A r t s & C u lt u r e
November 4, 2022
ARTS & CULTURE Established 1874
Volume 152, Number 7
Students Eager to Utilize Makerspaces, Face Barriers to Entry Leela Miller Senior Staff Writer A makerspace is an environment dedicated to tinkering, designing, inventing, and collaborating. It’s a place where students can actualize far-out ideas with laser cutters, sewing machines, and 3D printers and nosily watch as peers build musical light bulbs or wearable synths. Many Oberlin students are eager to access these kinds of spaces; we’re a crafty bunch. However, makerspaces are often inaccessible to those not enrolled in specialized academic programs. The Art Fabrication Lab, for instance, is a highly sought after resource typically only available to Studio Art students. Even harder to access is the Theater department’s set shop which, according to student employee College second-year Elijah Freiman, is only authorized for use by theater professionals. In years past, students had the option of visiting Wilder Hall to use the craft supplies in the craft room and the fabrication materials in the Oberlin Student Makerspace. The craft room — where students can find sewing machines and looms — is still open, but it is meagerly stocked with supplies, the door is unlabeled, and, according to
The TIMARA makerspace allows students to craft and experiment. Photo by Erin Koo
Director of Student Involvement Tina Zwegat, it will be closed for renovations beginning in December. Organizations that primarily utilized this space are inactive this semester, and many former student leaders have recently graduated. Abe Reshad, director of language technology and academic support, said that the current inactivity of the organizations can be mainly attributed to COVID-19, which temporarily made it impossible for clubs tied to physical
spaces to exist and for knowledge to be passed down between student officers. Reshad teaches and oversees 3D printing in Oberlin’s Language Lab, and he has aided makerspace club members in using 3D printing technology in the past. Now, he’s hoping to help rustle up enough student interest to restart the organization. “I think it’s really valuable to have a space where students can create things … especially physical ones because everything’s so digital right
now,” Reshad said. “There’s a lot of learning that takes place in a space like that.” Luckily, there are other accessible makerspaces on campus. The TIMARA makerspace, located in the basement of Bibbins Hall, is home to a treasure trove of equipment for students interested in electronics, craft, and the exciting intersection of the two. The room that it’s housed in is small, and there isn’t enough space See Oberlin, page 12
Piano Technicians: The Unseen Artists of the Conservatory Gracie McFalls Senior Staff Writer In the early hours of the morning, before the music-making of the day begins, piano technicians are hard at work tuning pianos. There are 250 pianos in the Conservatory, many of which get tuned daily. Tuning a piano takes even the most skilled technician about an hour, and there are only a handful of people in the Conservatory equipped to do the job. The impact of this daily task is enormous. Every student in the Conservatory interacts with a piano at some point before graduating. First-year students take an introductory piano class upon arriving at Oberlin, pianos are almost always used for demonstrations in theory and aural skills
classes, and every performance major collaborates with pianists for recitals or even for national and international competitions. In short, having properly tuned pianos is vital not only for student learning but for the reputation of the Conservatory as a whole. This is all taken care of by the Piano Technology department. However, tuning pianos is not the only work they do; in fact, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Tucked away in the basement of Bibbins Hall, the department is home to the Artist Diploma in Piano Technology program, an immersive two-year mentorship that accepts a small number of students and turns them into expert piano technicians. Inside the workshop, four Steinways take center stage. Scattered around them are wood shavings, spare piano parts, and coiled-up strings.
John Cavanaugh, director of the Artist Diploma in Piano Technology program, tunes one of the many pianos available to Conservatory students. Photo by Erin Koo
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A diagram illustrating the “periodic table of wood” hangs proudly on a door. In a corner lies a table full of drying coffee mugs. It’s clear that this is not only the studio of a craftsman but an artist. John Cavanaugh, director and creator of the Artist Diploma program, devised the program because he saw a need for piano technicians who were not only technically skilled but artistically savvy as well. By teaching students in a music conservatory setting, the program aims to bridge the gap between pianists and technicians through collaboration. “We’re the only school that does this,” Cavanaugh said. Upon graduating from the program, 90 percent of students are offered jobs in top positions at major music schools and acclaimed piano factories. Wenqin Yi OC’ 20, who was recently offered the top piano technician position at Michigan State University, is one of those alumni. “A lot of young kids, they graduate, and they have difficulty getting one job,” Yi said. “But with piano technology, you spend two years and then you have a stable, strong skill that you can make a living with.” The students in the program come from a wide range of backgrounds. Some came to Oberlin knowing a bit about piano maintenance, and some were pianists themselves. Among the members of the class are a retired high school music teacher, a student who is 70 years old, and a former restaurant owner. “The students I went to school with were people who were tired of the rat race,” Cavanaugh said. “It’s a very eclectic group of people who are interested in this.” The work of a master piano technician is interdisciplinary. A skill that combines mechanics, woodworking, math, physics, and the manipulation of tone and voicing, working on pianos is often equated to working on an elaborate crossword puzzle. Unlike crossword puzzles, however, there is the additional challenge of working with a piano’s organic materials, as the materials in pianos expand and contract with weather changes. This leaves piano technicians with the difficult task of restoring pianos while constantly keeping the future in mind. Every move a technician makes could See Artistry, page 13
