D路I路Y THESIS PROPOSAL
— SEBIT MIN 12·19·2Ø11 SCHOOL of VISUAL ARTS
1 · THE MASS PROBLEM
Consumers today are met with an overwhelming demand of decision-making; hundreds of shampoos face towards you on a single shelf, thousands of magazines lined up against another, each featuring the month’s most sough-out celebrity, etc. You’re too wrapped up in comparing prices, choosing designs, skimming through the variety in hopes to understand what makes this product significant from the rest—to even realize that there are other possibilities. You choose what’s there. Without a conscious stance, you’re bound to be a prey of corporate consumerism.
2 · WHAT IS DIY ?
DO·IT·YOURSELF: DIY is the alternative, somewhat secluded attempt at taking a stance from the ready-made, mass consumer market. To borrow Amy Spencer’s words, DIY culture is shaping your own cultural entity, creating your own version of what’s missing in the mainstream market.
—
VARIOU S FORMS OF D IY
BEER BREWING
H OM E I M PROV EM EN T
G L A S S BL O W ING
BOOK MAKING
H OM E REC ORD I N G
C R A F T ING
P RINT MAKING
G ARD EN I N G
S E W ING
KNIT T ING
PH OTOG RAPH Y
W O O D W O R K ING & E T C …
3 · DIY CULTURE TODAY
DIY culture has been around for more than half a century and during this time, it has been reinterpreted, republicized, and redesigned numerous times, each to meet the demands of its modern culture. What is DIY today? How true it is to the ethic of self-fulfillment, self-sufficiency, and individuallistic creativity? Ironically, there are already millions of marketed DIY products available in the mass market. However, they are restricted within a fixed outcome, in which the only stance the consumer can take is not that of the creator, but merely of a craftsman. Similarly, many of elements are ‘pre-designed’ within the predictable realm of what is now perceived as DIY aesthetic.
4 · MASS PRODUCTION vs INDIVIDUAL SYSTEM —
COMPARAT IV E PROD U CT ION D IAGR A M
START
S TA R T
PRO DUCTIO N SPECIFICATION
PRO TO TYPE DESIGN
DES I G N PRO TO TYPE APPR OVAL
vs
FABRICATIO N
ASSEMBLY & PRO DUCTION
PR ODU C TI ON
Q UALITY CHECK
END
EN D
—
MASS P RO DU CTION
vs
INDIVIDUAL SYSTEM
MACHINE
TO O L
HA ND
FACTORY
LO C ATIO N
HO US E o r S MA L L W O R K S HO P
NON-S PECIAL IZED W ORKERS
WO RK ER S
A R T IS A NS
DIVIS ION of TAS KS
TASK
A L L TA S K
IDENT ICAL UNIFORM
AR TIC LE
UNIQ UE
B Y PRODUCT ION L I N E
M ANU FAC TU RED
B Y IT E M
L ARG E QUANT IT Y
Q U ANTITY
S MA L L Q UA NT IT Y
L ES S EXPENS IVE
C O ST
E XP E NS IV E
ta k en fr o m M OD U LE 6 1 3
C O MPARATIVE PROD U CT ION ME T H OD & CH ARAC T ER I S T I C C H A R T
5 · DO DIY !
This thesis hopes to provide not just a DIY-aesthetic product, but to offer the actual experience of the culture, the self-fulfillment, and the exploration of one’s own cultural entity. Hoping to make the seemingly ‘closed’ culture more approachable through social interactions and educative workshops, regardless of any formal preconception of DIY aesthetic. Providing yet another decision amongst the thousand of shampoos and magazines, but giving the consumer the power of the creator.
—
D IY : PAST , PRE SE N T & F U T U RE PAST
T HE NEED
C RAF TSM E N SH I P
E T HIC
PRE SE N T
EL EMENT S
I N STRU C TI ON S
NIC E PA C K A G ING
F U TU RE ?
THE EXPERIENCE
SELF - F U LF I LLM EN T
C R E AT IV IT Y
6 · REFERENCES
SERVICES Etsy Ebay Ikea Home Depot Staples NY Central Art Supply A.I.Friedman Pearl Paint Xerox Martha Stewart Rose Red and Lavendar Brooklyn Grange Rough Trade Records Dischord Records Printed Matter St.Marks Book Shop Book Thug Nation Reading Frenzy Spoonbill & Sugartown McNally Jackson NY Art Book Fair Zine Wiki ‘Sup Magazine Bitch Magazine Plazam Talas Paper Source Kate’s Paperie Paper Presentation Collage with Nature Yeehaw Industries Beacon’s Closet Goodwill The Salvation Army Artists & Fleas Brooklyn Flea
MCMC Fragrances Sweet Anthem Purl Soho The Point Make Workshop Best Made Boy Scouts of America For Dummy Books Workbook Project Do DIY Textile Arts Center 3rd Ward Urban Glass Brooklyn Winery Institute of Culinary Education BLPRNT Lomography International Center of Photography IFC Center
READINGS Graphic Magazine, #18 Workshop Issue, Summer 2011 Spencer, Amy. DIY: The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture. London: Marion Boyers, 2005. Munari, Bruno. Design as Art. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1971. Lupton, Ellen. D.I.Y .Design it Yourself. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005. Smith, Esther K. How to Make Books: Fold, Cut & Stitch Your Way to a One-of-a-Kind Book. New York: Potter Craft, 2007. FILMS DIY or DIE: How to Survive As An Independent Artist, Dir. Michael W. Dean. 2002. Do it Yourself: The Story of Rough Trade, BBC Four. 2009. Roll Up Your Sleeves. Dir. Dylan Haskins. Prod. Project Arts Centre and DCTV. 2008 Beautiful Losers. Dir. Aaron Rose, Joshua Leonard. Prod. Jon Barlow, Rich Lim, Noah Khoshbin, Chris Green. 2008. PHILOSOPHY My Dinner with Andre Module 613 Ian MacKaye Shepard Fairey Jack Kerouac Dinosaur Jr Daniel Johnston Jean-Luc Godard Michel Gondry Harmony Korine Bob Ross Hanul Kim
SEBIT MIN 2Ø11