Shifting Gender in Electronic Music: DIY and Maker Communities

Abstract

The rise in DIY and maker communities that has taken place over the last decade, including the growth of Hackspaces, Fab Labs and Maker Spaces, is not just about making: at its core it is a political development. It has been concerned with the empowerment of the individual in global, corporate societies, and with democracy on many different levels, gender included. There has been significant crossover between crafting communities such as Etsy and hackspaces. Make magazine and Maker Faires have brought practical projects and arts and crafts activities alongside ‘tech’ in a neo-renaissance arts/science mash-up. Traditional roles and stereotypes have been questioned in the process. Electronic music has also been influenced by these cultural phenomena. In this article, DIY and maker communities and a maker’s ethos will be discussed in relation to issues of gender imbalance in electronic music as they exist particularly within academic institutions in the UK.