Makerspaces are a, relatively, recent phenomenon in Flanders and Brussels. It offers a new context in which knowledge about and around making practices is shared, challenged and created. With Crafting Futures, we are initially looking for the current valuation of craft knowledge and knowhow. Therefore, a new context in which this knowledge is present is interesting and relevant to explore. This document attempts to offer insight into this growing Flemish and Brussels field.
The report is exclusively available in Dutch.
Some ateliers within the Maakfabriek in Antwerpen.
Diversity of the field
The first step within this report is a broad mapping of makerspaces in Flanders and Brussels. This covers several elements. First, it focuses on the flexibility within the concept of makerspace. There is no clear-cut definition. As a result, there are a variety of practices and organisations that appeal to the term or are named as such by external actors. From open labs where everyone is welcome to use shared machinery and space, to sharing studios with spaces where permanent residents each have their own allocated atelier. Central to each, however, is the making of physical objects and the sharing of space, tools and knowledge. The diverse working forms, organisational forms and funding methods present in the Flemish and Brussels fields are highlighted.
Mission and policy
Furthermore, we looked at what makerspaces are trying to do: what is their mission and vision, what challenges are they trying to formulate answers to? The focus here is on what place ‘making’ is given by makerspaces within their practice and how they contextualise them within wider society. Additionally, there is attention for policy and how these new practices position themselves within it as well as how policy-makers interact with these new organisations. There is no single policy initiative focused on makerspaces, as a consequence the organisations can be found in many policy levels and domains.
A view into the makerspace embedded within the Industriemuseum in Gent. Credit: Martin Corlazzoli for the Industriemuseum.
Networking and knowledge
A penultimate point of attention focuses on how makerspaces are collaborating with each other, or not. Today, there is no overarching network. However, there are smaller networks, where organisations with similar working methods or through geographical demarcation find each other. Finally, knowledge (sharing) within makerspaces is addressed. First of all, what kind of knowledge is present, then in what way do participants share it among themselves and what place is assigned to this knowledge (sharing) within the organisations.
This report is thus an initial exploration of this emerging field. In the further course of Crafting Futures, some of the questions and tensions raised in the report will be a focus of the further research situated within Crafting Futures.
Download the report (in Dutch) here.