Understanding Sociomaterial Encounters in Collaborative Creative Making: A Case Study from a Makerspace in India

Abstract

Makerspaces are explored as sites for fostering collaboration and creativity, where makers share ideas, use material resources, and create meaningful artefacts. The article aims to contribute to the understanding of sociomaterial entanglements in making, which can inform the design of socio-technical spaces that promote creative outcomes. In this study, we examine how social and material encounters influence the emergence and evolution of ideas in collaborative making when novice makers engage in design problem-solving. We specifically look at data from a maker activity-centered workshop to argue the distributive nature of creative making. Our analysis suggests that social and material elements of the situated context exhibit performative roles in enabling and constraining collaborative making.