Maker Assembly

1. Maker Assembly at theV&A
Dean Brown

8. The 7 Lamps of Making

10. “Acting almost like prosthetic extension of the hands of the artisan, digital design
and fabrication tools are creating a curiously high-tech analog of pre-industrial
artisanal practices.”
Mario Carpo
“If there is any hope of resurrecting Morris-esque resistance or Ruskinian ideology
in a digital age, it is to recognise, as they did, that objects are not simply form but
intrinsically politicised artifacts.And so are the technologies we use to produce
them.”
Sam Jacob

13. “open-source furniture will
not be truly “disruptive” until
it produces its first compelling
object.”
Justin McGuirk

15. John Ruskin & The 7 Lamps of Architecture

16. The 7 Lamps of Architecture
1.The Lamp of Sacrifice
2.The Lamp of Truth
3.The Lamp of Power
4.The Lamp of Beauty
5.The Lamp of Life
6.The Lamp of Memory
7.The Lamp of Obedience

18. 1849
Religion
Architecture
Arts & Crafts
2015
The Maker Movement
Products...

20. 1.THE LAMP OF SACRIFICE
“It is not a question of doing
more, but doing better”

24. 2.THE LAMP OF TRUTH
“Nobody wants ornaments in
this world, but everybody wants
integrity”

28. 3.THE LAMP OF POWER
“For, whatever infinity of fair form
there may be in the maze of the
forest, there is fairer, as I think, in
the surface of the quiet lake.”

32. 4.THE LAMP OF BEAUTY
“man cannot advance in the
invention of beauty, without
directly imitating natural form”

36. 5.THE LAMP OF LIFE
“hand-work might always be
known from machine-work”

40. 6.THE LAMP OF MEMORY
“when we build, let us think that
we build for ever”

44. 7.THE LAMP OF OBEDIENCE
“no originality for its own sake,
but conforming to the finest
among existing values”

49. Why Lamps?
1.The obvious word association between Ruskins “Lamps“ and Lamps.
2. Lamps are associated with making something on an industrial scale, in a factory far
far away. Making lamps with an opensource “craft“ attitude embodies the idealism of
the maker movement.
3. Lamps allow for a cross disciplinary collaboration involving form and electronics -
another key aspect of the maker movement.
4. Lamps afford in their relative complexity to articulate abstract concepts like
“Truth“,“Power“,“Memory“ etc..

50. “Architecture, as the beginning of
the arts must set the example for
other practice to follow”
John Ruskin

51. SHARED
Unified designing & making
Self-production
De-centralised
Customisation
They exist predominantly outside of the
“design” domain.
DIFFERENT
Democratic tools and methods (MM)
A low threshold of skill (MM)
Medium Batch potential (MM)
Networked collaboration (MM)
A response to disappearing industry,
rather than growing Industry. (MM)

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www.7lamps.info

55. Thankyou
www.mrdeanbrown.co.uk
www.7lamps.info
info@mrdeanbrown.co.uk
@mr_deanbrown