About

The Fixers Collective is a social experiment in improvisational fixing and aggressive asset recovery. The Fixers Collective is a Project-In-Residence at Proteus Gowanus and now meets in places throughout the five boroughs.

Mission

Our goal is to increase material literacy in our community by fostering an ethic of creative caring toward the objects in our lives.

The Fixers’ Collective seeks to displace cultural patterns that alienate us from our things, by collectively learning the skills and patience necessary to care for them. Intentionally aligning itself with forces generated in reaction to the current economic crisis, the Fixers’ Collective promotes a counter-ethos that values functionality, simplicity, and ingenuity and that respects age, persistence and adequacy.

The Collective also encourages participants to take liberties with designated forms and purposes, resulting in mended objects that may exist both as art and within a more limited, utilitarian context.

Overview

Please visit the Proteus Gowanus website for more articles on the Fixers Collective.

Description

The Fixers Collective meets on a regular basis in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Sign up for the mailing list or join the Facebook page to get more details. We may also have special sessions at other designated places and times. All are welcome, whether you have something to fix or just want to observe and watch.

Please stay tuned for announcements for our upcoming sessions. If you have anything you’d like us to examine, please let us know by writing on our Wall or contacting us through our blog.

General Information

We encourage people to bring in their items early, so we can devote the most time to the item. Subsequently, if you arrive in the middle of a fix, we’ll try to accommodate you as best as we can.

We thank iFixit for their generous donation of tools and supplies in 2011. The parts tray and the precision screwdriver set are the items we Fixers use the most often!