McFilter

Interesting Things on the Internet: September 28th 2020

• When open source design is vital: critical making of DIY healthcare equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. A good summary of the collaborative, slightly-messy, international, open source critical making approach that we, along with the rest of the UK #maker community, took in the early days of the COVID19 crisis.
• The anthropologist in an economist world.A lovely tribute to David Graeber, which also manages to illuminate some of the water-we-swim-in with our existing economic systems. "We find ourselves stuck in these systems, and they pose constant contradictions. I, for example, have had a long and difficult relationship with the idea of… well… monetising my work on alternative money, asking people to transfer to me digital bank deposits in exchange for my thoughts on alternative economic systems. In my first encounters with David I sensed the same struggles. He, like me, believed in solidarity networks, and wasn’t there measuring his time and putting a monetary price on it. [...] He told me how tough it was trying to help out all the groups that needed support, but he nevertheless kept at it. This is why David was an anthropological hero to me, because he explicitly politicised and lived his anthropological knowledge." I feel seen (apart from the being an anthropologist bit...)
• How to Climate Change in a (different kind of) crisis. Alex providing some good things-to-think-about for designers and technologists. I was going to add "who are thinking about the Climate Emergency", but all designers and technologists should be thinking about that.
• Amina Atiq. Excellent interview of Amina Atiq by Laura Brown, covering art and business and identity and culture.
• 👁🚁 Oh, this wont be hacked immediately!. In his latest newsletter, Bryan Boyer explores some of the wider effects of the Amazon video "security" drone. "Closed technologies are only a means to an end, but open technologies are a starting point for indeterminate future economic, social, and political happenings. Closed technologies are extensions of power. Open technologies are empowerment." True, but the past two decades have taught us that we also need to be careful who we're empowering.