Hacking the Pandemic: Hackerspaces and Makerspaces Respond to the COVID-19 Crisis
In the U.S., hackerspaces emerged in the early twenty-first century in New York and California and have since spread to all 50 states. Both hackerspaces and their increasingly commercialized counterparts, makerspaces, function as educational organizations, community spaces, and shared technology, craft and art workshops all in one.[1] They act as infrastructural Swiss Army Knives, facilitating a variety of functions on a small scale and filling in various gaps in underserved areas. In an era where public life is geared toward passive consumption, hackerspaces and makerspaces facilitate productive social gatherings like hackathons, collaborative projects and group learning sessions (figure 1).
Figure 1: Textile hackers collaborating at Noisebridge, San Francisco, California, 2018. Photograph by Ben Jameson-Ellsmore.
In a largely white-collar economy where entire manufacturing sectors and associated skill sets have been exported overseas, they provide access to fabrication tools otherwise too large or expensive for many individuals to own (figure 2). Hackerspaces and makerspaces provide cheap workspace, tools, internet, and types of essential services that a neoliberal economic system no longer even pretends to guarantee (figure 3). More recently, after federal forces keen on short-term economic gain dismantled disaster preparedness programs and faltered in their COVID-19 response, the largely volunteer-run memberships of maker- and hackerspaces were immediately poised to contribute to crisis relief efforts.
Figure 2: Kevin demonstrating how to safely use a lathe at i3Detroit, Ferndale, Michigan, 2020. Photograph by Ben Jameson-Ellsmore.
Figure 3: Sudo Room and Sudo Mesh hackers creating mobile dish mounts to test the connectivity of their wireless Mesh network’s “air fibers” which provide low-bandwidth WIFI to Oaklanders who cannot afford internet service, Oakland, California, 2018. Photograph by Benny.
In April 2020 the techno-utopian Make Magazine reported a “Glorious Avalanche of Makerspaces in the News”, as open source designs for personal protective equipment (PPE) were circulated and implemented (figure 4). Maker/hackerspaces were having their moment and proving their worth by catalyzing nimble grassroots solutions to COVID-related shortages. However, this article is not a simple glorification of resilient DIY Americans finding their own solutions during a global crisis, because in the wrong hands such an uncritical portrayal could be used to justify future governmental disinvestment and corporate takeover of public services. That largely volunteer-run makerspaces and hackerspaces were so sorely needed during the pandemic equally serves as a condemnation of a severely lacking federal response which left healthcare workers and citizens scrambling to protect themselves. Hackerspace and makerspace communities were eager to pick up the slack when it came to social responsibility, but they should not be expected to fill the vast voids left by gutted public programs. Nonetheless it is important to acknowledge their close involvement with mitigating the ongoing crises of the year 2020 and their manifestation of new forms of resilience.
Figure 4: Noisebridge’s 3D printers and spools of PLA and PETG plastic being used to print face mask components, San Francisco, California, 2020. Photograph by Wheezy.
Here I focus on makerspaces and hackerspaces around Detroit and San Francisco because of these cities’ prominent location in the real and imagined geography of innovation in the U.S., or what Sharon Zukin calls the “innovation complex.” More on this choice of cities as well as the architectural and aesthetic aspects of hacker- and makerspaces will be in my forthcoming Ph.D. dissertation. Note that many of the photographs by me in this article were taken before stay-at-home orders were given, and most other pictures were taken by authorized maker- and hackerspace members as those orders incrementally relaxed.
Figure 5: Open-source walls, tools and palimpsests of use at Noisebridge, San Francisco, California, 2018. Photograph by Ben Jameson-Ellsmore.
Figure 6: Communal resources at Sudo Room hackerspace, Oakland, California, 2019. Photograph by Ben Jameson-Ellsmore.
Piled high with communal tools and resources, hackerspaces and makerspaces are physical and visual embodiments of open source, or software that makes its source code available for free modification and redistribution. Like open source software, hackerspace and makerspace resources pass repeatedly through many human hands (except physical instead of virtual hands in this case). Each space is defined by unique traces of constant manual manipulation. Noisebridge’s walls are open source, with broad permission given to scribble, graffiti and paint (figure 5). Sudo Room is structured by isles and piles of publicly accessible tools and resources (figure 6). OmniCorpDetroit mounts its workspaces and equipment on casters, allowing the space to be rearranged as desired (figure 7). i3Detroit is a sprawling library of tools, meticulously systematized for its 100-plus members (figure 8).
Figure 7: Tool-strewn workspaces at OmniCorpDetroit are mounted on casters and the ceiling lights are clip-on, facilitating the constant rearranging of space, Detroit, Michigan, 2020. Photograph by Ben Jameson-Ellsmore.
Figure 8: Sanding disks being reorganized in the common area at i3Detroit, Ferndale, Michigan, 2019. Photograph by Ben Jameson-Ellsmore.
Because these tactile open source spaces could potentially spread COVID-19, most maker- and hackerspaces completely closed to all users to comply with stay-at-home orders. As executive orders progressively relaxed, these spaces reopened to selected essential members. To do this safely, their communities reorganized themselves. In the Detroit area, maker- and hackerspaces tend to have larger square footage than around San Francisco. This allowed members of OmniCorpDetroit to remove their workspaces from more trafficked areas (figure 9).
Figure 9: Neil relocates to the “room of impermanence” at OmniCorpDetroit with his masks and hand sanitizer. During non-pandemic times, this room is usually reserved for artists in residence, Detroit, Michigan, 2020. Photograph by Ben Jameson-Ellsmore.
Before the pandemic i3Detroit was already organized into “zones”, according to tools and activities (figure 10). This meant essential workers fabricating PPE in the “laser zone”, “sewing zone”, and “fab lab” could each be present while keeping sufficient physical distance. In the San Francisco Bay Area, Noisebridge closed itself completely to the public and limited its occupancy to four authorized members at a time to make social distancing in its far narrower space possible. Meanwhile, Sudo Room opened for the Sudo Mesh network crew which helped facilitate social distancing in the wider community by providing free internet for underserved Oaklanders and fabricating a WIFI hotspot for a community farm addressing COVID-19-related food shortages (figure 11).
Figure 10: Preexisting “zones” at i3Detroit helped to socially distance essential members fabricating PPE.
Figure 11: At Sudo Room, Krystof wears PPE and WIFI hotspot antennae for the Gill Family Tract, a Native American-operated family farm addressing COVID-19-related food shortages, Oakland, California, 2020. Photograph by Marc.
San Francisco Bay Area hackerspaces, makerspaces and other small fabrication facilities formed elaborate coalitions that collectively began to equal the output of entire factories (such as the ones the U.S. has been outsourcing for the last 50 years).[2] The Port Product Lab and Ace Monster Toys in Oakland coordinated maker/hackerspace involvement in PPE production, quickly forming connections with local hospitals and businesses and turning their facilities to manufacturing face shields. Noisebridge’s cadre of 3D printers were put to work making face shield parts and N95 mask filter components using spools of plastic delivered by UCSF (see figure 4). Noisebridge and Humanmade also served as informational hubs, disseminating DIY PPE designs and providing plastic for people with their own 3D printers, before collecting completed homemade components for bulk delivery back to UCSF.
In the Detroit area, where large manufacturing facilities are still prevalent, one maker/hackerspace was used as a prototyping facility for PPE and medical equipment. At OmniCorpDetroit, Jeff helped spearhead Ford Motor Company’s Project Apollo, a rapid prototyping-to-manufacturing operation for ventilators, respirators and face shields (figure 12). The project’s name refers to the 1970 Apollo 13 mission. After an oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 malfunctioned, Mission Control quickly hacked together replicas of the malfunctioning equipment in orbit in an effort to guide the astronauts through the repair process. Exactly 50 years later, the 2020 parallel is Ford’s rapid prototyping and repurposing of existing production facilities to remedy the shortage of medical equipment in overflowing hospitals, especially in the Detroit pandemic hotspot. The project culminated with Ford producing millions of face shields and gowns and over one hundred thousand medical-grade respirators, taking far less time than usual to transition from prototype to assembly line.
Figure 12: Project Apollo at OmniCorpDetroit. This parts-strewn table was used for the rapid prototyping of PPE and ventilator parts, Detroit, Michigan, 2020. Photograph by Ben Jameson-Ellsmore.
It is increasingly evident that Americans of color are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, including in cities like Detroit, San Francisco and Oakland. Crises compounded as the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police led to an eruption of protests in cities across the U.S. A government that failed to stockpile PPE and dragged its feet responding to COVID-19 was well-provisioned with teargas and rubber bullets, and more than ready to turn them on its own citizens. In solidarity with protestors, Marc, a member of the hackerspace Sudo Room, fabricated a mobile WIFI hotspot with no password requirement or data cap designed to help protestors coordinate, stream and document their action (figure 13).
Figure 13: Mobile 4G wireless hotspot fabricated for George Floyd protestors by Marc, Oakland, California, 2020. Photograph by Marc.
Protest kits were also assembled in the basement of the Omni Commons, the Oakland collective that Sudo Room belongs to. These kits include items like face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during protests and eye solution used to treat the effects of teargas and pepper spray. Hackerspaces and their communities are again poised to fill the unmet needs of citizens who were first neglected and now brutalized by the state.[3]
The valuable role played by hackerspaces and makerspaces in responding to the 2020 crises may bring these organizations into the public spotlight and help establish them as fixtures in U.S. cities. It is thus not only important to study them but understand how they function and what they contribute to the public life of cities. With precarious living and public infrastructural disinvestment increasingly becoming the unfortunate norm, Americans may be forced to learn how to hack future crises as well.
NOTES:
[1] I develop the finer distinctions between hackerspaces, makerspaces and similar community-focused art and technology workshops in my Ph.D. dissertation, titled “Please Hack: Makerspaces, Hackerspaces and Public Life in San Francisco and Detroit.”
[2] This perspective was informed by a March 27, 2020 conversation with Naomi from Noisebridge and a June 22, 2020 conversation with Sal from the Port Product Lab.
[3] There is an important distinction to be made here between hackerspaces and makerspaces. Hackerspaces give a critical eye to technology and existing power structures, while makerspaces and the Make brand tend to repackage aspects of hackerspace culture to be more palatable to private corporations, the state and a broad consumer audience. While the two converge around the relatively uncontroversial and potentially profitable act of PPE production for hospital workers, they are more likely to diverge when it comes to their involvement in political protest.
