ONLINE CRAFTS: VIRTUAL PARTNERSHIPS AND FREE HARDWARE
Sound synthesizers; Crafts; Partnerships; Internet; Construction of knowledge.
The present work brings the partial progress of a research about the handmade synthesizers and the network of communication and exchanges of knowledge that they establish through the support of the internet. Synthesizers are electronic devices that produce sounds through the modulation of electric currents. Since the mid-1990s, the practice of building such instruments in an artisanal way has been spreading, based on information collected on the web. I intend to observe how technological knowledge is developed through partnerships mediated by virtual platforms. Many artisans provide free synthesizer designs and, through exchanges of opinions and suggestions, improve their knowledge and technology. In the research, also attentive to the fluidity of the associations established through Internet and to the different connections established between machine and human being in this activity.