Our maker space is open for events. Please contact Michelle K. Berry to discuss ideas: mkberry@arizona.edu
The physical MakerSpace is Room 406 on the fourth floor of the César E. Chávez Building, 1110 James E. Rogers Way on the UA campus. In the maker space, the public, faculty, students, and staff gather to meet new people, to create, to collaborate, to share ideas, and to learn new analog and digital tools for moving from idea to project.
Beginning in Fall 2023, we will resume workshops to bring people together to meet, talk, learn, share and ask questions about ideas, projects, tools and platforms that are helpful for creating public history projects.
To learn more about the MakerSpace movement click here
A MakerSpace (sometimes referred to as a Hackerspace) is a location (digital or analog) where people come together to create and even re-create projects.
MakerSpaces have a long history if we think of them in the traditional sense of a workshop. When fabrication of essential goods happened mainly in the home (before the Industrial Revolution made mass products more available), MakerSpaces existed throughout the community. As production moved out of the home, folks became less connected to the skilled building crafts. The MakerSpace movement exists partly to foster the curiosity of people interested in learning those skills. In these kinds of MakerSpaces one can find hammers, glue, paper, saws, and all kinds of materials necessary for making!
Tucson has its own MakerSpace in downtown - check it out!
But the more digital aspects of the MakerSpace movement date to the early 2000s when a professor at MIT, Neil Gershenfeld, began to push for spaces to exist that would give ordinary people access to powerful creative tools. Think 3D printers, laser printers and the like. These kinds of technolgies require computational knowledge and so these MakerSpaces (MIT FabLabs as an example) often have experts on site to teach makers how to use the technology.
The University of Arizona has a makerspace of this sort in the Main Library. Click here to learn more about CATalyst Studios.
Want to read more? Check out Hackerspaces: Making the Maker Movement by Sarah Davies
Some people have called the maker movement the Third Industrial Revolution. We aren't sure about that, but it is an inspiring concept to promote collaboration, community, and creativity around a shared interest. And that is what the PHC is all about!
At the PHC MakerSpace we take the core ideas of the Maker Movement and apply them to History.
When you attend a MakerSpace event at the PHC, you will make history. Scrapbooks, zines, online archive contributions, oral history recordings, are just some of the products that can emerge from the PHC MakerSpace.
In the PHC MakerSpace, we play with ideas about the past, create plans for projects, and learn about the Historian's craft.
Play, Create, Learn
