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INTRODUCTION
As with most subcultural phenomena coopted by the mainstream, the term "DIY" has been exploited to the point of mediocrity by advertising agencies and corporate profiteers. Walk into any corporate chain hardware store and you'll be bombarded by a DIY that has become a hollow, menacing mockery of the fervent DIY ethos that fuels much of the subcultural underground. Let me make it clear from the very beginning that when we speak of DIY in this book, we speak of a spirit of action that will never be found in, on, or near any Lowes, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Home and Garden Channel, or DIY Network.
There is an obvious hunger for DIY, how-to information. So many people are dissatisfied with what our contemporary situation has to offer and are searching for practical, viable, and sustainable alternatives to this mess of a world we live in. I, too, find myself yearning for some sort of blueprint for a better world. That's why this book came to be.
A number of years ago I became more and more interested in making my life less dependant on the agendas of others. I wanted to be free from any reliance on corporations, the government, or anyone else who wanted to tell me what to do or how' to live my life. I wanted to find ways to do things myself so I didn't have to rely on these entities and so that my friends and I could take care of everything we wanted and needed ourselves, on our own terms.
I was an avid reader and collector of zines. The underground from which these zines emanated was, and still is, teeming with a passionate DIY spirit that was extremely attractive to me. I began collecting any and all DIY info that I came across in the zines I read. Anything I found that gave me clues toward living a more DIY lifestyle, or that contained how-to advice or tips of any kind, made it into my ever-growing pile of photocopies. Eventually I had amassed quite a stack of articles on a wide range of subjects: gardening, cooking, fixing things, making stuff, doing tilings, etc. I decided to republish all of these articles in order to spread this amazing wealth of information and hopefully inspire a vast underground army of DIY pioneers who would take die ideas and put them into action. I put the articles together and published them as the How2Zine. Many of the articles contained in this book came from diis zine collection.
At the same time that I was working on the How2Zine, a group of people at Tree of Knowledge Distro were putting together their own collection of DIY articles that they were hoping to publish in book form. Unfortunately, the Tree of Knowledge DIY book never came to completion, and though they had collected many submissions for inclusion in their book, none of them ever saw print. But now, thanks to the kindness and generosity of Tree of Knowledge, these submissions were passed on to me for inclusion in Making Stuff and Doing Things. I owe much thanks to Tree of Knowledge and, more specifically, John Gerken, for passing on so much great information.
This book is an amazing example of folk knowledge. The information contained in these articles is written, not by experts, but instead by ordinary, everyday people. The facts may not always be right, the science may not be exact, but the spirit is true and alive. Folk knowledge passes from person to person, from place to place, from generation to generation, and on through history in a way that no textbook could ever match. Sure it may be rough, poorly edited, riddled with mistakes, and sometimes contain questionable advice, but this is real knowledge about real people living real lives. Despite any flaw's, this book is a testament to the ingenuity and creativity of regular people.
Because of the long journey many of the articles in this book have taken - passing through many hands and much time - some of the original authors' names have been lost in the process. I made a significant effort to track down every author, but unfortunately not all of them were to be found. Also, because of the transient nature of the underground from which these articles came, many of die authors whose names were known were still unable to be located. I want to give credit where credit is due, so if you, or someone you know authored any of die articles in this book and have not been credited, please get in touch. In the end, the decision was made to include certain articles even if their authors could not be found. I decided it's more important to include quality information in die book than to worry about squabbles over authorship. This book is about sharing knowledge and information that belongs to everyone, not restricting it.
I hope that this book inspires, excites, and ignites fires of passion in the hearts of its readers. But most of all I hope it leads to action. There are so many positive steps we can take to change this world of ours, and this book only contains a few of them. It's up to us to discover the rest. Together, we can do it ourselves.
Kyle Bravo
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Excerpted from "Making Stuff and Doing Things"
by .
Copyright © 2012 Kyle Bravo.
Excerpted by permission of Microcosm Publishing.
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