Maker Culture, Smart Citizen – The 6th GGCF Cultural Policy Forum

Maker Culture, Smart Citizen

15:30-18:00, May 10 (Thu), 2018

Gyeonggi Art Platform/gap, GGCF 1st floor

– In line with the 5th GGCF Cultural Policy Forum on The 4th Industrial Revolution and Culture, this forum shares and discusses cases of the ‘maker culture’ that have made our lives livelier than before thanks to the participation of smart citizens who lead the culture and progress of society

Reference) The 4th Industrial Revolution and Culture – The 5th GGCF Cultural Policy Forum (January 18, 2018)
– Makers’ Age – The Future is the Altruistic Creator, Lee Ji-seon (professor at Sookmyung Women’s University)
– Age of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the Direction for Culture Policy, Lee Seong-min (researcher at Korea Culture & Tourism Institute)
– A response of Gyeonggi Province to the 4th Industrial Revolution, Kim Eun-gyeong (senior researcher at Gyeonggi Research Institute)

In line with the 5th GGCF Cultural Policy Forum on The 4th Industrial Revolution and Culture, this forum shares the cases of the ‘maker culture’ that have made our lives livelier than before thanks to the participation of smart citizens who lead the culture and progress of society. A maker refers to anyone who makes, including an inventor, artisan, artist, engineer, and someone who makes something as a hobby. The magazine Make: was first published in 2005 in the United States, and the Maker Faire was held so that makers from around the world could build solidarity with each other. In its early stage, they concentrated on “Do It Yourself”, but, as the maker movement has unfolded through the Internet and the fair, they started to pursue “Do It Together”, applying their maximum personal technique based on the knowledge that they have learned from one another. Thus, a maker is “someone who makes” that has emerged with the development of sharing knowledge and techniques, and “everyone except the experts in culture and art”.

Yu Man-seon, a researcher at the Gwacheon National Science Museum, the first speaker of the forum, will explain the maker culture focusing on the operation of the Infinite Imagination Room, a maker space and maker education program of the GNSM. The Infinite Imagination Room is a space that has been established in national science museums with the goal of nurturing talent in science through the spread of creative imagination and ideas. Yu Man-seon, a planner and manager of the Infinite Imagination Room and maker himself, will introduce the maker culture and movement from a scientific perspective, and the second speaker, Song Su-yeon, will share her thoughts on the maker culture from an artistic and cultural point of view. As a member of an artist group ‘unmake lab’, Song will explain why the maker culture is now a social issue, putting forward her own opinions, and will introduce the operation of maker spaces both home and abroad along with their changing processes. The last speaker, Jeong Hee, head of the Make Korea Team of Bloter And Media, will talk about maker media and fairs as examples of expanding maker culture. Jeong has also imported and planned the Maker Faire Seoul, an on-site event of Maker Media, the publisher of Make: since 2012. The speech will be followed by in-depth debates with the speakers on the maker culture in Korea, as well as the present and future of the maker culture of Gyeonggi Province. The debaters will be Choi Yun-sik, manager of cluster operation of the Gyeonggi Content Agency, Hwang Sun-ju, head of the Local Intermedia Team of the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation, Gang Tae-uk, senior researcher at the Korea Institue of Civil Engineering and Building Technology and maker, and Lee Mi-hwa, president of Imojeomo Domoso in Anyang.

The speeches and debates will be published in Cultural Policy Bulletin Vol.06, where you can also find the details about the Make Faire Bay Area 2018, one of the three major maker fairs to be held in San Mateo, California in the US. Cultural Policy Bulletin is a Korean-English quarterly that introduces the cultural policies of the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation, and is distributed to related domestic and overseas cultural institutes and foundations.