Understanding the Experience of the Amateur Maker

249 Pages·2011·6.64 MB·English

by  Andrew Jackson

Understanding the

Experience of the

Amateur Maker

Andrew Jackson

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the
requirements of the University of Brighton
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

May 2011
The University of Brighton in collaboration with the
University for the Creative Arts
Abstract

This study asks: what are the internal rewards associated with amateur making,
and how do they offer satisfaction and fulfilment to those who participate in the
activity? People considered in this research make furniture, jewellery, model
engineering projects, canoes and cars. They all maintain and make use of an
amateur workshop of some kind, and use a variety of tools, machines and
materials in their constructions, carrying out work-like activity as a form of
leisure. The research aims to understand amateur making not purely as a form of
symbolic production – as the fabrication of signs and symbols that have a life
after the making process is complete – but to focus instead on the experience of
making, and the material interaction that occurs as part of practice.
The research utilises methods associated with the tradition of case-study based
qualitative research, including long semi-structured depth interviews with
individual makers, site visits, and photography. Drawing on this fieldwork, a
series of themes are developed that move in progressively from a wider cultural
and sociological perspective, towards a closer understanding of the individual
experiences of the maker, and resulting in a detailed account of the intrinsic and
personal rewards that amateur makers derive from their pursuit.
These themes consider the relation between work and leisure, the costs and
benefits associated with amateur making, and the ways in which the material
elements of the workspace operate in conjunction with the embodied
competence of the maker. Drawing upon Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory and
Deci & Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory, the thesis concludes that amateur
making is motivated by a set of rewards that are internal to the activity.
This research finds that, above all, it is the aesthetic interaction with their
material environment that allows the serious amateur maker to achieve
intrinsically rewarding and psychologically fulfilling feelings of competence and
autonomy, offering them satisfactions that cannot be had from their paid
employment.

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Understanding the Experience of the Amateur Maker
Contents
Abstract 2
Table of Figures 6
Acknowledgements 9
Author’s Declaration 10
1: Introduction 11
2: Research Question 17
3: Locating Amateur Making 21
Starting points 21
Amateur making in post-war Britain 22
4: Literature Review 38
Disciplinary location 38
Professional versus amateur 40
Customisation and user intervention 43
Making and gender 47
Summary 50
5: Methodology 52
Introduction 52
The methodological implications of the research question 52
Design research methods 53
Qualitative and quantitative approaches 56
Ethnography and case studies 58
Analytic induction and grounded theory 61
Data analysis 64
6: Research Design 67
Sampling method 67
Sampling criteria 68
Semi-structured in-depth interviews 71
Computer aided qualitative data analysis software 73

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Ethics 74
Data analysis 75
7: The Place of Making in the Lives of Amateurs 77
Introduction 77
Field notes 78
Growing up with making 92
Work and leisure 98
Pro-ams 106
The ‘new amateurs’ 108
Professional partners 114
Conclusions 118
8: Serious Making 120
Introduction 120
Serious leisure 120
Moving between amateur and professional 127
Conclusions 132
9: Costs and Benefits 134
Introduction 134
Costs 134
Benefits 138
Social Rewards 143
Conclusions 145
10: The Nature of Work 147
Introduction 147
Work and time 147
The division of labour 153
Species being 156
The instinct of workmanship 158
Conclusions 160
11: Materiality and Process 162
Introduction 162
Material capital 162
Situated cognition 170

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Action and iteration 178
Conclusions 180
12: Making as Practice 182
Introduction 182
Project time 182
Practice theory 185
The internal reward of flow 190
Flow and amateur making 195
Clear feedback and tangible outcomes 201
Conclusions 203
13: The Impetus and Inspiration to Act 204
Introduction 204
Theories of motivation 204
Intrinsic Rewards 207
Self-Determination Theory 209
Competence 210
Autonomy 212
Relatedness 214
Increasing autonomy 217
Conclusions 221
14: Conclusion 223
Summary 224
Motivation and aesthetics 230
15: References 234
16: Appendices 244

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Table of Figures
Figure 1: Details of the Mirror Dinghy published in the Uffa Fox Book of
Sailing. ............................................................................................................................................. 11
Figure 2: The Red Sails of Freedom exhibition mounted by the author to
support the publication of a Journal of Design History article ................................ 12
Figure 3: Barry Bucknell’s DIY home improvement book published in
1963. ................................................................................................................................................ 25
Figure 4: Practical Householder, September 1956, p 743. ............................................... 27
Figure 5: Plans for the construction of a table lamp, Practical Householder
August 1961, p. 821. ................................................................................................................. 29
Figure 6: One of a series of plans for items of furniture that were included
in the Practical Householder from the early 1960s. ..................................................... 30
Figure 7: An editorial feature in the Do-It-Yourself Annual (1959)
promoting the contemporaneous ‘Light Craft’ magazine. ......................................... 32
Figure 8: The ‘iterative dance’, adapted from Warburton (2005). .............................. 62
Figure 9: One of Greg's completed sea kayaks. .................................................................... 69
Figure 10: Greg's improvised 'warm-cabinet' that he uses to keep his
resins at a working temperature in the winter ............................................................. 80
Figure 11: Detail of Cherry's work bench. ............................................................................. 83
Figure 12: James' hot-rod, custom car show, June 2008. ................................................. 85
Figure 13: Fibreglass body shells and moulds also spill out of Eric’s
workshop into the nearby offices that accommodate his wife’s
business. ........................................................................................................................................ 86
Figure 14: Brian's locomotive chassis set out on his work bench. .............................. 87
Figure 15: The board outside Smith and Jones Turning Co advertises their
products and services. ............................................................................................................. 88
Figure 16: Simon's newly established workshop in drafty ‘borrowed’
barn. ................................................................................................................................................. 89

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Figures 17 and 18: One of Eric’s sets of research and planning files. ...................... 103
Figure 19: Detail of Brian’s completed traction engine with part of the
technical drawing he is using to build his locomotive. ............................................ 104
Figure 20: The cover of the first issue of Make: Technology on Your Time
(Frauenfelder, 2005) ............................................................................................................. 110
Figure 21: Hideo Tekano’s G4 to G5 computer case upgrade featured in
MAKE magazine (Parks, 2006: 50) .................................................................................. 111
Figure 22: Craft: Transforming Traditional Crafts volume 2 magazine
cover (Drieu, 2007). ............................................................................................................... 112
Figure 23: Simon's wooden motorbike headlight............................................................ 113
Figure 24: A radio controlled model retailer in North London that was
visited as part of the research. ........................................................................................... 115
Figures 25 and 26: Suppliers of hot rod parts at a custom car and hot rod
show, Faversham, Kent, 2007. ........................................................................................... 116
Figure 27: Jenny's woodwork shop. ...................................................................................... 124
Figure 28: Some of Donald's power tools. .......................................................................... 125
Figure 29: Brian working with AutoCAD. ............................................................................ 126
Figure 30: Jenny's empty chicken coop. ............................................................................... 145
Figure 31: Jenny's outbuilding, a former fruit picker’s accommodation ............... 163
Figure 32: Jenny's storage system for small tools and furniture
components, and pieces of scrap timber saved for future projects. .................. 164
Figure 33: 'She’s dead, but she lives on in the sewing machine'. Rose’s
sewing machine, which had belonged to her husband’s late wife. ..................... 167
Figure 34: Brian built his brick and tile workshop from scratch.. ............................ 168
Figure 35: Greg rents a lockup garage that he has converted into a
workshop.. .................................................................................................................................. 169
Figure 36: Brian’s lathe and tool storage system. ............................................................ 171
Figure 37: Eric's purpose-built car building shop. .......................................................... 171
Figure 38: Brian's brick-built purpose designed workshop........................................ 172

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Figure 39: Cherry's workspace. ............................................................................................... 172
Figure 40: Jenny's woodwork shop. ...................................................................................... 173
Figure 41: Simon's ‘toolboard’. ................................................................................................ 174
Figure 42: Eric's storage system. ............................................................................................ 175
Figure 43: Simon using a ‘parting chisel’ to finish off a job on his lathe. ............... 177
Figure 44: Greg fitting strips of timber to his kayak. ...................................................... 179
Figure 45: Donald's plane is 'ready-to-hand'. .................................................................... 197
Figure 46: Jenny's block plane and slip stone. .................................................................. 200
Figure 47: A reproduction writing desk made by Jenny’s father-in-law. ............... 212

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank:
My supervisors, Roni Brown for her encouragement from the outset of the
project, and Victoria Kelley and Tim Dant for their advice and support in the
difficult concluding stages;
The amateur makers who gave up their time to talk to me, and who showed me
their workshops and the things they had made, and the various people who
pointed me in their direction;
The research staff and students at the University for the Creative Arts, who often
seemed confused by my topic, but were supportive nonetheless;
Canterbury Christ Church University, who supported me unquestioningly by
giving me time to do my research, and the University for the Creative Arts, who
supported the project by giving me a teaching sabbatical and financial support;
The anonymous reviewers who cajoled me into improving the various conference
papers and journal articles I have produced as part of this research;
My partner and our kids, who tolerated my lengthy disappearances whilst I was
writing up;
My dad and his toolkit that, in equal measure, got me into all this in the first
place;
... and, whoever invented EndNote.

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Author’s Declaration

I declare that the research contained in this thesis, unless otherwise formally
indicated within the text, is the original work of the author. The thesis has not
been previously submitted to this or any other university for a degree, and does
not incorporate any material already submitted for a degree.

Signed:

Dated: 31/10/11

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