Monday, December 29, 2008

Coda

When I began this blog, I had the idea that it would be an integral part of my critical and reflective technical practice. For the past three years, it has served admirably, providing an easy way to share ideas and code and putting me in touch with a wide range of colleagues and new friends. During that time I've tried to stay true to the promise of "hacks," even if I pushed the boundaries of both "digital" and "history". As my technical work has evolved, however, I've begun to feel like this blog is less and less suited to my day-to-day activities. Rather than try and force it to fit, I've decided to build something new.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Some Winter Reading for Humanist Makers

(Crossposted to Cliopatria & Digital History Hacks)

In December 2004, I bought a copy of Joe Martin's Tabletop Machining to see what would be involved in learning how to make clockwork mechanisms and automata. It was pretty obvious that I had many years of study ahead of me, but I had just finished my PhD and knew that publishing that would take a few years more. So I didn't mind beginning something else that might take ten or fifteen years to master. Since then, I've been reading steadily about making things, but it wasn't until this past fall that I actually had the chance to set up a small Lab for Humanistic Fabrication and begin making stuff in earnest. Since it's December again, I thought I'd put together a small list of books to help other would-be humanist makers.

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