RoboGames Re-Dock 2016 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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Builds a giant floating robot (OLO) and a set of buttons worn on player’s backs. Used to explore group movement by playing robotic remixes of playground games.
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Plant Synth Kit Laura Pullig 2016 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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Makes a simple synthesiser that’s played by incorporating and manipulating plants into an electronic circuit.
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GPS Tarot Cards Chris Wood 2016 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism 1 Commodification 2
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On texting the number on the card, the participant receives a dedicated tarot reading driven by the position of overhead GPS satellites.
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PatternCraft Gemma Latham 2015 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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An analogue to digital punchcard reader that explores the crossovers between textile making and coding.
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TicTacTec Rachel Clarke 2016 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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A traveling e-textiles kit made to explore and reflect on histories of migration and trade connected to international textiles.
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Rationally Ordered Universe Francis Bacon 1620 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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Enlightenment thinkers saw the universe as a rationally ordered modular arrangement of things, to be taken apart and rebuilt in their image.
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The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director
Thomas Chippendale 1754
Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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Early furniture companies like Chippendale distributed their work as ‘Pattern Books’ well before any kind of affordable supply chain was established.
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Kit Cars Lotus/Bradley/Stirling 1896 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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Although they’ve been around since 1896, they reached their first heyday in the 1970s, when sports car body kits were designed to bolt directly to VW Beetle chassis.
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Meccano Frank Horby 1901 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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One of the first mass produced construction kits made for children in 1898. Its use of standardised parts blurred the lines between engineering for children and adults.
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Geodesic Domes Buckminster Fuller 1954 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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Originally made by indigenous American people, Buckminster Fuller experimented with the form at the Black Mountain College, before distributing them as architectural scale kits.
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Inflatocookbook Antfarm 1971 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification 1
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This cookbook used the 70’s zine format to jumble together critical writing, poetry and illustrated guides to making inflatable artworks and architecture.
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Altair 880
MITS (Micro Instrumentation & Telemetry Systems) 1996
Beauty 1 Social Engagement Subversiveness 1 Solutionism Commodification
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Arguably the first home computer distributed in kit form. At the time it was the only way to access computers outside of large institutions or factories.
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My Boyfriend Came Back from the War
Olia Lialina 1996
Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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Stretched the nonlinearity of HTML frames and hyperlinks to reveal the breaking point of websites and personal narrative. The site and its content were shared with and remixed by other net artists.
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Graffiti Writer Critical Art Ensemble 1998 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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An instructional guide to create a programmable graffiti-writing robot that paints LCD style agitprop slogans on the pavement.
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Tenantspin SuperFlex, FACT, Alan Dunn 2001 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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Artists supported tenants to use newly available digital video and live streaming kit to create their own TV shows, broadcasting raw scouse talent, weird happenings and intense debate to the world.
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Wiring
Hernando Barragรกn, Brett Hagman, Alexander Brevig 2003 Beauty 1 Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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Wiring was Arduino before Arduino; it cloned the Processing development environment & made the hardware equivalent: a low level introduction to physical computing.
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RepRap Darwin Adrian Bowyer 2005 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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Created in Bath, it was made to enable access to affordable rapid prototyping for the developing world (be that in UK or beyond).
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Shrimping.it Cefn Hoile & Makers Of Morecambe 2006 Beauty 1 Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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In many ways the anti-ARDX but with the same aims and pedagogical values but with transparent supply chain costs and legendary accurate and informative assembly instructions.
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Universal Construction Kit
Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification 1
FFFFFat 2007
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3D CAD files for a set of adapters that connect Legos, Meccano, Sticklebricks, Tinkertoys and seven other construction kits.
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Kit Of No Parts Hanna Perner Wilson 2007 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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Rejecting modular mass produced assembly kits, these recipes show you how to make your own, functionally transparent and expressive electronics from a diverse range of cheap materials.
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Cypher Eduardo Kac 2009 Beauty Social Engagement 1 Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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A DIY biohacking kit with Petri dishes, agar, nutrients, streaking loops, pipettes, test tubes, synthetic DNA and a detailed instructional booklet.
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ARDX Arduino Kit Oomlout 2009 Beauty 2 Social Engagement Subversiveness 1 Solutionism Commodification
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This marks the point the Maker meme and Arduino gained traction enough for Makers and distributors like Oomlout in Halifax to sell instructional assembly kits.
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Survival Kits Leona Carrington / Surrealists 1920’s & 1930’s Beauty Social Engagement 2 Subversiveness Solutionism 1 Commodification 3
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Players meet and gather everyday objects to use as poetic and magical materials, then write surreal instructions for their use.
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TV-B-Gone Mitch Altman 2008 Beauty Social Engagement Subversiveness Solutionism Commodification
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A DIY soldering kit with a subversive message, once assembled becomes a universal remote control that allows you to turn virtually any TV off.
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