Department of Making + Doing

University City Science Center

Funding Received: 2013
Philadelphia, PA
$150,000
Funding Period: 1 year and 5 months
http://dmdphilly.org
Design & Architecture, Film & Media, Visual Arts, Other | Economic Development, Environment & Energy, Youth Development | Urban
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October 15, 2013

Visual Planning with Post-It Notes

When the Department Making + Doing team needs to plan out a program or gets stuck on an idea, we get out the Post-its. We love Post-its. They’re little 3 x 3 units, just the right size for recording ideas. The limited space on a single Post-it demands the idea be concise and understandable. Post-its help us reduce ideas into single units and then collectively re-building them into larger concepts. As a group, we collectively assemble our small ideas into more complex ones. Post-its are movable, and as we move them around, patterns and connections begin to emerge. Post-its are analog. We collectively have to get up out of our chairs, move around, be hands-on, and make connections together.

Recent Wins
We have hired a Program Manager for the Department of Making + Doing. Michael Darfler will be charged with transforming the DM+D space at 3711 Market Street into a vibrant community of hackers, tinkerers, makers, doers and dreamers who want to make real and substantial change in their lives, their communities and their environment.

Michael  is a recent transplant to Philadelphia from his home in Ithaca, NY. He brings to the Science Center more than six years of making and doing experience and a desire to use the knowledge he's gained to empower the citizens of Philadelphia to do great things. After graduating from college in 2007, Michael spent his time as a carpenter, a cabinet maker, a furniture designer, a stone mason and a timber framer, among other things, and gained a deep respect and admiration for materials, design and craft, and for the feeling of empowerment that comes with working with your hands to shape, change, and create your environment. After moving to Philadelphia last year Michael began working with Public Workshop, an organization that puts teens and young adults at the forefront of community engagement and civic innovation through design/build. When Public Workshop partnered with Breadboard, The Hacktory and NextFab Studio to create The Department of Making + Doing, Michael began volunteering and has been involved in establishing DM+D as a leader in civic engagement in Philly.