Eyeo 2014 – Leah Buechley

• Thinking about Making
  • Humans are natural makers
• Demographics
  • Predominantly men and white or asian
  • Has nothing changed?
• Maker’s movement promise not achieved
  • Does not reach a wide demographic
  • Is not affordable to lower income classes
  • Investment is guided towards the same old people.
• Every child is a maker
  • Telling minorities they should aspire to be rich white men
• What is showcased on MakeMagazine
  • Leaves tons left unseen
  • Limited in scope (electronics)
  • Why hasn’t the LoRider movement get any funds for a non-profit?
• Art & Tech should be funded
  • LoRider ‘engineers’
  • Grand Master Flash -(DJ) – hacked the turn-table
  • Nathalie Miebach’s Weave Baskets as data visualizations representing environmental data
  • Dorothy Torvino’s Pottery’s patterns – algorithms, geometry, spacial
  • Electronic Popables – Ji Qi – electronics + paper

Eyeo 2014 – Leah Buechley from Eyeo Festival // INSTINT on Vimeo.

Turkle, S., & Papert, S. (1992). Epistemological pluralism and the revaluation of the concrete. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 11(1), 3-33.

• Epistemological pluralism
  • “epistemological pluralism, accepting the validity of multiple ways of knowing and thinking.” (Turkle & Papert, 1992)
• 3 challenges
  • Feminist scholarship – science is male
    • “Our culture tends to equate soft with feminine and feminine with unscientific and undisciplined.” (Turkle & Papert, 1992)
  • Lab mentality – deep knowing only occurs there
  • Computers as a tool for concrete thinking (and now creativity)
• Computer transforming culture
  • “computer holds the promise of catalyzing change, not only within computation but in our culture at large.” (Turkle & Papert, 1992)
• Lisa and Robin
  • had to fake it to adapt the dominant culture of computer teaching
  • wanted to express their way of thinking but were not allowed
  • “they can pass a course or pass a test. They are not computer phobic, they don’t need to stay away because of fear or panic. But they are computer reticent. They want to stay away, because the computer has come to symbolize an alien way of thinking.” (Turkle & Papert, 1992)
• Soft vs Hard programming styles
  • Conceptual vs Logical
  • Male vs Female
• Bricolage – Levi-Strauss
  • “Bricoleurs construct theories by arranging and rearranging, by negotiating and renegotiating with a set of well-known materials.” (Turkle & Papert, 1992)