Modding the Pliable Machine: Unpacking the Creative and Social Practice of Upkeep at the Makerspace

DOI

As digital fabrication machines have become widespread and more accessible, practitioners in maker communities are particularly responsive to their development and technological upkeep. Drawing on interviews with five experienced makers that are engaged in modding of a laser cutter and insights from observations on maker-machine interactions at site, we studied makers ‘war stories’ to frame modding as a prevalent but less explored maker activity. We highlight how makers care for machines, how they cope with risks when engaging in modding, and how mods are creative projects in themselves. Based on our findings we present the conceptualisation of ‘the pliable machine’ – a socio-technical system that includes (1) an accessible machine that can be altered, (2) skills that go beyond use and (3) a surrounding ‘maker culture’ of caring, sharing and experimentation. Treating the machine as material in itself, we show how the laser cutter becomes pliable in the hands of those who mod - which offers an alternative perspective on relationships with technology.