Just what is it makes Makers HeadRoom so different, so appealing?
Makers HeadRoom is an online group for makers in any medium and any genre. It’s not a club, it’s not exclusive and it doesn’t cost anything to join in.
It’ not quite sufficient to explain that it’s a weekly makers group held online on Zoom. The idea is to share our presence and our time in a (virtual) place where we make rather than chat. We simply spend time together quietly doing our own making without comment, instruction, or entertainment.
The Zoom group
We do talk a bit at the beginning and end to get to know each other and deal with general housekeeping, but the core thing we do is to be in each other’s company working on our own making projects. We keep our microphones on so we can sense the presence and concentration of the whole group. This is not a silent meeting but the primary emphasis is on working along with each other rather than on talking.
Silence is not required
Makers HeadRoom is for anyone who makes anything but it is conceived primarily as something for people who work with their hands. At first I thought it would be hard for makers to work quietly together but that really has not been an issue. In fact we have had to learn to adjust the Zoom settings so that the software filters out less of the background noise. We realised we needed to hear each other working as it was eerily quiet if we let the Zoom audio filter everything out to near silence.
How it happened
I have taken this idea from what Mark Richards developed during the first Covid lockdown with Sculptors Drawing Space. He describes it like this: “People from around the world gather … we keep our microphones on and moderate the ambient noise … Importantly no one sees what anyone else does. the effect is one of shared space without scrutiny or evaluation. we gather together, to work in private.”
With Makers HeadRoom we have switched drawing for making – which is a twist but we are not fussy about how you define making, we have makers working with clay, textiles, printmaking, sculpture, painting and drawing and working stuff out in their sketchbooks.
The long view
My understanding of this group is that makers have common ways of thinking and working. These ways bond us and enable us to assemble and work in parallel without intervention or instructions from a leader or conductor. Makers HeadRoom is a place where we can enjoy each other’s concentration, attention and sense of purpose while we absorb what occurs between us when we work together without words.
I suspect that a makers mind (Or perhaps any mind in a making mode) has special qualities, abilities and needs. Manipulating complex spacial, colour, structural and compositional relationships requires a lot of energy and focus. Gathering together to do this seems to somehow enhance it. It’s as if the background sounds of others also engaged in making soothes and sustains our own activity.
Mojo working
Working with Sculptors Drawing Space led me to thinking about what was distinctive and special about a group of people spending time together and largely forgoing the use of words. When you experience it, it has an atmosphere that is hard to define or express. I find this intriguing and want to know more about it, but more than anything I want to replicate it so more people can experience it themselves.
Sign up on the website
There is also something about the fact that so few people know about this as yet, that this is still esoteric knowledge, developed during Lockdown. If you would like to see what you think, it’s free, all you need to do is sign up to the mailing list.
Structure
The meeting structure is straight forward.
The meeting currently lasts two hours but you can stay for one
It’s at 9am on Tuesday mornings (London time).
Sound levels
I have made a web page that shows you how to adjust your audio levels to hear low level background noise because Zoom filters it all out by default. If you are beating metal with a hammer or drilling wood with an electric drill you might want to mute your microphone for the duration of that activity but the group can help you work that out if necessary.
Sign up here:
Makers Headroom sign-up page
Other links:
