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Adrian McEwen

This is a really interesting reflection on The Exhibition of People's Technology, 1972. Packed full of nuggets of wisdom over what the Alternative Technology folk got wrong back then, or what they tried that sort-of worked and why it wasn't a good answer.

It should be required reading for modern makers, particularly those looking to making to help with climate and/or equitable society.

zenodo.org/record/7336065#.ZBF

via @ckohtala

ZenodoThe Exhibition of People's Technology, 1972At the periphery of the landmark June 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE) in Stockholm, in the Skeppsholmen Annexe of the Moderna Museet, the Exhibition of People’s Technology proposed that environmental crises could be addressed through the low-tech solutions of alternative technology. Alternative Technology (AT) was a term in use since the eponymous conference at the Bartlett School of Architecture the previous February. It was a de-industrialising movement which extolled the small-scale, decentralised, labour-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally sound and locally controlled. One of a number of UNCHE fringe events sponsored by the Swedish “PowWow” group, the Exhibition of People’s Technology was organised by the UK editors of a new magazine Undercurrents: The Journal of Radical Science and People’s Technology, launched that same year.1 In 1976, its founder Godfrey Boyle co-edited a major and widely read survey of alternative technology, Radical Technology, with Peter Harper, to whom the term “alternative technology” is attributed (Boyle/Harper 1976). Harper, a student of biology and experimental psychology, was a key organiser of the Exhibition of People’s Technology and in 1983 joined the pivotal Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales, of which he had been a frequent visitor and occasional teacher since 1974.2 This article begins with Harper’s recollections of the exhibition and then moves to a record and discussion by Harper of its contents. It concludes with a more free-ranging conversation between Harper and design historian Simon Sadler about the exhibition’s philosophical and scientific context and implications, transcribed by Iris Xie. 
#Maker#MakerMovement#AlternativeTechnology
Mar 19, 2023, 11:11 AM·Public·Web
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Adrian McEwen

I'm somewhat heartened to see that two of their mistakes were to aim for labour-intensive solutions, and not to realise that the Arts and Crafts approach is only a solution for the well-off; given that they're parts that felt like mistakes to me. Not that I've yet worked out (or proven at least) quite what the alternative is.

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Adrian McEwen

It would be good to capture my current thinking about all of this.

Re-reading mcqn.net/mcfilter/archives/thi I think that captures my critique of Arts and Crafts.

And indie.mcqn.com/blog/2016/11/27 grasps at the trade-offs between individual craft and mass manufacture.

But there's something of a new Mittelstand in scale, combined with co-operative and collective ownership that's missing from them both.

www.mcqn.netMcFilter: Is the "Maker Movement" a Movement?
#MakerMovement#IndieMfg#cooperatives
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bhaugen

@amcewen @ckohtala
This whole thread was wonderful. Need to follow more of the links, but I did want to say thanks now.

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Adrian McEwen

@bhaugen Thanks. Good to hear it's chiming with folk. An excellent initial share from @ckohtala!

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