Method,+Empirical,+Theoretical+EF+2

__ MEMO 16 __

__ Methodological - How do you contribute to new methodologies? __

Through this study, I hope to contribute to new ways of performing multi-methodological and mulit-analytical research, particularly in ways of incorporating the digital with the virtual, and the global within the local. I also plan to create research methods that are further based in physical acts of making and in creating workshops that possibly have outcomes/pieces for public display or deliberation, but with heavy emphasis on the social/conceptual/theoretical/critical aspects of these pieces.

__Empirical - What can we put in an archive? Artifacts?__

Empirical Contributions will include workshop programming and lessons, possibly DIY kits and prototypes of critically-made technologies, oral histories and interviews. There may also be other online archival or database material to catalog.

__Conceptual/Theoretical__

This study will advance the conceptualization of knowledge creation and knowledge transfer within STS theory. It will also consider what Freire calls 'critical-consciousness,' how it might manifest within 'making' culture, and how it might be utilized within “making” culture as a political act or a basis of critical mindset for working toward what Frankenfeld calls a 'Technological Citizenship.' Science engagement is also examined within this study, so I will contribute theoretically to discourse on citizen science and the different venues through which science engages various communities within the public. The study will draw on and contribute to scholarly literature that examines public participation in the sciences, issues with the transference of tacit knowledge, situated knowledges, critical-making, critical technical practices, Technological Citizenship, Critical consciousness and participatory design.

I hope to historicize what is happening in these space to better understand their current state and their future imaginaries for DIY and 'making' practices. Particularly, I will explore, w hat kind of critical impulse is created by what communities.

__Practical__

Results of this study will help highlight issues of how scientific communities interface with the public and how these interactions might be directed for a more positive and productive agenda. It will also look at what maker and hacker spaces are currently doing, how they might be utilized or transformed to incorporate more critical-thinking within design that can help the immediate, local communities in which they are situated. They will also contribute to an understanding of how local engagements and activities can be scaled to a more global context.