FreeFormFab

Reality 2.0

Reality as we know it is finished. Welcome to reality 2.0 where the internet is ubiquitous, and the world is forested with information.

In this new world, when you see a building, you can see its Wikipedia page, Flickr sets of photographs taken inside, the websites of the companies that are based in it, the public Twitter feeds of people who work there, intersecting spheres of free wifi radiating from it, and the energy flowing from its windows. In the lobby, you’ll see scores of handwritten messages from other visitors and users, recommending nearby coffee shops and suggesting that you take the stairs because the lifts are slow. There’s also a message only you can see, from the friend you’ve come to meet, saying take a seat – she already knows you’re here.

Reality 2.0 (pdf)

Source and more: Iconeye

The Evolution of the Designer

We live in a sped-up world in which technological advances occur faster and faster. We can’t imagine, for instance, living in our homes and working in our offices without products that were lab experiments only five years ago. Often, it has been technological innovation that has served as the catalyst for these changes. For example, will the 3D printer – the cost of which has plummeted in only a decade – move from the lab and the factory into our homes and offices in the near future? How could seemingly small changes like this actually have a big impact on society, socially, economically and culturally?

Technology has bestowed a greater responsibility on the designer by radically altering his role. Design will not only be about creating products that are a result of innovation, but envisioning future scenarios and communicating these clearly to the public, suggesting new production processes and testing the manifold uses of new technologies. The designer is now in a position to tell factories which tools should be made and/or designed in order to make products, becoming as much researchers, scientists and engineers as “designers.” In this way, they must begin to use technology as a tool with which to expand what we perceive as “normal” and constantly re-create our quotidian world.

The Evolution of the Desinger (pdf)

Source and More: Bits ‘n Pieces

Onderzoeker zoekt Designer om samen de wereld te veroveren

Benieuwd naar wat er allemaal gebeurt binnen de muren van de meer dan 90 high-tech bedrijven op High Tech Campus Eindhoven? Kom en kijk wat hier wordt ontwikkeld voor de dag van morgen. Denk mee, stel vragen en laat je inspireren!

Bij Holst Centre verwelkomen onderzoekers je om te brainstormen over kruisbestuiving tussen jouw ontwerptalent en hun geavanceerde technologie. Holst Centre doet onderzoek in het domain van flexibele elektronica (zoals lichtgevende folies, flexibele zonnecellen) en draadloze sensoren (voor het meten van emoties, gezondheid etc.). Ontdek ook bestaande projecten van Holst Centre met designers en kunstenaars, zoals staalhemel.

Bij NXP Semiconductors kunnen designers meedenken over een prototype van een apparaat voor rekeningrijden. De sessies van gisteren en vandaag leren dat designers met hele andere ogen kijken naar een elektronisch apparaat dan techneuten. Dat levert direct toegevoegde waarde op, zegt Wouter Leibbrandt, hoofd van NXP’s Advanced Systems Lab.

Naast Holst en NXP openen nog 10 andere bedrijven hun deuren. Ook het Experience Lab van Philips Research is bij hoge uitzondering open voor publiek. Almar Sinte Maartensdijk van Denovo design waardeert het initiatief van de Campus. Op deze manier creëer je een platform voor designers die zich, net als ik, niet uitsluitend richten op consumentenproducten.

Dutch Design Week op de High Tech Campus Eindhoven elke werkdag 15.00 – 18.00 uur. Meer informatie

Digital Fabrications : Architectural and Material Techniques

Architectural pioneers such as Frank Gehry and Greg Lynn introduced the world to the extreme forms made possible by digital fabrication. It is now possible to transfer designs made on a computer to computer-controlled machinery that creates actual building components. This file to factory process not only enables architects to realize projects featuring complex or double-curved geometries, but also liberates architects from a dependence on off-the-shelf building components, enabling projects of previously unimaginable complexity.

Digital Fabrications (…) celebrates the design ingenuity made possible by digital fabrication techniques. Author Lisa Iwamoto explores the methods architects use to calibrate digital designs with physical forms. The book is organized according to five types of digital fabrication techniques: tessellating, sectioning, folding, contouring, and forming. Projects are shown both in their finished forms and in working drawings, templates, and prototypes, allowing the reader to watch the process of each fantastic construction unfold. Digital Fabrications presents projects designed and built by emerging practices that pioneer techniques and experiment with fabrication processes on a small scale with a do-it-yourself attitude.

Related:

• C.STEM 2008: Breeding Objects - Computational Design, from Digital Fabrication to Mass-Customization
• Generator x - Beyond the Screen,Encoded art works

Order by Amazon

Source: We Make Money Not Art

Rapid Manufacturing: van onmogelijk naar mogelijk maken!

Ontdekkingsreis naar nieuwe mogelijkheden en trends in 3D printing en rapid manufacturing op donderdag 5 november 2009 TNO Eindhoven. De dag wordt georganiseerd door Microcentrum in samenwerking met TNO.

Deze themadag geeft de state of the art op het gebied van Rapid Manufacturing weer voor zowel bestaande als toekomstige gebruikers van RM-technologie. Vanuit verschillende toepassingsgebieden krijgt u inzicht in de vele mogelijkheden die RM-technologie biedt. Toepassingsvoorbeelden in 3D printing met kunststoffen, metalen en combinaties van diverse materialen passeren tijdens deze dag de revue.

Onbeperkte vormvrijheid, allerlei mogelijke functie integratie, direct vanuit een CAD file produceren en het combineren van verschillende materialen in één product zijn enkele grote voordelen bij het gebruik van Rapid Manufacturing technieken.

Brochure Themadag Rapid Manufactoring (pdf)

Fabbers, dabblers and microstars

We the people, the untrained majority, are the future of design. We have the tools and we will be masters of our personal environments. Home fabbing with 3D printers, Web 2.0, open-source wikidesign, long tail economics - they’ll make it happen. We’re not dumb consumers, we’re creative consumers. Professional-Amateurs. Pro-Ams. We won’t buy anything that isn’t uniquely specified by ourselves. Click-and-print door handles, baby. Democratised design? You betcha!

That’s the vision, isn’t it? The future, both absurd and inevitable, depending on your point of view.
Could design, like journalism or photography, be overrun by user-generated content? The convergence of internet commerce, mass-customisation and 3D printers leads some scientists and designers to predict a utopia of democratised design. Others laugh at the idea, defending the indispensable skills of the profession and predicting a sea of homemade dross that will be compelling to no one except crazed hobbyists.

Source and whole article: Icon Magazine

The Digital Artists Handbook

The Digital Artists Handbook is an up to date, reliable and accessible source of information that introduces you to different tools, resources and ways of working related to digital art.

The goal of the Handbook is to be a signpost, a source of practical information and content that bridges the gap between new users and the platforms and resources that are available, but not always very accessible. The Handbook will be slowly filled with articles written by invited artists and specialists, talking about their tools and ways of working. Some articles are introductions to tools, others are descriptions of methodologies, concepts and technologies.

Interiors: Design your own homeware online

Think that Philippe Starck’s lemon squeezer, one of the most iconic homeware designs of all time, is overrated? Reckon that the Arco floor lamp is overexposed? Or that those Cath Kidston floral mugs are just too yummy-mummy? Well, if you’ve always secretly thought that you could do better, but a lack of formal design training has stopped you from trying, now could be your chance.

Source and more: Times Online

Nurturing the Inner Entrepreneur

Do you want to be a designer? I’m not talking about signing up for design school, but about having a say in the design of some of the things you use every day. You needn’t design them from scratch, though that could be an option; but you might like to choose the colors, or change their size and shape.

Source and more: New York Times

Design Competition Rapid Manufacturing

In de aanloop naar een te organiseren expositie tijdens de Dutch Design Week organiseert TNO een design competition Rapid Manufacturing. Dit wordt ondersteund met advies en aanmaak van modellen vervaardigd met Rapid Manufacturing. Een uitgelezen kans voor bijvoorbeeld zelfstandige ontwerpers en bureaus om kennis en ervaring met Rapid Manufacturing op te doen en toe te passen.

Rapid Manufacturing (RM) is een nieuwe productietechniek met veel mogelijkheden voor ontwerpers. RM heeft een ongekende vormvrijheid, de aanloopkosten zijn gering en de levertijden kort. Dat komt omdat bij RM de onderdelen laagsgewijs opgebouwd worden door materiaal toe te voegen. Dit terwijl bij de meeste andere technieken juist materiaal wordt weggenomen en het onderdeel dus bereikbaar moet zijn voor een boor of frees. Bij RM zijn helemaal geen gereedschappen of matrijzen nodig.

TNO zal je middels een werksessie kennis laten maken met de mogelijkheden van RM door middel van diverse presentaties. Je ziet honderden samples en toepassingsvoorbeelden. Je doet voldoende basiskennis van RM op en krijgt inspiratie voor een fantastisch en creatief ontwerp. Tevens wordt je in de gelegenheid gesteld om een eigen ontwerp verder uit te werken.

Expositie en wedstrijd

Het model wordt met jouw goedvinden tentoongesteld tijdens een door de Hub georganiseerde expositie tijdens de Dutch Design Week. Hierdoor krijg je publiciteit en worden anderen geïnspireerd om ook Rapid Manufacturing te gaan inzetten. 
Bezoekers mogen de modellen beoordelen en bepalen welk model wint. Het winnende model wordt samen met TNO enkele stappen verder uitgewerkt.

Datum en plaats

Dinsdag: 15 september 2009
Tijden: 9.00 tot 17.30 uur
Plaats: TNO
Adres: De Rondom 1, 5612 AP Eindhoven

Flyer designcompetitie en aanmelden (pdf)

T-Dose Open Source Event

T-DOSE is a free and yearly event held in The Netherlands to promote use and development of Open Source Software. During this event Open Source projects, developers and visitors can exchange ideas and knowledge. This years event will be held on 3 and 4 October 2009 at the Fontys University of Applied Science in Eindhoven.

Wolfram Research

Founded by Stephen Wolfram in 1987 Wolfram Research is one of the world’s most respected software companies—as well as a powerhouse of scientific and technical innovation. As pioneers in computational science and the computational paradigm, we have pursued a long-term vision to develop the science, technology, and tools to make computation an ever-more-potent force in today’s and tomorrow’s world.

At the center is Mathematica: our ever-advancing core product that launched modern technical computing and has now become the world’s most powerful global computation system. With millions of dedicated users throughout the technical and educational communities, Mathematica represents a unique blend of major research breakthroughs, outstanding user-oriented design, and world-class software engineering.

See also: Wolfram demonstration project
See also: Wolfram Alpha
See also: Wolfram Tones

Just Print Buildings

In the nineties laser printers revolutionized graphic design. Now 3D-desktop printers are revolutionizing industrial design and the common business models. Next we will be printing buildings and revolutionize architecture.

D_shape technology makes it possible to 3D print 6 by 6 by 1m parts. These parts could either be shipped to the construction site or the entire building could be 3D printed on location. The parts made by D_shape resemble sandstone. They are comparable in strength to reinforced concrete and the ingredients are the binding material and any type of sand. The materials cost more than regular concrete but much less manpower is needed for construction. No scaffolding needs to be constructed so overall building cost should be lower than traditional building methods.

The system works with a rigging that is suspended over the buildable part. The system deposits the sand and then the inorganic binding ink. No water is necessary. Because the two components meet outside the nozzle, the machine does not clog up and can keep up its accuracy of 25 DPI. Enrico and D_Shape are currently talking to lots of construction & engineering companies and architects about their technology.

The technology would seem to be especially interesting for these architects. With D-Shape they could make previously impossible forms and indeed approach a building not as a place where planes intersect but much more organically. As with regular 3D printing methods a lot of forms can only be made in this way.

Interview with Enrico Dini of D_Shape

Source: Next Nature

Prototyping Roots Manuva

Here’s an intriguing use of prototyping and laser scanning technology. Those UK Hip Hop afficionados out there will no doubt have got hold of Roots Manuva’s Slime and Reason late last year - I know I did. When I looked at the cover, I wondered how that freaky image has been made and the liner notes give it away with extra images from a white light laser scanner running across the Artist formerly known as Rodney Smith’s face and a small note thanking Metropolitan Works for its help on its creation.

Designed by graphic design duo Oscar & Ewan, the cover features a head and shoulders image showing the top of his head missing and the contents filled with green slime - as you can see. Apparently Roots came into Metro Work’s facility, had his head scanned and the scan was printed using Z-Corp’s Spectrum Z510 to create a master that was cast by a sculptor to create a ceramic vessel filled with slime.

Source: Develop 3D

What does ARC 3D Webservice do?

The ARC 3D Webservice allows you to transform your images into 3D models automatically. You only need a digital camera, a PC and access to the Internet.

Everybody can now make pictures in 3D, with a regular photo camera and the free ARC 3D website. You only have to take a number of pictures from an object from different angles, load it onto the website and you will be notified when you can pick up the 3D photo from the ARC 3D ftp-site. With the ARC 3D model viewer you can generate your 3D model, ready for viewing on the internet. For this you need to save it as a vrml or x3d file and download a 3D viewer from the internet for viewing in a webbrowser. You can also save the model in other higher quality formats. The free MeshLab software provides professional tools to enable you to refine and enhance your 3D model.

Source: KU Leuven