Informed clay matter

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Brief: The workshop idea rises from a collaboration between Co-de-iT, Fablab Torino, Officine Arduino, based on an ongoing Co-de-iT research called “inFORMed matter.

The “inFORMed matter” research project focuses on the exploration of additive fabrication processes (such as n-Dimensional printing, guided growth and/or assembly), aiming to inform (i.e. to give form) as in to produce form through the morphogenetic properties and capacities of matter by embedding further information structures during the fabrication process itself by means of mechanical (robots, printers, etc.) and/or biological (organisms - even synthetically built ones) constructor agents.

Our goal is to go beyond the current state of prototyping, according to which the physical prototype should be as close as possible a clone of its digital counterpart, thus making fabrication a purely replicational phase. Instead, by coding and embedding additional levels of information aimed at mapping and defining material features and behaviors as well as different deployment patterns from which physical and aesthetic properties arise, the production and digital fabrication phase becomes an integral part of the design process.

The workshop was focused about the exploration and development of the whole process of design and digital manufacturing through additive processes of ceramic mixture materials.

Workshop topics:

• How to embed in the modeling phase the extrusion material features, as information, and how to structure morphologies and patterns to assess whether the different physical and aesthetic performances.

• How to inform the prototyping tools directly during the process of modeling the object. In the present case it was used Grasshopper to originate the machine code for prototyping using directly the necessary information and transferring seamless directly from the design and programming environment to the machine.

• Learn to manage the characteristics of the clay material so consider their different output and emergent features as a catalog of expressive possibilities and performances of the material.

• Learn how to use and manage different machines for the manufacturing process. During the workshop it was used, as tools for handling the special ceramic extruder, a customized 3D printer, type delta, and a 6-axis Comau robot NJ 60.

The final output was a combination of all these aspects. Only successfully combining the data from the digital model, the material characteristics and the limits and potentials of the fabrication tools is possible to evaluate and push further the potential of the research project. This design and process approach will allow the designer to achieve new design and fabrication skills and sensibilities that will be the basis of a new design awareness.

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Bubble Blower

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This is the first project tackled by the Fablab team in order to open future activities and landscapes of research in the experimentation process with the Robotic Arm made in Comau. Such research represent the first step into a series of experimentations with the application of robotic devices into fields of art, architecture and design. This first project aim to humanize the robotic arm by transforming it into a bubble blower with few simple tools available inside of a fablab. The custom tool was designed for an easy production with a lasercutter and with common materials that anyone can find in an hardware store; all the design and code are open and shared in creative commons. Here you can find the project on Github

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Clay Extruder

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Coming soon…

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6 Axes Miller

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Coming soon…

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