Friday, October 3, 2014

My review of DIY Citizenship: critical making and social media

DIY Citizenship: Critical Making and Social MediaDIY Citizenship: Critical Making and Social Media by Matt Ratto


This is a really interesting read. The rating of three indicates the varying interest of the chapters. Some were amazing, and for others, I was not the right reader for them, or the time was not right.

One quote from the book is:
"Online knitting community sites such as Ravelry, have also facilitated and energised new and existing offline "stitch n bitch" groups, pub knitting circles, fibre festivals, and knit meets providing a range of virtual and physical sites for participating in knitting as a shared, collaborative, and public activity. At both ends of this spectrum of leisure and activist knitting, technology use goes hand in hand with craft. Knitting, alongside online articulations and representation so knitting, are seen as recursive digital/social practices, connecting material and physical activities with social networking, microblogging, and face-to-face interaction".

This quote highlights some key themes shown in several chapters which are the key use of social media and online interactions with offline activities. There is the exploration of "digitally mediated maker identity" which uses digital spaces and interactions "extending the boundaries of their physical artifacts into digital realm as a conscious, reflexive activity".

GLobal connections are explored, as a very local initiatives. Some chapters report on existing practices and analysis of them, others describe one off projects designed to explore ideas in this area. Gardens, zines, electronics and much more are explored in this work.


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