The olfactory sensation of molten plastic

20100114_testextrusion

After a couple of hours of final construction and correcting all the reversed cables etc., it moved. And heated up. And extruded the first piece of plastic. The room filled with joy, cheers and the olfactory sensation of success.

Of course, due to our noobishness on the controller, we managed two minutes later to block the small nozzle with plastic… Now we’ll have to take apart the extruder, the most complex and difficult piece of the whole bot, and clean it from the inside.

20100114_manufaktur1_group

Too tired to do this after one o’clock in the morning, we called it a night and powered down the machine. But not before we’ve played the Imperial March on our very own machine at least once.

The tools to define your world

The tools with which we do design today, are our tools. We make the shapes, people buy and use the shapes. Tomorrow, this will be different. The tools to make things and define your world, will be available to everybody.

Chris Bangle (Former Design Director, BMW) in the documentary Objectified

BTW: Construction of Makerbot #216 will resume shortly after the break.

Fragen die mich bewegen: Skihelmtragen

Seit meinem Unfall trage ich konsequent einen Helm beim Velofahren. Beim Gleitschirmfliegen ebenfalls.

Als ich letzthin mit neuen Skis über die Piste donnerte und dem Fahrtwind lauschte, stellte sich mir die Frage: Wie absurd und unvernünftig ist es eigentlich, dass ich noch nie auf die Idee kam, beim Skifahren einen Helm zu tragen?

The only audience that matters

The Hurrican is coming; you have twenty minutes, get your stuff and go.

You’re not going to be saying: Well, that got an amazing writeup in this design blog. You’re going to pick the most meaningful objects to you. Because those are the true objects that truly reflect the true story of who you are, and what you’re personal narrative is, and the story that you’re telling to yourself and no one else. Because that’s the only audience that matters.

Rob Walker (Autor, New York Times Magazine) in Objectified