Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Critical Making
I have never really considered critical making or then again, maybe I have but didn’t name it. I am reminded of a recent online story that has gone absolutely viral. Caine’s arcade is an amazing story about a impoverished nine-year old kid with a love for video games who builds a games arcade in his father’s used car parts shop. It ultimately changes his life. He builds the games out of cardboard boxes, string, tinfoil and various other craft components. Anyway, he spends his summer, hoping against hope that someone will come into the parts shop and play one of his games. One day, a guy who happens to be a filmmaker comes in looking for an auto part and is so struck by Caine’s spirit and determination that he decides to make a film about it. You can guess what happens next - cue the Olympic moment - the filmmaker arranges a flash mob to surprise Caine and show up at the parts shop and play the games. As sappy as it seems, it has inspired millions, and instigated a huge scholarship fund for Caine, as well as being instrumental in beginning a global foundation to foster creativity in kids. It has also sparked a travelling global phenomenon of cardboard games arcade construction kids’ events. Anyway look it up - a tearjerker of a video at www.cainesarcade.com. All that being said, reading about critical making certainly made me think about this experience - collaborative, creative shared acts with individual investment, more about the outcome than the objects, our connection with objects and our material experiences with them - all about caring and certainly a matter of concern. Even in considering Winner’s Citizen Virtues article, the whole idea of spontaneous and democratic creativity that is spawned out of the merging of politics and technology is undeniable when we consider the implications of being impoverished amidst mass pressures to conform to technology consumerism. It is our response that matters.
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Ok, second try. I just responded to Jude's comments and yet my response didn't post. Hmm...
ReplyDeleteIf I can remember my point clearly, it was that I too hadn't thought about "critical making" as such but agree with the premise that things/beings that we care for (babies, children, pets, gardens, ...), things that we have invested with our time and energy and demanded some kind of physical connection--some kind of making--are the things that make a difference to us. So, maybe we should approach this challenge of crafting a research project with the idea that we need to explore what we want to care for (not just wonder about), but rather something that we are willing to invest ourselves in the process. It reminds me of a the book, Pierre, by Maurice Sendak. The last line is " The moral is CARE."
http://wereaditlikethis.blogspot.ca/2011/04/nutshell-library-care.html
(Love Caine's Arcade). On critical making, it elicited a similar thought process for me. I began thinking about how the idea of the shared making experience and the importance of the process is in someway similar to what we are doing here—on this blog. Of course we are missing the crucial element of making a physical artifact, but we are in a sense creating something. The blog is not the final product to be admired and observed (although it is evaluated!), it is what we take from the discussion and reflection that holds greater meaning. The process of collaborating with each other, reflecting on readings, research interests and research questions and then applying this to our work has such great value. While the blog may fade into the ether once we have finished this class, we may have transformed each others imaginations in the process (Possibly, maybe).
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