NEW DUTCH MAKERS

Abstract

The Schilderswijk in The Hague is a so-called “power district”: a quarter where the ethnical diversity and the illiteracy rate is high, and the amount of youngsters with education and/or a job is low. The teenagers and young adults often lack a connection to their neighbourhood and the other inhabitants. Consequently, they feel misunderstood and by lack of ambition they reside mostly on the streets, hanging around or worse – engage in (small) crime. In this project a technological laboratory in the library Schilderswijk has been set up with and for the youth of the Schilderswijk. By attaching to the recent trend of the maker movement the youngsters from the Schilderswijk have undergone empowerment, unlocking themselves to find their (hidden) talents and develop their skills. Through continuous involvement of the participants ownership of the lab has been achieved, ultimately leading to ambassadorship and recruitment of new members. The technological laboratory has been equipped with “Biebboxes”, small bookshaped and sized containers that have been constructed in three different versions: "Locality", "Actuality" and "Diversity". The Biebboxes contain various assignments, workshops, inspirational material and random stimuli which are correspondent with the theme of the Biebbox. The contents of the Biebboxes provide the participants of the laboratory with a range of diverse assignments and workshops to work with. By providing different types of stimuli the Biebboxes are engaging and innovative. The contents provoke the participants to think about the possibilities the present techniques at the laboratory offer, ultimately inspiring them to create new Biebbox-content themselves. In this way the recruitment of new members and creation of Biebbox-content is self-sustainable. Lastly, a model is constructed that enables librarians to repeat the process of the current project in order to start other “New Dutch Maker”-laboratories.