critical making: Konferenz, Labor & kollektive Praxis

The event is a three-day interactive gathering centered around open workshops, makerspaces, and collaborative practices. Alongside inspiring talks and thematic input, the main focus lies on hands-on experimentation and collective making. Participants are invited to explore new worlds, actively engage, and encounter diverse perspectives. At the same time, the event intentionally creates space for exchange, discussion, and community.

The aim of the event is to highlight the importance of open, collaborative spaces and to open up conversations about how they can enrich the way we live together and contribute to a vibrant, democratic society.

The conference takes place alongside the SummerCamp of the Association of Open Workshops. While panels, discussions, and workshops focus on sharing experiences and reflecting on collective practices, the camp becomes a space for building, repairing, cooking, coding, and improvising together. Conference and camp form a shared environment in which discourse, practical work, and everyday togetherness intersect.

The critical making conference builds on these collaborative approaches and brings together people who work practically and critically on material, social, and technological infrastructures with the common good in mind.

The four-day festival program brings together hands-on makerspace workshops, discourses on space and society, and continuous build projects like the Geo-Dome construction.

Thursday (Aug 27): Kick-off from 3:00 PM with initial workshops (including 3D Printing and Mini Lab), the launch of build projects, followed by evening talks and panels on open-source projects (Prototype Fund, CoWiki) and self-help bike repair shops.

Friday (Aug 28): Morning keynote by PD Dr. Franka Schäfer (Playgrounds for the Next Society) alongside workshops on the Fediverse, embroidery art, and Critical Making. The afternoon and evening feature hands-on sessions (synthesizers, 3D art, furniture upcycling) as well as talks on spatial conflicts, disaster relief, hackerspaces, and a mapping performance.

Saturday (Aug 29): Morning keynote by Ouassima Laabich, plus workshops on soldering, group conflict resolution, and zines. All-day sessions cover Human-Plant-Computer Interaction alongside ongoing build projects. Afternoon and evening highlights include textile craft, GenAI, BlackMesh, laser welding, various presentations (Waag Future Lab, Haecksen), and an audiovisual live performance.

Sunday (Aug 30): Finalization of build projects, workshops on glass jewelry and movement, plus an excursion to the BiBEr* Open Workshop in Frankfurt-Griesheim. The festival wraps up in the afternoon with a clean-up party.

https://social.colectif.de/@vow/116539357337798078, https://www.facebook.com/VerbundOffenerWerkstaetten

The project is developed in cooperation with MakeLab, Verbund Offener Werkstätten, anstiftung, Vision31, Offenes Haus der Kulturen Frankfurt, and Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. Together, the partners bring together perspectives from education, design, research, civil society practices, and open workshops to create spaces for collaborative learning, critical making, and democratic exchange.