MAKESHIFT MAGAZINE Launches

Today, I am stoked to announce the start of Makeshift Magazine: A Journal of Hidden Creativity. While we don't officially publish until our September 30 launch party at the A Better World By Design Conference, our Kickstarter Campaign and our website are now officially live.

Makeshift is a quarterly magazine and multimedia website focused on grassroots creativity and invention in resource-constrained areas around the world, set to launch September 30. It encompasses some of the ideas behind the Gettin' By series I started on this blog (and that series is how me and Ed-in-chief Steve Daniels got in touch), but looks more specifically at engineering, ingenuity and creativity with informal economies.

We currently have contributors in over 20 countries digging up stories of street-level ingenuity... and we only hope to expand from there.

We are hoping to raise money through potential readers to help us start up the business side of things. But we don't expect you to give just for free - for $60 you get a subscription for the first year, and for $125 you get the subscription, original prints form the mag and your choice of several fair trade products. For both, we will also list you as a supporter.

Any help spreading the word is much appreciated, and we look forward to your support.

Please see below for the official press release, or visit find us all over the web.

best,

Myles


Press Kit: mkshft.org/media
Website: mkshft.org
Kickstarter: kck.st/n5NJvI
Twitter: twitter.com/mkshftmag
Facebook: facebook.com/mkshftmag


Makeshift Magazine Showcases Ingenuity in Unlikely Places around the World

New York, NY – September 7, 2010. We are excited to announce the launch of Makeshift: A Journal of Hidden Creativity, a quarterly magazine and multimedia website (www.mkshft.org) highlighting creativity and invention in resource-constrained areas around the world.

As populations explode and resources dwindle, the ability to innovate under constraints has become a more pressing competency for individuals, companies, and governments. To document resourceful production Makeshift looks to the grassroots: to the garage tinkerers and under-the-radar businesses that make up the global informal economy. This sector of primarily unprotected and unregistered businesses accounts for over three quarters of employment across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. These maker-entrepreneurs are resilient, flexible, and immensely creative.

The editors of Makeshift noticed that production, more than at any point in the last century, is occurring at the grassroots. In different cultures it goes by different names: DIY in the US, jugaad in India, jua kali in East Africa, and gambiarra in Brazil. Makeshift seeks to unify these cultures into a global identity.

Makeshift is a global network of editors, researchers, journalists, photographers, and videographers uncovering stories of street-level ingenuity. The core team is based in New York, Mexico City, Singapore, and Madrid. Contributors in over 20 countries are searching for stories of street-level ingenuity.

Each quarterly issue of Makeshift will form an engaging and in-depth snapshot on a particular branch of informal creativity. The website will feature complementary media, including videos and blogs. It's a hi-fi representation of a lo-fi movement.

The inaugural issue of Makeshift, released September 30, will be themed "Re-culture: Reuse, repair, and recycle at the grassroots," featuring stories such as everyday product hacks in Kenya, industrial fabric recycling in India, improvised tools in Myanmar, recycled art in Colombia, and adaptive reuse of industrial sites in the United States.

About the Launch

Makeshift will be running a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter beginning September 7, through which readers can pre-order the magazine or subscriptions.

The magazine will launch September 30 in Providence, RI at A Better World by Design (www.abetterworldbydesign.com), an annual three-day social innovation conference at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. At the conference Makeshift will host a launch party Friday night at Anchor, a new office building converted from an industrial site, as well as an exhibition of makeshift objects from around the world and a panel on makeshift design.

About the Team

Steve Daniels, Editor-in-Chief of Makeshift, is the author of Making Do: Innovation in Kenya's Informal Economy and founder of the Better World by Design conference. He currently works for IBM Research in the field of ICT for development as a designer, developer, and social scientist. He has several years of publishing experience having self-published his book and founded the successful satirical newspaper The Brown Noser. Steve studied Technology for Emerging Markets at Brown University.

Myles Estey, Senior Editor and Photo Editor of Makeshift, is a writer, photographer, and producer researching the global informal economy. Previously based in Liberia, he now operates from Mexico City and searches for stories of how people get by at the base of the pyramid throughout Central America.

Niti Bhan, Editor of Makeshift, is a researcher, writer, and founder of the Emerging Futures Lab, a multidisciplinary research and consulting practice focused on understanding people at the base of the pyramid. She runs the blog REculture and is currently based in Singapore.

Media Contacts

Steve Daniels, Editor-in-Chief
steve@mkshft.org

More Information

Press Kit: mkshft.org/media
Website: mkshft.org
Kickstarter: kck.st/n5NJvI
Twitter: twitter.com/mkshftmag
Facebook: facebook.com/mkshftmag

A Tale of One Plant

Mexico is in the midst of a drug war. And, despite the criticisms, Mexico can get pretty effective at fighting it. When it feels up to it. Enter "exhibit A."

Its a bit hard to find really good data on drug quantities heading through Mexico. Undoubtedly, coke, meth and weed move north, east and west (but mostly north) to the tune of thousands of kilos. How many thousands requires a bit of guess work.

Precise figures on how much is somewhat immaterial: its a lot.

Few would disagree that there is a lot of large-scale marijuana production in the country, and that groups that include violence and/or intimidation in their portfolio control much of this production, and turn a very large profit from it. And, that it is part of the larger "drug war" problem the Mexican government continues to "fight."

Enter "a friend of a friend," and please forgive not using this person's name. Said person lives somewhat close to a relatively touristed area, that I passed through within the past few months. This person decided that since they smoke pot occasionally, and that they're not super keen about having to buy it off sketchy people, they should cut out that option. So they grow a plant in the backyard of their middle class home.

The single plant is around thigh high when a few soldiers show up at the house. They "know" about the plant, and have come to seize it. The house matriarch protests their presence. They ignore her, say no worries, quitar la planta, and leave. Easy peasey.

Meanwhile, unknown thousands of tons of weed are being grown by the hectare "somewhere," "unable" to be found. Sure, that field in Baja that could have allegedly produced 120 tons. And other grow-ops get snagged here and there.

But while unable to detect the multiple multi-ton fields around the country, a small group of military personnel are not only able to detect a single plant in a residential yard, but also have the will to go out and seize it. Why? Maybe a neighbour, knowing no narco connection existed, wasn't scared to rat. Maybe satellite shots, flyovers or using heat sensor technology to spot the plants. Maybe to prove zero tolerance. Maybe they were just told to. But somehow, they knew, they went, they achieved.

Weed is apparently much "harder" to find when grown on larger scales. But the fact that something like this - of all the problems to which to allocate Mexico's resources - takes up an afternoon of several soldiers, falls into the realm of baffling.