DIY Media Architecture
Glenda Amayo Caldwell and Marcus Foth: DIY Media Architecture – Open and Participatory Approaches to Community Engagement
Part of Paper Session 2: DIY and Participation
Abstract: Media architecture’s combination of the digital and the physical can trigger, enhance, and amplify urban experiences. In this paper, we examine how to bring about and foster more open and participatory approaches to engage communities through media architecture by identifying novel ways to put some of the creative process into the hands of laypeople. We review technical, spatial, and social aspects of DIY phenomena with a view to better understand maker cultures, communities, and practices.
We synthesise our findings and ask if and how media architects as a community of practice can encourage the ‘open- sourcing’ of information and tools allowing laypeople to not only participate but become active instigators of change in their own right. We argue that enabling true DIY practices in media architecture may increase citizen control. Seeking design strategies that foster DIY approaches, we propose five areas for further work and investigation. The paper begs many questions indicating ample room for further research into DIY Media Architecture.
Professor Marcus Foth is founder and director of the Urban Informatics Research Lab, and Professor in Interactive and Visual Design in the School of Design, Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology. Read more about him on the university’s website
Glenda Amayo Caldwell is a PhD Candidate and Lecturer in Architecture at Queensland University of Technology. Read more about her on the university’s website
Paper Session 2: DIY and Participation
This session takes place in the afternoon of November 21. It features four talks:
