ABSTRACT
Sketches, diagrams, notes, and more formal representations like those from computer aided design software are all central to the work of designers and makers. In this chapter we discuss the ways in which makers create and traverse, or move across, representations in multiple making space contexts. We introduce the concept of “representational fluidity” to describe how professional makers and hobbyists embrace the informal nature of their work in Artisan’s Asylum to purposely use sketches rather than more formal, technical drawings; how youth at SETC invent representations to help them navigate different conventional forms as they build an interactive water piano; and, at Nedlam’s Workshop, the school making space, how students sketch across different materials as they continually frame and understand the problems they are solving. We argue for attention to how inventions, traversals, and sketching across materials can help youth develop representational fluidity in making spaces.
