but this is far from the case. Aside from the obvious connection between the DIY-er typically being a "technically savvy" person, technology also assists in promoting the DIY ethic by providing easier access to (a) equipment (b) expertise (c) ideas.

Related Links

• NPR covers Do-It-Yourself culture on Talk of the Nation (radio show - first 20 minutes or so is about the modern DIY movement, with the editors of Make Magazine and Ready Made Magazine, the second 20 minutes is about what I'll call the "old school" home improvement-based DIY movement, with the host of This Old House. This 2nd half is mostly call-in home improvement questions, so this is less interesting.)
• Crafter's Manifesto
• DIY punk ethic (definition)
• Democratizing Innovation, a book by Eric Von Hippel, and the Amazon Link
• Fab Labs at MIT - FabLabs give users around the world the ability to locally conceptualize, design, develop, fabricate and test almost anything. DIY goes to Ghana (Wired) and the Amazon Link

Activities

• Second Life is a great way to experience the thrill of building "ANYTHING", but virtually. Here is a video specific to the idea that "User Creation Changes Everything" - watch the first half of this talk for specifics on why/how Second Life promotes user-created content.
• The Film Can Cannon is an easy, fun "real world" project to build in a lab environment.
• We built this project in a lab environment with 24 students, one TA, and one instructor (myself). Here's what I did to make this happen:
  • I went through channels to reserve the engineering lab here at Elon University. This is an open lab space with 4 large tables (seats 6) and waist-high workbenches along the walls
  • I drew rough schematics of what we were building on the whiteboard and showed a "model" cannon that I had built already. For dramatic flair, I shot the cannon once. :)
  • I set up the following "stations" on the tables:
    • drilling (we had a drill press for a 1/2" hole, and a hand drill for a 5/32" hole - safety glasses at this station!)
    • soldering (to solder the copper wires to the copper connects on the igniter - safety glasses at this station!)
    • glue gun (to glue the canister lid to the board)
    • wire stripping
    • finishing (to paint the wood, add stickers or other decorations, and add little feet to the bottom)
  • The TA and I took turns monitoring each station and guiding the students through each work piece. At each station after the soldering, we had the students check for a spark. This gave them confidence that they were doing the correct thing.
  • At the end when all the projects were complete, I handed out the Binaca and students shot their cannons outside.
• Megaphone and related OneFreeMinute project
• Discuss the following questions: What sort of things have you ever made? Can we categorize commonly-made things into groups (i.e., household, outdoors, arts and crafts, electronics, woodworking, metalcrafting, etc)?
• Do you prefer to buy things or make them? What would you rather make than buy? Why?
• Have you ever thought of something that you wanted but you couldn't figure out a way to buy it? What would be involved in making such an item?
• Have you ever modified an object to make it easier to use or more appealing?
• Have you ever wanted to modify an object but you couldn't because the manufacturer specifically forbid you from modifying the object? Did you do it anyway?