On Saturday, the Design & Digital Manufacturing event Replic_age started with Martín Sáez from the Belgian company Materialise. Counting with more than 20 years of experience in business, they gave us a solid and realistic vision about professional 3D printing, emphasizing the idea of that 3D printers are being used from a long time in industry.
Next on stage was the Dutch independent researcher Peter Troxler. He is an ideologist, a theoretician of Open Source, mainly applied to Design. He delivered a magnificent Lecture brimming with persuasion and deep considerations. Troxler stressed the importance of a sense of responsibility within the Maker Movement, as we shall go beyond the simple consumerism and banality. Open Source was outlined not only as a good faith answer, but also as a reliable business option. Also, he brilliantly explained the basis of the 3rd Industrial Revolution, condensing the main ideas from a wide intellectual corpus written around this concept. In short, Troxler exhibited in front us us the multiple elements which act in the creation of this new context: from the tight relationship between renewable energies and communicating technologies as Internet, to the new cooperation relationships and useful development. He was so gentle to grant an interview after his speech, that we will publish in a later post.
After a short break, the artist potter Jonathan Keep came on stage. He explained detailedly how he achieved to make porcelain pots using 3D-printing techniques. Since such printers for clay didn’t exist by then, he even had to make his own, using pieces of several sources. He designs by coding trying to emulate the way Nature works.
The French designer François Brument, from studio In-flexions, introduced us their Printed Habitat project, a parametric system of 3D printed living spaces. He focuses on creating postdigital objects and spaces, using code and parametric design as main tools.
After morning’s speeches, it was time to have a rest at the banks of the Manzanares river, just behind Matadero’s building. A peaceful place accommodated for jogging, cycling or simply sitting on the grass enjoying the calm (and fresh) afternoon. In sunnier days, you can even find canoeists training here and there.
After lunch, the textile designer and developer Oscar Tomico from Eindhoven University of Technology talked about Beta Textiles, that is when digital fabrication meets smart textile. Tomico is a forward thinker of wearable tech, during his presentation he showed some projects he is involved in: garment that reacts by stroking, CRISP smart textile services and Vibe-ing, a selfcare tool in the form of a garment, which invites the body to feel, move and heal through vibration therapy. We made an interview with him where he deepened in the theoretical part of his work. We will publish it soon on this blog.
It was then, the turn of 3 spanish Fab Labs: First, Cesáreo González from Fab Lab León talked about Open Labs (open doors days) as a way of “evangelization”. José Pérez De Lama from Fab Lab Sevilla told us about how Fab Labs can influence positive changes of social behaviors, and Lucía Arias from Fab Lab Asturias talked about Fab Labs as a educative resource.
Keep going back for Day 3 recap.
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