The document outlines the agenda for a two-day symposium on creative making in libraries and museums, including discussions on critical making, how making impacts cultural institutions, and examples of making activities like 3D printing, robotics, and using materials like LEGOs.

1. Creative Making in
Libraries and Museums
An iSchool Institute
Symposium Series
July 22-23, 2013
Stephen Abram, MLS
Stephen.abram@gmail.com
www.stephenslighthouse.com

2. Welcome
 Welcome
 Washrooms
 WiFi
 Lunch
 Starbucks
 No-host dinner tonight
 Tomorrow

4. The Philosophy
 What is creative making? Critical making?
 What are the academic underpinnings of
making, critical thinking?
 How does this relate to libraries, learning,
research, museums, and cultural
institutions?
 What’s happening today?
 And, what can we vision and imagine for the
future?
 How do we do this? Where can we start?

5. The Agenda for Monday
 Introduction
 Critical making R&D at the iSchool’s
Semaphore Lab
 Lunch & Tour of the Critical Making Lab &
Semaphore
 Chattanooga Public Library
 Learning with Lego®
 LibraryBox
 Fayetteville Free Library
 Dinner conversation

6. The Agenda for Tuesday
 Coffee & Muffins
 Smithsonian Institution Critical Making
Program
 Practitioners Panel:
 MakerKids
 Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
County
 University of Nevada (Reno)
 Brainstorming and Idea Share – Taking it
home!

7. Define terms:
 Maker Movement: what happens when the
limits of cost and complexity are removed
from imagination.
 Makerspace: an area devoted to the
development of ideas by giving users access
to technology, equipment and an engaged
community.
 Maker: anyone who makes something.

8. Making
 The broadest definition through example:
 Cooking, gardens, hobbies
 Crafts for all ages
 Making games, virtual creations
 Writing labs, short story contests, poetry
slams
 Genealogy charts
 …
 Music
 Video, film, documentaries…
 3D printing, scanning
 Arduino and robotics
 Simple Lego®
 Gaming
 Photography and local history

9. What is critical making?
 Tentative working definition:
 ―We can't fully understand our
technologies, and bring a critical understanding
to them, simply by reading or talking about
them. We need to, you know, make stuff.‖ Matt
Ratto
 “Open design can be employed to develop a
critical perspective on the current
institutions, practices and norms of society, and
to reconnect materiality and morality. Matt
Ratto introduces „critical making‟ as processes
of material and conceptual exploration and
creation of novel understandings by the
makers themselves, and he illustrates these
processes with examples from teaching and
research.”

10. What is critical thinking?
 ―Critical thinking is that mode of thinking —
about any subject, content, or problem — in
which the thinker improves the quality of his
or her thinking by skillfully analyzing,
assessing, and reconstructing it. Critical
thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-
monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It
presupposes assent to rigorous standards of
excellence and mindful command of their
use. It entails effective communication and
problem-solving abilities, as well as a
commitment to overcome our native
egocentrism and sociocentrism.‖
 http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/our-
concept-of-critical-thinking/411

11. What is creative thinking?
 A way of looking at problems or situations from a
fresh perspective that suggests
unorthodox solutions (which may look unsettling
at first). Creative thinking can be stimulated both
by an unstructured process such
as brainstorming, and by a structured process
such as lateral thinking.
 http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/crea
tive-thinking.html#ixzz2ZbaI9BaK

12. What is creative thinking?
 Creativity is a phenomenon whereby
something new and valuable is created
(such as an idea, a joke, a literary work, a
painting or musical composition, a solution,
an invention etc.). It is also the qualitative
impetus behind any given act of creation,
and it is generally perceived to be
associated with intelligence and cognition.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity

13. How does making impact
libraries and museums?
 Making is the creation of cultural objects.
 Making is an experience and libraries and
museums have a key focus on the user
experience.
 Think: what is an experience?
 Transformational versus Transactional
experiences

14. Experience
 Life
 UX – User Experience Design
 Play – Learning through play
 Plays, theatre, movies, music, concerts,
comedy, …
 Experiential Learning
 Programs
 Education versus Learning
 Curating / curation . . . Experience
 Applied and theoretical
 Experimental or regimented

15. Pre-
Creative?
Research
Support
Inspiration
Learning
Creative
Spaces?
Play
Learning
Making
Performing
Post-
Creative?
Organize
Store
Exhibit
Sensemaking
Are libraries and museums…

16. Libraries…
 Critical Question:
 What is the information content of a
physical object (or it’s digital surrogate)?
 Rethinking access, searching, indexing and
storage systems for non-textual creations:
3D, visuals, music, audio, gaming, learning
object, DNA, chemical compounds, MRIs, …
 What are the implications for intellectual
property and ownership?

17. Museums …
 Critical question:
 What are the opportunities in new
technologies for the museum experience,
research, curatorial sensemaking . . .?
 Rethinking the hands-on experience… and
preservation and conservation.
 What are the implications for intellectual
property and ownership?

18. Ooohs and Ahhhs
 Printing an entire house
 Printing skin grafts
 Printing bone and skull plates
 Printing guns
 Printing car parts (Jay Leno)
 Printing original art
 Printing historic objects
 Printing food
 Printing jewelry
Prototyping and distributed
manufacturing with applications in
architecture, construction
(AEC), industrial
design, automotive, aerospace, mil
itary, engineering, civil
engineering, dental and medical
industries, biotech (human tissue
replacement), fashion, footwear, je
welry, eyewear, education, geogra
phic information
systems, food, and many other
fields.

19. Professional applications (3D)
 Rapid prototyping
 Rapid manufacturing
 Mass customization (solo copies)
 Mass production
 Domestic and hobbyist uses
 Mass distribution

20. Simple and Easy Scaffolding
 LEGO® and duplo® and Mega Bloks®

22. Scaffolding
 Pre-school, Elementary, Middle School, High School
 Competitions, Communities, Hackers
 Mega Bloks large-size, primary colour – macro-motor skills
 Duplo – medium-size – motor skill and manipulation development
 LEGO – fine motor skill development, colour awareness, creativity
 LEGO Kits – instruction sets, reading, levels of complexity
 LEGO Mindstorms (LEGO Robotics) +software
 LEGO Software- e.g. LEGO Digital Designer (CAD/CAM),
 Mindstorms software (bluetooth), plus non-Lego free software like
BlockCAD, LDdraw, LeoCAD …
 LEGO Hackers – LegoBOT 3D printing (pictured)

23. Teaching with LEGO

24. LEGO Mindstorms®

25. LEGO® a place to start

26. 3D Photo Booth at the CNE
http://hiconsumption.com/2012/11/3d-figure-printing-photo-booth-in-japan/

27. James Bond’s Skyfall Car
http://www.slashgear.com/james-bond-skyfall-crew-turned-to-3d-printers-for-
aston-martin-db5-stunt-double-12256594/

28. Filigree Skull
http://makezine.com/craft/3d-printed-filigree-skull/

29. Portrait Sculpture
http://blog.ponoko.com/2012/04/19/3d-printing-as-an-art-form/

30. Prosthetics
http://gizmodo.com/5993147/how-3d-printing-gave-this-man-his-life-and-face-back

31. Clothing

32. 3D Home Printing in one day
http://www.dezeen.com/2013/02/13/protohouse-2-3d-printed-house-by-softkill-design/

33. Prototyping

34. Manufacturing
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/3d-weapons/

35. Play & Learning
http://southweb.org/lifewise/fabrication-power-to-the-people-why-
no-government-can-stop-the-3d-printing-revolution/

36. Preservation and Study
http://www.geekosystem.com/staples-3d-printing/

37. Theatre
http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2012/04/23/mbtv-s02e08-scenic-design/

38. Bio-printing
http://on3dprinting.com/2012/07/06/infographic-go-on-print-a-liver-the-evolution-of-bio-
3d-printing/

39. Medical

40. Making for Libraries
 Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Little Bits
 LibraryBox
 Publishing, Art, Music
 Infographics
 Video & Podcasts
 Crowdfunding (Kickstarter, IndieGoGo,
RocketHub, etc.)
 Your imagination

41. As simple as a can of paint and a green wall
And don’t forget
whiteboard paint too

42. What does it look like?
 Maker Faires
 HackFests
 Play Tinker Make (Westport PL)
 FabLabs
 Maker in Residence
 Library as Publisher (Douglas County)
 Inventors, patenters, models
 Look What I Made
 Art Shows, flower arranging, cook-offs

43. Questions . . .

44. Some resources
 Maker Librarian: http://www.makerlibrarian.com/ (on hiatus)
 Westport PL PPT:
http://www.slideshare.net/ALATechSource/makerspaces-a-new-
wave-of-library-service-the-westport-ct-public-library


45. ENGAGE

47. Enjoy the Symposium
Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA
Consultant, Dysart & Jones/Lighthouse Partners
Cel: 416-669-4855
stephen.abram@gmail.com
Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.com
Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr: Stephen Abram
LinkedIn: Stephen Abram
Twitter: @sabram
SlideShare: StephenAbram1
Skype: stephenkabram