220:. This Critical Making course was designed to operationalize and critique the practice of “making” through both foundational literature and hands-on studio culture. As hybrid practitioners, students develop fluency in readily collaging and incorporating a variety of physical materials and protocols into their practice. With design research as a lens, students envision and create future computational experiences that critically explore social and culturally relevant technological themes such as community, privacy, environment, education, economics, energy, food, biology, democracy, activism, healthcare, social justice, etc. The course has been offered continuously since 2012 and featured publicly at showcases and exhibitions, including Maker Faire as well as other public venues. Selected projects are archived online on the course
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derived from the finished output. The term "critical making" was popularized by Matt Ratto, an associate professor at the
University of Toronto. Ratto describes one of the main goals of critical making as a way "to use material forms of engagement with technologies to supplement and extend critical reflection and, in doing so, to reconnect our lived experiences with technologies to social and conceptual critique." "Critical making", as defined by practitioners like Matt Ratto and Stephen Hockema, "is an elision of two typically disconnected modes of engagement in the world — "critical thinking," often considered as abstract, explicit, linguistically based, internal and cognitively individualistic; and "making," typically understood as tacit, embodied, external, and community-oriented."
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research" rather than "research-oriented research," Ratto believes that critical making enhances the shared experience in both theoretical and practical understandings of critical socio-technical issues. However, critical making should not be reviewed as design, but rather as a type of practice. The quality of a critical making lab is evaluated based on the physical "making" process, regardless of the quality of the final material production. Prior studies have noted the separation between critical thinking and physical "making". Specifically, experts in technology lack a knowledge of art, and vice versa. However, it is very important that technology be embedded in a context rather than being left in isolation, especially when it comes to critical making.
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photocopier, and roughly 100,000 pages were manually folded and stapled to create 300 copies of 10 booklets each. The publication asks us to look at aspects of the DIY culture that go beyond buying an
Arduino, getting a 3D printer, and doing DIY projects as a weekend hobby. These books embrace social issues, the history of technology, activism, and politics. The project also stemmed from a specific disappointment of Make partnering with the US military through DARPA funding in 2012. Many opposed this move, including
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design aims to explore the space of interaction between culture, technology, and the built environment (Lukens and DiSalvo, 2012, p. 25). Practitioners of speculative design engage in design as a sort of provocation, one that asks uncomfortable questions about the long-term implications of technology. These practices also integrate pairs of concerns that are traditionally separate, such as fact and fiction, science and art, and commerce and academia. This provocation extends to questions about design itself.
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317:. The facility "explores how humanities-based modes of critical inquiry – like the arts and ethics – can be directly applied to building more engaging product concepts and information technologies. The lab works to replace the traditional engineering goals of efficiency, speed, or usability with more complex cultural, social, and human-oriented values. The end result is a technology that is more culturally relevant, socially engaged, and personalized."
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333:(RISD): first as a title for their strategic plan for 2012-2017 and next as part of the title of an edited collection titled "The Art of Critical Making: Rhode Island School of Design on Creative Practice" published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Other individuals who use the term critical making to orient their work include
377:(CAT), and on the Internet, from 31 May-30 June 2013. A cohort of artists, programmers and thinkers from the frontline of the critical maker aesthetic, remotely and locally, linking through live streaming of artist talks, workshops, exhibitions, performances, podcasts, and interview broadcasts, Internet relay chat
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The term speculative design involves practices from various disciplines, including visionary or futurist forms of architecture, design fiction, and critical design or design for debate instead of referring to a specific movement or style. More than just diagrams of unbuilt structures, the speculative
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Traditional DIY is criticized due to its costs and standards. DIY products are difficult to spread in lower-income areas where issues of cost and ease are more commonly cited (Williams, 276). It is not only a lifestyle choice but also a technological product. "DIY activity is not, for example, seen
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The main focus of critical making is an open design. Open design develops a critical perspective on the current institutions, practices, and norms of society, reconnecting materiality and morality. Matt Ratto introduces
Critical Making as processes of material and conceptual exploration and creation
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Hertz's project consisted of academic papers, detailed technical projects, interviews, and documented pieces of artwork. He then categorized the information into specific topics, thereby producing multiple booklets. The booklet itself is a testament to critical making. It was printed using a hacked
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such as: "Perhaps it is appropriate that I review NAF:TMFC because it sits just outside my comfort zone....the heart, the ritual, the idea of frailty, are returned to technology, seem to capture the spirit of the endeavour. They hold something I can grasp or identify with. And with time, exploring
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According to DiSalvo and Lukens, "Speculative design is an approach to design that emphasizes inquiry, experimentation, and expression, over usability, usefulness or desirability. A particular characteristic of speculative design is that it tends to be future-oriented. However, this should not be
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refers to the hands-on productive activities that link digital technologies to society. It was invented to bridge the gap between creative, physical, and conceptual exploration. The purpose of critical making resides in the learning extracted from the process of making rather than the experience
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adopted the term for a series of ten handmade booklets titled "Critical Making," published in 2012. It explores how hands-on productive work ‐ making ‐ can supplement and extend critical reflection on technology and society. It works to blend and extend the fields of design, contemporary art,
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The
Critical Making Lab was founded by Matt Ratto in the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. The Critical Making Lab provides participants tools and basic knowledge of digital technology used in critical making. The mission of the lab is to enhance collaboration, communication, and
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and/or making things within a technological context. Ratto's first publication to use the term was in 2009. Ratto claims that his goal was to connect the conceptual understanding of technology in social life to materialized activities. By situating himself within the area of "design-oriented
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as a coping practice used by those unable to afford to externalize the activity to formal firms and/or self-employed individuals. Instead, and reflecting the broader cultural turn in retail studies, their explanation for engagement in DIY is firmly grounded in human agency" (Williams, 273).
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International
Symposium on Electronic Art. It brought together leading Australian and International artists and educators whose work responds to the emergent conditions of a networked world; a realm increasingly transmitted through fiber and code, this included
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of novel understandings by the makers themselves. Critical Making includes digital software and hardware. the software usually refers to the
Raspberry Pi or Arduino. Hardware refers to a computer, or any other device that facilitates an operation.
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and others - reflected on the term and critical responses to the maker movement. Generally speaking, Hertz's use of the term critical making is focused around studio production and the creation of objects as "things to think with".
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who mentored local artists and designers who were invited to respond to the work and ideas generated through the project which formed the closing exhibition which was programmed as
Notorious R + D as a part of the inaugural
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Matt Ratto coined the term in 2008 to describe his workshop activities that linked conceptual reflection and technical making. This concept explores how learning is influenced by the learner's participation towards
298:, and Hertz's project worked to explore the mixture of making, technology, politics and ethics - as well as bringing the fields of critical design and media arts into conversation with maker culture.
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the exhibition in a near empty gallery, I see that the collected works cultivate potential for play and discovery—qualities that chip away at the white noise and allow for a singular experience."
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Ratto, Matt. "Flwr Pwr: Tending the Walled Garden." 2-day
Critical Making Workshop for the Walled Garden conference, Virtueel Platform, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, November 20–22, 2008.
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Participants were encouraged to adopt a feminist and holistic approach to digital literacy, using various aesthetic tools and means to explore systems through critical making and
369:'Networked Art Forms and Tactical Magick Faerie Circuits' was a series of events inspired by critical making and computer subculture curated and devised by
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A durational event that included symposia, exhibitions, performances, workshops and social gatherings. Collaborating with community
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Blikstein, P. (2013). "Gears of our childhood: Constructionist toolkits, robotics, and physical computing, past and future".
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mistaken as being fantasy-like sense, suggesting that it is "unreal" and therefore dismissible (DiSalvo and Lukens, 2009)."
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Williams, Colin C. (2004). "A lifestyle choice? Evaluating the motives of do-it-yourself (DIY) consumers. I".
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Williams, Colin C. (2004). "A lifestyle choice? Evaluating the motives of do-it-yourself (DIY) consumers. I".
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Ratto, Matt (2011). "Critical Making: Conceptual and
Material Studies in technology and Social Life".
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DIY/craft, and technological development. In this project, 70 different authors - including
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Lukens, J. & DiSalvo, C. (2011). "Speculative Design and
Technological Fluency".
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that enable insightful experiences in an increasingly data driven existence.
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The Studio for Critical Making (Emily Carr University of Art and Design)
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Nancy Mauro-Flude: Interrupts aren’t hidden Experiential Prototyping
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International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
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International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
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DiSalvo, C (2009). "Design and the Construction of Publics".
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In 2014, Hertz founded "The Studio for Critical Making" at
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Ratto, Matt (2011). "Open Design and Critical Making".
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Nancy Mauro-Flude and Tactical Magick Faerie Circuits
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Open Design Now: Why Design Cannot Remain Exclusive
93:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
218:Critical Making as a studio course at UC Berkeley
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200:practice-based engagement in critical making.
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987:Critical Making - Paulos Syllabus (Berkeley)
379:successively compiled into an online archive
373:in collaboration, in lutruwita Tasmania, at
817:"Interrupts Aren't Hidden; Runway Journal"
736:"Critical Making » FutureEverything"
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153:Learn how and when to remove this message
803:"Cracking the technology Case; RealTime"
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303:Emily Carr University of Art and Design
1002:John Maeda: The Art of Critical Making
480:Speculative Design and Critical Making
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761:"Makerspaces in Education and DARPA"
91:adding citations to reliable sources
466:Concepts Related to Critical Making
329:began using the term while at the
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943:International Journal of Learning
33:to comply with Knowledge (XXG)'s
602:Ratto, M. & Ree, R. (2012).
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186:Matt Ratto and Critical Making
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331:Rhode Island School of Design
321:Other uses of Critical Making
661:10.1080/01972243.2011.583819
499:Critical technical practice
347:Washington State University
341:-Bothell), Jentery Sayers (
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181:History of Critical Making
920:10.1108/09590550410534613
844:10.1108/09590550410534613
722:"Critical Making - Hertz"
567:10.1162/desi.2009.25.1.48
375:Contemporary Art Tasmania
775:"ECUAD: Critical Making"
460:experiential prototyping
357:), and Jessica Barness (
339:University of Washington
46:may contain suggestions.
31:may need to be rewritten
982:Raspberry Pi or Arduino
875:10.1145/2485760.2485786
649:The Information Society
471:DIY and critical making
351:University of Maryland
343:University of Victoria
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621:10.5210/fm.v17i7.3968
359:Kent State University
307:Canada Research Chair
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423:Critical Engineering
87:improve this article
259:Natalie Jeremijenko
514:Speculative design
394:ISEA International
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561:: 48.
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