How to add Critical Thinking to your Making

*RC3 preroll music*

Herald: Hello, and welcome back on the
x-Hain stage at this very strange RC3. Now

on the second day and our next talk is by
aprica and Saad, we're going to talk about

how to add critical making to your
critical thinking to your making. And

there was a talk two years ago at 35 c3
when we're still able to meet in person,

which was also already talking about the
subject. And this now kind of as a follow

up. And they're going to talk about what
we can learn from critical makers and

other grassroot initiatives. Yes, the
stage is yours.

aprica: Thank you, Carl. Thank you so much
for hosting us here under the tree and

X-Hain. Well, maybe not so great to be
here and great to have you all watching in

the stream, and I hope next year we will
meet on the trees again and also not on

the trees and the at the rocket. So I'm
aprica . I'm part of the global innovation

gathering a big worldwide community that I
often describe as global erpha, which most

of the CCC- folks would know as a
Erfahrungsaustauschkreis. So knowledge

sharing and circle. And so we are also a
knowledge sharing circle, and I'm joined

by Saad, who was one of the amazing
members of the association and of the

network of gig from Singapore. And do you
want to quickly introduce yourself as

well?
Saad: Sure thing. I'm based in Singapore

normally, and last year we had a little
talk about with Regina and on critical

thinking and critical making, which was
actually quite phenomenal. The response

was really great. And who had a chance to
work on this, together with the other gig

members, members of the Global Innovation
Group, which is also part. So I'm very

happy to be with you a little bit of my
background. I'm a tech person. I run a

small startup in Singapore and I also help
with maker spaces and tech for good. And

I'm a huge coffee snob that that's me.
aprica: Other people would call it coffee

coffee geek. *both laughing*
Saab:That works too.

aprica: Nice. So I think some people now
in the stream also see our slides and we

are on the first slide. And on the second
slide, you would see a picture of an

actual stage and an actual Congress where
Regina and Saad last year defined

critical, making the topic rules two years
ago. It's basically yesterday like pre-

pandemic, but it's also 100 years ago,
right? So last time*laughs* you spoke

about the topic, you define it as adding
critical thinking to the making. And so we

arrive at critical making. And I guess
there's like 200 other definitions of

this. Which one did you share, Saad?
Saad: Making with a purpose, I think, is

the one that puts the best. The idea that
the skills and experience and knowledge

that have being applied towards something
that is constructive and meaningful, and

that means very different things to very
different people. So depending on the

context that you're in, the definition
changes quite dramatically by sort of

digging down into it, making with a
purpose, understanding what that purpose

is, rather than just using your 3D printer
for printing you over their heads all the

time, you think about how this could
actually help people with customization,

personalization, things like that. So
that's the that's the sort of thing that

definition, but I prefer to making with
the purpase.

aprica: Well, yeah, that's certainly one
of them. Yeah, very easy to understand

once. Also, it's also very academic
concept. And so everybody who's interested

in this whole concept and all and all the
different areas of critical making, we

highly recommend. I highly recommend
because speaking of this, I really

recommend to watch the talk by Regina and
Saad. It's like one hour long, and it will

give them very comprehensive and also
academic viewpoint of the topic. And today

I think we will focus more on, what
happened since then and what's beyond just

the not just beyond the concept. So to go
to the third slide, you see, this is one

of the pictures also shared in the talk
back then of the global innovation

gathering, when we also were still
gathering physically with the Big Blue

Mobile Lab. And I would love to go like
for two minutes into what's happened since

we gathered the last time. So what
happened during the pandemic in terms of

how? How did critical making evolve in
public perception during the time of the

pandemic? Saad, what would you say?
Saad: Well, I think we've seen a

phenomenal response, a global response
from makers to meet the needs of what the

pandemic has surfaced. I mean, I think
there's a phenomenal potential here in the

nature of this response. But if we
remember about a year or so ago and I

know, time is broken because of COVID, but
about a year or so ago, there was this

shortage of personal protective equipment,
PPE and people came forward in order to

try and help. And it wasn't just health
care workers, it wasn't just social

workers. It was anybody and everybody who
had skills or knowledge or experience,

tried to find a way to make themselves
useful. And this happening on a global

scale in response to something like the
personal shortage of PPE. Drew out a lot

of critical neighbors, as in makers who
were quite comfortable with how 3D

printers work or how maker spaces work,
and trying to apply that to a social need,

which I think is remarkable in itself. But
on a global scale, I think that that that

potential is phenomenal, that all of us
have had to find ways to adapt digitally

and go online and do things remotely. And
I really miss having a CCC in person, for

example, and the global innovation
gathering hasn't happened in person. So I

really do miss that and I'm looking
forward to a time where we're able to meet

in person again, trying to stay
optimistic, but with we're still not out

of it yet. The pandemic is still very much
something we're adapting to, something

that we're responding to. And to answer
your question, what's changed, I feel, is

that people are now more involved. People
who are normally sort of in their own

maker spaces bubble or in the tech bubble
or in the hacker space bubble are now more

involved and more engaged and recognized
for the skills to be relevant to a social

cause. So I think moving forward, I would
like to see us try and tap on that

potential as much as possible.
aprica: Yeah, definitely, and I mean, the

space we're in at the moment, the Ixion
can make space was like at the forefront

together with, of course, many other
spaces in Germany to produce such

protective equipment. And if you see
around around us now, you also see like

lots of figurines of, I don't know, Yoda
hats, for example, and many other things

that bring joy to making as well. And
that, for example, help to educate about,

which tools to use, for example. And then,
yeah, looking in what you're doing in

Singapore, was creating toys for children
with disabilities, which you also sharing

in the talk two years ago, where they can
interact with like big buttons instead of

like tiny, tiny things that they can't
really touch and interact with. That's

also bringing lots of joy. And it's not
only always to counter a pandemic, but it

was there before. And now I think it's
very, yeah, more in mainstream. Well, it

was for a time more arriving in mainstream
that this is really, yeah, a movement or

movements to follow and to contribute to
as well. So what we often do and this is

the next slide is we create a Horizon 2020
proposal for things we want to do. And so

this is my work actually to bring in
funding that lasts us for two and a half

years, for example, in this case, to
really further research, to collaborate

with researchers as a civil society
organization ourselves and to be able to

work together globally on a specific
project and on a specific topic. So in the

craziness of the beginning of the
pandemic, we found that critical making is

the one topic that is not very researched
and that we can contribute to as a network

and also connecting with Regina as part of
the two billion and other organizations

that you see here with Vicki Factory.
That's a global platform for makers to

share designs, for example, and to find a
community of other designers and makers

and the Center for Social Innovation in
Austria and also Vitt in Finland. So we've

produced this project together that got
finally accepted by the European Union,

which was really nice. And so we are now
thankful for getting support for the

research we're doing now in critical
making. So this was after after Congress

that we wrote this. And the main goal and
you see this on the next slide, is to help

make a communities to work with anyone to
contribute to open source innovation. And

so from this very complex like research
frameworks that Horizon 2020 is using,

like the responsible research and
innovation framework and others, we found

that it connects very well with values
that also we want to further contribute

to, like openness, like inclusion. And so
we selected a few of those. We selected

gender diversity, we selected young
talents. We call it because in such

proposals, you often have to use language
that speaks to the funder. And we also

selected openness as a very broad term,
also to research on. And today I would

like to show you a little bit of what's
already happened, because we're now at the

end of the first year of the project and
show you about what we're up to as well.

So to just give you a very tiny glimpse
into, what we did in the gender work

package, we work with different spaces,
different makers in several countries. And

in this case, I brought two examples of
case studies that will be published soon

about different spaces. The. One is Miss
Baltazar Laboratory and Austria, which I

highly recommend to check out. And then
there were like many different more and

also X-Hain. And of course, I need to show
that here as we are in X-Hain at the

moment. *laughs* And this is super nice
because of course, if you like think about

gender, many people would assume it's only
about like inclusion of women of girls in

maker spaces. But of course it's not. It's
like to have an understanding of the

multitude of genders and also like them to
to include everyone. Also have a nice

space for people identifying as male,
female and many other genders. And in this

case, it's just so nice also about X-Hain,
that they are not saying like we have

space for women or we have space for only
for a specific kind of nerd. But we want

to be very, very inclusive and very safe
for everyone. So that's just a very tiny

examples you will find online more in our
deliverables. We call it that. Yeah. The

reports that we have to hand in to the
European Union. And then after handing

them in, we take snippets out of these and
published them and a more like human

interaction formats, that people outside
of academia can also read better and watch

better. Than the next one I see in slide
nine is Yang Taelons, which basically make

about maker education for young people.
And there you already find online, and

that's the next slide. The review of
measures to integrate young people into

make a community. And then we looked
mostly only at Germany at the moment and

want to be creating this for other
countries as well. So if you're interested

in this part of the project, you can
already download like the full report, the

first one. But you can also reach out to
us and contribute to the next steps. And

then the part in the next slide openness,
which is the one that I want to be talking

a little bit more about, because that's
the one, where we're mostly working

together here. So for openness, you see in
the next slide, that was some academic

article now published, which is a
literature review on the openness

practices and which is like, very directed
for researchers, of course. But we're also

starting to make, yeah, like talks like
this about what was found out by our

colleagues, who were doing the literature
review. So in the next slide, you see a

little bit more accessible. What they
found is that openness, as probably all of

you also know, it's one of the core values
of global makeup movements. But as you

probably also all know, there are lots and
lots of different interpretations and ways

of practicing this. So we can speak about
open hardware, which is probably one of

the most obvious for many of the people
just watching this, because it's also

something we speak at Chaos Congress all
the time. So like sharing what you're

making and like open repositories, for
example, creating very easy tech like

frugal tech, customizing things. So that's
all integral part of open hardware. I

would say from then found other aspects
that are strong in the literature as well,

like openness can also be understood as
inclusion and empowerment of, for example,

of people with disabilities, but also
generally consumers or ethnic minorities.

So all different kinds of inclusions that
one could think of. It's probably like one

of the things, I think also a slick
hacker. Ethics is concerned, but. That is

maybe not always in our minds and then
also very important economic growth,

especially if we look at the global scale
of the maker movement. So that we have

open business models, for example, and
high innovation activities and. And the

field. And so this already shows also lots
of tension, so I would like to go to the

next slide, where you see the tensions
identified in the scientific literature.

So there's lots of tension between
different economic stances like people who

want to have their make up practice,
mostly for leisure purposes, mostly for

also capitalistic or anti capitalistic
purposes. So this is quite an important

tension to identify and also to to work
around. Then tensions arising from

different imagined areas of the future
role of making like, do you use it in a

revolutionary sense or in the sense that
contributes to the current status of the

capitalist system, for example? And then
also, of course, always that's maybe the

least important finding between individual
and collective orientations, where you

often have, like, What do I do? And what
is good for society is. Something that's

always important to to go forward with us
as a discussion. Yeah. So these are the

scientific findings from this article. Not
not all of them, of course. Please read

the article also has more in it. And do
you want to add something, Saad? You will

bring more examples of these different
tensions, I guess.

Saad: Yeah, I mean, I have my perspective
is always the sort of hands on learning by

example kind of approach. For the more
academic perspective, I turn to Regina and

people who are with the academic
community. So I won't I can't really speak

to that perspective. But, to add to what
you've already said, I think the the

nature of the work, at least from my
perspective, being all hands on does meet

a lot of resistance with these
restrictions, you the whole pandemic

situation. So I'm hoping that we are going
to see more examples of people coming

forward with a more constructive mindset
and the ability to share. Because we've

seen examples of this in response to the
pandemic, and some of that is now starting

to show up in people's mindset. And when
people who are normally not so engaged

with engineering, good, where I volunteer,
is depends entirely on volunteers. And

sometimes people show up like once a week,
once one weekend a month to volunteer, and

then they go back into their day to day
lives and we see them every now and again,

when they have the time. But in the last
few in the recent past, we've seen a

different kind of volunteer, a different
kind of mindset that they bring to their

work. And it seems a little bit more
motivated, I feel. And so the work, that

we've been doing in the past, this idea of
being open and to share and to be able to

look into other people's work and try and
replicate it, that aspect is starting to

get to be more welcomed by these
volunteers. It's not seen as an alien

idea. It's not like you have to sort of
like workshop it and get people

comfortable with this idea. And in Asian
cultures, that more of that is necessary,

I feel. But the remarkable difference, I
think. I don't know if this is just me,

but from what I've seen, the mindset has
shifted and people are more open to trying

new things and also sharing what they've
tried, rather than waiting until they get

to a point, that something works and then
they share it. So the process of that

they're going through is something that
you don't, at least with Asian

sensibilities, you tend not to share it.
You would think that it's not good enough

or it's not fully formed yet. So you tend
to keep it to yourself or just a few

people that you're working with and it
never gets documented. It never gets

shared. But I'm starting to see more
examples of that.

aprica: Yeah, I think that's not only
Asian. Asian problem *laughs*, but we have

it like everywhere that you have so many
projects or left foot products that people

create, that are like prototypes to a
certain stage and then you either don't

have time for it anymore or you just feel
like you can't finish it and it never gets

documented. So that's also one of the
issues. We found another identified when

we met in 2019 in Kenya and the crew. This
the global innovation gathering in the

like Work Workshop kind of conference, and
we came up with what is shared on the next

slide. The principles of sustainable
making and sustainable is not only

environmentally, but also, what you would
call maybe responsible or with purpose. So

do you want to share a little bit more
about that?

Saad: With the process behind? This was
mind boggling to me. The sort of energy

that was in the room at the time, when we
were discussing this was sort of, for me,

at least very hard to keep up with. And
the challenge was to try and encapsulate

what that sort of very diverse
perspectives that were coming in all at

the same time, because with the global
innovation gathering and many other groups

of that sort. There's a lot of diversity
and the nature of the people who are

working on maker spaces and co-working
spaces are sort of enterprise type of

ecosystems or hackerspaces. They're very
socially engaged and it tends to be in

response to the local environment in which
they exist. So the learnings and the sort

of mindset that they have and they bring
to this, this particular topic, that we're

talking about unlocked a whole world of
opinions and perspectives. And all of that

was flooding in and to this room after
having gone through the sort of ice

breaking thing, it was all just pouring in
and it was very difficult to sort of sort

out what was happening. So the process was
a mess. And if you look at the image now,

it's very neat and clean and tidy. But I
feel every single aspect of what's being

portrayed here is a representation of this
diversity in an international on a global

scale, and all of this was just before the
pandemic and the idea of this of this

global perspective, bringing it through
times of crisis, I think is phenomenal. I

mean, I could go on and on and Typekit,
but that's just what I think at the point.

aprica: Thank you, and yeah, I also feel
it's phenomenal, and we try to replicate

this kind of. Yeah. Sessions and workshops
online and to have big whiteboards

together. But yeah, I'm very happy that we
also got to build this still in person.

And so we came up with these five
principles of integrate local knowledge of

make things that make sense, of share how
you make like that's one of the openness

factors, of course, build for continuity
and also include ecosystem services. So

look around you and look what's already
there and also contribute back to what's

around you. And based on these and what we
already talked about in particular making.

We built this project. And while I was
away for three months and didn't look at

any email and recharged this year, the
project team also updated this for our

project, so that we now look at being
local and connected. Have like a social

background and what you're doing at the
criticality. So be reflexive, have an

impact and change structures and adding to
it the joyful and meaningful. But we

didn't found and our principles PAC Man,
which is we of course, always think that's

part of it, hopefully.*laughes* So adding
some glitter is always necessary. So this

from that slide is, what we're now working
with and the critical making principles,

basically, and we are also building upon
it in the next steps of the project. So I

would like to share, what we're now
working on in the next few months, which

is on the next slide. The Critical Making
Mentoring program, which is to be starting

to have an open call in January or early
February. And then we'll go through four

will go on for the whole year. So on the
next slide, you see, why are we doing

this? We did like a small survey within
our own circles and again found, that

openness also for everybody in the global
innovation gathering community is very

important value, which we knew, but it's
nice to see it again. And then also the

economic opportunities of making all very
important. So we're thinking about lower

income countries sometimes. But also if
you look at high income countries, there's

so many volunteer projects like projects
are doing in your free time that in the

end you would like to find somehow a way
to further work on them. And what is

possible without any like economic
background to add to it? And then also

inclusion was recognized as an important
topic like including, for example, people

with lower technical skills and also, for
example, having making more accessible for

people with disabilities. So we're looking
at that. And on the next slide, you see,

I'm trying to live up to the value of
sharing early, like one of those online

mind boards of like forts of seeing, what
we want to be doing in the year in this

project. where we're having mentoring
workshops throughout the summer and we

will hopefully in the end have an amazing
demo week or demo day, where we also give

a reward for people who participate in it.
And we're still in this last phase of co-

designing that program to prepare the open
call. So I'm inviting you for watching now

already to watch our space, to maybe apply
for the program or share it also with

others who could be interested in it. And
last but not least, I would like to share

a few tools and. Resources, whereas
currently assembling. So one of the things

we're preparing for the next two months, I
think, is toolkits for researchers and

filmmakers. And you see on the next slide
one example of a tool for makers, to learn

about open hardware, and I hope you all
know this already. But if not, check out

this open hardware makers program. It's an
amazing resource to learn like the basics

of open hardware. We collected, you see on
the next slide, lots and lots of different

resources for people to look at. And this
is just the first page of a long list,

that we want to publish in the next weeks
for people to look at and to add to. And

then the last bit I want to be sharing is
the self-reflection as a slider tool. And

this is what you find on the slider tool
page, where we also look at the different

categories of the principles and where we
use this tool once we start with the

mentoring program for people to just
reflect back on their own making on their

own projects and where we have the idea
that this would be like a like a game and

Saad, you created that idea together with
a few other people also in Singapore to

just have like a needle to spin. And then
you don't always answer it and the same

like one after the other question, but you
can really make it also a little bit more

fun. So on the next page, you see how this
was created, also from masi slides back

back, when we were meeting in person. So
how it evolved and on the next slide, you

see some guiding cards, that should help
you to actually think about what to ask

yourself like. How do you think about what
makes sense or how do you think about

being self-sustainable and to to share a
few questions around this? So you have

like a card game that you can have and you
maker space and you can make a workshop

around it and work with other people in
the maker space to speak about that. So,

and then on the last page, you see how to
follow the project and how to contribute

to it also in the wiki factory community
and where we will also be launching the

calls on these platforms very soon in the
next year, which is basically tomorrow.

*both are laughing* And if you're watching
this in January, it's maybe already there

in February. So now I would say call can
come back.

Herald: Yes. Thank you very much for the
talk. And before now, we have a few more

minutes for a quick Q&A session. And
before we start that, I want to remind the

viewers and listeners that you can ask
questions for this talk using Twitter and

Mastodon using the hashtag ac3xhain.
That's rc3xhain. And you can also ask

questions on IRC on Hekint and using the
Channel RC3-XHain. And we already got a

few questions in, and many of them are
asking, where they can find more

information. So you already showed the
link just now is everything you talked

about can be found on there, I think?
aprica: Not everything is published yet.

Many of the things I just showed are also
still a work in progress. And if somebody

is like, eager to have it immediately, we
can of course share like our internal

boards with people, but otherwise we
always like continuously publish things on

the website to to find. Yeah.
Herald: OK. So the people just have to

follow you on Twitter and look at your
website and reach out directly to you. And

then the next question I got here was What
is frugal tech, exactly?

aprica: Saad, do you want to answer that?
*both are laughing*

Saad: It's an interesting question. I
mean, if depending on who you ask, it'll

probably get co-opted as a new buzzword or
a hashtag, especially if you talk to the

voice of venture capital and sort of
world. But the way I see it is sort of

like borrowing from the disruptive mindset
where you look at what is available in the

marketplace and find a lower cost
alternative for it. And when you look at

the assistive tech marketplace, when you
work with persons with disabilities and

you look at the devices that are
available, they suffer from high prices

because of supply and demand. And you have
a fairly small, relatively small market

and the cost of production of a
specialized device is quite high. So the

products that you find in the assistive
tech marketplace tend to be very

expensive. And when you look at it, it
could be as simple as just like a button,

which you just press the button and
something happens and the button itself

costs like sixty five dollars. And it
doesn't quite make sense to me that this

is a good thing, but that is what you will
find in the marketplace. So to answer the

question. I think frugal tech or frugal
innovation is to sort of think outside the

box of the normal, or at least the
established workflow of making a product

that is this expensive to take the end
price or the user perspective as the

starting point and then figure out the
value chain from behind it are the cost of

production from from that point on with an
inner makerspace that happens all the

time. You are working with things that
you're not entirely sure of. So instead of

starting with something really, really
expensive, you start with something that

is cheap and cheerful, something that you
can have lots of. If you break one, that's

OK, you can always try it on another one.
And then when you're confident with that,

you translate what you've learned into
something that's a little bit expensive.

So that I think Approach speaks to, I
think, what people are calling now frugal

tech or frugal innovation.
aprica: Oh, my very short answer would

have been that just low cost, because
that's the easiest I would be able to come

up with, but that's way more colorful now.
I hope for everybody. *laugh*

Herald: Yes, and thank you for the great
explanation. The next question we have is

how does this movement or how do you
include people who are not that interested

in politics or the political side of
making and just want to build cool stuff?

*both laughing*
aprica: How do you do that in Singapore?

Well, it's very easy because, you know,
the political scene in Singapore is quite,

how shall we put this? Not very exciting.
And I don't really care much for politics

either. Whether it be like, you know, at
the government level, our internal

politics within large companies, I just I
just don't have the mental capacity for

wrap my head around that. So I really like
to just do things. And I find that with a

physical thing, it's easier to talk about
something. It sort of crystallizes what

your your ideas are, even if the thing is
made out of Post-it notes or cardboard or,

you know, cable ties and duct tape. It
just having that little physical, tangible

prototype helps focus the attention on the
thing that you're trying to solve. So the

conversation I find becomes solution
oriented rather than ideological process

or about manufacturing principles or
design ideologies or even good ones. So I

find that it's not I mean, it didn't work
all the time, but having something

tangible really helps to sort of bring
that point back to the solution that

you're talking about.
aprica: Yeah, yeah. And adding to that,

there's always like so many different
levels of politics. So maybe you're not

interested in global or national or
whatever politics, but you're still

interested to help your own community
around you. So if you look at, I don't

know, sensors for airquality or if you
look at providing free public Wi-Fi for

people or all these things are very
political in one way and very much not

very political in another way, like
depending on how you want to look at them.

So. So I think there will be like areas to
contribute for anyone, like whether it's

for their own grandma or whether it's for
like a whole school class. In the end,

that's not so important.
Herald: OK. Very interesting. So I think

now our time for Q&A is almost over. So I
want to thank both of you again for having

this really interesting talk here at our
X-Hain stage. And I want to thank all of

you us for watching. And our next talk
will happen in a bit more than an hour at

16:00. It's the car's audio. It's 407
reverse engineering kochen, nähen break

points, and I hope we'll see you all
there.

aprica: And maybe I'm sorry, Tony
commercial if you're still there. Go to

the open hardware. Happy hour and also go
to on the last day to the prototype and

hardware announcements. So don't miss
that.

*RC3 postroll music*

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