ABSTRACT
This chapter is a conversation between two artists, Victoria Bradbury and Constant Dullaart, about spaces in which they work. They cover topics including artists maintaining a reflective role in society, which can be difficult with new media because technology inevitably intertwines with commerce. Artworks that draw centrally upon technology for form and function must be critical of the complex systems driving the work in order for them to take this reflective stance. The culture of fablabs and maker spaces fundamentally commodifies these previously meritocratic systems. In these spaces, ideas rise to the surface that may be viable as business models or startups. Commercial potential becomes the driving factor for ‘making.’ The ability for artists to make trades and exchanges creates the possibility for brainstorming and deflecting ideas off of one another. This builds an ‘intimate economy’ that is constructed around ideas rather than expansion and growth.
