Storytelling should be the primary frame for (more than just) makerspace outcomes

It matters what thoughts think thoughts. It matters what knowledges know knowledges. It matters what relations relate relations. It matters what worlds world worlds. It matters what stories tell stories

Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene - Donna haraway - 2016, p. 35

Three interrelated draft-y thoughts about stories in Makerspaces.

Stories should be the primary frame for outcomes

The idea that makerspaces are spaces where inventions and businesses are created is greatly exaggerated. A friend of mine who travelled to makerspaces around the world told me that one thing he learned was that nothing ever gets finished in a makerspace. Instead, they were spaces where people met teachers and collaborators, gained access to technologies, and learned how to learn. If their goal was as concrete as a patent, that happened later in purpose-build spaces. This isn’t a weakness, the two types of spaces serve different purposes and are not really compatible.

Especially in post-secondary institutions the value of makerspaces lies in a meta-skills users develop: a strong sense of self-efficacy with design and technology, skills for life-long learning, and access to a community and space that provides support and a sense of belonging within the institution.

Stories capture the rich activities of what happens in the makerspace better than statistics or even the things made. Most of the actual things made in the makerspace are not that interesting in themselves. They might be interesting to the user, but as object they are often simple, or stereotypical. Stories let us expand out from those objects to talk about what we actually value.

Storytelling should be the goal of most makerspace projects

Something I see a lot is users limiting themselves to things that are achievable in a short amount of time and with their current skill set. This results in stereotypical off-the-shelf projects that don’t make them go beyond their existing knowledge or imagine alternative solutions to problems.

Rather than focus on specific outcomes (an object, a video) we should encourage users to think about what they are doing as telling a story that is accompanied by an object. This expands the range of possibilities users can explore and explicitly values the process of learning over the specific objects. It allows users to tell a more ambitious or speculative story because it’s okay if the object they create to go along with it is non-functional.

Stories don’t need to be finished, functional, or real. A story can be stretch. Often users are hyper-practical but when asking big questions (climate change, housing crisis) there needs to be intermediate outcomes. Sometimes the story is what is needed. Making it functional can happen later, or never, depending on the goals of the learner.

For examples: learners might make a design for a 3D printed bee habitat that is bio-degradable and environmentally friendly, even if they can’t actually make a functional prototype. This could be in the form of a non-functional prototype or descriptive image along with a story. Later, they might collaborate with someone who has the technical skills to make this a reality. If they focused just on objects they could immediately create, that pathway wouldn’t ever be a possibly.

Focusing on outcomes is also less welcoming to users with different technical skill sets or backgrounds. It advantages the users with the most previous technical experience over new users. Storytelling allows everyone to get started with real, meaningful goals and then work towards the technical skills they require to achieve those goals.

So stories aren’t just better ways of talking about what’s valuable; they are a better way of creating that value. Storytelling should be the goal of (most) makerspace projects, and the space should be structured to promote storytelling.

Storytelling also helps us centre context and community in what is happening in our spaces.

Finally, storytelling lets us widen the frame to talk about the contexts and communities where making, learning, design, and innovation happen.

Stories let us explore and honour our histories. We’ve had students made ribbon skirts, 3D sculptures of cattle that told the story of their grandparents, and music that mixes 3 different languages by students from 2 continents. We also have students make items that express their identity (buttons, clothing, stickers, 3D prints) that relate to where they are from or what they believe.

Storytelling also let us think about the people and communities involved in making. This helps us move away from the story that anything is the product of a single isolated genius working alone.

So what?

So what are the implications of all this? I spent the summer working with the TRU Library Makerspace team to gather stories of our users. We’ve also spent a lot of time recently thinking about how to capture and share stories. Next, I want to spend more time thinking about how to guide users to create their own stories, and then share those in ways that make them scaffolds for others to build on. The real value of stories may be the ways they help others write their own stories.