Our friends at Farset Labs in Belfast organised a Maker Assembly there on 16th March 2016. More event details at their site: https://getinvited.to/farsetlabs/makerassemblyni/
Session 1: Making & Peace Building
Kicking off Maker Assembly NI is a session about the politics and nuances of community-facing digital fabrication projects. It will look at how maker cultures are emerging at the grassroots and how local organisations are contributing to the peace-building project currently underway in Northern Ireland. It hopes to reveal how the idea of ‘critical making’ can be adjusted to suit the specificities of different contexts.
Speakers
- Adam Wallace & Eamon Durey, Fab Labs NI
- John Peto, Nerve Centre
Session 2: Speculative Making: New Contexts and Futures
As the idea of digital making beds down—and practices become more visible and accessible—what new trajectories are emerging and how are speculative futures being framed? This session hopes to reveal the supports we might need to maintain a critical forecast of making and maker culture.
Speakers
- Nora O’Murchu, University of Limerick
- Kat Braybrooke, University of Sussex
Session 3: Governance, Sustainability & Maker Networks
How are maker networks nurtured and sustained? And how ‘critical’ are the governance strategies of the physical spaces and networked platforms that mediate maker networks?
This session hopes to somewhat unravel the entanglements of people, places, and things, to better understand how maker culture is being facilitated.
Speakers
- Javier Burón, Fab Lab Limerick & University of Limerick
- Hannah Stewart, Royal College of Art, Future Makerspaces Project
Session 4: Critics of the world, create!
Final session was a making exercise, inspired by the Sarah Kember and Joanna Zylinska’s (2012) Creative Media Manifesto and Garnet Hertz’s Critical Making zine series.
Our thanks to Andre Bolster, Pip Shea and all at Farset Labs for putting on a great event. If you’re interested in holding a Maker Assembly in your makerspace, library or other institution, please get in touch.
