2: Makerspaces/ULabs

Red Rhetor

In this episode, Andrew Blick and Jamie May, graduate students in Texas Tech University’s Technical Communication and Rhetoric Program, investigate the maker movement by visiting ULabs or U[biquitous] Labs, a makerspace in Lubbock, Texas, and interviewing Jon Turner, ULab’s director of marketing. As Jon describes in the episode, the mission of ULabs is "to have a place where you can come, you can create, you can make." During this episode, we explore ULabs's origins as a community-engaged nonprofit, learn about the events and programming supported by ULabs, and hear how users are using the space. Through this project, we hope to contextualize the maker movement and to help promote awareness of ULabs.

Introductory music is the opening of "No Ska Today" by Skabrot (available on Jamendo) plus some radio interference and static from freesound.org. This episode features music from Nicolai Heidlas Music ("Drive," available on Soundcloud) and freesound.org (Goran Andric's "hard rock intro," day_tripper13's "FX 808 Beat 120 BPM," Tristan Lohengrin's "Happy 8bit Loop 01," and Lemoncreme's "Floating Synth Melody"), as well as other sounds from freesound.org: metal fun, Mancunian dot matrix printer sounds, distorted laser, and kids playing.

Listeners who are interested in makerspaces might check out Make: Zine, Educause's "7 Things You Should Know About Makerspaces," ULabs in Lubbock and their Facebook page, and the Crucible's makerspace website.