Fab the Knowledge

This paper draws a link between what happens in maker spaces and how these processes can be simulated in the mathematical collaborative model (co-model) of the research through collaborative design (co-design) process (RTC). The result is the ability to identify the main variables for simulating the “making” dynamics of the RTC model. This outcome is discussed with an emphasis on the “intangible” role of “making,” alongside the proposed concept of “fab the knowledge.” Speculative thinking is used here to link the innovative and theoretical aspects of design research to their application in and for innovative learning contexts. The RTC co-model can be used to compute, simulate and train a co-design process in intangible spaces, such as fab labs. In these spaces, multiple actors with different skills and backgrounds, who may or may not be experts in design, collaborate on setting a design question and identifying a shared design answer, in a process of RTC. A “network” of neural mechanisms operating and communicating between design experts and non-experts, like a computing system of a biological mechanism, can be used to train and simulate a research answer, thereby “fabricating” knowledge.