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Abstract
Wicked environmental problems are complex, ill-defined and constantly shifting. Analytical methods alone are typically under-equipped to address these problems. High–low tech is a craftmaking and design practice that encourages makers to merge high- and low-tech materials, processes and cultures. We explore how high–low tech practices can create new ways of understanding wicked environmental problems and lead practitioners towards new ways of approaching them. Through five examples of high–low tech practices, we explore the qualities of these practices—an embrace of complexity, a transdisciplinary approach to work and a maker ethos—that make high–low tech practices particularly well suited to addressing wicked environmental problems.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Greg Garrard, Jeannette Angel, Denise Kenney, Samuel Roy-Bois and Kristin Aleklett for their help in preparing and editing this manuscript. We would also like to acknowledge the material and financial support provided by the Centre for Culture and Technology at the University of British Columbia.
ORCID
David Kadish http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3573-2917
Notes
3 The Arduino is an open source microcontroller platform that is popular in Maker communities due to its open design and relative ease of use.
Additional information
Funding
David Kadish is an MFA student in Visual Arts at UBC. His research focuses on the intersections of technology, environment and society and is conducted in the Centre for Culture and Technology under the supervision of Dr Aleksandra Dulic. He previously completed an MASc with the Centre for Culture and Technology and the Advanced Control and Intelligent Systems lab and at UBC and a BASc in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is an active “maker” and spends much of his time building and taking apart electromechanical gadgets.
Dr Aleksandra Dulic is an artist-scholar working at the intersection of interactive multimedia installation and live performance with research foci in cross-cultural media performance, interactive animation and computational poetics. She has received a number of awards for her short animated films and interactive media works. Her work is widely presented in exhibitions, festivals, conferences and television broadcasts across Europe, Asia and North America. These works include films, animated media performances, interactive computer installations and software tools for interactive animation. She is active as an artist, curator, writer, educator, teaching courses, presenting and publishing papers across North America, Australia, Europe and Asia.