What does it mean to be a Maker?
History has shown us that the number of professions has expanded as technology progresses, and some have even been redefined completely. For example, to the ancient Romans, the profession of architect encompassed what today would be considered a wide variety of occupations. According to Vitruvius, in his day, a Roman architect not only designed buildings but was also responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of sundials, machines, weapons of war, and more. In short, what was once the domain of the architect has today been split amongst architects, engineers, scientists, technicians, industrial designers, and many more job titles.
We will take the opposite approach and reconstitute a wide variety of jobs and hobbies, including but not limited to cooks, cosplayers, DIYers, engineers, architects, designers, inventors, filmmakers, musicians, creators, artists, and artisans, into a group which we shall refer to as makers. In short, makers use their brains and hands to transform an idea into a fully realized digital or tangible item, be it functional or artistic in nature. But that is insufficient because an engineer is not necessarily a maker.
So then, what separates a maker from an engineer or weekend warrior DIYer?
In the following weeks, I will examine that question in several posts. To give you a taste, some of the topics that I believe need to be reviewed to answer these questions include
:
Responsibility to Share and Teach
Balancing Practical and Theoretical… and the Artistic
Balancing Open and Proprietary Tools
Balancing the Humanist and the Technologist
Balancing Working Smart and Working Hard
Becoming a Jack of Many Skills and a Master of One (or Two)
Hand-made vs. Brain-made: Digitial Tools vs. Manual Tools
It Takes a Community
Good Design Today: Vitruvius Virtues 2.0