Cartography of Complex Systems & the Anthropocene (G.Pombo)
DIY means Do It Yourself and involves building, modifying or repairing without the direct aid of experts. It is very anti-consumeristic since normally, one would use what they normally have lying around to make or repair whatever they need to. So the DIY attitude was supposed to challenge the consumeristic attitude. It was supposed to be a very useful and gratifying way of spending your time.
There are two kinds of motivations for taking on the DIY attitude, namely the marketplace motivations and the identity enhancement motivations. The marketplace motivations involve economic benefit, lack of product availability, lack of product availability and need for customisation. Identity enhancement motivations include craftsmanship, empowerment, community seeking and uniqueness.
With time, Youtube became THE place for watching DIY videos. Anyone could post their instructional videos and you could watch them for free. People felt encouraged and free to create whatever their minds could think up. Youtube stars were born and became famous for their creative DIY videos. There was a lot of individualism. But bit by bit, you could notice that the things being made became less and less useful. A lot of the content was being repeated. Nothing was new anymore. But the audience never left. They kept feeding on the same stupid content and DIY even became a way of procrastination. You could also notice that people now were buying extra materials to be able to follow the famous instructional videos. Youtube stars started advertising their own DIY-kits. Therefore, people were spending more money now. Ironic.
So now, let’s take a look at the DIY-attitude from the agonistic perspective. Agonism is the philosophical outlook emphasising the importance of conflict in politics. So at first, we have the hegemony of Capitalism/Consumerism. The more money you spend, the better! So, the Agonism theory posits that the status quo should be challenged. DIY is born! It poses a threat to the Consumeristic attitude. But after time, people start spending more money just to be able to make whatever they want to make. So, at first, DIY was agonistic but now it has been neutralised by Consumerism. How do you challenge such hegemony? Maybe with self-aware videos? If the public by investigates its own condition, production and circulation, maybe it can find a way to take back the DIY-attitude and make it a challenger for Consumerism again.
