Garnet Hertz is Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Arts and Associate Professor of Design at Emily Carr University. The recipient of a Fulbright and the Oscar Signorini Award in robotic art, he has exhibited his work in eighteen countries and been profiled by such media outlets as CNN, NPR, and Wired.
Series Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi
Beginnings An Introduction to the DIY Mindset 1
0.1 A History of Electronic Art in the Twentieth Century 21
0.2 A Definition of DIY: Do + It + Yourself 43
Theme 1 Frugal Innovations 61
1.1 Frugality and the Demanufacturing Machine: Zombie Technology,
Bricolage, and Hype Cycles 67
1.2 Frugality and Telephonic Arm-Wrestling: Jugaad, Finances, and Function
83
1.3 Frugality and the Toaster Project: Technical Disorientation, Device
Paradigms, and Highlowness 97
Theme 2 Exploring Technologies 109
2.1 Exploration and the Incantor: Bending Circuits, Depunctualization, and
Unblackboxing 119
2.2 Exploration and Wire Figures: Technologies, Interactivity, and Radio
Shack Cybernetics 133
2.3 Exploration and 20 Oscillators in 20 Minutes: Technological
Performance, Hedonization, and the Thrill of Impending Failure 145
Theme 3 Building Identities 155
3.1 Identity and Taratter MI-03: Device Art, Chindogu, and Alternative
Presents 161
3.2 Identity and the Barbie Liberation Organization: Culture Jamming,
Technical Detournement, and Mediagenics 173
3.3 Identity and the Stock Market Skirt: Gender, Telerobotics, and Clothing
as Conversation 185
Theme 4 Anti-institutional Disobedience 199
4.1 Disobedience and Robot K-456: Wabi-sabi, Electronic Arte Povera, and
Beautiful Mistakes 209
4.2 Disobedience and Hairbrain 2000: Burlesque Technologies, Highlowness,
and Neoretroism 221
4.3 Disobedience and Feral Robotic Dogs: Hardware Activism, Communities,
and Planned Obsolescence 235
Theme 5 Selling Out and Graffitiwriter 245
Conclusions The DIY Mindset 259
Notes 269
Index 309
