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 2d drawing interface, automatically generating the structure of a chair and testing its stability. Users can simulate sitting on a chair with a customizable figure of themselves, in order to test and refine the chair to ensure it will comfortably support them.

The software automatically generates cutting profiles for the chairs, which can then be used to make physical SketchChairs. Using a cnc router, laser cutter or paper cutter, these parts can be cut from any suitable flat sheet material, and then easily assembled by hand.

We have launched SketchChair as a Kickstarter campaign, to try and raise funds to complete the software and release the source code, and to start building an online community of people creating, sharing and editing designs.

Today it’s possible to print organic field transistors (OFETs), organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), and other devices using sophisticated laboratory equipment. But why should academics have all the fun? The goal of this project is to design a fabrication process that allows MakerBot owners to print their own electronics using (ideally) inexpensive and easy-to-source materials. In the first phase of the project we are using a RepRap, plotter pens, and research grade materials to create devices. The second phase of the project will focus on exploring new device materials. This is an ongoing project and we are looking for collaborators.

Mr. Kim and Sarik experimented with a variety of conductive materials (silver ink, P3HT, CP1 resin), which they inserted into rapidograph and pigma micron pens. According to the researchers, this is a nine step process:

The project doesn’t yet have a website but, in the DIY spirit of this research, Mr. Kim uploaded the field effect transistor patterns to Thingiverse and made the talk’s slides publicly available at mrkimrobotics.com.

All photos provided by John Sarik and Mr. Kim. John: thank you so much for discussing this fascinating research with me and for sending us the presentation materials.

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 the software on a repository for others to further develop or customize. In addition, all the loom blueprints will be placed online for anyone to build.

A loom is a device used to weave fabric. The loom itself will be a Jacquard style loom. Jacquard looms allow for the individual control of each thread which in turn allows for photographic imagery to be woven. Jacquard looms like this exist commercially but they are very expensive (upwards of $30,000) which puts them out of reach for individuals and small educational facilities.

The OSLOOM could be produced way more economically than that and truly revolutionize what the studio weaver could accomplish. The idea of a DIY open source loom is one that not only artists could benefit from but many individuals and learning centers could gain a resource by building one of these looms as well.

OSLOOM would have an impact on (but not limited to) the following communities/sectors:
artists
DIY/makers
studio weavers
educational
institutions (large and small)
textile designers
developing countries

This project is inspired by MIT’s FabLab concept and other open source hardware projects such as the RepRap and Fab@Home 3D rapid prototypers and the many DIY CNC projects available already.

Margarita is currently working on making available some cardboard tapestry loom plans for lasercutting. Keep an eye on osloom.org for more information!

PS: I’m already imagining textile circuits weaved with conductive thread/yarn :)

The device builds a series of simulations of a growing onion plant by means of three-D scanning and printing, outputting one image every twenty-four hours from one of three angles. A fused deposition modeler that uses ABS plastic as its material is running simultaneously with a laser scanner that scans the onion. The output of this process appears rather mechanical and barren, displayed as it is at regular intervals on a conveyor belt that loops away from the scanning/printing mechanism, around a roller and back.

It was recently awarded 3rd prize at VIDA 12.0, and has now just won the grand prize in the art division at the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival.

David’s website has a great video and also time lapse sequence of the work.

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, experiences and ideas and aspires to build things together.

When we look at modular construction systems we can clearly distinguish two different models:
- Closed modular systems, where one entity designs a complete system for everybody, and which operate according to a hierarchical (vertical) model.
- Open modular systems, where everybody contributes a small piece to a common system, and which operate according to a (horizontal) network model.

Within current hardware constructions we observe the existence of various closed systems:
- Designer A designs modular system 1
- Company B designs modular system 2
Although all these systems enjoy the benefits of modularity within their system, they most of the time are completely incompatible with one another.

Within software constructions however we are witnessing the emergence of open modular systems.
- Wikipedia, open knowledge sharing
- Linux, open programming

The OS project tries to find out what happens if we would initiate an open modular system for hardware where different entities design different parts and components but all according to one shared modular grid.

Conceived by designer Thomas Lommée, the project was first shown at Z33. The exhibition was comprised of several OS project scales, starting with “open parts” - which are the smallest OS - elements comparable to cells. These “open parts” are then assembled into functional self-sustaining entities: the components or organs of the OpenStructure-system. Following, different components are composed with frames and joints to form structures. Structures then have the capacity to develop and can eventually grow into an assembly of different structures that together function as a superstructure.

The exhibition in Z33 follows the story-line of the different scales and furthermore highlights a collaborative installation as a first “BetaTest” of the system. Just like software, that is reviewed before its launch, the model is tested by setting up a fully-functional kitchen. It demonstrates the streamlined process between different functional entities on the one side and is a vivid patchwork of various personalities, materials, inspirations and motivations on the other.

In preparation for the exhibition, Thomas Lommée collaborated with the KHLimburg and the Hogeschool Sint Lukas in Brussels. During several workshops, students were told about the topic and the first tests took place. This process is going to continue next year through collaborations with Sint Lukas Brussels and the Design Academy Eindhoven.

Thomas Lommée has invited the following designers, craftsmen and enthusiastic autodidacts to collaborate on this project and design within the grid: Laurens Bekemans, Biogas-E vzw, Nicolas Coeckelberghs, Kar Yan Cheung, Brussels Cooperation, Alistaire Dewit, Lise Foré, Christiane Hoegner, Bob Jacobs, Fabio Lorefice, Lucas Maassen, Jeroen Maes, Samyrah Moumouth, Karl Philips, Thermopolnv, Unfold, Jo Van Bostraeten.

OpenStructures is a collaborative effort (open to everyone), originally conceived at the Institute without Boundaries and now being further developed and tested by Intrastructures in association with the research group 4Dimensional Design of the Department of Architectonic Engineering Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Learn more about and participate in the project @ the OpenStructures site:
:: purpose, goals, and potential
:: grid
:: parts
:: components
:: structures
:: designer platform
:: blog
:: participate

The Z33 art center also has an upcoming show titled Design by Performance which will feature, among many other interesting works, Unfold’s Claystruder (paired with a virtual trowing wheel that scans 3d hand movements and generates virtual objects to be printed at a later time) and David Bowen’s Growth Modelling Device. If you’re in the neighborhood (Hasselt, Belgium) or can make it there, don’t miss this exhibition!

UPDATE :: The Open Structures project is currently part of the ‘Up to You’ exhibition @ Stroom (The Hague, Netherlands).

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 co-manufacture (hacking), and product design strategy. He also runs its counterpart blog Humblefacture. Check out one of his very interesting articles titled “The Blacksmith and the Hacker.”

Open3DP’s Recipes are a really nice resource for those interested in experimenting with different materials for 3D printing. There’s a little bit of everything in there, from glass to porcelain to sugar.

Open3dp is a website hosted by the Solheim Rapid Prototyping Laboratory in the Mechanical Engineering Department on the University of Washington campus. Its purpose is to disseminate information and foster a community of people interested in an open sharing of 3D printing information.

Below is “Printing Ceramics,” a video featuring the work of the Solheim Rapid Prototyping/ Rapid Manufacturing Lab, specifically the work of Professor Mark Ganter, as well as the experimental art of Doctoral Student Meghan Trainor.

Unfold has started printing with ceramics on a modified rapman. First results look amazing:

We took some time to play around and get used to the dynamics of the clay print process. It was also time to step up (or down?) the resolution from 1.9 to 0.8 mm using screw-on luer lock tips. We are also now using powder clay that can be mixed in exact quantities instead of moisturizing chunks of clay. Also figuring out ways of reliably filling the syringes without trapped air. I’m using a similar 60cc syringe where the front is cut off and use this to suck in the clay from the mixing bowl. Then the clay is transferred to the print syringe, this works really well actually.

After some calibrating I decided to print a test design that would be hard to make using conventional techniques: a double walled vessel with fins connecting in- and outside. I was expecting mostly failure but it finished without to much trouble! Due to the restrictions of Skeinforge expecting 3d models, the walls are double filament (1.5mm total). As you can see on the Pleasant3d view there is an outer and inner shell and instead of a line connecting both there are o-loops. Testing a different design now that enables us to test a single filament double wall vessel. But in the end We will need a way to generate tool paths from single walled surfaces instead of solids.

Last weekend I talked briefly with Adrian Bowyer after his excellent talk at FOSDEM. I was excited to show him our results after he finished his talk with mentioning ceramics as future possibilities (hence the title, wink, wink)

Now lets pray all together that trapped air bubbles won’t make it pop…

Read about the process @ the Unfold Fab blog:
:: Claystruder parts
:: Claystruder first test
:: Design for the extruder
:: Claystruder mounted, ready to test
:: Hello slurry world!
:: Images

A talk by Bath University Professor Adrian Boyer, creator of the RepRap 3D Printer, given @ FOSDEM.

(via Erik de Bruijn)

Pa++tern, created by Daito Manabe + Motoi Ishibashi, is a combination of an installation and an esoteric programming language for embroidery in which a series of industrial sewing machines are controlled by twiterers. Here’s the process: using a simple environment, users create a short program for an embroidery pattern and send it over to the machines through twitter, which in turn embroider it on an actual t-shirt (you have to acquire the t-shirt). Check it out here.

(via Kerrin Mansfiled - thanks Kerrin!)