SLAB
Oct 2019 - May 2020
COLLECTIVE
A study of a Participatory Makers Collective in Barking and Dagenham.
SUPPORTED BY Craft Council Make Shift Do Participatory City Foundation
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 SLAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 FINDINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 OUTCOMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
EVERY ONE EVERY DAY
INTRODUCTION
The residents of Barking & Dagenham have proven to be incredibly resilient to change. In 1921, what was once a quiet farming area suddenly became home to the largest housing estate in the United Kingdom; Beacontree Estate, built to provide social stability for soldiers and the working class, designed with big wide roads, gardens and large open spaces to offer a new and improved quality of life to those who were relocated after World War I. Ford and other ancillary companies quickly dominated the labour spaces. Ford alone, employed 40,000 workers from Barking & Dagenham in the 1950’s, nearly 30% of the borough’s population. Over the last two decades the borough has transformed demographically. Combined with a growing population, the borough also faces a large number of socioeconomic challenges including low-incomes and levels of employment, poor education outcomes, high levels 12
of homelessness, teenage pregnancy and domestic violence. In 2001 89% of the population were White British, by 2011 that percentage had more than halved which has continued to drop to present day. The rapid changes make social cohesion a challenge. The overall population has seen a growth of 13% between 2001 – 2011 and has a predicted growth of 24% for the decade 2016 – 2026. Currently 10,000 new homes are being built in the southern ward of the borough. A new Ecology Centre is almost completed, some estates have been completely demolished and the local council are preparing for the arrival of three of London’s most historic food markets - Smithfield, Billingsgate and New Spitalfields Market. All of which will bring about a new set of challenges, and a new set of opportunities.
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THE PROJECT
Time and again it has been observed that even with the best intentions, it can be difficult for local people to sustain their efforts to run or improve neighbourhoods on their own. Neither can local governments sustain their own efforts to provide for residents. It is through combining the ideas, energies and resources of residents, local government, statutory partners and other local organisations and businesses that long-term sustainability will be achieved. The Every One Every Day project has been running in Barking & Dagenham for two and a half years, since September 2017, and aims to build the first large scale, fully inclusive, practical Participatory Ecosystem developed over 5 years. The theory of the initiative is grounded in Participatory City’s nine years of deep engagement with those at the forefront of developing ‘participation culture’ around the world which has informed and helped to develop a new 14
type of collaborative model, to achieve sustainable and scalable projects. The idea has been built on research aimed at developing an approach to foster new types of inclusive participation projects, seeing a multifaceted approach as a key building block for developing sustainable urban neighbourhoods for the future. Everyone shares the responsibility of creating thriving connected neighbourhoods, and the Every One Every Day project acts as a new style of public platform designed to support and connect community projects that embody big visions in micro actions. The full report of the Every One Every Day project to date can be read online. Search: ‘Participatory City - Tools To Act’ or follow this link: www.participatorycity.org/tools-to-act
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YEAR 1
YEAR 2
YEAR 3
YEAR 4
YEAR 5 THE WAREHOUSE
THE SHOPS 15
EVERY EVERY ONE ONE EVERY EVERY DAY DAY
PARTICIPATION
The platform aims to create thousands of opportunities for local residents to shape their neighbourhoods and their lives through practical participation. Practical participation differs from other forms of participation with its emphasis on bringing people together through useful, inclusive projects and activities rather than through meetings, consultations and representative decision-making. It creates agency for people by developing their confidence, plugging them into something bigger, inviting their contributions and making space for their creativity. The opportunities to participate come via three main routes: the Shops, the Collaborative Business Programmes and The Warehouse, which each offer thousands of co-created ways for local people to be involved in practical enjoyable activity in their local neighbourhood. Scattered across the borough are five Every One Every Day Shops, and one Makerspace called The Warehouse. In the shops you are warmly greeted by a member of the Every One Every Day team, or often greeted by someone who is not part of the team at all.... It’s hard to tell as everyone seems comfortable being friendly. The shops don’t sell anything and they’re open to everyone. In them, people can share recipes, knitting techniques, share tools, sewing basics, swap books, propagate plants (just to name a few) - some of which happens adhoc and some of which is scheduled as a session to be promoted through the Every One Every Day newspaper.
The newspaper is co-curated by residents of Barking & Dagenham and staff every three months and is sent to 60,000 homes and organisations across the borough, reaching people from all walks of life. The sessions in the newspaper are mostly hosted by people that live in the community, who have gone into the shops and simply started a conversation, out of which come ideas big and small. The team assist in making sure the sessions are designed for all ages and abilities, thus creating more and more opportunities for people in the borough to participate. One element of the Every One Every Day project, is to create opportunities to form collaborative businesses within the borough, working with residents to come up with exciting ideas and form collectives around them. In 2016, the Final Report from the Independent Growth Commissions found that ‘the new business rate in Barking & Dagenham is high’ indicating that Barking & Dagenham is a borough full of people with entrepreneurial drive. The Collaborative Business Programmes set out to connect all people, by building ‘people and planet positive’ programmes around the emerging interests of local residents. Presently, these have centred around growing, making, food and shared services, such as childcare or cleaning. This study looks more specifically at one of the making programmes.
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No Selection Process
Starts where you are
No requirements to be able to join a programme
No prior knowledge required and designed to support personal journeys and needs.
Part-time and flexible
Low to no cost
To enable people to work around other commitments
By working together and in stages, there are lower go-to market costs.
Designed collaboratively Working with others as a team dramatically increases the chance of the collaborative business being successful.
Testing ideas Learn by doing and testing ideas. The programmes help people rapidly get to market.
Support from tutors From design and prototyping, to branding and test trading, support is available.
Access to essentials Access to essential space, and flexible hours to fit different schedules.
Business Programme Principles, Tools to Act
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Moments from different projects happening all over the borough
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An Every One Every Day shop, leather workshop and community beekeeping
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SL AB COLLECTIVE
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Forming a collective
This study aims to capture simple ways that craft studios and makerspaces can organise in order to encourage co-creation within their spaces. This study aims to test what is required to create a collective, and a set of homewares that was co-produced by the participants, and maintained by all who use the makerspace. The Slab programme was communicated as an opportunity to learn pottery basics and to co-design and co-produce a range of homewares in just 8 short weeks, culminating with a chance to sell the made items together at a 3 week pop-up shop called Rock Paper Scissors. The programme was open to anyone over 16 yrs, no matter their prior experience or existing knowledge of pottery. Overall, 8 participants committed to the Slab programme. Seven women and one man, who worked with one tutor to create a range of ceramic homewares, however many of the following findings indicate that more than just a few bowls were made. The process to form the SLAB Collective was designed to evolve over two stages. What was learned and created in the first stage, would inform the direction of the second. The Kick-off for the second stage of this programme went ahead, successfully at the beginning of March 2020, 18 interested people attended with 8-9 people considering committing. Sadly, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, this phase was suspended until it is safe to resume. 22
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Stage 1 learn co-design earn
Tutor
evaluate
prepare
evaluate
prepare
Participants
Stage 2 learn share co-design earn
Tutor
Stage 1 Participants continuing
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Forming a structure
The two stage approach hoped that the participants of Stage 1 would continue on and take on more responsibilities in Stage 2. However, participants did not have to commit to both stages. Each stage was advertised identically in the Every One Every Day newspaper - as an opportunity to learn, create and earn. It was in the Kick-Off Session that it was explained that the project hoped that the participants of Stage 1 would repeat the programme but take on more responsibilities in teaching, preparing and codesigning with new participants. Participants committing to both stages would be required to explain the space, design and decision processes to new participants creating a clear path to peer-to-peer learning. In theory, this would enable the tutor to relinquish some responsibilities, further fostering shared ownership within the collective and reducing typical hierarchies in educational spaces. With natural attrition expected, this model could be repeated endlessly, adapting to the needs and desires of the participants. Explaining the two stage model to participants quickly assisted in explaining the larger vision of the Every One Every Day project, and how this programme could be the continued beyond the finish date, 8 weeks away. The project was loosely planned out, with most focus on the first 3 sessions, designed to prepare participants with everything they needed to collaborate. 24
STAGE 1 - LEARN & CO-DESIGN Session 1: Session 2: Session 3: Session 4: Session 5: Session 6: Session 7:
Inspiration and kick-off Inspirational Trip Communications and play Communications and basics Production, testing and packaging Pricing, production, sales. Evaluation and preparation
The project began with just four predetermined decisions: The name The dates of the sessions The technique; slab building Starting templates Throughout the programme, new insights and learnings were acquired which have been outlined over the following pages. These insights have been synthesised through post-session reflections/diary completed by the tutor, anonymous survey feedback from the participants, and an evaluation session which asked participants to consider their personal experience, their collective experience and their experience as a new maker/designer, and what they would do next.
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Model structure - Stage 1 Who designs Who teaches Who makes Whose brand Who paid
Tutor
Participants
Model structure - Stage 2 Who designs Who teaches Who makes Whose brand Who paid
Tutor
Stage 1 Participants
Stage 2 Participants
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Example templates supplied for participants to slab build with.
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Rolling slabs and first attempts
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FINDINGS
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People like practice
Create multiple opportunities, so people can play different roles. The Slab Programme ran along-side a beginners’ clay project called Coiled, where anyone was able to come and make something with clay in The Warehouse. Coiled was a drop-in project promoted in the Every One Every Day newspaper. The Slab participants were encouraged to attend The Coiled Project to practice their new skills and to experiment. As different people attended the Coiled sessions each time, this naturally invited Slab participants to take on different roles within the session. The parallel sessions became a chance for the Slab participants to practice and explore what they’d learned by teaching others, helping prepare for the session and explaining the project to new participants which encouraged engagement, and chatter within the session themselves. The participants were able to reflect on what went well in each of the session, both in terms of what they’d made, but also in how space worked, and what is was like to help others learn. In Blooms Taxonomy, teaching others shifts learned information into more embedded understanding. This naturally reinforces a participants knowledge and understanding, and contributes to making informed decisions which would have otherwise relied more on a tutors input. The Coiled project enabled a playful separation from Slab which built their confidence and was integral to the development of the Slab participants, especially with such little time. 30
The Every One Every Day platform provides so many different avenues to participate which enables people to engage in playing different roles. By practicing what they’ve learned, by helping others, and in turn being helped, begins to form a more sustainable type of learning environment.
Create Evaluate Analyse Apply Understand Remember Blooms Taxonomy
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learner
helper
researcher
teacher
planner
grower
preparer
Role
Example
Grower Helper Learner Planner Preparer Researcher Teacher
Someone who tells another person about the project Someone who helps generally Someone learning Someone thinking about what’s happening next Someone who sets up the space before a session Someone finding out about different techniques Someone sharing their knowledge with another
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People may presume
Create an environment that is horizontal Throughout the 8 weeks of the Slab programme, it emerged that people had preconceived ideas of what an educational and/or business programme should or shouldn’t be like; primarily informed from cultural experiences such as school or work. The Collaborative Business Programmes are designed to facilitate group learning and group reliability, which was regularly challenged throughout the programme. To maintain this aim requires trust and clear communication about expectations of the tutor. The tutor is required to strike a balance between teaching and stepping back and letting mistakes occur. What this can look like to a participant, is that the tutor lacks knowledge or that they are not very good at teaching. However, not presenting as an expert created space for a ‘maybe we could try this’ attitude within the participants. The tutor would regularly remind participants to rely on each other, books and the internet to find the answers to their questions which was sometimes frustrating for participants, but essential for fostering a less paternal relationship. This group-reliance encourages people to continue to play the different roles as previously explained, which builds concrete foundations for participants to associate themselves as a maker, researcher, teacher, helper and so on, rather than someone simply taking part in a community project.
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Week 1 Tutor
Participants
Tutor
Participants
Tutor
Participants
Tutor
Participants
Week 3
Week 5
Week 7
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SLAB SLAB COLLECTIVE COLLECTIVE
People like to be inspired Create a shared mutual understanding and vision With many people, comes many ideas. Being able to communicate them is easier when there is a shared visual language.
autonomy within the workshop, it helps participants know where things are and why they have been placed there.
The Warehouse ceramics area wasn’t complete at the beginning of the programme, so by visiting a local pottery workshop, Turning Earth, participants were able see and feel what a fully functioning and occupied ceramics space was like. This also began to initiate conversations around immediate actions; researching glazes, clay recycling techniques, workshop layout simultaneously being discussed alongside styles of pottery they did and didn’t like, getting to know each other and general chatter. This was also an opportunity for them to be inspired by eachother as well as they experience they were having together.
Through design conversations and the formation of the physical space, people connect to it, understand the reasons for some decisions, whilst simultaneously connecting and working with each other.
The trip to an external pottery became the first shared experience and thus an integral staring point for the participants to refer back to when designing their own range. This trip also helped to distinguish different preferences in the group, some wanted to design, some weren’t sure and others became more interested in how the space at The Warehouse would function. Whilst in this instance, the conversations occurred due to the spaces being unfinished, it indicated that workshops need to be adaptable so that future participants can tailor the space to their needs. Having the availability and options to make changes in the physical space fosters shared-ownership and
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“You really think we'll be able to make that in two months?” - Participant
Participants drew around the places that were important to them
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People like to connect
Foster relationships through what is known The Every One Every Day project is set up to create community in Barking & Dagenham, to participate you must reside in the borough. It was therefore known that each participant would have this in common. Using this information a workshop was designed to encourage participants to share stories about their lives relating to the borough in which they all live. Using a large map of Barking & Dagenham and tracing paper, everyone found as many places in the borough that were important to them and traced a line around them. Participants then shared why they had picked that place; one person talked about their early childhood memories growing up on a specific road, another talked about where their son said his first word, another described a great spot to watch the sun set over the Thames River. All stories were completely personal and unique, and connected everyone to Barking & Dagenham. This small and simple exercise created a common ground and contributed to participants getting to know each other, forming a culture of support and personal understanding of each other. The stories shared, created an intimacy and trust within the group; vital ingredients to create a self-sustaining group of makers and collaborators.
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SLAB COLLECTIVE
People are playful
Create a level playing field Play is not often reserved for adults. Nor is it often found within a traditional business programme. Yet in this programme, play has a vital role. For the very first workshop, participants were paired up. One of them was given a photo of a ceramic piece, and the other, a piece of clay. The person with the photo had to describe it to their partner without looking and together, they had to recreate the vessel as best they could. The workshop placed everyone on the same level and gave participants permissions to be playful, making it easier to be vulnerable in front of each other because the ‘adult’ pressure of being good at something immediately was removed. The participants playfulness accelerated their comfort with each other and shattered any awkwardness, whilst revealing some valuable lessons about working together and how you communicate with each other clearly. This workshop encouraged thoughtful exploration whilst not being too didactic; a principle of the Maria Montessori approach used to teach children in early years and meant, that much like children, they were able to play with a material by exploring it without inhibition. Every One Every Day spaces encourage people to explore and get stuck in; creating a frivolous ambiance and mutual starting point is really important.
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Participants recreated these ceramic works
images from stills from play workshop
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The workshop placed everyone on the same level and gave participants permissions to be playful, making it easier to be vulnerable in front of each other.
A participant peeking at what their partner was making under their instruction.
Participants first experience with clay in The Warehouse
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Slab building with templates
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People and decisions
Create restrictions together
Create time constraints together
Decisions are difficult. So early on, a ‘contribute and vote’ system for decision making was introduced, this emerged when a participant couldn’t attend a session and therefore was unable contribute to the decisions in progress.
Occasionally time restraints meant that some decisions were based on logic rather than desire.
Going forward, participants were encouraged to research in their own time in preparation for the next session. Each person then had a few minutes to talk about what pottery they’d found and why they liked it, sharing with the group; being inspired by each other rather than being inspired by the tutor. The contributions created a pool from which everyone participating would vote on their most liked style, form, texture, and so on. As the group began to organise more and more sessions in their own time, they also decided that voting on design decisions should be reserved for the original fixed sessions. The participants used this system to decide what objects they were going to make, how many, what style they were hoping to achieve, colours of glazes and what they thought was achievable in 5 remaining weeks.
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One such time restraint was dates that the pop-up shop would be opening in Barking Station. This was at the end of the programme and was when their items had to be ready for sale. Initially they had voted to make a bowl, a plate, a mug and candle-holder. They began with the bowl, and soon realised just how long designing four separate items would take. This informed a collective decision to make the bowls but in 3 different sizes. They had recognised that the learning and designing process took longer than expected and adjusted their plan accordingly, taking responsibility for the deadlines they had agreed to. Time constraints are an important lesson for any maker, they enforce a planning mentality and are something all craftspeople must adopt when working with clients. Asking participants to think about this, helped them plan and take responsibility for the project.
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“Thanks to everyone for letting me bring my child along to some sessions� - Participant
Encourage reflection together
As many projects are confined by a beginning and an end, this project aims to build a sustainable group that will exist beyond the programme timing itself - to exist within the participant more so than in the platform, or tutor. Reflection and learning was constantly present throughout the programme, from the moments of realising what moisture level was best when building with clay, all the way through to altering prices in the shop based on what was selling well. This programme asks a group of otherwise strangers to work together under quite intense circumstances, so they also needed to reflect on how they’d worked with each other. The group evaluation meeting was arranged after a 4 week break. The space is necessary for participants to be able to talk objectively about their work. For participants to have a better sense of their overall learning it was important to leave some time before asking them to evaluate their experience. This space helps people think more critically about their experience and actively asked participants to
be involved in the development of the future stages. Participants were asked about their experience in terms of: the collective products made their personal desires In the session they were able to address and critique the way they had worked and the items they had made, and begin to devise a plan for improvements in the future. By designing in some space, the evaluation engages people in problem solving without it feeling too close. Additional feedback was collected via anonymous surveys. One of the questions asked the participants to thank someone for something from the last 8 weeks. Among the answers were a group of people thanking each other for being patient, for helping them tidy up and so on. This indicates the group built a stronger sense of reliance on one another rather than relying on the tutor, creating a more sustainable, stable and autonomous group of makers for the makerspace.
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Time constraints are an important lesson for any maker, they enforce a planning mentality and are something all craftspeople must adopt when working with clients.
SLAB COLLECTIVE
The decision was made to fold the template pieces over eachother as it was more secure
Participants learning how to repair a kiln shelf
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Cutting templates, mixing slips and dip glazing
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People and making
Widen the opportunity
Encourage individual development
Every One Every Day project encourages people be as involved as much or as little as they would like to at every point of the project.
The Warehouse is open 5-6 days a week. Participants can freely use the resources of the space having completed inductions and other safety processes.
In the business programmes, the initial ask is to commit to a programme of several sessions, in this case, where you learn and make with clay. What is not immediately outlined, is that within that initial commitment comes a multitude of soft-opportunities to advance and learn, if a participant wants to.
This meant participants of the Slab programme could explore individual making projects outside of allocated programme times. For some this looked like making lots of bonsai pots, for another, this was more about exploring the process of harvesting, cleaning and testing a clay they’d dug up and brought home from Wales.
Participants that did want to, could learn how to recycle clay, how to mix glazes and mason stains into clay, how to repair kiln shelves and everything that goes with maintaining a ceramics space. With each workshop in The Warehouse, there is a large amount of maintenance, and over the 8 weeks of this programme more and more participants were gaining knowledge in maintaining the space for themselves with minor guidance by the tutor or space manager. This wide net of opportunity, enables the participants to be more active in the space in which they’re learning, creating more opportunities to co-create rather than passively consume. 50
As the programme progressed, so did the space. Participants began making tools to make cutting the clay to size more easily, and a little slab roller to make the slabs more consistent. The participants were learning to problem solve through their individual development which only strengthened the collective.
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“I never thought I would be able to learn something like this, and now I’ve been harvesting my own clay” - Participant
Document everything together
Problem solve together
A crucial aim in The Warehouse is to create for Open Source and embodying this is the space is integral to communicating it, especially for residents unfamiliar with the term. Throughout the programme, all decisions were documented on a whiteboard in the space. This meant people could create test tiles and record the results somewhere open in the space for everyone to see. All of the templates were left out for anyone to use, the clay colours and moulds that were made were also available for anyone to use. This often prompted questions and conversations in the space.
As the Slab participants continued to collaborate and reflect, they turned their attention to preparation and alterations to the current format in order to make it better, clearer and easier for future participants.
The Slab participant also began a ‘glaze catalogue’ to capture all the different effects and reactions that happen inside the kiln. Not only was this a great tool for the collective, but it could be contributed to and used by everyone who uses the ceramics area and is an object which resembles the open source attitudes The Warehouse aspires to. Creating clear opportunities for people to contribute to the space and document learnings for the people that use it in the future creates a legacy in the space, and is an open invitation for new people to contribute too.
The participants were becoming familiar with being autonomous, a self/group reliant with regards to their making and designing. Through some self-drected researching the group had come across slip-casting as a method to make with clay. Slip-casting is the process of pouring liquid clay into plaster moulds, as the water is soaked up, the clay clings to the walls of the mould to form the shape. The Slab Collective decided they wanted to learn this process to batch-make, as this would reduce issues around quality and consistency in the finish for all. This demonstrates that the participants were engaging in design thinking, reflecting on their own experiences to improve the experience for future participants, and logistically putting their analysis into action.
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Larger bowls, asembled and drying out for the kiln
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OUTCOMES
SLAB COLLECTIVE
SL AB COLLECTIVE
Through the Every One Every Day project, participants were able to enjoy a ceramics course, learn the basics, teach others, design collaboratively, adapt iteratively, make tools, share ideas, produce products, sell together, and design the next phase.
Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic halted Stage 2 of this project, which was set to explore just how much participatory grounding had been laid to enable more autonomy, co-creation and peer-to-peer learning around a craft.
Individually the participants didn’t feel like ceramicists, but as Slab Collective, they did. The ‘learn, share and earn’ model adopted in the business programmes, helps participants to shift from attending a course to consume information, into the mindset of a collaborative maker, without feeling like it is a big commitment or something difficult to achieve, thus making the craft more accessible.
Over 8 weeks, the collective make a set of homewares, they created systems to make decisions, they came up with designs, they made plans, they made mistakes, they made iterations, they made money, they made preparations they made friends, they connected in breaks over a cuppa and began the story of the Slab Collective.
On this programme the participants are trusted to explore the craft, while discovering what type of maker, teacher, helper they are too. The Slab Collective made 30 bowls, along with some last minute additions of coasters and incense burners. In three weeks the collective made a profit of £135.00. Not enough to change any livelihood, but in 8 short weeks they had gone from ceramic novices to having customers eager to purchase their products. 56
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Slab Collective bowls and coasters on display.
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Items on display and being sold in Rock Paper Scissors shop.
SLAB COLLECTIVE
Bowls made, rolling tool made, outlines of peoples favourite places in the borough
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Testers for different coloured clay
Learning to slip-cast together and use a slip trailer
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Learning to slip-cast to and testing out different patterns
Learning some nerikomi techniques for surface design
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Trying different shaped moulds to practice with the next participants
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By Hayley Bruford
