Community in collaborative maker spaces

This document describes an ongoing research project investigating the development of a sense of community incollaborative maker spaces. The document reports preliminary findings from a phenomenological inquiry into the nature of identityand interaction amongst artists-in-residence at Standard Projects, asmall maker studio in Hortonville, Wisconsin, and the studio’s broader social network. The document begins with an introductionto the project, which is followed by a series of annotated imagesfrom an interactive artwork (http://quality.robertfraher.com) thatwas created as an experiential representation of the knowledgederived from the study. The annotations describe the user experienceand highlight aspects that exemplify the most prominent factorsidentified in community building. These factors are skill, instruction, and emotion.