Opinions needed! Importance of DIY and amateur culture in design
Hello,
I am writing my dissertation on the role of DIY and Amateur design and how/if it challenges the established professional design process. I would really love to have opinions and ideas from amateur designer's and DIYer's ( not amateur in a derogatory sense, but as the design and making process that exist outside out business and industry, for fun or nessessity) included in my essay, as it seems really contradictory and silly to be championing the role of non-professionals but only asking professionals for their input.
I would really like ideas on the motivations behind unpaid design and making, examples of sucsesful/unsucsessful amateur design practice, where you feel your output stands in the wider field of design and society, whether its importance is personal to you or has wider implications, is it about individual expression? helping others through design solutions or simply a fun way to pass the time? is it a challenge to the role of the professional designer?
thankyou very much for taking the time to read this, it would be great if you could give me a quick introduction to you and where your coming from along with any opinions, anecdotes etc, just to give it some context, also my tutors don't seem to take well to anonymous quotes. any way, thanks again, hope to hear from you soon!
Comments
11 years ago
11 years ago
Making things yourself is, in my view, the most natural thing imaginable. It's what we've done since the dawn of humanity - if we wanted/needed it, we had to make or procure it ourselves! This has been so through the ages. Large scale manufacturing and distribution of identical items to the masses is a recent phenomenon. Barely a blip in the larger time scale. People find it astonishing if you fix/make things yourself or recycle old things - I find them astonishing.
No anonymous? Well...you can quote me as either Cheezwhiz Jenkins or "Many DIYers" (Many Diyers say...) :P
Reply 11 years ago
Cheeswhiz being, as I understand it, the most large-scale, mass-produced substance possibly marketed as food.
Reply 11 years ago
CheeZwhiz, with a Z, get it right!
Reply 11 years ago
I'm guessing, since the spelling has so little to do with "cheese", that the product is similar?
Reply 11 years ago
Haha, yeah. The spelling is important, you know!
Reply 11 years ago
Reply 11 years ago
I thought it was used as an industrial-lubricant...?
L
Reply 11 years ago
was is the key-word there.
Reply 11 years ago
You're familiar with Squeazy Cheazy Peaz?
www.youtube.com/watch
L
Reply 11 years ago
Hehe. Strawberry-flavored peas. Peaz. However you spell that. (Is "peaz" the British spelling?)
Kidding