openMaterials

SketchChair, a project by Tiago Rorke and Greg Saul of Diatom, is an “open-source software tool that allows anyone to easily design and build their own digitally fabricated furniture:” The SketchChair software allows anybody to take part in the process of designing and building their own chairs. The program lets users design chairs using a simple [...]

The first edition of Botacon took place last weekend in Brooklyn. The lineup of speakers was impressive and made for one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended. But one materials-related presentation stood out. Mr. Kim and John Sarik gave a talk titled “MakerBot Printable Transistors and OLEDs or I want to be Jeri Ellsworth [...]

OSLOOM is is a project led by Margarita Benitez aimed at creating an open source electromechanical thread-controlled loom that will be computer controlled. It will include basic software allowing anyone to simply weave a photo thru a web browser (twill/satin), import weave ready files from other software (such as Bhakti/Alice photoshop method), and then post [...]

growth modeling device is an artwork by David Bowen which involves a system using lasers to scan an onion plant from one of three angles, which then creates a plastic model based on the information collected. The device builds a series of simulations of a growing onion plant by means of three-D scanning and printing, outputting [...]

The OpenStructures project is an open and modular construction system where everyone designs for everyone on the basis of one shared geometrical grid: It is an ongoing experiment that wants to find out what happens if people design objects according to a shared modular grid, a common open standard that stimulates the exchange of parts, components, [...]

This is great talk by Dominic Muren on the Digital Fabrication Ecosystem, given @ Dorkbot Seattle, Feb 3 2010. You can download the slides of the talk in PDF form here. Muren, a design professor at the University of Washington, runs the Humblefactory, a product development consultancy offering strategic and design consulting in open hardware, user-assisted [...]