ABSTRACT
Despite the global proliferation of fablabs, much remains to be learned about the democratic potential they offer citizens to directly engage making culture towards local concerns. This chapter uses a participatory art lens to discuss my recent experience working within Fab Lab Barcelona’s Horizon 2020 citizen sensing project, Making Sense (https://making-sense.eu/" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://making-sense.eu/), which used open source/open hardware sensors to democratise environmental data. Exploring the ‘viscous porosity’ needed for fablabs to truly democratise making, I conclude that participatory art practices can support ‘hacking’ existing systems and cultivate active citizenry by bringing non-makers into making spaces, and taking making culture out into communities.
