I want to see us recognize the work of the educators, those that analyze and characterize and critique, everyone who fixes things, all the other people who do valuable work with and for others—above all, the caregivers—whose work isn’t about something you can put in a box and sell.
Debbie Chachra, “Why I Am Not a Maker,” The Atlantic, January 23, 2015.
The article reflects on the societal values that the maker movement reinforces and how it prioritizes physical artifacts over people. The author argues that the maker movement often conflates different forms of creation and production, such as coding and education, and that this conflation diminishes the value of certain types of work, such as caregiving. This focus on creating physical artifacts for sale reinforces societal values that prioritize material goods over people.
The specific quote above stuck out to me because I did not initially see the distinction between the values put on makers and non-makers. Through Chachra’s article I have found myself able to put a name to people who are non-makers, which helps me appreciate their work in society a lot more. We cannot continue to unequally value makers and non-makers. Something I found interesting, but was never completely aware of was the imbalance when it comes to recognition of artifacts and how it contributes to the eventual imbalance how much we value makers vs non-makers. While reading, I am forced to think about what side I am working towards and to reconsider if that is the right path for me. Currently, I am a maker; I strive to be a data scientist.
In general, I am really excited for this class since Data Humanities is a subfield to Data Science. Data visualization and data science are popular areas of inquiry in the field of Digital Humanities, as they allow researchers to analyze and represent large sets of data in an accessible and visually engaging way. Additionally, the use of statistics in Digital Humanities is also becoming increasingly common, as it allows for the quantification and analysis of patterns and trends in the data. After our exploration into some of the interactive data tools yesterday, I find myself eager to learn more. Along with the information in this article, I am excited to go into my field with a new digital humanist perspective.
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Hi Carl,
I, too, was unaware of the imbalance between makers and non-makers. I thought about how much of the times, as a college student, I pushed my parents to choose “marker” roles rather than non-maker roles. From a young age, I was taught to value makers instead of non-makers, this articles serves as a reminder for me that both are valuable.