<nettime> Bio/hardware hacking: new special issue published in the Journal of Peer Production

[Alessandro Delfanti <a.delfanti@insiberia.net>]

âBio/Hardware Hackingâ: a new special issue of the Journal of Peer 
Production is now published - http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-2/

During the past two decades, hacking has chiefly been associated with 
software and computers. This is changing with the surge of synthetic 
biology, fablabs and hackerspaces, all of which suggests the wider 
diffusion of hacking practices and hacker politics. Hardware development 
and biological science are about to be infused with the same kind of 
contestations and contradictions that already characterize software 
hacking. This is because hackers are not simply innovating new 
technology, but are at the same time discovering new ways of engaging 
with the world. The issue highlights how hacking practices are inscribed 
in and shaped by the cultural and political contexts in which the 
hackers find themselves, with implications for the ways hacker politics 
are framed.

The special issue is curated by Alessandro Delfanti and Johan 
SÃderberg. It includes four research papers and two invited comments:

Denisa Kera, Hackerspaces and DIYbio in Asia: Connecting Science and 
Community with Open Data, Kits and Protocols

Maxigas, Hacklabs and Hackerspaces - Tracing Two Genealogies

Sara Tocchetti, DIYbiologists as âMakersâ of Personal Biologies: How 
MAKE Magazine and Maker Faires Contribute in Constituting Biology as a 
Personal Technology

Paolo Magaudda, How to make a âHackintoshâ. A Journey into the 
âConsumerizationâ of Hacking Practices and Culture

Morgan Meyer, Build Your Own Lab: Do-it-yourself Biology and the Rise 
of Citizen Biotech-Economies

Mitch Altman, Hacking at the Crossroad - US Military Funding of 
Hackerspaces

Feel free to tweet, blog, share, comment the content of this special 
issue. We hope it will be a good starting point for further studies of 
the spreading of hacking practices outside the software field.

Finally, we take advantage of this email to invite you to attend the 
panel we will chair, together with Eric Deibel, at the 4S/EASST 
Conference in Copenhagen in October. It is titled âHacking STS - 
bio-hacking, open hardware development, and hackerspacesâ, and will be 
another space to discuss the topics of this special issue.

Sincerely,
Alessandro and Johan


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