openMaterials

University of Illinois researchers explain how they make their conductive ink on this step-by-step tutorial. (via Boing Boing)

Jie Qi, from MIT’s High-Low Tech group, posted a couple really nice tutorials on how to combine paper, electronics and smart materials to create beautiful objects. The LED dragon kite: http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=1414 SMA origami crane: http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=1448

Thermochromic and waterproof polyester fabric (image by Inventables) Heat Reactive Materials Heat reactive materials change state, shape and/or color when exposed to temperatures above ambient. Naturally, many materials change shape, eg. melt, at high temperatures. What’s special about some of them is that their state, shape and/or color can be altered at relatively low temperatures (provided through [...]

UV reactive materials, which initially have an off-white appearance, change to bright colors when exposed to UV rays (sunlight or a UV lamp) and revert to their original pale color when away from UV light. The basis for these materials are photochromic pigments which can be mixed with an acrylic base and then applied as [...]

MAKING STUFF: Stronger, Smaller Cleaner, Smarter is a four-part PBS television series focusing on materials science: While reports on “smart materials” or “bionic humans” are familiar enough from TV news and magazine shows, Making Stuff will be the first documentary to provide the basic science behind these and many other technology breakthroughs. Each of the four [...]

Last March I had the opportunity to teach an openMaterials workshop at the very special École Supérieure d’Art d’Aix-en-Provence (France). It was part of a larger event in which the school invited researchers and artists from several fields to lead a one week class for 2nd year art students. The goal was to show [...]