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Love to tinker? Do it yourself?
The Maker Faire gets underway October 20 in Austin, Texas, and it’s a
two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset, including Swap-O-Rama-Rama, the King of Fling Catapult Competition, and Edible Austin’s DIY Food
Sherry Huss is the Director of the Maker Faire. She’ll be on Spark October 17 and 20th, but you can download the full interview now.
What’s the last thing you DIY’d?
the last thing i diy’d was some bags i made from thrifted and remnanted materials. i’m now working on making bags from raincoats and leather jackets.
i like constructing some thing new and desirable from something old and cast off. i think being able to build something with my own hands (or sewing machine as it were) is really valuable. it gives me a real sense of what goes into the prodution of the endless array of objects that surround us (http://www.ehponline.org/members/2007/115-9/focus.html), but it compels me figure out how to do it better. myself.
i am also learing how to knit. but it still involves more cursing than actual scarves or mittens.
thanks for stopping by my blog!
xs
It’s interesting how reworked/repurposed is becoming a trend in the fashion world. There are lots of young designers now making clothes out of broken down and restitched clothes. It reminds me of the “trash luxe” design we talked about on the last episode of the show.
I have a long term DIY relationship with technology. As I listen to all the discussion around the wonders of technology and the promise, I must confess to having a little private chuckle. Like a surprising amount of people, I basically overexposed myself to electromagnetics and developed electrosensitivity, an increasingly diagnosed disability (recognized by a recent Canadian Human Rights Commission report) affecting more Canadians than you might expect. The upshot is I can’t be near cell phones, cell phone towers, wireless networks, etc without experiencing a whack of nasty symptoms. I have connected with lots of folks in Canada who live with the same situation. Our community has had to become particularly inventinve around our use of teachnology to communicate, but also to simply survive in the wireless age.
Let me be clear: this doesn’t mean I’m anti-technology, I just think we have to use fiber optics more, and use other biocompatible technologies to communicate. See http://www.bioinitiative.org for the thousands of peer reviewed studies showing health effects of current levels of technology, this report has recently encouraged the German government, the EU and Canada’s Green party to call for drastically reduced levels of exposure. For example, Broad Band over Powerline that you discussed today would massively increase levels of exposure.
But I digress, my DIY is ongoing: at the moment I’m writing to you 15 feet from my computer, which is attached to a data projector: I can’t be near the computer, even when the wireless card is turned off. However, I’m a university professor, and so have to stay in touch with my students, pursue research projects, etc.
I’ve also had to live in an unheated trailer (can’t be wired with electricity even) in the woods away from cell towers for 18 months, basically launched from the wireless age straight back to the stone age in terms of technology and DIY. I use various types of radio and microwave shielding fabrics in clothing (see http://www.lessemf.com and other sites).
Unlike many folks interested in the democratization of the internet through wireless expansion, I use a variety of expensive meters to help me avoid these locations like the plague.
I really think it would be interesting for SPARK to explore this issue of how technology affects us on an organismic level, and discuss how future technologies might be less invasive on a biophysical level.
I have contacts with lots of other Canadian electrosensitives, as well as Canadian researchers and doctors who can discuss this with you. Of course, at this stage of awareness, most authorities are going to tell you that current levels are safe and that people such as myself are inventing things, but I have a PhD (although I certainly know some people with advanced degrees who are a little mad, so perhaps that’s no proof!) and happen to love technology, apparently so much so that my love affair has fallen apart quite dramatically!
Very best
David
Hi David,
I'm in Ontario and pretty sure I have ES/EHS as well. I'm trying to find a medical doctor here in Ottawa Canada who is familiar with this condition and the research and testing supportive of the identification. I've also e-mailed the Human Rights Commission and still haven't heard back. Any suggestions?
David in Ottawa.