[Lab] Strategies for inclusion?

Jason Cobill jason.cobill at gmail.com
Fri Apr 15 16:22:42 EDT 2016 

   Andrew - that video you posted is off the hook. The shot at 4:40 where
the skater is bailing on tundra rocks is magazine-worthy. I hope you sent
this clip around!
   The look on the girl's face at 4:04 is great too - exhilarated and
astonished.
   Thanks for the info about your project! I'm going to forward this around
to some friends!

   -Jason Cobill


On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 4:18 PM, Jason Cobill <jason.cobill at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Andrew Szeto <andrew.szeto at outlook.com>
> Date: Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 3:54 PM
> Subject: Re: [Lab] Strategies for inclusion?
> To: Jason Cobill <jason.cobill at gmail.com>
>
>
> Hey Y'all,
>
>
> Jason, that is amazing information. Last year, I was fortunate enough to
> go up to Iqaluit for their Youth Arts Month. I taught
> Photography/Videography & Skateboarding:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7h5bpJsVfo
>
>
> We left equipment (lenses for cell phones and skateboards) for the kids.
> We're all still relatively connected too through instagram & facebook,
> which is pretty awesome.
>
>
> We were fortunate enough to get funding through the Nunavut Government,
> First Air donated flights and it was all fostered by a local artist,
> Pascale Arpin (http://www.pascale-arpin.com/). She's absolutely awesome
> for the Iqaluit community and our crew is going down again in the next
> week. For future years, I think bringing a maker-centric experience could
> be epic. Worth touching base with Pascale for future years, or at least
> getting her perspective as to how we could help. Anyhow just wanted to
> share my experience. Finding these motivated individuals can
> definitely help.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Lab <lab-bounces at artengine.ca> on behalf of Jason Cobill <
> jason.cobill at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Friday, April 15, 2016 7:35 PM
> *To:* lab
> *Subject:* Re: [Lab] Strategies for inclusion?
>
>
>    Super complex idea to tackle in an e-mail, but here's a few thoughts:
>
>    I spent a decade in Winnipeg and the Prairie region (including up
> North), and I can tell you from first-hand experience that there are places
> that people live that you would not believe are possible in a developed
> country. The "Maker Movement" often professes that any challenge can be
> overcome with ingenuity and collaboration, but I don't think any of the
> deeply systemic societal problems that have allowed for this to happen are
> going to be solved with extruded plastic and laser-cut MDF. (More like
> decades of effort from an invested government and stakeholders, possibly
> *including* makers in some capacity. Ideas?)
>
>    But I think access and exposure to tools and ideas can change
> individual lives. That's one of the reasons I love the Maker Faire so much
> - exposing people to the *idea* of making and agency over technology is
> incredibly powerful, particularly if you catch kids at that formative age
> when they're learning what they're capable of (and what society thinks
> they're *not* capable of).
>    There's a great (here I go again with shout-outs) organization called
> Actua based here in Ottawa that, among other things, fund and run tech
> workshops for kids in over 200 indigenous communities (particularly in
> Northern Canada). If anyone's interested in participating in their
> programming I encourage you to get in touch, they're very cool people.
>    http://actua.ca/en/programs/national-aboriginal-outreach-program
> <http://actua.ca/en/programs/national-aboriginal-outreach-program>
> National Aboriginal Outreach Program - Actua
> <http://actua.ca/en/programs/national-aboriginal-outreach-program>
> actua.ca
> Our National Aboriginal Outreach Program is a customized, community-based
> approach to engaging First Nations, Métis, and Inuit youth in locally and
> culturally ...
>
>
>
>    I think if we want to bring indigenous people (or anyone) into the
> community, you need to capture their imagination: hands-on workshops with
> enthusiastic maker ambassadors. If only 1 in 100 catches the bug - that's a
> new Maker!
>    So how do we bring the Maker Faire up north? A Maker Faire Shipping
> Container that travels around on cargo boats? :)
>
>    -Jason Cobill
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 10:40 AM, Ryan Stec <ryanstec at artengine.ca> wrote:
>
>> Great job highlighting some of the good work being done in the city
>> Jason!
>>
>> I think it's a great point about being aware of the privileged place we
>> speak from, but more important than recognizing one's privilege is thinking
>> meaningfully about what one will do with the privilege we have. Discussion
>> is key to that process and listening especially. Inflammatory discussion is
>> rampant in online forms, but participating and cultivating instances of
>> positive, inclusive and constructive dialogue is certainly the best
>> antidote to this.
>>
>> One of the challenges the article made me think about is as Canadians,
>> and as Ottawans living on unceded Algonquin territory, what kind of
>> intersection do we imagine for the indigenous issues, locally and
>> nationally and the maker movement? I don't think its just a matter of
>> making sure we can include and educate people on making and amateur science
>> because it feels like it needs to be more of a two way street... there is
>> more dialogue needed perhaps between different world views. Its all very
>> tricky!
>>
>> We have some great creative people on this list.
>> What kind of ideas do people have about inclusion of indigenous peoples
>> in the make up of community?
>>
>> Cheers
>> Ryan
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ___________________________
>>
>> Ryan Stec
>> Artistic Director
>> [image: Image result for artengine]
>> artengine.ca <http://www.artengine.ca/>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 1:03 AM, Jason Cobill <jason.cobill at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>    I'm really excited to share that the maker gang I work with
>>> inadvertently hit gender parity without ever explicitly setting out to. (5
>>> women, 5 men)
>>>    Certainly gender disparities exist in the Maker Movement here, but I
>>> think Ottawa (maybe more than other places), has tremendous women role
>>> models and leadership in the tech community and consequently the local
>>> maker movement benefits from their efforts. I could spend all day sending
>>> shoutouts, but people like Ladies Learning Code, GirlForce, Carleton WiCS,
>>> Algonquin WEET, etc, etc are organizations that should be celebrated and
>>> supported. Not forgetting the awesome gang of women instructors at the
>>> uOttawa Makerspace and the volunteers at RHoK, Pens and Pixels, IGDA, Game
>>> Jam, WordCamp, DrupalCamp and other local hackathon events.
>>>
>>>    The issue of race in the Maker community is really complex, and I
>>> think inseparable from issues of class, income and privilege. "Making" is a
>>> hobby that requires a considerable investment of time and money that's out
>>> of reach for most. Again, we have some excellent organizations in Ottawa
>>> that deserve a shoutout, in particular Brittania Woods Community Center,
>>> who packed up a busload of people from Ottawa's poorest neighbourhood to
>>> shuttle them to last year's Maker Faire.
>>>    https://www.facebook.com/erica.bregman/videos/10201113737722576/
>>>    Brittania Woods is also running a code mentorship program called Kids
>>> Can Code, and have invested heavily in maker toys (Lego Mindstorms,
>>> arduinos, robot kits, etc) to get into the hands of kids who don't have
>>> them at home. They're doing really amazing work - the kind of work more
>>> people should be hearing about.
>>>
>>>    I think it's really important to reach out and support these
>>> organizations, many of which need volunteers and mentors more than they
>>> need money (but they need that too). It's easy to drop a 3D Printer on a
>>> poor neighbourhood (which seems really trendy right now), but it's an
>>> enormous investment of time and effort to actually run workshops and
>>> facilitate exploration.
>>>
>>>   ---
>>>
>>>    Playing Devil's Advocate a little: I was disappointed when O'Reilly
>>> started producing "Craft" magazines and events separated from the Make
>>> brand - I felt like they were being intentionally divisive. The Crafting
>>> (as defined by O'Reilly) community is very heavily female-dominated but the
>>> distinction is entirely arbitrary. I feel like we could reach gender parity
>>> overnight if we just broadened the (already hazy) definition of "Maker" to
>>> include textile artists, culinary explorers, horticulturalists, etc, etc. I
>>> mean ultimately the thing that defines a "Maker" is a passion for creating
>>> things, right?
>>>    Consider that there are *4 million* Ravelry users. What is knitting
>>> if not a kind of manual 3d Printing process? And have you seen some of the
>>> machines they're using? There are some crazy innovative quilters out there
>>> (seriously).
>>>    There's another *47 million* users on Pinterest. You'd better
>>> believe these people are making things.* I think it's petty* to try to
>>> separate them from the Maker community because of some arbitrary corporate
>>> manipulation to isolate a demographic to sell soldering irons.
>>>
>>>    PS: I'm always a little scared to wade into these kinds of
>>> discussions publicly because I'm a perfect example of a person
>>> with multiple levels of privilege and these kinds of discussions so often
>>> turn explosive online. I don't mean to trivialize the ongoing diversity
>>> problems in STEM, but I feel like we rarely celebrate the great progress
>>> that we're making and the enormous efforts people have invested to get us
>>> here. *highfive* To all of the awesome ladies, LGBT, and people of colour
>>> making super cool stuff in Ottawa.
>>>
>>>    -Jason Cobill
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 11:49 PM, Ryan Stec <ryanstec at artengine.ca>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Came across this fascinating read about race, gender and class as it
>>>> relates to the Maker Movement. I wondered about the work we all do together
>>>> as a community and what kind of strategies we will embrace to make our own
>>>> community and city more inclusive?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://tascha.uw.edu/2015/03/power-access-status-the-discourse-of-race-gender-and-class-in-the-maker-movement/
>>>>
>>>> Thoughts anyone?
>>>>
>>>> ___________________________
>>>>
>>>> Ryan Stec
>>>> Artistic Director
>>>> [image: Image result for artengine]
>>>> artengine.ca <http://www.artengine.ca/>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> 2. then email Lab at artengine.ca to send your message to the list
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>
>>
>
>
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