Pass It On! Connecting Contemporary Do-It-Yourself Culture

DIY is an exhibition that will be on display at A+D Gallery of Columbia College, Chicago IL in Spring 2007. This site represents a space to discuss ideas about the exhibition and Do-it-Yourself concepts in culture and history.

Exhibition Mission Statement

“Do-It-Yourself” as an activity and as a concept has been fueling individual and collaborative creativity for centuries, not just within the US, where it became part of the social fabric under the umbrella of “yankee ingenuity”, but in a multitude of other political and cultural environments as well.

One can easily trace, throughout the history of humanity, a continuous desire to adapt and improve existing conventions, tools and practices, so that they may better fit each individual’s purposes. We share not only the need to learn from others’ experiences but also the desire to hand down instruction sets to others, so that they in turn may use and alter them in their own unique and creative ways.

Politically subversive in its inherent rejection of pre-formulated consumer culture, DIY philosophy has taken roots within many aspects of social and personal relationships, within the visual and applied arts, the sciences and within innumerable technological developments of the last decades. Many historically significant art movements such as Russian Futurism, Dada, Situationism, Fluxus, and Beuys’ vision of the social sculpture embody DIY characteristics and have led to contemporary manifestations in the works of Temporary Services, the Center for Applied Autonomy, or Critical Art Ensemble.

This exhibition will focus on the different aspects inherent in most successful DIY projects be they of historical, political, or artistic importance. We will examine the remarkable breadth of DIY in today’s culture and cover such diverse areas of activity as self-publishing, personal journalism, podcasting, amateur science, architecture and independent filmmaking. The show aims at leading visitors into active exploration of, and participation in, a variety of DIY projects, that we found to be exemplary and empowering, and discusses work that readily gives up any claim of proprietary and lasting authorship. In association with the physical installation this event will include a web project, a catalog, as well as lectures and workshops within the gallery space.