Open Design Now Released

Today a new book has been released: "Open Design Now: Why Design Cannot Remain Exclusive". The book, a collaboration from Creative Commons Netherlands, the Premsela Dutch design and fashion institute, and Waag Society, focuses on the new design movement in which (theoretically) everyone can become a designer. Contributors to the tome include Marleen Stikker, Bre Pettis, Joris Laarman, Jos de Mul, John Thackara try to predict what might happen to design as it evolves into the future. Topics covered include "copyright, sustainability, education and social critique." 

 

Edited by Bas van Abel, Lucas Evers, Roel Klaassen, Peter Troxler, Open Design now is published by BIS Publishers under ISBN 978-90-6369-259-9. 

 

(Hat tip to Eva)

Fab-Enabled Fiction: Books That Print

Guest writer Andrew Monti proposes a unique way to use 3D printing in the publishing industry: Fabbed items from books. The idea is to include a QR code somewhere in a book that corresponds to a URL holding a 3D design. The design can then be printed. But how would it work in a book? Andrew writes:

 

In its time, Infocom was a fabulously innovative company. Not only did they develop a core platform for developing interactive fiction (the aptly-named “Z[ork]-machine”), they produced a bevy of incredible adventures, all possessing the highest resolution graphics available – your imagination. As the Infocom designers became more creative, they started developing ‘clue’ books to help their readers through especially frustrating parts of the adventure. Eventually, the designers started including physical objects with their games; buttons, maps, pens, keychains, etc. Some were just for promotion, but some were actually clues vital to completing the game.

 

Fast forward 25 years, add a touch of fabbing, and voila – fabbed clues! Interactive fiction authors now have a way of adding physical clues to their stories or games without actually having to develop and distribute the objects - not a bad way to generate interest in a new game. Maybe fabbing enthusiasts can join a network where readers without printers can find nearby printer (for a small fee).

 

This model can be extended to authors of every genre. Here are some ‘fictional’ examples:

 

• The latest thriller novel can print objects found to enhance the reading experience (and possibly solve riddles)
• Children’s books can print a key object in the story as a keepsake 
• Home repair books can print some of the handy parts and tools
• Artists and designers can publish books that can reproduce parts of their art
• Game books can print game pieces and accessories
• Older books can gain new life by being ‘print-enabled’ by including models for objects in the text

 

Andrew points out that it's possible such objects might be copied and made generally available, but we think this is not as big a challenge as the object's value is ultimately tied to the experience of reading the book. Electronic books could simply include the 3D model as an attachment. 

 

We think this is yet another example of the infinite possibilities that are opened up by 3D printing. What do you think of this idea? Would you like to print and touch items from the story you're reading?

The Homebrew Industrial Revolution

Kevin Carson has published a new book speaking to a vision of industrial revolution based on home-based manufacturing. This is a theme we've written about many times before, but we've not yet seen anyone take the concept into such detail as Carson's nearly 400 page tome. 

 

Carson starts with the history of manufacturing, discussing the various inventions in engineering or economics that drove us to the state we find ourselves in today. Of interest to us were his concept of "overproduction" and how mass production causes a push for sales, resulting in a "crisis of overaccumulation". It's fascinating to learn how many aspects of modern society are directly rooted in our fundamental manufacturing concepts developed over thousands of years. 

 

He moves on to "home manufacturing" and the "new possibilities for flexible manufacturing" by taking us through home computing, which eventually transforms from logical (software) to the physical (manufacturing). 

 

the gap between what can be accomplished at home and what can be accomplished in a work environment has narrowed dramatically over the last ten to fifteen years

 

We can make many types of digital artifacts at home today, and in the future we'll be making many types of physical objects, too. 

 

But can this capability transform from hobby to business? Carson thinks so, and provides descriptions of how that might happen. Finally, he looks very long term and proposes we might be at the edge of a "manufacturing singularity".

 

Via Amazon and The Homebrew Industrial Revolution