FIRST OBSERVATION

Wood station: empty, which is rare; the station instructor was very helpful and offered to help us because we looked quite lost; stickers to show which machines are high risk and which ones are low risk; intimidating and scary to those who don’t know the station.
Fabric station: scary and intimidating to all of us because we all don’t know it; empty; everyone focuses on their own work
Drawing station: a lot of people; personal experience: one of the most comfortable or least intimidating stations; there’s always a good atmosphere, music playing, helpful teachers, couches to hangout; quiet; people talking, people drawing; overall relaxed vibe.

We observed that everyone displays a level of vulnerability when they step into a station they’re not familiar with
There’s a lot of discomfort and the feeling of not belonging, intimidation and the fear of doing something wrong or breaking equipment
It would be interesting to find a way to either fix that level of discomfort or to raise awareness for it in order to make the people who use the space more empathetic towards each other and make the station more of a “safe space”
There are Peer Assistant Learning coaches, who are students specialized in the station, that are there to relieve the pressure on the station instructors and maybe make the learning experience more approachable but does that system really work? Maybe the PALs can take on a different role in order to make the stations more comfortable?

OBSERVATION: FABRIC STATION

Time: 13:22 - 14:04
Date: 7 November
Place: Fabric station, Willem de Kooning Academy

The fabric station has everything one would need to make garments: various machines for sewing, knitting, heat pressing, weaving etc. There are also tables on which people can work on their garments, e.g. pattern making, hand stitching and so on and there is also a small section with computers opposite of the instructor’s desk.

I feel really awkward sitting in the fabric station. I’m sitting in the room at the right and as of now, 13:36, there are only 3 other people in the room with me. I think I feel awkward because it’s really quiet, the only things you can hear are me typing on the keyboard of my laptop and the guy sitting on the table to my left using the sewing machine.

13:38 a girl asked a teacher for advice and the teacher came over to help her. They are talking about using a metal Handle to change something about the fabric, “you can use these tools to hammer in the distance”, the instructor left again to find the right tool
13:39 a girl came in, she already had her stuff laid out on the table but had to do something else in the other room. She is wearing headphones and is folding fabric over two white rods.
13:40 the teacher is back with the right tool. “you need to take the distance from the edge and…” teacher left again
The girl jump-walked to the guy sitting at the table in front of me, he is also sitting on the computer but for some reason his keyboard is not as loud as mine. She didn’t stay with the guy for long, she also didn’t look at him she observed the teacher and when the teacher approached again she returned to her table → respect, power play
Cold air just hit me, must be coming from the window on my right
13:43 Girl asked teacher where she studied, teacher replies with the Hague
Girl talks about how she’s interested in shoe design, mostly in sneakers. She is also talking about her internship at Adidas and how she learned to make prototypes. Most sneakers are glued so now she’s looking into leather shoes because the construction is very different. Teacher continues the conversation…
13:45 now there are 6 people in the room, including me
No one is talking, the sound of the people talking in the stairway is echoing and being dragged into the fabric station
Guy sitting on the fixed sewing machines in front of me is taking a break. He turned to the left and is checking something on his phone. He is wearing brown corduroy pants light blue sneakers dark blue t-shirt with green and yellow writing. He has his ear phones in and his foot is tapping along the rhythm of the music. He seems to have a cold because he is sniffing his nose constantly
13:49 a girl and a guy just came in and asked the teacher something about scissors, the girl interrupted the teacher while she was explaining saddle stitching to the shoe design girl. I’m not sure whether the interrupting girl is a student or not. She seemed very comfortable interrupting the teacher but she and the guy left very shortly after.
13:52 guy returned to sewing
Guy on computer in front of me has his headphones on now and he is bopping his head to the music
There are 9 mannequins next to me. 3 of them are wearing shirts out of pattern-making fabric
13:55 The girl and the teacher are still discussing saddle stitching
It’s raining outside, the rain is hitting the windows but its not strong rain so the sound can only be heard when the station is completely quiet
Description of the space: not very light, there are acoustic panels and neon lights hanging from the ceiling, as well as ventilation tubes. Although the space has relatively high ceilings, the lowered tubes and lights make it feel like a low ceiling and quite bedrückend. The floor is alternating black and green and black linoleum. It could’ve been used as a space divider (e.g. all the sewing machines in the black area and all the tables in the green for example) but the furniture layout seems quite random
The teacher left 13:57
A girl came in to talk to the shoe girl. The shoe girl tells her about the saddle stitch
The girl says “Marcoooo” to the guy on the computer in front of me. After very brief chit chat she leaves again
14:01 new guy just came in and dropped his bagpack on the table in front of the mannequins and leaves again
14:02 girl came in to talk to the rod-wrapping girl. They’re speaking a mix of German and English , she is explaining what she’s working on. “Aber dann ist das nicht so obvious”
Still 6 people in the space

With our P3 group we’re analysing the social problems within the stations. We came up with a tag game which we called String of Knowledge. One so called expert student stood in the middle of the room and could tag these so called students who ran across the room trying to not get tagged. When you got tagged you were a part of the string of knowledge and by tagging more people the string of expert students got bigger and bigger. There was an indistinct part about this game, students were trying to run away for knowledge and becoming an expert student and then after being tagged they were happy about being a part of the string of knowledge. This stood for the threshold and uncomfortable and uncertain feeling students get when entering a new and unfamiliar station. But when you’ll go there more often and start asking questions to others you’ll eventually become one of the expert students. After playing the game, someone gave us the question to think about other public spaces where this relation between people existed as well. I thought about the gym I go to a lot in between my volleyball seasons. In the
beginning I felt really uncomfortable and uncertain. What makes it hard at going to the gym without really
knowing what you should do, how certain equipment work and how you should use them, is that you don’t know who to ask. It is hard to tell who is an instructor and who is a member that truly knows what he/she is doing, who is open for answering your questions? And who wants to spend their time explaining you what to do? Which is similar to the stations, who is just a student and who is an so called expert student who really knows what he or she is doing? Who is open for a conversation and who wants to spend their time on explaining something to you? And when my volleyball season ends and I want go to the gym after seven months of not going I have this uncomfortable feeling of uncertainty again. The same you have after not going to a station and developing a certain skill for a longer period of time. But then when you start going you’ll again get familiar with the space, the people and the activity you’re doing there.