Along with Noisebridge, NYC Resistor was one of the very first hackerspaces to start up in the US. It formed on Halloween 2007 after New York hackers Bre Pettis and George Shammas got back from the Hackers on a Plane tour around European hackerspaces and gathered a group together to start their own hackerspace in
I’m currently on a research trip in New York that just happens to coincide with the annual World Maker Faire, held in NYC every September. Needless to say I jumped at the chance to check out one of the biggest Maker Faires in the world. This year was the 9th World Maker Faire, and as
This year was my second visit to Electromagnetic Field, the UK’s hacker camping festival, and by a weird twist of fate this year’s camp was held at the former site of a music festival I used to work at around 10 years ago. The new site was a lot bigger than its former location in
Build Brighton has a special place in my heart as my home hackerspace (and full disclosure, I was also one of their trustees for a few years). Fittingly for a hackerspace in the UK’s “Silicon Beach” tech capital, Build Brighton was also one of the first hackerspaces to start up in the UK way back
I’ve written a practitioner reflection piece for the Journal of Peer Production Issue 12, where I talk about the efforts that maker communities around the world are making to be more inclusive and accessible. It’s a special journal issue on the institutionalisation of makerspaces, so check it out for a bunch of other interesting papers too!
The Raspberry Pi Foundation have launched a new monthly magazine called HackSpace. The problem? The Foundation doesn’t actually have anything to do with hackspaces. Hackspaces are volunteer-run makerspaces which usually operate on a not-for-profit basis. Running costs are covered by membership subscription fees which are kept as low as possible, often operating on a ‘pay-what-you-can’
Earlier this month the Tate Modern hosted a mini exhibit on shared machine shops (i.e. makerspaces) as part of its Tate Exchange program. It featured a couple of photos from my fieldwork in the USA this summer alongside an audio piece featuring recordings from my hackerspace back home in Brighton. Read more about the exhibition here.
The Factory is a makerspace offering digital fabrication courses and product design and manufacturing services from a shiny new business park on the edge of the Knowle West housing estate in Bristol. The Factory is part of the Knowle West Media Centre, a charitable arts organisation that has been supporting the local community in Knowle
I’m currently working as a research assistant for a team at UCL’s Institute of Education that’s investigating the educational and identity equity potential of makerspaces for young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. Back in July we organised a research symposium at UCL’s Institute of Making. Read their write-up of the event here.
Seattle Attic is a feminist makerspace in the suburban Fremont neighbourhood of Seattle. Since opening in 2013 they’ve inspired various other feminist hackerspaces to open around the US, including Double Union in San Francisco (which I wrote about in an earlier blog post). The Attic aims to be a welcoming place for women to work