Digital Fabrication HS 2020

Digital Fabrication Seminar HS2018 

Digital fabrication is a process that merges design and manufacture through the use of digital tools (software) and computer-controlled manufacturing processes. Such processes position "digital natives" in the forefront of craft and form generation. Today, engineers, designers and artists are leading the development of new sculpting, construction and manufacturing strategies. Methods such as CNC milling, laser cutting, robotic fabrication among others, allow us to materialise radical new forms inspired by biological processes, mathematics and computational geometry.

Lecturers: Luke Franzke, Clemens Winkler

Format: Hybrid

All inputs and mentoring will take place over Zoom. However, in order to use the 3D printers and to make a photo documentation of the final outcomes, students will be required to periodically work in the Atelier or the Workshop. 

Course Goals

In this course, students gain an insight into methods and techniques that blur the boundary between digital and analogue, virtual and physical. Students gain insights into principles from geometry and formation processes. The course provides a number of skills that are highly transferable to various aspects of prototyping for interaction designers.   

Contents 

• Software
• Tools
• Readings
• Project Briefs
• Documentation Template 

Topic 2020: QUANTUM FABRICATION

Image source:  https://semiconductorfilms.com/art/20hz/

We experience a world ruled by the principles of classical physics. We can feel gravity, mass, acceleration, and observe the effects of surface tension or magnetism. Yet, the substances that surround us are made from waves and particles governed by alien rules that are completely incongruous with what we perceive. Sometimes, one thing is in two places at the same time, or perhaps everywhere all the time. Some substances behave differently if you are looking at them, and when you are not. Others interact with substances that could be kilometres away, what Einstein described as "spooky action at a distance". Quantum Technologies are a relatively new emerging field on the interactions of light and matter, such as high-precision clocks, electronic computers, Laser technologies, all digital communication technologies, medical devices such as MRI or CT Scanners, new energy supply technologies such as solar fusion or speculative technologies like teleportation.

"The scientific reading of natural systems and phenomena has recently been adopted as one of the main driving forces for new developments in designing processes, such as neural networks, flocks of birds, genetic coding, fractal geometries and various computational machineries." (ia#4 Feng, Quantum Architecture, 2011) They have facilitated our ability to realise new kinds of spatial and material organizations already enriching our understanding of the inner logic of space and material* and we would like to ask in this module for these new kinds of spatial and material organisations through views on Quantum principles. How does it appear and which aesthetics and affordances can it take for us in the field of Interaction Design? From this point new forms of interactions between users and their constructed environments can be envisioned from us through computational tools and fabrication strategies.

*Today the most precise explanation of our physical world has not only triggered huge amount of New Technologies mentioned above, but has also introduced a revolutionary Quantum world view that considers the material world as a non-deterministic construct, deciphered with probability and interactivity. 

In this year's digital fabrication module, we will attempt to give substance to the fantastic phenomena governed by quantum mechanics. Students will create lively physical representations of impossible formations of matter, that disobey the conventions of classical physics. Can they move backwards, and forwards through time? Do they split, duplicate or merge our everyday lives? What possibilities exist for interaction between people and such exotic substances?

Students will explore the topic with sketches, rendering and  3D printed objects and a short animation. This animation of an Impossible material-energy formation will be supported by a brief explanatory text situating it in the real world. See more information in the Project Briefs. 

Expectations and Grading

Grades will be based on group presentations, class participation, documentation and final work. An attendance of min. 80% is required to pass the course.

Individual Work (30%) 

1. Workbook documentation of exercises and minor projects from week 1
2. Presentation of Minor Exercises 

Group Work (70%) 

1. Main Project: Animated rendering, 3D printed objects
2. Presentation of process and outcomes
3. Standard IAD Documentation 
   • Video
   • Image selection 
   • Documentation in pdf format. 

Final Presentation notes:

• Online format 
• 5 minutes for presentation, and 5 minutes for feedback and discussion
• Explanation of the process and the thinking that brought you to this outcome  

Time Plan

All inputs in Zoom

Workshop: 3.E07-A is available for work, as well as the use of 3D printers in the Project Room