A feminist Maker's Movement picks up threads from many women's practices across time and space. The digital amid fibers can be as old at the Andean khipu, an ancient recording device of knots and threads, and as recent as making your own Lilypad arduino wearable, sewn from electronic pieces. Practice and play are learning at its most immersive and important, recognized today as pivotal to adult thinking processes in making, feeling, sharing, and changing the world.
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LAYER IT ALL!
textiles => computers and digital culture
food => climate change and alternative economies
draw => making practices and the neurobiology of learning
stories => social change and community making
games => techno-trickery and the critical role of fun
screens and role play => infrastructure and new materialties
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Each of the books for the course is a knot in a complexity of networks and systems. It is these networks we are studying and that enable our FEMINIST MAKING. The words and pages and pictures and videos and websites and more are all what we work with in this class, not just books. Notice all the formats you can obtain books in as well. Please share your materials, knowledges, visions, and friendship.
REQUIRED BOOKS
• Corbett. 2013. Little Book of Craftivism. Perseus. Paper ISBN: 978190871407
=Companion, Craftivist Collective Website: https://craftivist-collective.com/our-story/
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=Companion Website: http://sewelectric.org/about/
LilyPad Arduino Website: http://lilypadarduino.org
SparkFun Electronics: https://www.sparkfun.com
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• Panjwani. 2016. Start Making!: A Guide to Engaging Young People in Maker Activities. Maker Media. Paper ISBN: 9781457187919 Kindle ASIN: B01DWWVEX4
=The Clubhouse Network: http://www.computerclubhouse.org
Make magazine website: http://makezine.com
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• Reed. 2005. The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets of Seattle. Minnesota. Paper ISBN: 9780816637713 Kindle ASIN: B0043XYNGW
=Companion websites: http://art-of-protest.net/tvreedhome.html
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RECOMMENDED BOOKS
• Brown. 2015. The Doodle Revolution. Peng Rand. Paper ISBN: 9781591847038
=Companion website: http://sunnibrown.com/doodlerevolution/
TED talk: https://www.ted.com/speakers/sunni_brown
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• Imarisha 2015. Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. AK Press. Paper ISBN: 9781849352093 Kindle ASIN: B00USBMIOC Audible Audio: ASIN: B01DPSB46M
=Companion website: http://octaviasbrood.com
Xenogenesis Suite: A Musical Tribute to Octavia E. Butler: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2587152
Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower: the Concert Version: http://publictheater.org/tickets/calendar/playdetailscollection/utr-2015/parable-of-the-sower/
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• Bechdel. 2013. Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Paper ISBN: 9780544002234 Kindle ASIN: B005LVR75Y
=Author website: http://dykestowatchoutfor.com
Fun Home on Broadway: http://funhomebroadway.com
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From Barry. 2014. Syllabus. Drawn & Quarterly. p. 56.
https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/syllabus
ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS WE BEGIN WITH THE FIRST LAYERING OF NETWORKS AND SYSTEMS, PRACTICES OF MAKING, AND FEMINIST MEANINGS AND CARES:
wonder about and reflect on this first layer as we make a drop spindle and consider women's work.
textiles => computers and digital culture
how do textiles lead into computers and digital culture? what do you already know about this? what makes this a curious layering? how are you already involved in this somehow?
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Read the story at this link and be prepared to discuss it on the first day of class:
(Also note the embedded book at the bottom, investigate the book as possible offered this way, and read as much of it as you can, also in order to discuss.)
http://www.leafcutterdesigns.com/blog/subversive-spinning
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On the first day of class we will begin making by creating a CD Drop Spindle. (The materials for this will be available in class on the first day and we will do this first thing as we arrive in class. Please be on time!)
http://www.worldinaspin.com/articles/cd_drop_spindle
http://glennaharris.org/pdf/CD_Drop_Spindle_Spinning.pdf
http://www.albc-usa.org/EducationalResources/NATonline/pdf/SpindlePhotoEssay.pdf
http://www.aitc.ca/bc/uploads/resources/Inspired%20By%20A%20Smelly%20Sweater.pdf
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Read as much of this book below as you can in this embedded format. How can you find out more about this book too? Be prepared to discuss in class.
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Barber. 1994. Women's Work: the first 20,000 years. Norton.
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>>FIRST LAYER: TEXTILES ⇒ DIGITAL CULTURES
Thursday, Sept 1 – Welcome to Making! The fun of learning in multiple modes…. The fun of changing worlds.
ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS WE BEGIN WITH THE FIRST LAYERING OF NETWORKS AND SYSTEMS, PRACTICES OF MAKING, AND FEMINIST MEANINGS AND CARES:
>BEFORE CLASS:
• EXPLORE CLASS WEBSITE CAREFULLY! NOTE HOW TO PREPARE FOR OUR FIRST CLASS! http://wmstmake.blogspot.com
• WEB ASSIGNMENT: Redmond, L. 2014. "Subversive Spinning." On Made by Lea Blog. Leafcutter Designs. http://www.leafcutterdesigns.com/blog/subversive-spinning
• READ: Embedded excerpt from Barber. 1994. Women's Work: the first 20,000 years. Norton.
Embedded on course website <Home> tab. Free Scribd Mobile app: http://www.scribd.com/about
>IN CLASS:
• HANDED OUT: Syllabus, Info Sheet
• MAKING 1: 5 min. Attendance Portraits (Barry. 2014. Syllabus. Drawn & Quarterly. p. 56.) https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/syllabus
• MAKING 2: On the first day of class we will begin making by creating a CD Drop Spindle. (The materials for this will be available in class on the first day and we will do this first thing as we arrive in class. Please be on time!)
http://www.worldinaspin.com/articles/cd_drop_spindle
http://glennaharris.org/pdf/CD_Drop_Spindle_Spinning.pdf
http://www.albc-usa.org/EducationalResources/NATonline/pdf/SpindlePhotoEssay.pdf
http://www.aitc.ca/bc/uploads/resources/Inspired%20By%20A%20Smelly%20Sweater.pdf
• CLASS BUDDIES, CLASS WEBSITE, SMART PHONES?
• Intro to course texts. Bring all the books you have so far!
We will start off with our first MAKING & PROTOTYPING practices: Taking Attendance with Index Portraits, a exercise drawn and played with by cartoonist Lynda Barry. We then move into the second one: making CD drop spindles and beginning to spin using them. Wonder about and reflect on this first layer as we make a drop spindle and consider women's work. You should have already done some reading to think about WHILE you MAKE!
We will also read, interconnect, and discuss the Redmond blog post and talk together about the embedded excerpt from Barber's Women's Work. We will discuss the layers of the class, and take up the first one: textiles => computers and digital culture. How do textiles lead into computers and digital culture? what do you already know about this? what makes this a curious layering? how are you already involved in this somehow?
We will explore all our class texts and the possibilities for recommended reading, making, doing.
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