Critical Making, Materials Protocols and Culture, UC Berkeley

Critical Making, Materials Protocols and Culture, UC Berkeley

Critical Making explores the practice of “making” through both foundational literature and hands on studio culture. Located in the CITRIS Invention Lab, An on campus maker space, we present a few of our final projects for your review.

What inspired you to make this project?:
An excerpt from one of Eric Paulos's papers is a good place to start,
"A fringe group of individuals usually labeled “hackers” or “nerds” have challenged this producer-consumer model of technology by hacking novel hardware and software features to “improve” our research and products while a similar creative group of technicians called “artists” have re-directed the techniques, tools, and tenets of accepted technological usage away from their typical manifestations in practicality and product. Over time the technological artifacts of these fringe groups and the support for their rhetoric have gained them a foothold into computing culture and eroded the established power discontinuities within the practice of computing research." We try and give the students access to the tools, knowledge and a space (on campus Maker Space) to create physical objects themselves. we then challenge them with unique assignments that provide a platform of critiqing design from many perspective.

Project Website