News/Research

Critical Making at Maker Faire

25 May, 2017

Critical Making at Maker Faire

Critical Making had two presentations at the 2017 Bay Area Maker Faire. One presented the Spring 2017 final projects, and the other was an panel lead by professor Eric Paulos.

The panel explored the role of universities in maker culture and education. Students from current and previous semesters debated and discuss critical design, social justice, protest design, design noir, feminism, and entrepreneurship.

Born in the CITRIS Invention Lab, and operating out of the Jacobs Institute, "Critical Making" explores practices of "making" through foundational literature and hands-on studio culture. Critical Making students operationalize and critique the practice of making through both foundational literature and hands on studio culture. As hybrid practitioners, students developed fluency in readily collaging and incorporating a variety of physical materials and protocols into their practice. With design research as a lens, they envision and create future computational experiences that critically explore social and culturally relevant technological themes.

In this final provocation, students were challenged to envision and create a landscape of new-wearable interactive technologies. Selected projects this semester focused on Protest Designs and Human Powered Transportation will also be showcased.

Read more about Maker Faire here and Read more about Critical Making here