Art + DIY Electronics
A systematic theory of DIY electronic culture, drawn from a century of artists who have independently built creative technologies.

Since the rise of Arduino and 3D printing in the mid-2000s, do-it-yourself approaches to the creative exploration of technology have surged in popularity. But the maker movement is not new: it is a historically significant practice in contemporary art and design. This book documents, tracks, and identifies a hundred years of innovative DIY technology practices, illustrating how the maker movement is a continuation of a long-standing creative electronic subculture. Through this comprehensive exploration, Garnet Hertz develops a theory and language of creative DIY electronics, drawing from diverse examples of contemporary art, including work from renowned electronic artists such as Nam June Paik and such art collectives as Survival Research Laboratories and the Barbie Liberation Front.

Hertz uncovers the defining elements of electronic DIY culture, which often works with limited resources to bring new life to obsolete objects while engaging in a critical dialogue with consumer capitalism. Whether hacking blackboxed technologies or deploying culture jamming techniques to critique commercial labor practices or gender norms, the artists have found creative ways to make personal and political statements through creative technologies. The wide range of innovative works and practices profiled in Art + DIY Electronics form a general framework for DIY culture and help inspire readers to get creative with their own adaptations, fabrications, and reimaginations of everyday technologies.
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Art + DIY Electronics
A systematic theory of DIY electronic culture, drawn from a century of artists who have independently built creative technologies.

Since the rise of Arduino and 3D printing in the mid-2000s, do-it-yourself approaches to the creative exploration of technology have surged in popularity. But the maker movement is not new: it is a historically significant practice in contemporary art and design. This book documents, tracks, and identifies a hundred years of innovative DIY technology practices, illustrating how the maker movement is a continuation of a long-standing creative electronic subculture. Through this comprehensive exploration, Garnet Hertz develops a theory and language of creative DIY electronics, drawing from diverse examples of contemporary art, including work from renowned electronic artists such as Nam June Paik and such art collectives as Survival Research Laboratories and the Barbie Liberation Front.

Hertz uncovers the defining elements of electronic DIY culture, which often works with limited resources to bring new life to obsolete objects while engaging in a critical dialogue with consumer capitalism. Whether hacking blackboxed technologies or deploying culture jamming techniques to critique commercial labor practices or gender norms, the artists have found creative ways to make personal and political statements through creative technologies. The wide range of innovative works and practices profiled in Art + DIY Electronics form a general framework for DIY culture and help inspire readers to get creative with their own adaptations, fabrications, and reimaginations of everyday technologies.
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Art + DIY Electronics

Art + DIY Electronics

by Garnet Hertz
Art + DIY Electronics

Art + DIY Electronics

by Garnet Hertz

Paperback

$45.00 
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Overview

A systematic theory of DIY electronic culture, drawn from a century of artists who have independently built creative technologies.

Since the rise of Arduino and 3D printing in the mid-2000s, do-it-yourself approaches to the creative exploration of technology have surged in popularity. But the maker movement is not new: it is a historically significant practice in contemporary art and design. This book documents, tracks, and identifies a hundred years of innovative DIY technology practices, illustrating how the maker movement is a continuation of a long-standing creative electronic subculture. Through this comprehensive exploration, Garnet Hertz develops a theory and language of creative DIY electronics, drawing from diverse examples of contemporary art, including work from renowned electronic artists such as Nam June Paik and such art collectives as Survival Research Laboratories and the Barbie Liberation Front.

Hertz uncovers the defining elements of electronic DIY culture, which often works with limited resources to bring new life to obsolete objects while engaging in a critical dialogue with consumer capitalism. Whether hacking blackboxed technologies or deploying culture jamming techniques to critique commercial labor practices or gender norms, the artists have found creative ways to make personal and political statements through creative technologies. The wide range of innovative works and practices profiled in Art + DIY Electronics form a general framework for DIY culture and help inspire readers to get creative with their own adaptations, fabrications, and reimaginations of everyday technologies.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780262044936
Publisher: MIT Press
Publication date: 05/30/2023
Pages: 344
Product dimensions: 6.05(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Garnet Hertz is Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Arts and Associate Professor of Design at Emily Carr University. The recipient of a Fulbright and the Oscar Signorini Award in robotic art, he has exhibited his work in eighteen countries and been profiled by such media outlets as CNN, NPR, and Wired.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi
Beginnings An Introduction to the DIY Mindset 1
0.1 A History of Electronic Art in the Twentieth Century 21
0.2 A Definition of DIY: Do + It + Yourself 43
Theme 1 Frugal Innovations 61
1.1 Frugality and the Demanufacturing Machine: Zombie Technology, Bricolage, and Hype Cycles 67
1.2 Frugality and Telephonic Arm-Wrestling: Jugaad, Finances, and Function 83
1.3 Frugality and the Toaster Project: Technical Disorientation, Device Paradigms, and Highlowness 97
Theme 2 Exploring Technologies 109
2.1 Exploration and the Incantor: Bending Circuits, Depunctualization, and Unblackboxing 119
2.2 Exploration and Wire Figures: Technologies, Interactivity, and Radio Shack Cybernetics 133
2.3 Exploration and 20 Oscillators in 20 Minutes: Technological Performance, Hedonization, and the Thrill of Impending Failure 145
Theme 3 Building Identities 155
3.1 Identity and Taratter MI-03: Device Art, Chindogu, and Alternative Presents 161
3.2 Identity and the Barbie Liberation Organization: Culture Jamming, Technical Detournement, and Mediagenics 173
3.3 Identity and the Stock Market Skirt: Gender, Telerobotics, and Clothing as Conversation 185
Theme 4 Anti-institutional Disobedience 199
4.1 Disobedience and Robot K-456: Wabi-sabi, Electronic Arte Povera, and Beautiful Mistakes 209
4.2 Disobedience and Hairbrain 2000: Burlesque Technologies, Highlowness, and Neoretroism 221
4.3 Disobedience and Feral Robotic Dogs: Hardware Activism, Communities, and Planned Obsolescence 235
Theme 5 Selling Out and Graffitiwriter 245
Conclusions The DIY Mindset 259
Notes 269
Index 309

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This was so fun to read, especially for an academic book. Hertz’s punk/hacker/kludge perspectives provide a truly fascinating and valuable ride through the history of the DIY scene. Read it and be inspired!”
—Mitch Altman, Hacker and Inventor; Cofounder, Noisebridge Hackerspace

“In this groundbreaking study, Hertz argues that the DIY electronic artists who 'kludge' their own technologies constitute an important artistic countercultural practice that is an urgent response to the escalating failures of our technological infrastructures.”
—Tina Rivers Ryan, Curator, Buffalo AKG Art Museum; Co-curator of Difference Machines: Technology and Identity in Contemporary Art

“A ‘DIY Native’ who has been perverting technological correctness since 1996, Hertz is the ideal guide for connecting art and DIY culture. This book is a treasure trove of ideas and a joy to read.”
—Edward Shanken, Professor, UC Santa Cruz; author of Art and Electronic Media

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