hello friends! i’m moving away from the place i’ve lived for the last ~2 years — ithaca, upstate new york, and it is bittersweet. in my last month here, i was lucky enough to learn about and join a ‘local community maker space’ called ithaca generator. my experience there has been nothing short of bliss, and is the first physical space i’ve inhabited that i see to reflect an important tenet of Kernel’s mission–to share learning and cultivate peer-learning environments.
ithaca generator is akin to a giant studio space. the membership, at $45 a month, gives one access to the facility 24/7 (through an app that opens the door via bluetooth), and the ability to use any equipment and tools there, which includes: woodworking, industrial metalworking/welding, laser printing, 3D printing, electronics, ceramics, letterpress, textiles and sewing, and probably more, but considering that i come from a close-minded college-educated family, i’ve been socialized to ignore manual, vocational, and artistic fields and the equipment they require.
at first i thought the only thing that’s missing at the ithaca generator is a dedicated space where we’d be able to have juntos and deep dialogue. i was just talking to @Fang, and i asked her, if Kernel were to have a physical space, what type of room, what type of design, do you think would be conducive to our conversations, our connecting? it was the first time either one of us had considered such a question since our hearts have mostly connected virtually. would it be a typical class room-like setting? with desks and chairs, and some board on the wall for writing? no, my impulse told me–such a design feels wrong in my bones, as it would signal support and imitation of traditional teaching methods which we do not wish to perpetuate.
as i wrote, i realized ithaca generator already had the ideal design– in the center of the community studio is a simple wooden table, clear of equipment and tools, with countless chairs available to all for sitting, eating, and resting in between creating. and it is there, among the many material items we humans use to express our deepest needs, that i think winding and soul-filling juntos would take place, electrified by the current that creation generates.
i ruminate on my experience here because it is the first physical space to feel as capacious, homely, and caring as Kernel has felt to me. i want to share it with you because in my journey, i now realize how important it is to find or co-create such places in the physical world, and if you feel a similar calling, i hope you take it as an inspiring example as i do. below are two photos from my trip to the generator last night at midnight. the first photo is with some of the friends i’ve made there, and the second photo is with friends i brought there – because members are welcome to bring friends to share the space and share learning. the first photo shows our ceramic wizard and goddess, Liz, who helped me learn about clay immensely, as well as Matt, Trevor, and Matthew, the first three of whom passed six hours yesterday figuring out how to ready a donated kiln for glaze firing, a process that required multiple homemade and bricolage solutions, on which they all collaborated and made together.
Heirloom Commons 
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