Along the walls of the Makerspace lay an array of whiteboards with hastily written messages, accompanied by a pile labelled “free stickers.” The largest message of all reads, “Make a Mess, Clean it Up!” in blue Expo marker — a placard calling artists, students, and faculty to feed their creativity. Along the back wall, a group of 3D printers hums as they turn ideas into reality. The air feels light in the room, with vibrant yellow walls accentuating brightly coloured spools of yarn and thread tucked into the back right corner.
Wilfrid Youbi Fansi, a tech tutor at the Makerspace and self-proclaimed “head of shenanigans,” caught my attention as soon as I entered the space. He directed me to the newest addition to the Makerspace team: a state-of-the-art laser engraving machine. Turning it on, Youbi Fansi grabbed a black metal business card to set in the machine before turning to the computer to begin what I would soon learn is called marking.
He mapped out the size and thickness of the card on the computer screen as the engraver beeped with every click, a low mechanical purr provided accompaniment. Youbi Fansi explains how the machine can engrave images onto the card, with the power to create shading and gradients outside of solely text-based design. He beamed with enthusiasm while speaking about the technology.
“In this place, having infinite resources to do your hobbies, it has no limit. There’s no outside limit to what I can create. The only limit is what I imagine.”
As the machine whirred to life, text began to appear on the card following the motion of the laser. Altogether, the print took around a minute to complete, and I got a pretty cool name card out of it at the end.
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, MacEwan community members are welcome to drop in and tour the space, check out available tech, or simply hang out. The Makerspace is a creative hub, but it also hopes to be a pillar of community-building for MacEwan as a whole.
Martina King, Makerspace librarian, explains the basic goals of the Makerspace are to support innovation and break down barriers preventing students from accessing creative materials.
“I think, yeah, making art accessible to people is such an important thing.”
However, this isn’t all they have to offer. Found in room 6-201V in the library, the Makerspace is open to anyone at MacEwan, housing a handful of innovative and interesting technologies for students to investigate from programming to vinyl cutting. New MetaQuest 3 VR sets are being introduced later this year — one is already available in the Makerspace — and will be housed in the old Makerspace stomping ground, room 6-203. King encourages curious students and faculty alike to check out the equipment, even if it’s unfamiliar.
The Makerspace also has a team of passionate tech tutors who are available to assist students with their projects. Claire Lister, a library technician, has an affinity for helping students. They have a previous diploma in game design, allowing them to apply knowledge from their education to a multitude of other projects to support those in the Makerspace.
Lister was once a guest in a class teaching animation students how to use the Unity game engine. “I really like that feeling of helping students with their problems and helping them create something that they enjoy.”
Youbi Fansi, who had introduced me to the space, finds joy in the freedom the Makerspace provides to himself and students.
“It’s just the no limits part of it, like those childhood dreams, like doing things creatively. It’s just limited by like the physical, but now that there’s no limits […] I’ve just like grown so much as a person, like from even being in here. And yeah, that’s cool.”
King hopes students can utilize the space not only to be creative but also to take a pause from the pressures of everyday life. Big chairs tucked into the back left corner of the room, bookended by white shelves filled to the brim with fancy paper, yarn, and crafting materials. The desks lined up in the middle of the room feature distinctly university-esque grey chairs facing each other from across the table. There is no scarcity of student or staff work either – it is everywhere, covering every available surface.
When September starts, don’t hesitate to take a peek. You’ll never know unless you try.
Photos taken by Amanda Erickson
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