Museum Making: Creating with Emerging Technologies
This paper introduces the rise of participatory maker culture in museum spaces in the context of the inextricable connections between maker culture, hacker culture, and art culture. I found this analysis to be very interesting, as all three are integral to my dorm East Campus’s culture as well as the broader MIT culture. The paper argues that while hacker and art cultures are subversive and countercultural, maker culture is more aligned with the mainstream rhetoric on “STEM education” and “technological innovation.” I’ve always associated museums with the mainstream, as museums get to decide what art is worthy of being showcased and what is not. But I guess this qualification is evolving to include more provocative pieces and voices. This push and pull between the mainstream and the countercultural in a museum setting could foster a similar push and pull between the visitor and exhibit, encouraging the combination of “divergent” and “convergent” thinking that John Maeda champions as the recipe for innovation.