This blog is about my work with the Remake Project. Following my role leading the Precious Plastic Cincy project, I had the groundwork laid out for working with sustainable ideas. I knew there was a way to explore sustainability because we had the space, but I knew plastic accessibility was a very specific approach and there was a general lack of support to the project as a whole (as far as lack of accelerators, fellowships etc) so I thought about what if there was a place that supported bold ideas?
So am I starting from scratch?
Not really. The research from Precious Plastic Cincy gave me plenty of insights into making, small batch urban manufacturing, and mobilizing people.
Makers are the people absolutely needed for this artist revolution. Because I learned about the power of makers and the connections within the Cincinnati area, I had a baseline for what the Remake Project could be. We wanted to empower makers by any means necessary.
How I did it?
We followed the momentum. Makers have support through maker-spaces that are independently run or through organized institutions like schools, but there was an observed need for more. We explored this through workshops, teaching, a material access, and more. The project works in that it continues to introduce new ways of thinking through action.
A University of Cincinnati Collaboration
I partnered with multiple students from the University of Cincinnati to develop a reuse ecosystem that centered makers in it.
One of the collaborations led to a partnership with 1819 Ground Floor Makerspace (https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2023/04/uc-makerspace-threads-eco-friendly-project.html) where we created a series of workshops that will serve to help members get certified and work with reclaimed materials.
Supporing the Cincinnati Maker Community
This work was a 1 year exploration into providing technical community support to the maker community through reused materials.
The Power Is In the People
It turns out that the work was in connecting folks who wanted to help with the cool ideas. The Remake Project evolved into an open volunteer project where we work on items that impact the UN Sustainability Goals.
Thank you for reading :)
Cyrina