Maker Movement Documentary Analysis

This essay analyzes the documentary film "Maker," which focuses on the Maker Movement in the United States. The essay discusses the movement's impact on society, economy, and culture, highlighting its innovative use of open source, crowdfunding, digital fabrication, and local manufacturing. The author explores how the movement challenges traditional manufacturing concepts and fosters creativity and community. The essay also examines the role of 3D printing and hacker spaces in enabling individuals and startups to bypass traditional production methods and bring innovative ideas to market. The conclusion emphasizes the positive societal impact of the Maker Movement, including the resurgence of creativity, community, and craftsmanship, and the potential for increased production of goods due to advancements in 3D printing technology.

Running head: THE MAKER MOVEMENT
The Maker Movement
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“Maker” is a feature length documentary film which focuses on the maker movement
of the United States of America and has influenced its society, economy and culture. At
times, the “Maker Movement” is also called the “Third Industrial Revolution” which
destabilizes the traditional manufacturing concept by building innovative ideas like; open
source, crowd funding, digital fabrication and local manufacturing (Dougherty, 2012).
Breaking all the stereotypes of hobbyist movement, the documentary portrays the ecosystem
of manufacturing and designing in this Internet era. The documentary film explores several
ideas, personalities and tools, which are driving the movement. Various interviews of daily
practitioners as well as observers gave useful insights on how the maker movement can be
impactful on the culture, economy and society of the country and world
(Makerthemovie.com. 2017).
The maker movement is a web generation which is meeting the existing or real world
with an idea of hacking the physical world in a way like hacking computers. It helps people
gain identity. There are many cases when people in the United States prototype the next
generation of any product (Kickstarter.com. 2017). “The high school shop classes’ novel shot
in the woodshop classes are gone”. One of the primary reasons for this was liability; they
thought students can hurt themselves, by coming in contact with the machines. Moreover,
they didn’t value the activity much. “This is the open ROV it's got a video camera on board
and it allows you to see what it seats on the surface slide”. If makers come up with new and
innovative ideas of this sort then it can impact the contemporary culture of the country as
well as the world, to a huge extent (Digitalistmag.com. 2017).

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(Figure: Maker Documentary
Source: Makerthemovie.com. 2017)
“I think 3d printing has gotten a lot of press time”. The 3d printers are basically the
tools of the maker movement. The coexistence of global economies and supply chains give
birth to the new and innovative ideas, which will foster or encourage the development of a
new generation of manufacturing (Kickstarter.com. 2017). The maker movement is still seen
as a kind of hobby, but once this concept is changed then it can fundamentally benefit other
industries such as health care, financial and educational services. “At the end of a workday,
that where you can look at a pile of something and say, you know what I've got this much
done. There you can look at an object and say I made this” (Makerthemovie.com. 2017). The
maker movement has helped the individuals as well as start-up companies to invent new
measures and ideas, bypassing the traditional techniques. Technologies like ‘Make it
yourself’, for example 3d printing, has been exponentially advancing. Hacker space
technology helps by giving accessibility to production tools of higher end, online options of

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retail and crowd finding. Individuals now can take various product ideas and concepts of
funding their own market to production (Digitalistmag.com. 2017).
To conclude, the maker movement influences the makers to a huge extent which has a
positive impact on the society. Subcultures flourish as because individuals are contributing
their ideas, production and funding. This results in the resurgence of creativity, community
and craftsmanship. Moreover, the acceleration of 3d printing lowers the prices and thus more
production of goods will take place near the manufacturers’ using point.

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References
Digitalistmag.com. (2017). The Top Reasons Why The Maker Movement Will Be The Next
Renaissance. Digitalist Magazine. Retrieved 13 September 2017, from
https://www.digitalistmag.com/digital-supply-networks/smart-supply-chain/
2015/07/22/top-reasons-maker-movement-will-next-renaissance-03127145
Kickstarter.com. (2017). Maker - A documentary on the Maker Movement. Kickstarter.
Retrieved 13 September 2017, from
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/379201360/maker-a-documentary-on-the-
maker-movement
Makerthemovie.com. (2017). Watch now. MAKER. Retrieved 13 September 2017, from
http://makerthemovie.com/watch/
Dougherty, D. (2012). The maker movement. innovations, 7(3), 11-14.