Maker Faire was hosted at the New York Hall of Science this weekend. The “Maker Culture” has been growing both in size and recognition in recent years. Be it hacking Arduino or knitting; geeks, eccentrics, and creatives are making things and sharing them with the world in a more apparent way than ever before. Events like Maker Faire and connected online communities are exposing this ‘movement’ that historically has been recognized as people making stuff in their basement. Makers are now able to share a create together.
Whether it’s perceived or not, it’s thought we create less and are forming habits of consumption which alter perspectives on the impacts of manufacturing on our world. Makers are trying to turn this around by showing how acting on creative curiosity can make better people, families, and communities.
Somewhere along the path of growing up many of us lose the desire to build things. We blame it on our busy schedules usually, but we’ve lost the curiosity to be making things. As kids, we’re curious about how things works so we poke at them, tear them apart, and try to build them ourselves in search of answers.
Seth Godin, from his “manifesto of starting”:
Initiative is a little like creativity in that both require curiosity. Not the search for the “right” answer, as much as an insatiable desire to understand how something works and how it might work better.
Making is the beginning but what happens is a rediscovery of childhood curiosity and a desire to create. Let this curiosity run wild and go make something. It doesn’t matter what you make, but that you are creating.