The Square team, a public Fab Lab operating within BAnQ’s Grande Bibliothèque, proposes a workshop based on its experience in mediation around a cultural object. At the heart of these mediation activities, the cultural object guides the methodology of the Square’s mediators for the creation of techno-pedagogical workshops. By highlighting the richness of BAnQ’s archives, Le Square encourages collaboration between the institution’s teams. The space also encourages the facilitation of hands-on workshops that emphasize project-based learning rather than theory. As a Fab Lab, one of Le Square’s missions is to democratize digital fabrication technologies. Through its presence within BAnQ, the integration of cultural objects from the collections allows the Square to transmit culture and heritage to a diverse public.

As part of the Montréal Fab City Campus, Émile Foucher and Jules-Antoine Demers, technician in new technologies and mediator at the Square, invite participants to a collective reflection on the cultural angle in digital fabrication. Taking the form of an open discussion, they want to look at the different ways of creating mediation activities with strong narrative potential, integrating culture, heritage, sustainable development and digital fabrication. To do so, they will present the example of a techno-pedagogical mediation workshop developed in collaboration with the various departments of the BAnQ.

The cultural object, central to the workshop Poser des gestes écoresponsables, is the book Flore laurentienne written by Brother Marie-Victorin. This document represents an important element of Quebec’s scientific heritage and highlights the biodiversity of the St. Lawrence Valley. Through the conceptualization of the workshop, the book was used as a basis to create visual content and a story around some little-known native plants. The engravings were digitized and the illustrations were vectorized to create prints that will be used to decorate a piece of furniture in the library as a mediation tool. This activity allows the public to be introduced to the creation of biomaterials and to highlight our natural and scientific heritage.

The presentation of this workshop will serve as an example to share how the cultural approach is used to create learning contexts in the public library. In the form of a discussion around the mediation cabinet, the workshop will follow the methodology of a World Café to generate a collective reflection on the integration of cultural objects in Fab Lab. The working questions will be targeted in order to share the Square’s know-how and to open the discussion to proposals to orient these future activities.

As a Fab Lab operating within BAnQ, Le Square wishes to be present in order to establish links with the Fab City community and contribute to the exchange of ideas around the biodiversity of the Americas. Through the proposed workshop, sub-themes such as education for the future, the manufacturing ecosystem, open innovation and citizen participation will also be addressed. The activity will also introduce the different audiences that frequent the Square space and the different services offered.

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BAnQ’s mission is to provide democratic access to culture and knowledge. It collects, preserves and disseminates the documentary heritage of Québec or relating to Québec. It also offers the services of a major public library. Its activities are carried out in twelve buildings open to all.

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