Festival of Maintenance 2019

About the event

Following the success of the inaugural Festival of Maintenance in 2018, this September we reconvene in Liverpool to celebrate the work of maintainers.

This year’s Festival explores what maintenance means in complex and changing times, bringing together new stories about creativity, craftsmanship, and the challenges of maintenance.

The world around us is changing rapidly: mobile technologies, data and connectivity have become normal parts of work and social life, with profound impacts on society and politics. If the digital world is not separate to the real world, what does this mean for the way that things are maintained, fixed and cared for? Maintenance and repair are just as important as innovation, but sometimes these ideas seem left behind. Amidst the rapid pace of innovation, have we missed opportunities to design things so that they can be fixed?

This doesn’t only relate to everyday consumer objects, but also the massive, resource-intensive infrastructures for the internet and digital systems. Maintenance keeps things working – but the essential work of fixing, repair, care and upkeep of everything from public parks, databases to people and communities is often overlooked. Behind this are bigger questions about public values, the way our economies are changing, and the wider impacts on politics and society.

Sponsors

Thank you to these organisations, without whose support this year’s Festival would not be possible.

Maker Assembly is a gathering of makers. They aim to make a home for critical discussion about maker culture: its meaning, politics, history and future.

The Software Sustainability Institute is a national facility for building better software. We help researchers to introduce software into their research or improve the software they already use.

MakeSpaceLive is a project born out of a desire to stream the live events hosted at DoES Liverpool in the easiest and most open way. Our goal is to use Open Source hardware and software to build an online platform for makerspaces and others to collaborate.

Kickstarter helps artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, and other creators find the resources and support they need to make their ideas a reality. To date, tens of thousands of creative projects — big and small — have come to life with the support of the Kickstarter community.

Since 2004, IT Jobs Watch has published free demand-side labour market insights including technology skill set trends, salary/contractor rate benchmarking and real-time job vacancy statistics.