Issue #3: Do it Yourself Culture

A friend of mine recently wrote a blog on getrockedout.com which praised 16 Blocks as a part of a D.I.Y., or do it yourself, culture. I didn't really know what he meant by that, so I looked into it. It basically means what it says. You do things yourself, or more importantly, instead of buying something, you make it.

It's a band recording an album in a friend's basement and while enlisting a creative acquaintance to design the cover art while teaming up with other bands and venues to book a road tour. Instead of hiring house painters, you climb a ladder and improve your brush work. Instead of selling your art in a gallery, you host a silent auction in an empty space you rented for a night from an encouraging landlord. Instead of shopping for T-shirts, you screen-print homemade designs in your basement.

This might just sound like a creative, or frugal, or entrepreneurial way to be, and it is those things. But in a consumerist society like our own where the sheer quantity of goods produced by corporations dominates the market, it is rewarding and extremely satisfying to come back to these self-reliant and individualistic endeavors. And you have more of an attachment with whatever it is you created than if you had simply bought it.

D.I.Y. culture is a return to the days before the industrial revolution. Like an Amish barn-raising, or a pot-luck dinner, a small group of people with a common goal can accomplish about anything. More people have time to donate to project than money, and the reward is the finished product, and the skills you picked up in its creation.

16 Blocks is definitely of D.I.Y., and I encourage you to help us continue blurring the line between creator and consumer. Send us your story ideas, write us a short story, capture us a photograph.

And try the "Current" television channel (196 on Dish Network), or "This American Life" on Sundays at 2:00 on 89.9 fm for fine examples of user-generated content.