Making: Movement or brand?

Anthropologists have interrogated hacking activities and DIY-bio practices at science and technologies studies conferences such as Science, Technology, and Human Values. And business school professors have investigated entrepreneurship and collaborative work in community-operated workspaces for electronics tinkering such as TechShops and hackerspaces. One trajectory results in 3D-printable accessories mimicking the minimalistic design of Apple products, while another trajectory begets sites like Instructables and communities of Lifehackers. One maker may download a file for printing an Apple TV wall holder, while another maker solders a wire loom to a circuit board, and another puts tomatoes in mason jars. As concrete as the work of making may seem, those describing the maker movement tend to focus not on the material consequences of a 3D-printed plastic whistle, but rather on the broader social changes their practice promises to bring about. The change is described by Anderson and others as nothing short of a revolution.