We were contacted by the production company as a potential venue last year, but nothing came of it.
One of the regular ‘makers’, Zoe, is a good friend to the Makerspace, so that might colour my view, plus a natural tendency towards liking and supporting such a programme: but I loved it! Though I did feel they tried to do too many projects in the first episode, and likely claimed a larger triumph than appeared to be deserved. But TV shows need to tell a story, and there’s pressure for it to be a success story. However there was something inspirational about it, and it fits very well into the ethos of ‘people just getting on and making changes in the world that they want to see’.
So…it occurred to me that SLMS could do something like this in future? Finding a real life problem (beyond our own) and putting some budget and our huge pool of skills and imagination into finding a fix? Say, like a Hackathon, but focused on a particular beneficiary, and a span of several months to develop the solution?
The big, big issue is probably the one that everyone who ever had a great idea discovers: developing an idea into a finished product is a huge amount of work. Looking at the ‘fixes’ in the first episode it’s easy to see that there would need to be a great deal of follow up (or at least maintenance/troubleshooting) for every one of them. That may mean we stay away from these sorts of solutions (or just go into them with our eyes open?).
Such a good and audacious Idea, putting all the brains in a caldron ( Makerspace ) and crack on.
Like the idea of sharing tech/fix studio helpers.
Bring it on but not sure about TV documentary. Why not an independent approach…
I have just watched the second, and my love for this programme hasn’t gone diminished. The marriage of engineering ingenuity and human interest has been compelling tv for me and my other half. I find it pretty motivating to get out and do stuff, and I’m projecting that onto the BBC audience… at least, it sells the idea I hold close that the world is malleable.
As for ‘Team Makerspace’, that’s something I’ve thought would be great from the first second I was part of it. I’d enjoy silly ‘the great egg race’ / ‘scrapheap challenge’ type stuff as part of party fun. Something worthy like this could be so rewarding for those involved. Do I have the time? Not at the present, with mini-oik and micro-oik.
