Makers

Brendan Dawes: Sharing Your Work

Brendan Dawes: Sharing Your Work

This week, I interviewed the designer and maker Brendan Dawes for my podcast, Looking Sideways. Brendan’s known for early interactive web projects like Psycho Studio, that allows users to remix Hitchcock’s famous shower scene themselves. He’s also known for his physical projects, such as the Moviepeg and Popa iPhone accessories, and devices that cross the digital/physical divide, such as the Happiness Machine, an internet-connected printer that prints random happy thoughts from people across the web. We talked about designing physical objects that embody hidden digital information.

Is it a Hackerspace, Makerspace, TechShop, or FabLab?

Is it a Hackerspace, Makerspace, TechShop, or FabLab?

The past decade has seen the sudden, dramatic appearance of community spaces offering public, shared access to high-end manufacturing equipment. These spaces are interchangeably referred to as hackerspaces, makerspaces, TechShops, and FabLabs. This can lead the intended audience to become incredibly confused as to why there might be so many names for a single concept. I’d like to take some time to untangle the mess, explain the concepts behind each title, and talk about why I now make significant distinctions between all of these types of spaces.