grassroots invention

Innovation is everywhere, spreading thanks to the power of the Information Age, not only distributing information around the globe and across cultural boundaries, but also revitalizing notions of informal knowledge and sharing. Accompanying a growing awareness of resource depletion and the need to find renewable energy sources, grassroots invention will be taken more seriously by science and commerce. Another name for grassroots invention could simply be affordable innovation (for necessity and play).

grassroots invention contents in Open Design Now:

CRITICAL MAKING / MATT RATTO

Open design can be employed to develop a critical perspective on the current institutions, practices and norms of society, and to reconnect materiality and morality. Matt Ratto introduces ‘critical making’ as processes of material and conceptual exploration and creation of … Continue reading

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DO IT WITH DROOG / ROEL KLAASSEN, PETER TROXLER

Renny Ramakers talks about Droog’s latest project Downloadable Design, about making money, designing for the masses, the development of the design profession, and Droog Design’s recent experiments and research in sustainability, local production, co-creation, upcycling and collective revitalization of the … Continue reading

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LIBRARIES OF THE PEER PRODUCTION ERA / PETER TROXLER

Libraries of the Peer Production Era

Mapping the landscape of commons-based peer production, Peter Troxler analyses the arena of open source hardware and looks into various initiatives being spawned by fabrication labs, trying to identify their business potential and asking how these initiatives contribute to giving … Continue reading

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Grassroots invention

fablab-afghanistan---Abdul-copy

Innovation is everywhere, spreading thanks to the power of the Information Age, not only distributing information around the globe and across cultural boundaries, but also revitalizing notions of informal knowledge and sharing. Accompanying a growing awareness of resource depletion and … Continue reading

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Introduction / Marleen Stikker

The pioneers of our time are not taking the world at face value, as a given from outside; rather, they see the world as something you can pry open, something you can tinker with. Marleen Stikker In his novel The … Continue reading

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