"the DIY Revolution Starts Now" ???

This month's Wired Magazine is running the DIY revolution as its cover story. The cover is a Rosie the riveter wannabe holding a futuristic plasma cutter or other kind of sparky thing in place of the clenched fist. (Is that a real tool?) The pose nevertheless is triumphant. The lead article is "How to Make Stuff," and it proclaims, "If You Can Think It, You Can Build It." OK, now.

I take all this as a step in the right direction. It's about time that we became less a nation of all-consuming didiots, and returned to our human roots as makers of anything and everything that meets our legitimate needs and doesn't harm the health or happiness of our children, neighbors or planet. The magazine, however offers rather puny rewards when it comes to suggested projects. Want to get your iPod to do new things? Or how about sculpting particle board to resemble a lunar landscape using your computer controlled router that cost you $3,000.00 dollars? It looks like cratered particle board at the end of all that incessant routing. There's nothing with real beauty in sight among the "25 Awesome Projects", and I guess that is the direction DIY is going these days.

At least there's a display of real curiosity. And things have to start somewhere.

Some things will offer lasting beauty. Some makers will become curious about tools of all kinds and discover that there are rich traditions in their use. They like you may become curious about the things that inhabit our museums, and how they were made. In these things, there's hope for us all.

Make, fix and create.