Maker Culture FTW

In this keynote Ian Hughes/epredator will show the link between the huge changes in communication of design ideas and the accessibility of tools for user creation of content. How that merges with gaming culture and educational opportunities and how the digital interaction with the physical shows us a path to a very different future. Being able to design and distribute digitally, using easily available entertainment platforms, changes the mentality of the majority of the population and changes many of them into Makers. Notions of open source and sharing online spread to physical production with rapid fabrication devices too. This in turn leads to a socioeconomic shift and one that offers a potentially greener future and a change in how design is perceived and valued. This future threatens current corporate structure and the way we engage with brands so will be an even greater challenge than that of social media to organisations seeking to control. These very serious subjects are ones that are not set in the distant future, as Ian has shown whilst presenting many elements of the future on our doorstep on ITV kids show The Cool Stuff Collective. The next generation is already engaged in this blended reality and the technology is already there to support them. Ian will share both the ideas of this combined future with personal examples of how these subjects can be approached and delivered, even if it means being called Super G33k and throwing the odd saturday morning custard pie. So expect games, cars, lego, RFID, virtual worlds and TV footage.