web/fieldSITE

by: Iris Molenaar

Entering the field can be an overwhelming and chaotic experience. The website invites users to engage in practices of undisciplined ethnographic sensemaking. How to make sense of all these different clues? What should be my focus? And what am I supposed to get out of this? Instead of presenting a polished, tightly woven ethnographic narrative, this work walks the edges of what ethnographic output and representation could be.

My research took place at a ‘Fablab’, short for fabrication laboratory, in Amsterdam. The Fablab is an open workshop where people can meet and collaborate with the shared purpose of producing open-source designs. The Fablab space provides work tables, materials, tools and machines to facilitate the maker’s needs. The Fablab in Amsterdam is part of a global network of Fablabs, which all follow similar set-ups and principles. These principles include open-source production, accessibility and the sharing of knowledge.