Spacemakers: Speculative Design and Public Space

Description

Spacemakers is a design education research project that explores the role of public space and community identity. The research has employed a series of pedagogical experiments in a range of arts learning contexts to understand how we might use speculative design to impact social practice and community identify formation.

Takeaway

Takeaways of the session will focus on an increased understanding of speculative design in arts learning contexts, enhance synthesis of social practice and social justices as praxis in community learning, and build capacity for interventions on public space as pedagogical experiments.

Abstract

This presentation reviews a pilot study of the Spacemakers' project. Spacemakers extends conversations about neighborhood identity and social justice issues through interventions in public spaces using speculative design and digital fabrication. These pilots address the shared public space through the ownership and development of public monuments, in response to recent controversies involving these public landmarks as seen in the Charlottesville events of 2017. Thus, learners were invited to engage in a process of design within a makerspace setting to create proposals for regenerating public space through art and spatial ethics, creating speculative designs of their own proposed monuments by using 3D modeling and 3D printing techniques. This research employed the MAKE 3D mobile makerspace, which seeks to broaden understanding and participation in STEAM-related subjects through digital fabrication (3D printing), arts-based approaches to material exploration, and hands-on learning. The combination of experiential learning and "thinking through materials" (Guyette et. al., 2014, p. 17), as well as the incorporation of Art into STEM subjects, is a benefit to students and teachers in connecting concepts, exploring ideas, and increasing participation (Shapiro, 2010). In the same vein, the Spacemakers pilot experiences helped in studying how can learners address abstract concepts, such as neighborhood identity and social justice, while developing design and 3D modeling skills through making, material exploration, and design thinking. This research explores the potential of the informal makerspace setting to generate STEAM-based curricula and arts-based instructional materials that aim to address identity and social justice issues through making, speculative design, and pedagogical methods of arts inquiry. Finally, the results of the two pilot experiences will be reviewed in terms of curriculum development possibilities, the learning outcomes that can be achieved through such curriculum, and the potential of collaborations among the arts and sciences for addressing issues that are meaningful to the learners and their communities.

References

Guyotte, K. W., Sochacka, N. W., Constantino, T. E., Walther, J., & Kellam, N. N. (2014). STEAM as social practice: Cultivating creativity in transdisciplinary spaces. Art Education, 67(6), 12–19.
Shapiro, D. (2010). Reaching students through STEMN and the Arts. Retrieved from http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=56924