The Makerspace (Sawyer 248)

The Makerspace and FabLab are inclusive communities of practice that foster critical making, interdisciplinary collaboration, and creative problem-solving.

We transform your ideas into outcomes using traditional and emerging technologies. We support the Williams mission to “endow graduates with an enduring spirit of inquiry and exploration, and a firm desire to lead lives of meaning and purpose.”

Project support: David and his student workers partner with faculty, students, and staff to support curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular projects that address real-world challenges. He will help you design your project and order materials. We do not charge for labor and simply ask that faculty or groups reimburse material costs.

Contact: Email David Keiser-Clark ([email protected]) to discuss your project.

Makerspace: We offer state-of-the-art equipment, materials, and a connection with the MakersWeb.

• Our expertise: 3D scanning, modeling, printing, and post-processing; laser cutting and engraving; microcontroller prototyping with Arduino and Raspberry Pi; woodworking; and metalworking.
  

  The FabLab (Sawyer 247)

FabLab: Explore fiber arts during our Open Hours. Bring your project, start one, or learn new skills at our free artist-led workshops.

• Our expertise: bookbinding, button making, cardmaking, Cricut stickers, crocheting, drawing, embroidery, knitting, mold making, needle felting, paper crafts, quilting, rope making, sewing, spinning, T-shirt printing, visible mending, weaving, and zine-making.
  
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  The FabLab (Sawyer 247)

  Group reservations: Faculty, students, and staff can reserve the FabLab (and a student worker) for classes, RSOs, and group activities. Capacity: FabLab (14), nearby FCC breakout room (24).

Our student workers publish blog posts that synthesize and contextualize their contributions, amplifying the work of project stakeholders and sharing knowledge with a broader audience. We are committed to sustainability and prioritize the use of upcycled and reclaimed materials whenever possible.

Critical Making

Critical making is a practice that combines critical thinking with hands-on making to explore or critique the relationship between technology, art, design, and social issues [1]. “Critical making is an elision of two typically disconnected modes of engagement in the world—‘critical thinking,’ often considered as abstract, explicit, linguistically based, internal and cognitively individualistic; and ‘making,’ typically understood as material, tacit, embodied, external and community-oriented” [2]. It is a way of learning through doing, where the act of making is used as a tool for critical reflection and analysis.

If I’m studying a piece of art, but have no idea how it’s made, my capacity to learn from and about it is limited. But if I can walk down the hall and see – and even try – those techniques, I’ll have a far greater understanding.     — Williams Art History student

Location and Hours

• Makerspace Open Hours: Sawyer Library, Room 248
• FabLab Open Hours: Sawyer Library, Room 247

Program Manager: David Keiser-Clark
Contact: [email protected]
Social media: instagram