33 KiB
00:00:01 [Music] [Music] okay uh yeah thanks for coming to my talk um my name is yosar Nishi uh for short I'm known as Inari uh I'm I've been based in the Netherlands for the past seven years um but I'm just started uh my PhD engineering PhD uh remotely uh for my hometown in Japan and so yeah I'm really sort of uh sort of living uh in between the Netherlands and Japan right now um this title of the talk is critical making the UN making towards I'm making and I just wanted to ask does who knows uh critical making
00:00:55 here and who knows I'm making here okay it's it's very good okay this very good start okay thanks so much so um just going to start my talk then so I'm GNA first um go into the the very last one and I'm making with the brackets so um it's a new kind of making practice based on a new kind of productivity argument where the more one avoids production the more productive they are what it means is that the um so B we still pretty much living in this uh world based on um like time and motion study um which was uh uh initiated in
00:01:40 the 20th century early 20th century where basically the more you can produce in The Limited um time frame the more productive you are so but then if you think about it the envir environmental crisis and all situations right now uh the the actually the productivity measurement should be opposite um the more you can avoid um production in a limited time frame the more productive you are so that's basically the argument trying to make um and here in um I'm making with the very last one with the brackets and
00:02:17 the most important thing is still though uh creativity in avoiding production so not I'm not just talking about just lying in bed all day and just not doing nothing but instead I'm I'm kind of trying to somehow um value creativity here and so it's a it's I'm trying to kind of come up with this measure other than uh recycling or reuse or up cycling so um so this is the um um historical um transition of making movements uh since 2005 uh some may argue against the end of the maker movement in 2019 so it's
00:02:57 basically uh the the main company uh who was behind this movement went bankrupt so some people argue that this was the sort of definitive moment where this Mo movement finish and uh in 2011 um uh somebody called mat uh he wrote this paper uh about uh critical making um it's basically about um um trying to um think through making so actually the uh the subject uh well the the making uh made objects themselves are not uh the out sort of most important things but to think through it is is the sort of the
00:03:38 most important thing and then um in from about 2020 uh there this new um thing called I'm making um before then the people have been using this term I'm making but only in a set with um making so in in the world in other words uh making and unmaking of something it means that digging deep deeply into a subject but then people started to use this term I'm making independently around 2020 and it means um uh has a sort of degrowth aspect to it and it has sort of anti- capitalist attitude in it and uh but
00:04:14 interesting I'm more interested in in the uh especially um the one in the field of human computer interaction um the way they use this um term and then I since last year I started I'm making um it's a I I did already uh twice uh uh I'm makeer Affair in Del and iol last year and and yeah also like I've been um doing some talks around un making and also like kind of trying to come up with unmade objects and all that and okay so um for those who don't know um much maybe about um making movements I'm going to dive into
00:04:56 what it means for each movement so make a move um for me this is the best um maker object um made ever so it's called Mind Over melon um made by uh uh hacker space in louisvilla in the United States in 2012 so it's basically it's a force um you call it Star Wars uh force uh kind of kind of Gadget you basically kind of uh concentrate and then sort of the device detects the uh sort of your concentration and then do you know triggered something but they they connected with the explosion of a watermelon so I think it's a really uh
00:05:37 nice object and in CR critical making um as I said before it the the aim of this movement is not to make uh objects but to think through it so um so this this is um this this paper has been uh the reference so much and uh it's it's basically about how they shifted the point of 3D making from um making a perfect object that might last forever to um some objects that's kind of designed to Decay through designated patterns of some uh sort of uh the you know this SC of Destruction so they in in other words they trying to find
00:06:20 Aesthetics in the mes of Decay rather than kind of trying to make sort of achieve plastic perfection so what I try to do um in this um talk is that the so each movement has its own uh sort of most representative uh publication uh so for makeup movements make mag magazine I especially focused on the one before uh make Community take over so this this was uh like I said before the sort of the innocense the end of the make a movement proper and it became a community instead so and for critical making uh it's one of the most
00:07:01 prominent figures garet heals and he made uh sort of a kind of Zing like publication um and so I sort of that sort of and then for un making uh recently came out the uh the special issue I'm making from This Journal called toai uh so it's it's connected to this conference called Kai uh which is one of the most biggest conferences uh in the human computer interaction so I try to basically find um uh historical Foundation of this concept of I'm making in each publication so basically I my argument is that people
00:07:39 already while making things or kind of trying to think through making or uh they already kind of had this idea of not making things or not wanting to making make things so uh let's see where you can find it so uh so unmade is objects you can find in Make magazine um this is a um uh 10c Stomp Rocket so it's like a instead of like a kind of make a uh Make magazine you find a lot of uh um projects uh centered around uh rockets and so but this person just uh thought that uh just uh from this package drink
00:08:19 just you insert something and just you can just immediately launch a locket without making any kind of effort so this is the uh second object U Eco gym so it's like some in rural uh Spain I think they uh uh came up with the making uh gym machines out of uh discounted mainly um wood materials and then just they kind of open up the gym to the public for free this is a dirty car art so uh you sometimes see um extremely dirty cars on the street and then uh just somebody actually took a opportunity and then
00:08:58 just trying to make out on those uh very dirty cars so this is super green green house so uh yeah somebody made it it's quite this this one's quite straightforward but somebody trying to make a greenhouse out of uh the plastic bottles so this is a paper Hardware so this is somebody uh trying to um make a um sort of um the electronic Appliance but solely made from paper that looks real but not functional so this one is a a shelter from the bus so it's somebody trying to make a a bus stop out of the old
00:09:41 bus so this is Stone Age Telegraph so somebody trying to send a telegraph message that with materials only you can find in the forest and apparently he succeeded it or something like that so in uh critical making um you find the different kinds of object object s to make a movement because they their aim is not to um make things but to think through OB um making things so this is one the first one called the hugable atomic mushroom so uh instead of making um bombs he that somebody made a um a bomb in a way that you can hug and
00:10:21 so don't kind of a um exploded uh so this is the and uh hasmat kite so there's a somebody did a uh Artis in Residence in the polluted area um and and then just uh sort of trying to indicate the sign of pollution and he kind of uh flew this uh the kite uh with this sort of toxic sign so this is the um um the first hacker space uh founded in China and uh so it's kind of a strange um in a sense because just they they had to make things from necessity but then they kind of the also kind of they combined it
00:11:06 with the S of coun of cultural culture um this is somebody who trying to um make artworks based on more contingencies uh they didn't want to just make try to make things that they had in mind but they instead of kind of let the the the outwork um the the kind of take over the flow and then just see where it comes out so uh in uh I'm unmade is objects you can find in toy um it's uh in I'm making and uh with without brackets and so instead of uh this is the uh I'm making it's called it paper titled I'm
00:11:50 making electronic waste uh from this year uh 2024 and um it's it's about how you can um sort of do do differently with uh sort of uh streams of um electronic instead of just a kind of a make things in discarding and this is called a remake to I'm make to remake materiality driven rapid prototyping uh it's it's a it's a project uh focused on um recycling uh 3D printed materials and because what it happens and nor is that you print something and you have to just throw it so instead they came out with some sort
00:12:33 of structures that you can sort of uh rebuild um some stuff with it so just the kind of Cl structures they that they came up with and then um they build something and then just they sort of dismantled it and build again and stuff so this is bit um peculiar research but it's called I'm making data imaginaries um the dat epics and and it's a it's a research that where they asked uh some science fiction writers to come out with different ways to uh um write about uh well the express about uh data and uh sort of this is what they
00:13:17 came up with and sort of the data was kind of uh depicted in different ways like the the the the selves Ming multiple image identities expansion or the screen or um peeling apart or you know something like that so um what I'm making is but still uh it's kind of um maybe blur for um many people um but um I'm based on this uh researcher in the 1990s uh um the to ecologists uh so to ecologist means that the uh uh not don't uh the ecologies are different to envir environmentalists the way they more
00:14:06 looking for radical change instead of a gradual shifts so like those who supporting electric cars and uh those things they're more like environmentalists and ecologists more kind of aiming for radical change for those who are more looking for radical change the only green product is the one that is not produce so he rather kind of I guess I I assume he rather said that like as a sort of um h hesis like sort of it's not probably actually There's No Object like that you know just it's kind of almost ironical
00:14:38 but then what I'm trying to do in my research is um trying to make such actual thing um while not uh escaping for uh virtuality or uh or or the um or investing or something like that so um my aim is to actually how how you can sort of still make value or create value while not making things so if sort of those like what I call the unmade objects um technically non produced items um material wise if they carry the highest value and can we actually Escape production so that's the sort of a question I'm trying to ask and
00:15:31 um um this is some sort of a bureaucratic hack and kind of stuff that I'm trying to apply um but I'm not going to go into details here so this is more like a qualitative aspect of uh this unmade object so it's kind of the feeling of how um you can kind of still kind of come up with something while actively not um making it is that the uh it's it can be based on this Japanese saying called uh it means that when the wind blows the barrel maker prospers so Barrel maker becomes profitable so it's an ancient kind of saying so where the
00:16:12 Wind Blows the wind blows up the sunand and then sound gets into people's eyes and uh back in the days the the blind people uh could only play this traditional instrument called the shamian and then this shamian well were back in the days made from cat skins and as a result there are less cats on the street and as a result there more Rats on the street and and those more rats basically then ate more barrels and so that's how the sort of saying uh works and basically then kind of try the point of uh I'm making for me
00:16:50 is that the um how you can try to cause this to happen with intention so of so it's basically what it means that the um based on how you sort of um situate yourself in a sort of situation or some how you might find some value in some things and then you can kind of sort of uh the let the supply chain like form for you instead of you actively making it because once you try to sort of uh Focus to make something uh with intention then you just inevitably make um some byproducts and externalities and that's like inevitable
00:17:28 so just kind of how I'm trying to sort of explore how you can can just let things form form up for you um instead of uh sort of uh making any kind of [Music] products so yeah that's uh that's what the I'm making is all about again and it's a bit shorter than um that I expected but yeah I'm open to uh questions yeah thanks so much thank you Inari for this nice talk a little bit of art a little bit of philosophy a lot of constructing deconstructing things I would like to ask you now if you have questions and I
00:18:12 come to you and uh give it up please um is your concept mainly uh focused on material things what is it uh about services or IM immaterial values they uh they are not not a problem if if we make them or is it not the [Music] same okay uh so um I'm kind of here well in my research like I'm more focused on materials just as a kind of make more points to uh the the material culture in general so but of course the the services or like actually I I've made some um I made OB just more kind of um the uh immaterial or sort of approach I
00:19:11 made objects myself but then um it's definitely in the scope but not the main focus of my research just to kind of because since we primarily living in material culture then I'm kind of trying to tackle this problem of uh the having to make things um material material wise um so yeah so that's a u the if I'm answering to your question correctly oh yeah okay next question yeah so uh all this is super super fascinating I've never heard of any of it before it's awesome um this idea that you let these supply lines
00:19:56 naturally emerge rather than forcing them you lose a certain amount of efficiency I would guess because with a factory you could produce a whole bunch whereas if something naturally emerges uh and that need emerges you would have to make it on the spot which reduces all the waste and now I get to my question um that inefficiency is preferable to the alternative of forcing a uh a product from an ecological perspective that's the claim that you're making that the inefficiency is a good is is a good
00:20:30 tradeoff to have um uh from an ecological perspective like it's it's a natural thing it will be more inefficient but the trade-off is worth it from an ecological perspective is that correct um it's it's more of actually like how what I'm trying to focus is that the like a Val like I said like a value creation so like how people find more value might find more value in this sort of um I wouldn't just say in a efficient process so I I have a kind of good um example so I um I found first i f first found a sort of plastic bucket a
00:21:09 quite large one and I immedately oh maybe I can make a bath like in my rooftop but I needed sort of this horse but then kind somehow I thought like Mom I don't want to buy this horse but probably like I live in rdam in the Netherland so just you find many things on the street and I just thought myself probably I'll find this hes at some point and just kind of let this idea flow and then just uh just one day as I'm just walking on the street oh yeah I did find this horse okay great and then and just then you know of get this sort of
00:21:37 sorted and then I sort of effectively you know the the main difference between just um buying this horse from a store and just finding is just the um you just avoided the whole bunch of the the change that's you know just created for this horse so just the kind of people I don't know where this horse come from just all them you you know primary materials to all the sort of you know Transportation everything you just skipped everything right and I think I I find more value in this process so just
00:22:07 not about efficiency it's more efficient in a sense yeah kind of and it's and it's a very hyper aware state of being of watching these uh things emerge naturally yeah yeah so we have a few more questions here and a reminder for the internet uh you can send send us our your questions on Matrix channel for the Huff stage so feel free to ask someone more questions please go on with the next one hey so that story that you just told about the finding the bucket and looking for the hoses it's a very familiar one for
00:22:38 anybody who's grown up in like a low socioeconomic background um I come grew up in a real white trash situation and that's exactly how you build everything so boats uh clothes lines Furniture you know that's just how you do it when you're a poor person so how do you connect what you're working on to existing you know cultures of unmaking that have been going on for you know since there are people probably even the uh connection of my research to the already existing stream of I'm making yeah correct cuz I it
00:23:18 sounds like stuff that people have been doing poor people specifically have been doing forever oh I see okay um in that sense um um yeah I think that's that's also the kind of yeah but I think it's more about my Approach is kind of more intervention uh in terms of value I think sort of how how how how I'm trying to sort of uh um I guess the the way the way it is right now is done by more like like the way the way you say uh poor people um I think it's not like valued right now which is kind of basically then um sort
00:23:57 of in in general Maybe and then I'm kind of trying to sort of uh in a sense kind of reframe the those kind of activities as a sort of more valuable sort of um things uh that you can do and I think it's more more more that kind of a direction I'm kind of trying to make connection to I think okay can I okay um I'm I'm quite anal here so I'm kind of capitalist entrepreneur creative people person I'm not the unmaker however I do like the process of creative distraction and reduction of the things and what kind of
00:24:36 gets me if you try to use this sort of thinking on reduction or simplifying things kind of like a controlling control distraction because what I had from your presentation it was more like absolute like removing things but if if the proc can be applied as a reducing things it might be quite useful even in Creative approach what what what's your opinion on that uh yeah that's actually that's the that's I'm well I didn't sort of touch upon it in my presentation but that's I'm exactly I'm trying to do so this
00:25:16 like uh uh the the bureaucratic hack that I mention is a it's basically um uh the about 85% rules uh that's mainly apply uh to wine products in Europe so uh if you wanted to kind of call something uh some wine from somewhere then uh above 85% of the wine our grapes has to come from this region but in other words um you can 15% of the the grape can come from anywhere and if you kind of try to swap that sort of uh the uh sort of a um statement then you can effectively say that uh if 85 % was made in nowhere then
00:26:02 if 15% was made in somewhere then you can still call it um it was not made anywhere like bureaucratically so just kind of I'm that's that's kind of a bureaucratic have I'm trying to make and uh so actually my aim is actually more sticking to this 15 um% line of making then just to kind of then it sort of you can on paper say that you didn't make it sort of yeah that's the sort of then I do recommend renaming the concept because the the the unmaking can make a lot of people nervous not people in this audience I do believe people in
00:26:42 this audience are fine but people outside of this audience will get really like oh my God that's another Anarchist destroying my world uh which is stupid but that that's the life but I think that the creative distraction thing is is definitely something yeah I'm sorry so let's go on here yeah I'm a physical instructor with the background of Alexander technique and for me the idea of unmaking is more positive actually because uh Alexander had the idea that there's like the habit and there's also something that we do
00:27:18 involuntarily Hab habitually and there's the idea of like non-doing and undoing what you habitually do uh was this idea of the of of Habitual making something that uh came up into in in in your work um so I'm not familiar with the Alexander technique would would you be able to maybe like elaborate on this what it is uh it's a a kind of introspective uh psychophysical observation and with that you uh can find out about your like physical habits and uh if you discover the habits that you uh can go into the process of
00:28:05 undoing them or going into the non-doing of the making but for that you have to uh go through the process of discovering what is actually the Habit that creates this like continuously bringing you back in doing the same and producing the same and I think sometimes it's interesting to think about uh all our production that we do all this prod producing is also probably has the background of Habitual uh repetition and there's difficult to escape from going on making making making so that was interesting
00:28:40 for me but I think the qu the question what is behind is this SE habit that creates the repetition um yeah I mean the that's that's how I'm kind of trying to also sort of differentiate this concept from uh like recyc or reuse or upcycling in the way that sort of um well in my opinion like the those three concepts they typically kind of to uh copy and paste if if one finds something then just to kind of carry on doing the same method so like for example a good example it's like a a mushroom grown on the coffee waste or
00:29:20 something like that and just once find something and just to kind of do the copy and paste but I'm making and I'm kind of advocating trying to advocate is that the um basically kind of trying to make a one of a kind sort of object of one of kind process so of you know that's why the guy sort of trying to uh the um um make the uh creativity in avoiding production is like kind of you know key concept so um so yeah sort of a how you can sort of challenge yourself like in kind of not just kind of Scavenging
00:29:56 things from the streets but kind of new processes that maybe no one did it before and kind of stuff that so it's it's answering your question I'm not sure [Music] yeah so I just wanted to make sure I understood one uh portion correctly where you know unlike the whole is UN making good or bad or Anarchist versus capitalist type thing you're trying to prove a value in unmaking where those terms barely even apply because if you can find a value in the process of unmaking then people even entrepreneurs
00:30:32 and things will naturally move in that direction because there is value there is is that what I'm uh what you're saying am I understanding that correctly if you can find Value in that unmaking with the bracket system then people businesses all these things will naturally be moving in that direction which is both good for you know an from an ecological perspective but also from a human fulfillment and potentially even a business perspective I mean it's true but then uh already like businesses are
00:31:01 kind of trying to like more more or less superficially kind of trying to kind of show that they head towards this direction so a good example is like once I found this beer on the train in Germany uh where they stay that the um um it's made from it's kind of ticking sort of all the sort of all the points like um uh the uh sort of they they in this beer they actually make from waste bread instead of like not not all but just the part of it is made from waste breath and also kind of carbon neutral
00:31:34 and kind of all these pressing all buttons in a sense but then at the same time then I had a question why why then are you why why are you still them making it you know just the kind of of course if you wanted to businesses I'm already saying they have to kind of almost forc to say they forc to say that either like superficially or substantially that they're like making effort towards uh this direction of not making but then then my my question is that why then actually uh how can we really achieve the status of not making
00:32:05 because at at the end of the day they to me they still seems to be heading towards the direction of making but yes still yeah so they kind of kind of trying what I'm trying to do here is kind of trying to sort of flip the sort of that's why the the the uh the productivity argument comes in sort of somehow we need to kind of shift the productivity argument to to and the more you avoid production in a creative way the more value you making kind of you know then then you can sort of then at the moment still that how the um economy
00:32:40 functions and everything I think it's just all based on how um based on this like a time and motion study way of um thinking so just that the more you produce in a limited time frame the more productive you are we still kind of get rid of this thing so you know so that's that's what I'm trying to sort of uh do yeah uh hi I have a more free software perspective so free is as in Freedom and for instance if you take a like useful product like a flash programmer there is also another way to do it without
00:33:13 producing anything this is like writing software or documentation to do it with Hardware people already have does that kind of process fits into un making or what do you think about that um sorry um can you maybe basically you instead of producting uh Hardware uh you write software or documentation uh to do the same thing with Hardware people already have this means that uh for instance if people have microcontrollers will try to support as many of them uh to do a specific function and so people don't have to buy
00:33:53 the hardware to do this function but instead like install software on things they already have but it's more work and so on does that fit into the definition of unmaking or or not um in a sense yes but I think I see this more as a sort of uh es escaping for the virtuality but I'm what I'm trying to do is that the uh I'm still kind of trying to primarily deal with only materials and then trying to sort of achieve the same so maybe I I would maybe even ask the the the whole um sort of um if if you maybe should
00:34:33 have this function in the first place and maybe I decid not to do it or something like that and that might be more fitted to un making than sort of virtualizing the functions okay the the Assumption was that the function was useful OB thanks so much there is one more question in the back I'm sorry I need to get back to my thing about the name and naming because I'm I'm actually teaching on the two universities too by the way as a side job and they are kind of conservative one how do you want to surpass the
00:35:08 general problem of the human being of the risk uh Avers or sorry loss aversion because in the moment you create the unmaking and you call it unmaking that everybody's kind of afraid of losing things so how to maybe it's just in a naming or approach and I do want understand your concept I'm qu quite fine with that but how do you get over the monkeys in our heads uh well I I still haven't uh come up with the the way so that's why like it's still the kind of I'm making bracket around on I personally like the the Israeli
00:35:48 concept of creative destruction and it it's true is that when you go to Israel startup ecosystem I'm quite connected there it's it's it's working in a society true is you need a strong military to beat out of your hats the the the habits that's the unfortunate thing [Music]
Here's a structured summary of the talk, including key concepts, things to learn, and references:
Summary of the Talk: "Critical Making, Unmaking, and the Future of Making"
Speaker: Yosar Nishi (Inari)
Introduction
- The speaker, Yosar Nishi (also known as Inari), is a researcher currently pursuing a remote PhD in engineering while living between Japan and the Netherlands.
- The talk explores different "making" movements: Maker Movement, Critical Making, and Unmaking.
- Focuses on “Unmaking”, a concept that challenges conventional notions of productivity by arguing that avoiding production can be more productive and valuable than creating new things.
Key Concepts
1. Understanding Making, Critical Making, and Unmaking
Maker Movement (2005-2019)
- Encouraged DIY projects, fabrication, and innovation.
- Ended (or evolved) after the bankruptcy of Maker Media in 2019.
- Example project: Mind Over Melon (2012) – a brainwave-detecting device that could trigger an explosion in a watermelon.
Critical Making (2011 - Present)
- Coined by Matt Ratto (2011).
- Focuses on thinking through making rather than just creating objects.
- Explores the aesthetics of decay rather than striving for perfection.
- Example: Huggable Atomic Mushroom – a soft toy shaped like a nuclear explosion.
Unmaking (2020 - Present)
- Emerging from Critical Making but moving beyond it.
- Related to degrowth and anti-capitalist perspectives.
- More about creativity in avoiding production than mere recycling or reuse.
- Key focus in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research.
2. Historical Foundations of "Unmaking"
- Earlier usage: Initially used as "making and unmaking" in the sense of deconstructing and analyzing objects.
- Recent independent use: Since 2020, Unmaking has been studied as its own practice.
- Examples:
- Recycling 3D printing waste into reusable structures.
- Using electronic waste differently instead of discarding it.
3. Unmaking in Practice
- Unmaking objects found in Make Magazine:
- Eco Gym: Gym equipment made from discarded materials in rural Spain.
- Super Greenhouse: Built using plastic bottles.
- Stone Age Telegraph: A telegraph made using only materials from a forest.
- Bureaucratic Hacks for Unmaking:
- Example: 85% rule in wine production (EU regulation) → Applied to Unmaking: If 85% of a product is “not made” anywhere, can it still be classified as "unmade"?
4. Philosophical and Ecological Implications
- Inspired by Eco-anarchist principles (deep ecology).
- The only truly green product is one that is never produced.
- Example: Finding value in found materials (e.g., finding a hose on the street instead of buying a new one).
Things to Learn from This Talk
- Unmaking is not about doing nothing – it's about creativity in avoiding production.
- Rethinking Productivity – Instead of measuring productivity by how much we produce, measure by how much waste we avoid.
- "Found" vs. "Bought" – The act of discovering and repurposing materials has more value than purchasing newly produced items.
- Unmaking is not purely about efficiency – it can be inefficient but still valuable.
- Potential challenges – Public perception may resist "Unmaking" due to loss aversion and the bias toward creation.
References
- Matt Ratto (2011) – Critical Making (Paper introducing the term and concept).
- Garrett Hiles – "Critical Making Zine" – A key publication in the Critical Making movement.
- CHI Conference (2024) – Special issue on Unmaking in the journal TOCHI.
- Eco-Anarchist Thought (1990s) – "The only truly green product is one that is never produced."
- Make Magazine (Pre-2019 editions) – Documenting early maker movement projects.
- "Unmaking Electronic Waste" (2024) – Recent research on avoiding production in tech waste.
Discussion Points & Future Questions
- Material vs. Immaterial Unmaking: Can unmaking apply to services, software, and digital work, or is it mainly material-based?
- Cultural Roots of Unmaking: Many low-income communities have practiced forms of unmaking for centuries—how does this research connect with existing practices?
- Unmaking and Business: Can companies truly engage in unmaking, or will it always be superficial (e.g., "greenwashing")?
- The Problem of Naming: Should the concept be renamed to “Creative Reduction” or “Constructive Destruction” to avoid negative associations?
This summary captures the essence of the talk and provides structured points for further research and discussion. Let me know if you want to refine or expand on any section!