Lately I've been reading and looking at a lot of material on-line, in books and documentaries on the whole maker movement, getting back to a hands-on independent, open source do it yourself mentality.  The book that got me interested in this at first was Shop Class As Soul Craft by Matthew B. Crawford.  Being able to not only understand how things are made but how to make and repair things is at the core of this read and in Crawford's estimation an essential element for success in our everyday lives.  I came from a family of men in the trades and never had an issue with being able to work with my hands. The one thing that I really loved about art school and graduate school in particular was having free reign in a studio packed with welding, grinding, cutting and casting materials all available for use.  I was able to think up an idea and then build it pretty much without any ones intervention allowing it to stand on it's own.  Art R&D.  There is also a very interesting world of bike hacking out there where people are coming up with new street design tall bikes, art bikes, cargo bikes and just about any other version of bikes and accessories that you can think of.  I consider this all as part of the maker movement initiatives going on today. Street creativity on the rise.

http://www.matthewbcrawford.com/