cis.doc4_engl open design reader

Creative Industries Convention 2011

CIS.doc # 04

Open Design English CONTRIBUTORS

–

Armin Medosch Cory Doctorow Manfred Faßler Lev Manovich Paul Atkinson Gerin Trautenberger Hannes Walter

–

Yochai Benkler Georg Russegger Ronen Kadushin White Elephant Garmz Patick Dax Evan Jones

–

Markus Beckedahl Andrea Goetzke Bre Pettis Mark Frauenfelder Ponoko Wienett Peter Troxler

9

7 8 3 9 0 2

7 4 8 0 3 4

Kiss#2: Collage of 340 pictures under CC-by license (page 21) Artist: Evan Jones

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Contents

Contents/ Theory page 16

Lev Manovic Who Is the Author? page 18, 20 page 04

Introduction Christian Buchmann

Paul Atkinson Ghosts of the Profession page 22

page 06 – 07

Gerin Trautenberger Creative Commons Basics

Open Design page 10

Armin Medosch Open Design as a New „Design Culture“

page 24

Hannes Walter Designer and a Little More page 26

page 12

Cory Doctorow Love the Machine, Hate the Factory

Yochai Benkler Today Innovation is Coming from All Directions page 28, 30, 32, 34, 36

page 14

Manfred Faßler Where Is Open?

Georg Russegger Aleatory Design Models

– Imprint:

– Concept of publication:

Publisher: Creative Industries Styria GmbH CEO: Eberhard Schrempf Marienplatz 1, 8020 Graz, Austria T: +43 316 890 598, E office@cis.at www.cis.at Graz, February 2011

Gerin Trautenberger & Patrick Dax, Microgiants GmbH Andreas Hirsch, andreas-hirsch.net Project Management: Barbara Tscherne Translations: Otmar Lichtenwörther Proofreading: Otmar Lichtenwörther Graphic Design: moodley brand identity Print: Medienfabrik Graz

ISBN No.: 978-3-902748-03-4 Distribution: Verlag Neue Arbeit, 1070 Wien

– This publication is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Austria License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/at/

Seite 5

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Contents

Contents / Practice page 04

Introduction Eberhard Schrempf page 11

Ronan Kadushin Products in a Networked Culture page 13

Open Design Now Why Design cannot Remain Exclusive page 15

White Elephant Balloon Light page 17

Garmz Crowdsourcing page 19

Fluid Forms Intelligent Design by Means of Creative Coding and Open Source Software page 21

Evan Jones How the Images Are Created

IHRE IDEEN WERDEN GRÜN.

page 23, 25, 27

Markus Beckedahl / Andrea Goetzke Creative Commons in Open Design page 29

Bre Pettis The Future of Working At Home page 31

Mark Frauenfelder Do It Yourself Innovation page 33

Ponoko The Factory of the Future page 35

Wienett Handwerk 3.0 page 37

Peter Troxler The Proliferation of Fab Labs

Ökologisch nachhaltiger Druck bei der Medienfabrik Graz: • Verwendung von FSC und PEFC zertifizierten Papieren • Klimaneutrale Produktion durch CO2-Kompensation Unserer Umwelt zuliebe!

Medienfabrik Graz Dreihackengasse 20, 8020 Graz Telefon: +43 (0) 316 8095-0 www.mfg.at

Seite 6

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Introduction

Christian Buchmann HEAD OF DEPARTMENT FOR ECONOMY, EUROPE AND CULTURE, PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT OF STYRIA

More economic growth through innovation takes center stage in our new economic strategy “Steiermark Open design is indeed one of the most radical develop-

2020”. Only by means of innovation we can generate va-

ments in the field of the creative economy. This radical

lue creation, growth and jobs in Styria. In the frame of

innovation is an important source of inspiration for

the new economic strategy “Steiermark 2020” the crea-

both economy and society and it facilitates the further

tive economy – as a main crossroads – will be of special

development of traditional businesses and economic

importance. What we aim for is to create new jobs by

sectors. Thus not only modern and communicative ent-

implementing creative ideas.

repreneurs benefit from this innovation but, in the long run, traditional business too profits from the changed economic environment.

Thus this open design initiative by the Creative Industries Styria is a useful supplement to the strategic guidelines of the Provincial Government of Styria. Open de-

The creative industry is regarded as a forerunner

sign is a new motivating force for all those who are in-

when it comes to using technological innovation and it

terested in a future-oriented Styrian economy and thus

is a pathfinder for fundamental social changes. These

enabling a closer interlocking of innovation design

changes encompass all areas of life and are by no means

and economy.

restricted to the creative sector. The paradigm shift that has been accelerated by digitization and digital commu-

Open design promises a lot and it is necessary to have

nication is no longer a science-fiction story but is already

a close look at these promises. What we aim for is exa-

happening. Today we are still witnessing the beginnings

mining open design with its possible future potential in

of these fundamental changes and can thus determine

mind and sounding it out with regard to potential fields

the direction these developments should take. Just like

of application for designers, but also for entrepreneurs

in the times of the invention of the printing press even

and consumers. Hence keeping track of these new devel-

the most brave forward thinkers cannot foresee the

opments and giving possible stimuli for new innovation

further development of the phone, the Internet and

is of great interest for the Provincial Government of

social networks.

Styria.

Seite 7

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Introduction

Eberhard Schrempf CEO OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES STYRIA GMBH

Nothing has changed the role of the designer as radi-

location of Styria, and beyond Styria’s borders. In ad-

cally as the digitization of the technological and com-

dition, local producers can benefit from open design by

municative interfaces. Not even twenty years ago the de-

means of a wider product range that can be produced at

signer was only responsible for shaping a product or for

a local level.

the graphic design/illustration of an entire magazine.

The rest of the process – from the initial idea to distri-

Since they were founded in 2007 the Creative Indus-

bution – was reserved to other specialists. But today the

tries Styria have been dealing with all new forms of

new role of the designer is not only restricted to one sin-

design and the collaboration of designers. Not only col-

gle step but ranges from the strategic product decision

laboration between creative people has been of interest

and the design process right up to product or customer

to us but also the collaboration between the Creative

communication.

Industries Styria and traditional business. In this respect the Creative Industries Styria acts as a source of

Open design and open source are comparatively young concepts of creation and production. The key

inspiration making topics of future relevance available for the public at large.

question is as follows: What can product, communication and service design as well as fashion and architec-

The Creative Industries Styria will deal thoroughly

ture learn from the open source movement? Creative

with subjects such as Creative Commons, open source

Commons, Linux or the collaborative tools of Web 2.0

and open culture as well as the changed role of the de-

show how collaborative working and living can work. In

signer in a digitized value-adding process. The Con-

the process innovative forms of work and production are

vention 2010 on the subject of „Designing the Creative

created which are based on exchange at eye level. The

Societies of the Future“ with the controversial theorist,

traditional boundaries between product, customer and

writer and blogger Cory Doctorow as keynote speaker

production are disappearing. The Internet doesn’t only

opened up thematic fields we can use as a starting point

facilitate the distribution of digital works but also of

in 2011, for both our Convention and this CIS.doc on the

construction plans and patterns for material products.

subject of open design. On the occasion of the Convention 2011 we examine if open design is more than just a

Hence open design is a current development within the creative economy that is to encourage open collaboration among creative minds and the exchange of ideas.

Moreover, open design holds the potential for the Styrian creative economy to open up new perspectives and market opportunities both right here, at the business

theory – i.e. a novel working method or even an innovative business model.

Open Design Creative Commons, Linux or the collaborative tools of Web 2.0 show how collaborative working and living can work. Standardized interfaces, the simple exchange of files and communication at eye level between all participants facilitate new forms of working and production for creative people.

Today the World Wide Web doesn’t only facilitate the

distribution of digital works but also of construction plans, patterns and plans for material products. In the this CIS.doc and on the occasion of the Convention 2011 Creative Industries Styria examines if open design is more than just a theory – i.e. a novel working method or even a new business model.

Seite 09

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Open Design Put to Good Use

Introduction

which is expressed by one‘s choice of the tools and materials. Last but not least, we could win over Cory Doctorow to allow us to publish his essay “Love the Machine, Hate the Factory” in German language.

“

In 2010 and, first and foremost, in the Creative Convention in February, CIS emphasized the theme of “Designing the Creative Societies of the Future“. This vol-ume of the CIS.doc series might be seen as a continuation of our topical focus on open source and Creative Commons (CC). Along with up-to-date open design theory it also presents concrete examples and projects which make use of open source and describe collabora-

WHAT CAN PRODUCT, COMMUNICATION AND SERVICE DESIGN AS WELL AS FASHION AND ARCHITECTURE LEARN FROM THE OPEN SOURCE MOVEMENT?

”

tive work among creative people.

With regard to its content this publication can be di-

Gerin Trautenberger

vided into two separate fundamental strands. On the one hand it presents examples, applications, tools and models and, on the other, it introduces theoretical approaches and information on open design. The new de-

The third block, with contributions by Frauenfelder,

sign of the CIS.doc publication also aims at fulfilling the

Kadushin, White Elephant and presentations of wienett,

requirements of additional presentation formats such as

garmz (fashion), crowdsourcing as a business model, Po-

iPad and Internet. Beside a theoretical part this reader

noko and Bre Pettis from Makerbot, and Evan’s graphic

also provides an overview of the present debate on the

work, deals with projects and the tools and methods

subject of open design. In addition to this it also contains

employed in open design, and introduces select Good

a practical part, a cross-section of all current trends and

Practice examples. These examples illustrate the band-

projects using the open design method in their day-to-

width of the topic with contributions ranging from con-

day work.

crete application examples to business cases and discussions of various other aspects of open design. The fourth

Moreover, our open design publication consists of four

Part shows two examples where open design is used by

thematic blocks. The first block of articles (Manovich,

designers. The Hackchair by Ronen Kadushin and the

Faßler, Walter, Russegger, Benkler) aims at ex-plaining

Balloon-lamp by White-Elephant are published under

altered processes with regard to authorship and the

creative commence license (cc-by-sa) and can be used

paradigm shifts related to this. Collaboration on the

free by everyone.

Internet requires new skills from all participants and entails clear consequences with respect to authorship,

This publication is meant to be the description of and

rights of use and sharing of works. Open source soft-

a starting point for a new development which is still in

ware and Creative Commons are attempts to simplify

its infancy today. The examples, theories and projects

communication among creative people and to respond

described herein still have to be negotiated and do not

to present-day requirements by means of technological

claim to be exhaustive or finalized. For these reasons we

and socio-cultural changes. These multifaceted aspects

placed a great deal of value on inclusiveness when we se-

are examined in the second block of articles. The con-

lected authors, examples and projects and thus avoided

tributions written by Medosch, Troxler, Trautenberger,

exclusion.

Fluid Forms, Beckedahl/Götzke describe ideas and the use of open design at work as well as the newly cre-ated aesthetical forms of expression for designers. Open design and open source are not only tools and methods but have brought forth a clear and recognizable aesthetics,

Gerin Trautenberger MICROGIANTS

Seite 10

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Armin Medosch

BIOGRAPHY Armin Medosch is a freelance writer, media artist and theorist who has already participated in many Internet projects. Since 2007 he has worked on thenextlayer, a collaborative research platform on the subjects of art, politics, open mind and open source software.

RELATED LINKS thenextlayer.org/blog/2

Armin Medosch and 1968, such basic approaches to a new design culture were developed at

“

the Ulm School of Design. Initially,

W H AT IS OPEN DE SIGN ?

the Ulm School adhered to the Bauhaus principle of the “Gute Form” (i.e. good form or good design), which expresses an object’s function. Yet from 1957 a new team under the direction of Tomás Maldonado from Argentina

DESIGN IS AN OPEN-ENDED PROCESS

”

pursued a more modern and more raThis term has no fixed meaning yet.

dical program. As Maldonado’s colle-

Open design is a concept, a proposal.

ague Gui Bonsiepe analyzed in a book

On the analogy of open source soft-

which was published a few years ago,

ware this could mean: Give us insight

artistic creativity was not supposed

into building plans and construc-

to simply accept the existing world of

tion principles so that a new colla-

products uncritically but to keep an

borative design culture can emerge.

eye on the bigger picture. What was

Moreover, open source also means re-

called for was “social imagination”. In-

moving the barrier between consu-

dustrially produced objects are a prod-

course, it would mean to overtax them

mers and producers. What motivates

uct of social relationships and create

to make the designers alone respon-

open source programmers is the fact

themselves social relationships again.

sible for all these considerations. Mal-

that they use the jointly created pro-

Instead of modifying the outward ap-

donado and Bonsiepe saw them as team

grams themselves too. Thus the pro-

pearance of a given product design can

workers who moderate the processes.

duct “software” turns into a process

contain a social outline. Defined like

Their dictum was not to put up with

shared by many – the programmers but

this, open design questions the context

what was given but to “create unrest”.

also the testers, the authors of bug re-

a product is embedded in. Which raw

In this sense open design is a commit-

ports and manuals, in short, the enti-

materials are required? Which work-

ment to change the world. Back then

re lively community. In line with this

ing procedures with which machines,

the Ulm School of Design failed due to

open design might mean to free oneself

which hierarchies and chains of com-

the narrow-mindedness of the funding

from the notion of the product as an

mand? How are the people involved in

authorities. Today both the technologi-

already finalized thing and to see de-

the process? And how do we eventually

cal and the social framework are much

sign as an open-ended process. Alrea-

get rid of the produced things without

more favorable for the realization of

dy 40 to 50 years ago, between 1955

any negative environmental impact? Of

such a program.

Armin Medosch

Seite 11

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Ronen Kadushin PRODUC T S I N A N ET WOR K ED C U LT U R E.

Photo: Ronen Kasushin, Vague chair

BIOGRAPHY Ronen Kadushin is an Israeli designer and design educator living in Berlin since 2005. He developed the open design method, where the designs of his products can be downloaded, copied, modified and produced, much as in open source software.

In today’s market-driven culture, industrial designers commit themselves to producers in order to realize their creativity. Producers, with the power to control all aspects of a product, are the gatekeepers of design creativity, deciding what and how products are available to consumers. This situation begins in Industrial design education systems that train designers to integrate into an industrial production scenario and accept that producers have the right

Enter the open source method, one that revolutionized the soft-

to regulate design and indoctrinate their set of values and ends.

ware industry, created a viable economy, and gave birth to a flour-

Fresh approaches and radical views are marginalized as they do

ishing social movement that is community-minded, highly creative

not conform with the dogmas of the Church of Industrial Design.

and inclusive.

But other creative fields that found their products in phase with

A revolution in product development, production and distribu-

the realities of the Internet and information technology (fields such

tion is imminent due to the Internet’s disruptive nature and the easy

as music, communication design, animation photography, text, etc.)

access to CNC machines. Open design is a proposal to make this

are experiencing an unprecedented flood of freely available crea-

happen. It’s aim is to shift Industrial Design to become relevant in

tive content. Industries that once dominated these fields and have

a globally networked information society.

not adapted to this reality are quickly becoming redundant.

Designing and producing with this method have an effect not only on the characteristics of the object itself, but also on its modification possibilities and transformation potentials into other products. It suggests a new model for an unbiased marketplace for all to take part. And it empowers the designer to freely pursue creative expressions, realize them as industrially repeatable products and have the ability to globally distribute design.The presentation will be accompanied by a product making demonstration.

RELATED LINKS ronen-kadushin.com

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Creative Industries Convention 2011

Cory Doctorow

BIOGRAPHY Cory Doctorow is a Canadian blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons.

Photo: Joi Ito, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

RELATED LINKS craphound.com de.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Steampunk steampunkmagazine.com

Cory Doctorow LOVE THE MACHINE, HATE THE FACTORY

We’ve heard a lot about how scary the in-

cally every industry saw massive increases

day could take it easy without holding up

dustrialrevolution was — the dislocations it

in productivity thanks to their work.

a production line. On good days, the work

wrought on the agrarian population of the

could fly past without creating traffic jams

early 19th century were wrenching and ter-

But all this gain was not without cost. The

farther down the line. For every gain in ef-

rible, and the revolution was a bloody one.

“unscientific” worker personally worked on

ficiency, scientific management exacted a

From that time, we have the word Luddite,

several tricky stages of manufacture, often

cost in self-determination, personal digni-

referring to uprisings against the machines

seeing a project through from raw materials

ty, and a worker’s connection with what he

that were undoing ancient ways of living

to finished product.

or she produced. For me, the biggest appeal

and working.

But the troubles of the 1810s were only the beginning. By the end of the century, the workplace was changing again. Workers who’d once again found their lives being dramatically remade by the forces of capital, through a process called “scientific management.” Scientific management (which was also called Taylorism, for its most prominent advocate, Frederick Winslow Taylor) was built around the idea of reducing a manufacturing process to a series of optimized simple steps, creating an assembly line where

of steampunk is that it exalts the machine

“

and disparages the mechanization of human creativity (the motto of the excellent

FINALLY, WE’LL BE ABLE TO WORK LIKE ARTISANS AND PRODUCE LIKE AN ASSEMBLY LINE.

and free SteamPunk Magazine is “Love the

”

ency ahead of self-determination. If you’re

Cory Doctorow

Machine, Hate the Factory”). It celebrates the elaborate inventions of the scientifically managed enterprise, but imagines those machines coming from individuals who are their own masters. Steampunk doesn’t rail against efficiency — but it never puts efficigoing to raise your workbench to spare your back, that’s your decision, not something imposed on you from the top down.

workers were just part of the machine.

He or she could choose how to sit, which tool

Here in the 21st century, this kind of ma-

Taylor, Henry Ford, and Frank and Lillian

to use when, and in what order to complete

nufacture finally seems in reach: a world of

Gilbreth used time-motion studies, writ-

the steps. If it was a sunny day with a fine

desktop fabbers, low-cost workshops, and

ten logbooks, highspeed photography, and

autumn breeze, the worker could choose to

communities of helpful, like-minded ma-

other empirical techniques to find wasted

plane the joints and keep the smell of the

kers puts utopia in our grasp. “Finally, we’ll

motions, wasted time, and potential log-

leaves in the air, sav-ing the lacquer for the

be able to work like artisans and produce

jams in manufacturing processes. Practi-

next day. Workers who were having a bad

like an assembly line”.

Seite 13

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Open Design Now

Open Design Now

Open Design Now – Why Design Cannot Remain Exclusive.

A book by Creative Commons Netherlands, Premsela und Waag Society. With articles amongst others from Paul Atkinson, Michel Avital, Caroline Hummels, Ronen Kadushin, Andrew Katz, Joris Laarman, Bert Mulder, Jost Smiers, Pieter Marleen Stikker, John Thakara, Peter Troxler; BIS publishers, Amsterdam.

Pictures from Peter Troxler

WHY DESIGN CANNOT REMAIN EXCLUSIVE

The book Open Design Now – Why Design Cannot Remain Exclusive documents the current state of open design from a variety of perspectives—art history, information and design research, business

RELATED LINKS

and legal, arts and design, education, and political science.

opendesignnow.org petertroxler.net

Open design as the collaborative creation of artifacts by a dispersed group of otherwise unrelated individuals has been growing since the nineteen sixties and since then the Cult of the Connoisseur

Open design could also become relevant to other domains. Govern-

or specialist has had to give way to the Cult of the Amateur - those

ment projects striving for participation and citizen empowerment

who know themselves what is best for them. Open design builds on

could benefit from an open design approach. The world´s bigger prob-

generative principles that include major features such as open access,

lems such as depletion and wasting of natural resources, population

reconfigurability and reproducibility, and cover all four aspects of

growth, consumerism and wide-spread poverty may find novel so-

design: object, process, practice and infrastructure. Parts of this in-

lutions through open design. Eventually, making itself, being at the

frastructure are copyright tools, ensuring the four freedoms of open

core of open design, could become a way of material and conceptual

source (use, study, redistribution of copies and of modifications), ma-

exploration and creation of novel understandings and critical solu-

nufacturing tools like the self replicating MakerBots, and fabrication

tions.

laboratories as places for making and sharing that become the libraries of open design.

The consequences of this development are enormous, not only for the design profession. End-users of designed products will have to

Designers are starting to adopt open design practices for them-

decide to which extent they want to get involved in the design proc-

selves. The position of design literacy is changing when confronted

ess, or if they simply want to follow the decisions a designer has made

with digital tools and media. Yet collaborative work combined with

for them. Designers and even more so their clients will have to decide

individual autonomy, as in open source software development, has

how closed they can keep a design project or if they can retain desi-

not been common practice in design. Current educational models

gning for themselves at all. Open design is happening here and now,

need to be reformulated to reflect the flexibility, openness, and con-

and design cannot remain exclusive between the arts, science and

tinuous development of open design.

the media.

Seite 14

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Manfred Faßler

BIOGRAPHY Manfred Faßler is Professor at the Institute for Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. In his research and teaching he mainly deals with the evolution of the media and media-integrated knowledge cultures.

market for a slowly emerging global creative middle class, an open market for patent-free ideas? It seems that this much-trumpeted openness with re-

Manfred Faßler

gard to the use of algorithms, product ideas or blueprints has become some kind of design testing market, beta design; or, as a individualistic gesture: first hand openness. A testing market would be convenient and cost-efficient for many, as the actual costs for information products and product information cannot be calculated anyway.

Yet one question remains: When does openness close again, when are the

dation of the late nineteen eighties and

FOSS projects (free [without market

early nineteen nineties backed the im-

prices] and open [changeable in use]

minent open country of networks and

source) software projects used in

at least thought about pioneering, the

economic and professional life? Open

RELATED LINKS

highly straining act of founding new

must be consumable outside the mar-

uni-frankfurt.de/fb/fb09/kulturanthro/ staff/fassler_home.html

worlds. It’s still worth reading J.P.

ket, it must be creative barter busi-

Barlow’s “Declaration of Independence

ness. Yet how is creativity, and thus

in Cyberspace” in order to understand

design, conceived in this respect? Is

visions of open networks at that time.

the message “Eat as much as you want

Where something was going to happen,

from the web cake of OPEN, put your

was evident: right ahead, who knows.

copyrights in the dungeon of economic

And today? That’s why I’m asking once

rules of life and enjoy the Schlauraf-

again: Where is OPEN? What is invent-

fenland of OPEN”? Or does “open”

Not at all, I hope. After a couple of years

ed, designed and maintained? Do we

imply more than the uncontrolled

in Internet, media and communication

aim for an aesthetics of change-sensi-

consumption of other people’s chair,

research one may ask the following:

tive openness beside self-organization,

cupboard or software visualization

Where actually, and what actually, is

a kind of concept or project aesthetics?

ideas, hence coherent and interrela-

WHERE IS OPEN?

1. WHERE IS OPEN?

IS THIS A STUPID QUESTION?

this new country called “Open”? Is it a legend, a paradise, a post-revolutionary utopia, a Serious Game, an office, a

ted creativity? If this is the case – and

2.

some websites seem to integrate this To begin with: There has never

idea –, we need concepts dealing with

fanfold of networked individualism?

been so much openness! Yet this is no

the material, concrete, practical and

Renaissance opened up a small door

answer to our questions. Not even if

theoretical closure of this openness,

towards well-proportioned aesthetics.

we refer to participation, interactivity,

with the transition from an idea into

Who walked through it, entered the civ-

tit for tat or collaborative work. First

a product, no matter if it is a commu-

il society. Industrial design of the late

and foremost it is about self-com-

nity, content or a chair. Project Poïesis

nineteenth and early twentieth century

mitment. Free access to everything

must enable project aesthetics.

opened the gates of functionality and

digital and available in the matrix of

everybody was taken in by its alleged

online/offline is to be arranged and

forms. The Electronic Frontier Foun-

maintained. So is this rather a free

to be continued on page 32

Seite 15

Creative Industries Convention 2011

White Elephant

White Elephant RELATED LINKS white-elephant.at

BALLOON LIGHT The lamp is suspended in midair; its base turns from a static element into merely a counterweight that prevents the lamp from flying away.

If you unplug it, it rises to the ceiling and waits there for someone to use it with its dangling cable. All elements used are easily available in DIY stores or on the Internet. The construction manual is published under a CC:BY-NC-ND license: CONSTRUCTION MANUAL: 1) Open the lampholder and remove the existing cable 2) Cut off 2 meters from the electric cable, remove insulation and clamp it into the lampholder 3) Cut off the felt pen 2 cm under the tip using a saw and remove the core. Cut off its cap 1 cm away from the lower end using a Stanley knife.

4) Stick the piece cut off from the cap through the lower part of the lampholder from inside and also insert the tube of the pen as far as possible until it is clamped force-fit and flush.

7) Place the unit consisting of cable, lampholder and tube centrically arranged in the plug-in sleeve and fix it with duct tape on a durable surface.

8) Generously foam the plug-in sleeve with PU foam holding the tubing with one hand in order to adjust its position if necessary.

9) A the foam hardens cut off a 2cm piece from the tube coupling and seal it with hot glue.

Then drill a small hole on the lower end and hang up the key ring.

10) Let the foam harden overnight and cut off the excess hard material with a Stanley knife on the next day without damaging the cable or the tubing.

5) Pull the cable through the tube and clip the lampholder. Attach the flat plug to its 11) Cautiously pull the balloon over the fini loose end and quickly test it with the shed lamp, inflate it with helium and plug it candle lamp. in – done.

6) Cut off 10cm of aquarium tubing and plug it into the plug-in sleeve together with the unit consisting of cable, lampholder and tube.

illuminant 40W

lampholder E14

BIOGRAPHY White Elephant was founded

by Tobias Kestel in Graz in 2005 and was joined later by Florian Puschmann. The White Elephant DesignLab specializes in the field of Product Design and Experimental Design. Experimentation and Exploration of materials and their excitability by external influences is an important resource of inspiration.

tube Ø 9mm, slightly tapered (e. g. from felt pen)

PU foam

pipe end, plastic or bamboo Ø 40mm aquarium tubing Ø 6mm inside two-core 230V cable plug, Ø approx. 7mm key ring

All pictures from White Elephant under cc-by-sa

Seite 16

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Lev Manovich

BIOGRAPHY RELATED LINKS manovich.net

Lev Manovich

Lev Manovich is a Russian American media theorist, critic and artist. He currently teaches as a professor for visual arts, art and theory of the new media at the University of California, San Diego and at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. His book The Language of new media has been translated into several languages and is commonly regarded as the first comprehensive description and theory of contemporary new media.

WHO IS THE AUTHOR? “The new media culture involves a number of new models of authorship, which all entail different forms of collaboration”, writes the media theorist Lev Manovich in his text “Who is the Author? Sampling/Remixing/Open Source”.

But according to Manovich collective authorship is not a specific characteristic of the new media – histoPhoto: www.manovich.net

ry teaches us that it has always been the rule rather than the exception. The romantic model of the “lone individual author” only takes up little space in the history of human culture.

Yet the new media offer new variations of earlier forms of collaborative authorship. In the wider context of a contemporary cultural economy, says Manovich, it is in the new media – which can be regarded as the avant-garde of the cultural industry – where new models of authorship, new relationships between producers and consumers and new distribution models are tested.

“

REMIXABILITY IS BECOMING THE KEY FEATURE OF A DIGITALLY NETWORKED MEDIA UNIVERSE.

perspectives. The new cultural modularity – where cultural objects are designed from discrete samples results in the future possibility of combining cultural objects with one another like Lego bricks regardless of their materiality and medium.

Among other things, Manovich refers to the remix as

”

While the traditional definition of cul-

an example for this. Combining, appropriating and

Lev Manovich

tural modularity – as it was used by designers, architects and artists – was

rearranging content is something constant and an integrative element of all human culture. Most human

weblog entry – all this follows the same

restricted to a limited vocabulary, the

cultures, as Manovich writes elsewhere (remixabili-

principles, says Manovich: “Both put to

new modularity does not draw upon a

ty essay), developed from integrating and modifying

practice remixability.”

previously defined vocabulary anymore but any cultural object can become a

forms and styles derived from other cultures.

In his highly acclaimed book The Lan-

component of another cultural object

Digital technologies and the rapid growth of infor-

guage of New Media Manovich re-

– hence we will be able to subscribe to

mation on the Internet enable new possibilities of col-

cognized modularity as an essential

modules – in much the same way as we

laborative remixes: No matter if designers integrate

basic principle of the new media. It is

subscribe to RSS feeds today. Remixa-

historical or cultural forms into their work and mod-

the combination of modularity and re-

bility is becoming the key feature of a

ify them or if texts are linked with one another in a

mixability that brings forth exciting

digitally networked media universe.

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Creative Industries Convention 2011

RELATED LINKS garmz.com useabrand.com

Garmz Photos: www.garmz.com

CROWDSOURCING

„Today innovation is coming from all directions“, says law scholar Yochai Benkler elsewhere in this publication. The two fashion startups garmz and useabrand impressively illustrate this thesis. They use new technologies to open up and democratize the selection, production and distribution mechanisms of the fashion industry.

It seems that the online platform, which was launched in summer The principle behind this is called crowdsourcing and is used in

2010, touched a nerve with its concept. The uploaded sketches have

many other economic sectors too. Here the creativity and the skills

already been rated more than 30,000 times. By the end of the year

of Internet users are integrated into processes that have formerly

garmz had already 6,500 users from more than 200 countries. First

been reserved to specialists.

products are available in the online shop, which has been available since early December 2010. Along with production and distribution

„Fashion shall be no dictatorship“, says useabrand head designer

the company also helps its designers organize their online market-

Anna Rihl. She calls her Vienna-based startup “Mo-demokratie“

ing activities in social networks.

(mo-democracy). Users can upload their sketches to the online platform and they are also involved in the decision making process as to

By means of crowdsourcing concepts garmz might also be able to

what is going to be produced and what not.

estimate the demand for different fashion items and thus minimize market risk. “By including the users in the process we can also

While at useabrand the ideas and sketches of the community flow

create stronger ties to both the platform and the brand”, says Klin-

into the label’s collections the startup garmz, which was also foun-

ger. “garmz helps customers realize their requirements and thus

ded in Vienna, wants to help young designers to take their first

even niche products get their market”. Or, as prominently placed on

steps in the industry.

the company’s website: “Good night, fashion industry. Good morning, designers.”

The designers present their sketches on the online platform and the users can rate them and comment on them. Then garmz produces first prototypes of selected fashion design. If sufficient demand is apparent, the items go into serial production and are distributed worldwide via the company’s own online shop. Garmz fully assumes the financial risk and the shares the revenues with the designers.

“Concepts such as open innovation or user innovation enable us to involve several parties directly into the creation of an item and thus to see already at an early stage the strengths and weaknesses of a product”, garmz co-founder Andreas Klinger explains. “The designers get feedback already at the design level and can thus bring the product to the market together with the future customers without taking any risk.”

“ FASHION SHALL BE NO DICTATORSHIP ”

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Creative Industries Convention 2011

Paul Atkinson

BIOGRAPHY Paul Atkinson is an industrial designer, design historian and design educator. He is currently a Reader in Design at Sheffield Hallam University.

He has spoken at a number of international conferences around the world and has had articles published in a number of international design journals.

Rapid Prototyped Automake bowl by Justin Marshall

Paul Atkinson

GHOSTS OF THE PROFESSION:

RELATED LINKS paulatkinsondesign.co.uk

Open Design and Post Industrial Manufacturing For most of our history, the design and production of goods have been carried out by individuals, without the requirement for any kind of professional frame-

determined design and the establishment of complex,

work or system. In fact, only since the onset of the

global infrastructures to distribute and sell enor-

Industrial Revolution has the design of a product be-

mous numbers of identical products – a development

come so divorced from its manufacture and a heavi-

that significantly changed the world in which we live.

ly regulated process of production, distribution and consumption been put in place. As manufacturing

Ironically, it is the latest manufacturing and commu-

technology progressed, and world-wide communi-

nication technologies that are moving the processes

cation developed, the 20th Century saw huge refine-

of design and production away from large centralized

ments in the mass-production of goods to a fixed, pre-

systems and placing them in the hands of the individual consumer. The latest developments in desktop digital manufacture, especially 3D printing, coupled with the open distribution network of the Internet,

“ THE WORLD IS CHANGING ONCE MORE. ”

mean that there is no longer a need for a design to be made in the thousands to justify the cost of its production, or for that design to be the result of professional design activity.

Paul Atkinson

to be continued on page 20

Seite 19

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Fluid Forms

BIOGRAPHY Fluid Forms is the result of its founder’s, Hannes Walter’s, diploma thesis on the subject of creative coding and design interfaces. Together with Stephen Williams, who specialized in algorithmic/generative product design and geometrical modeling, he founded Fluid Forms in Graz, Austria, in 2005.

Foto: http://www. flickr.com/photos/jrosenk/5328024329/sizes/o/ in/photostream/

RELATED LINKS fluid-forms.com n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com Williams and Hannes Walter in front of the “Streets Clock” Photo:Stephen Fluid Forms

Fluid Forms

INTELLIGENT DESIGN BY MEANS OF CREATIVE CODING AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

Design: Fluid Forms, Foto: Karin Lernbeiß

is created. First prototypes of chairs which is strongly inspired by nature. In

whose structure has been automatic-

Our aesthetic feeling experiences natu-

addition to this, the layer structure of

ally created by program code on the

ral forms created by evolution as har-

3D printing is actively used as a design

basis of its future user’s weight and the

monious and enjoyable. The logic be-

element. The source code for this will

desired weight distribution, and which

hind this can be simulated by program

also be publicly available sooner or la-

have subsequently been 3D printed, al-

code, which in its turn can be used for

ter, enabling other designers to pick up

ready exist.

product design. In this way a favorable

the basic logic and use it for their own

impression is automatically created.

work.

n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com makes use of this

Over time such software functions will take on more and more complex

principle as a starting point for all its

More and more frequently, program

tasks. Thus some kind of intelligent

products, which manifests itself imme-

code is becoming the logical material

aesthetics will take shape which gives

diately in a very natural aesthetics. At

for the definition of three-dimensional

form to the desired function at the

the same time the source code for the

shapes. If the code serves its purpose

touch of a button. In this respect the

products is made publicly available.

well and is made available to other

designer’s job will be increasingly to

creative coders, there is a good chance

work out the right definitions of task

Fluid Forms, in turn, uses geodata as a

that the latter combine it with addition-

and the appropriate framework condi-

starting point for very individual jewel-

al functions. So a virtual toolbox, so

tions.

ry. This too contributes to an aesthetics

to speak, for various design purposes

Seite 20

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Paul Atkinson

continued from page 18

Paul Atkinson - What happens when there are no ‘standard’, identical products to purchase?

- What happens when the professional designer has little control over the appearance of products?

- Should professionally mass-produced and nonprofessional, individually designed products be valued differently?

- Does the fact that the consumer is involved in the

Future Factories Lampadina Mutanta luminaire by Lionel Dean

creation of a product detract from or add to its value?

I started to explore these questions through running

The boundaries between professional and amateur

two Post Industrial Manufacturing research proj-

design (or to put it another way, between designer

ects, Automake and FutureFactories. Both of these

and user) are quickly being eroded. The bar has been

systems utilize computer generated random elements

raised from “co-design” and “user-centred design”

and consumer decision-making processes within flex-

processes as now, the designer and user are essenti-

ible schemes defined by a designer and a craftsman/

ally one and the same thing. We are entering a post-

maker. The results have changed the perceptions of

professional era of open design. We are far closer

consumers towards the products that they create and

than might be thought to a position where high-qua-

the processes of design, as well as their perceptions of

lity products, indistinguishable from those produced

their own capabilities. The systems not only liberate

professionally, can be downloaded, adapted and man-

the designer from the sterile perfection of the manu-

ufactured by anybody, anywhere, in any material.

factured form, but also free the consumer from the

This not only changes the way we think about design

dictatorship of owning identical products. Clearly,

practice and the consumption of design, but the way

Post Industrial Manufacturing systems will change

we need to teach design to future designers.

the meaning of design.

In order to maintain a significant role in the design and production of goods, professional designers will have to lose their egos and change their role from the design of finished products to the creation of systems that will give people the freedom to create high quality designs of their own; systems which free the user from requiring specialist skills in design, yet which produce results retaining the designer’s original intention. The better a particular designer’s system works, the more successful that designer will be. Designers unwilling to change risk becoming ghosts of the profession.

Photo: Automake user with printed bowl

by Justin Marshall

Seite 21

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Evan Jones

BIOGRAPHY Evan Jones works in Brisbane, Australia; he completed an honours degree in Mathematics at the University of Queensland. He travelled to Cambridge University on scholarship and completed a PhD in Mathematics and studied Architecture at Kings College. Evan Jones is a talented software engineer and recently he has focused on producing collages from large sets of digital images provided by flickr.

Collage of 200 pictures under CC-by flickr www.flickr.com/photos/28594411@N06/

Evan Jones

RELATED LINKS evanjones.com.au

INTELLIGENT FORMAL LANGUAGE The first part of the process is to obtain

er rotations and maybe even adjust-

ten make ten or twenty images using

or create a suitable target image. This

ments to the color channels.

various different approaches before I

is the image that I attempt to recreate

choices affect how closely or loosely

in the large scale of the collage. It usu-

the underlying image is reproduced,

ally takes quite a bit of time and invol-

and on the other hand, how easy it is to

Typically I will use between two hun-

ves trawling image galleries for some-

view the component image. These sorts

dred and six hundred component ima-

thing suitable. A lot of images simply

of choices allow me to accentuate some

ges to create a collage. These will come

will not work or not be interesting

areas and make artistic decisions about

from a library of over fifty thousand

when reproduced as a collage. I also

the final image.

images from more than four thousand

These

often look for specific characteristics with which I can test new ideas.

am happy with the final result.

photographers. I developed my library This process can take anywhere be-

from Flickr images which have been

tween a couple of days and a few

offered under the CC Attribution licen-

After I am happy with the target

months to complete, a lot of this is just

se. So when I post my collages I also

image, I start matching the component

the computer processing time. For my

put appropriate acknowledgements to

images to the target. I do this using

collages I will run anywhere between

all the artists whose work I have used.

software tools I have been writing for

a dozen and a hundred matching rou-

the last couple of years. Essentially the

tines.

From a purely logistical level, being

software runs through a large library

able to use the CC licensed images

of potential components and chooses

When I am happy with the matching

has made the whole project feasible. I

the one that is closest to the underlying

between components and the target I

would have almost certainly not got

image.

will then generate the final image. This

nearly as far as I have if I had to rely

original

on my own and friends, images. It is

In this stage I will typically set restric-

component images and performing

also invaluable from an artistic point

tions to regions of the target image

whatever transformation that are requi-

of view, because what I can show is not

on how the matches can be made. For

red – rotations, scaling, cropping, color

just my work but a synthesis of crea-

example, in some areas I am happy to

tweaks, etc – and then layering them

tivity from hundreds of other artists. I

match larger images with little rota-

into the final image. Over the years

aim to generate synergy, something I

tions, while in other areas I may want to

I have written quite a few routines for

consider to be the fundamental goal for

allow for much smaller images, great-

doing this final rendering so I will of-

this type of work.

involves

going

back

the

Seite 22

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Gerin Trautenberger

BIOGRAPHY Gerin Trautenberger,is a trained product and furniture designer and has been working as a designer, writer and curator for net culture projects since 1992. In 2005 he founded the design collective Microgiants. Moreover, he is vice chairman of creativ wirtschaft austria.

Gerin Trautenberger RELATED LINKS microgiants.com

CREATIVE COMMONS BASICS The emergence of Creative Commons licenses (CC)

CC enables the creator of a work to predefine dif-

and the Creative Commons movement have to be un-

ferent licensing possibilities on a step-by-step basis.

derstood as closely related to the massive growth of

Thus exchanging and using licenses can be simpli-

the Internet and the currently newly developed col-

fied significantly – and without any tedious license

laborative forms of work. Digitization and the easy

research or contract negotiations. So everybody can

exchange of texts and images mark a paradigm shift

freely use a work, or the licensing rights can be re-

with regard to copying and the way we deal with copy-

stricted for further usage (see illustration below). Yet

righted works.

CC also provides the possibility to specify the commercial usage of a work.

The creation (Schöpferprinzip, a central principle of German copyright law) of a work is in principle protected by national and international copyright law and does not need any separate registration. What is regulated there, is first and foremost authorship and not the various ways of using a work. Usage rights for a work must always be negotiated separately, often with the help of lawyers. These conditions often stand in the way of free, flexible and straightforward communication between creative people.

“ TO ALLOW ARTISTS, CREATORS, TEACHERS, JOURNALISTS AND SCIENTISTS TO SHARE THINGS IN A SIMPLE AND LAWFUL MANNER USING THE OPEN NETWORK PROVIDED BY THE INTERNET. ” Yoichi Ito

The core of copyright as we know it today is more than 150 years old. Today’s copyright too cannot keep pace with the social and technological developments

Only the use of Creative Commons or related software

and needs to be adapted in fundamental ways. For

licenses, such as GNU-GPL, facilitates the creation

this reason the CC principle was developed in the

of complex collaborative projects such as LINUX or

USA in 2001. Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at

other open source projects. But Creative Commons

the Stanford Law School, contributed substantially

does not only help create social works of art but is

to the implementation of the concept and today it is

also a tool for working in small groups or on/with the

supported by a broad Creative Commons movement.

Internet.

Seite 23

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke CREATIVE COMMONS IN OPEN DESIGN

Photos: Markus Beckedahl, Andrea Goetzke

BIOGRAPHY Markus Beckedahl is a co-founder of newthinking communications GmbH and as such a consultant on many issues of our digital society and online strategies. In collaboration with Andrea Goetzke, who is responsible for international collabo-rations and works as a copywriter and project manager for newthink-ing, he works on projects such as “re:publica” or “Open everything”.

Andrea Goetzke works in the field of open source strategies and topics on digital cultural societies. She has managed projects suchs as the series if events “openeverything Berlin” and “all2gethernow” - a discourse on new strategies for a society rich in music and culture.

EXAMPLES The Berlin-based designer Ronen Kadushin is one of the pioneers of

RELATED LINKS newthinking-communications.de

open design. Already quite early he experimented with publishing his raw data under a Creative Commons license. This is what motivated him: “It should encourage designers to share their creativity and to create a collection of high quality products.” Thus he shares the objects he designed such as furniture or lamps online under a non-commercial CC license. Owners and users of a laser cutter can manufacture the products using the digital template, e.g. laser

In digital design communities Creative Commons licenses were al-

machining them from a steel sheet and manually forming the final

ready in use at a rather early stage, e.g. for sharing clip art images,

product. In this way computer-controlled production technologies

graphics or photos on platforms such as flickr.com. Yet what is re-

and manual work go hand in hand.

ally interesting are the first steps out into the material design world of real objects. More and more projects, experiments and examples

The CC-BY-NC license grants the right to use for private (non-com-

for how the open source idea can be carried over into the real world

mercial) purposes if all derivative works are shared under a license

can be subsumed under the notion of “open design”.

identical to the license that governs the original work. If you want to commercially produce the objects, you have to conclude a con-

Creative Commons is a US-based non government organization

tract with the designer.

that has been publishing standardized license texts for copyrighted content since 2001. What is so special about it is the fact that

RONEN-KADUSHIN.COM/

these licenses have meanwhile been adapted to the respective na-

Yet Kadushin mainly produces and distributes his objects in a con-

tional copyright laws in more than 50 countries and their clauses

ventional manner. Publicly sharing the designs under a CC license

and freedoms are in force everywhere. The person who takes center

is just an additional distribution channel. Along with the crea-

stage is the creator, who can grant certain freedoms to use his or her

tions of other designers his works are available on platforms such

work. With the help of a license kit the creator chooses if the work

as “Movisi – The inspirational furniture store”. The raw designs

can be used commercially or non-commercially, if it can be remixed

can be found on his website, but also on platforms such as “flexible

or not and if the same conditions shall apply for the remixes (i.e. any

stream”.

resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same licensing agreement) as specified in the copyleft principle from the world

Digital distribution of the designs under a CC license facilitates de-

of free software. The only condition in all six Creative Commons

centralized production and distribution. Thus the designs can be

licenses is the following: The creator must always be named as a

found in countries where designers otherwise would have never ex-

source. Free software with its manifold licenses has been the model

ported their products nor would have advertised for themselves. So

for the idea of Creative Commons licenses. “All rights reserved” of

if somebody finds a design there and is interested in producing it, he

classic copyright has turned into “Some rights reserved”. So crea-

or she can experiment with the design for a start and then possibly

tors can enter their works into a large shared pool of knowledge and

agree on jointly producing it with the designer.

creativity, and in the best case scenario, the works can be further processed without any further inquiry and additional agreements.

to be continued on page 25

Seite 24

Creative Industries Convention 2011 BIOGRAFIE Hannes Walter Due to his childhood experience in his father’s smithy Hannes Walter has always been highly interested in the crafts.

As a trained electrical engineer he discovered the possibilities of huge laser-cutting facilities when working as a 3D CAD designer. After working in product development in the footwear industry for a while he studied Media Design.

That’s when he joined the real and virtual world to launch www.fluid-forms.com. As one of the two co-founders and CEO of the company he is responsible for product development and organization. For this reason he is particularly interested in digital production processes and creatively linking up different people and fields of research.

RELATED LINKS fluid-forms.com

Hannes Walter

Photo: Karin Lernbeiß

DESIGNER AND A LITTLE MORE

ible, aesthetically appealing and economically viable. An essential element of such design systems can be found on e.g. fluid-forms.com or n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com: the intuitive and easy-to-use user interfaces.

With their help the customers become the co-designers of their individual products. When the program logic, as in the case of n-e-rv-o-u-s.com, is published under an appropriate Creative Commons license, the open source software and open design cycle comes full

Within the present economic system no individual designer piece is

circle as this code can also be copied and manipulated ad libitum.

in demand but rather a product that solves a problem for as many

As it is all about free production data the democratization of pro-

customers as possible. The digital revolution has led to a total virtu-

duction plays an important role. In the current post-industrial rev-

alization where knowledge about production and forms are created

olution mass production is being replaced by individual production

and communicated in the form of CAD data. Let us assume some-

carried out from the living room. This can be done by open source

one wants to publicly share such a CAD file. Thus within a demo-

production machines such as makerbot.com, by online services such

cratized design system – we can safely call it open design – the roles

as i.materialise.com or by production networks such as makerfacto-

of designer and producer, marketer and customer, blur. For this re-

ry.com or cloudfab.com.

ason a redefinition of these terms might make sense.

At the same time platforms such as ponoko.com and shapeways.

Already the act of sharing this file makes this evident. Platforms

com also offer marketing opportunities for the individually crea-

such as thingiverse.com, ponoko.com or shapeways.com are online

ted and possibly even individually produced designs. In this way

platforms that have been conceived with sharing production files

the boundaries between designer, customer, producer and marketer

for physical products in mind. If the file is publicly shared under

totally blur. The notion of prosumer, i.e. a term blending ‘producer’

an appropriate license, it can be downloaded and manipulated at

and ‘consumer’ has become common usage for this.

pleasure. This is the starting point for collective or evolutionary design where various co-designers – i.e. designers rather in the sense of agents – work on a design and good design prevails automatically as it is more frequently manipulated and improved. As to be seen quite well on thingiverse.com, this system leads to mashups of multiple already well-functioning parts.

For several reasons CAD files are increasingly being created with program code specifically created for this purpose rather than with full software solutions and the mouse. Depending on the type of coding this form of design is called generative design, parametric design or creative coding. Here the coder is at the same time designer and his or her code does not define any fixed product shape but a large number of possible shapes. The term meta design has been

“

EACH AND EVERY POSSIBLE FORM OR VARIANT IS FUNCTIONAL, PRODUCIBLE, AESTHETICALLY APPEALING AND ECONOMICALLY VIABLE.

suggested for this space of possibilities, which is for logical reasons

”

defined in a way that each and every shape is functional, produc-

Hannes Walter

Seite 25

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Markus Beckedahl / Andrea Goetzke

Continued from page 23

OPENWEAR.ORG

Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke

Pamoyo also supports the openwear community. Openwear is a platform experimenting with new collaborative and open approaches to both the production and distribution of fashion.

For this openwear worded their own license, which is similar to the CC licenses, but in addition aims at establishing an open and collaborative openwear brand. For example, you are

Software and platforms for docu-

obliged to publish a derivative design

mentation, sharing and collaborative

in the openwear community. This is

further development of designs for ob-

part of this specific agreement (http://

jects, hardware and fashion are vital

openwear.org/info/license).

tools in the open design process. A lot

http://fa-

shionreloaded.com/ PAMOYO.COM The Berlin-based label Pamoyo in-

is still up-and-coming. Such software tools and platforms should, on the one

ARDUINO.CC

hand, enable us to come up with doc-

troduces the ideas of open design into

The Arduino project is becoming

umentation of a plan that facilitates

the world of fashion. It aims at creating

more and more popular among design-

its full reproduction but, on the other,

sustainably produced fashion based on

ers and artists. The platform consists of

allow for the creation of derivative de-

public domain patterns and designs.

hardware and software and has been

signs. Last but not least, they should

“Live green, look good“ is Pamoyo’s

developed further as an open source

be able to handle authorship issues.

motto, and Pamoyo wants to be more

project since 2001. Its core elements are

(Which change was added by which

than just a fashion label. “For all those

a simple microcontroller which can be

user?)

who want to create their own fashion

triggered with a rather simple develop-

patterns instructions are available as

ment environment. While the develop-

to produce one’s own favourite Pamoyo

ment environment was licensed under

The Makerbot project offers another

style; e.g. to breathe new life into the

the GNU GPL, the hardware design

outlook on future trends. The company

worn-out T-shirt you simply cannot

was published under the Creative Com-

of the same name produces an open-

live without” – this is how the makers

mons ShareAlike license, which grants

source rapid prototyping 3D printer.

of the label explain one of their mo-

extensive freedom of usage, so that the

With this device it is possible to pro-

tives. The goal is to build a community

CAD files can be developed further and

duce plastic objects up to maximum

of designers and people with a sense of

shared.

dimensions of 10x10x15 cm at afforda-

style in general who are interested in the philosophy of openness and sustainability. http://flexiblestream.org/

MAKERBOT.COM

ble prices and thus print out 3D designs Arduino products are extensively

in plastic. The Makerbot printers are

used at art schools for creating interac-

sold as assembly kits (and they are, by

tive installations and the hacker com-

the way, themselves open design prod-

When they use CC licenses for their

munity too has quickly accepted the

ucts, i.e. they are permanently devel-

patterns the people behind Pamoyo

project and contributed its share to its

oped further by a community). A large

want, among other things, to acknowl-

success in recent years.

community of designers has gathered

edge the creative process and make it visible – a process that started out

around 3D printing technology who FRITZING.ORG

share their designs and further develop

a long time before me, the designer,

Building on Arduino the Fritzing

the technology. The company-owned

and still is a long way from comple-

project at the Fachhochschule Pots-

platform Thingiverse enables users to

tion when I have completed my design.

dam – University of Applied Sciences

publish their documentation and raw

Further activities such as clothing up-

is developing software and a commu-

data and to collaboratively develop

cycling events shall encourage users to

nity with the help of which users can

them further.

reveal the producers in themselves to a

document and collaboratively develop

greater extent. Is it the designer’s role

further prototypes. Moreover, Fritzing

to sketch out or deliver finished prod-

is said to facilitate the creation of PCB

ucts or rather to provide help and ad-

layouts for professional production.

vice for other people in their aesthetic

At the same time this platform serves

work and to inspire these people’s own

as a possible application scenario for

creativity with his or her designs?

hands-on electronics teaching.

to be continued on page 27

Seite 26

Creative Industries Convention 2011

BIOGRAPHY Yochai Benkler is a law professor at the Harvard Law School <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University>. In his book The Wealth of Networks and the essay “Coase‘s Penguin”, among other publications, he deals with questions pertaining to Internet production and copyrights.

Yochai Benkler

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/Fotos/joi/538158535/

„TODAY INNOVATION IS COMING FROM ALL DIRECTIONS“

me that there is a business model that can put the production of information and cultural goods to good use.

This model is based on exclusion and paying for cultural goods. Yet this is far from being the only model.

RELATED LINKS benkler.org

fold perspectives and modes of expres-

E.g. two thirds of the software industry’s turnovers

sion, in a new form of popular culture.

are generated with services that do not depend on copyrights. In the music business the labels main-

In which ways have the new collaborative modes of production changed our culture?

How does this affect the economy?

ly make money with copyrights. Musicians primari-

Benkler: Today innovation is coming

ly make money with live shows, which have nothing

from all possible directions. Before,

to do with copyrights. When peer-to-peer networks

Benkler: The pool of people who can

innovation came predominantly from

shook the traditional copy system, the record industry

actively participate in the production

enterprises and was market-driven. To-

fell into crisis. Yet today artists have more possibili-

of information and cultural goods

day we see that significant innovation

ties than ever before, they can do what they want and

has radically widened. The industri-

comes from the periphery. Wiki, blog-

make money with live concerts or develop other busi-

al model of information production,

ging and peer-to-peer software, for ex-

ness opportunities.

which appeared in the nineteenth

ample. Today innovation does not only

century, requires a high amount of

happen within an enterprise or within

The text printed here is an excerpt from a longer in-

costs for the production and distribu-

the frame of the copyright and patent

terview on the occasion of the ars electronica, Linz,

tion of cultural goods. Due to incre-

system anymore. It develops from social

in 2008, which was also published in the ORF Futu-

ased mobility and broadcasting the

interaction and collaboration.

rezone.

distribution opportunities have been extended too. Both the cost and the

Thus a new form of competition arises

coverage have increased. Those who

for enterprises. For example, the music

had sufficient funding to create an

industry had to deal with peer-to-peer

effective production and distributi-

file sharing. At the same time also many

on system could also decide who says

business opportunities arise for enter-

what to whom with which authority.

prises. So Google incorporated Blogger.

And Google’s PageRank too defines relevance primarily in terms of what is in-

The Internet has led to an inversion of

teresting for the people.

the funding structure. Today we have a billion people who have the means to

The new modes of production also ques-

produce, store and circulate informa-

tion traditional business models, which

tion. The new productive communities

are based on copyrights. So where do

neither need a business model nor pro-

peer production and copyrights tread

prietary rights to participate in cultural

on each other’s toes?

production. This has resulted in mani-

Benkler: Copyrights basically assu-

“

WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF A TECHNOLOGICAL, ECONOMIC AND ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION THAT ALLOWS US TO RENEGOTIATE THE TERMS OF FREEDOM, JUSTICE, AND PRODUCTIVITY IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY.

” Yochai Benkler

Seite 27

Creative Industries Convention 2011

continued from page 25

Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke Photo: http://www.gutestun.com/copyme/?p=88

by GUTESTUN production Berlin

THINGIVERSE.COM

* Pots and info material are permanent-

These examples illustrate that CC licenses are used for

The designs on the Thingiverse plat-

ly improved – and thus of the working

different reasons and for different uses in the field of

form are published under CC licenses.

basis for all people involved

the design of physical objects. Some share their designs

People experiment with new possibilities of 3D printing and the creation of modified and technically improved works is more often than not clearly

* It inspires many people to work in the composting business * It tackles the waste problem in India on a much broader basis

in addition to traditional local production, as a source of inspiration for others, to advertise themselves in order to maybe establish new contacts this way etc (as is the case with Ronen Kadushin or the fashion label

welcome. The more people deal with a

Nevertheless there will be still enough

Pamoyo). Others aim at improving a design by means

design and check out how an object can

work on the local level.

of collaborative work, as is the case with many designers of 3D printers or Arduino hackers. Design proj-

be technically improved, the more fully developed a printing template eventu-

But the idea of open design also pene-

ects that are collaboratively laid out from scratch,

ally becomes. E.g. already on the home-

trates further into other communities.

like Makerbot perhaps, are not yet that widespread.

page you can find the category “Newest

OpenDrawCommunity wants to create

http://odc.betahaus.de/

Derivatives”.

a shared pool for the creation of etch templates for model railways which

What we see now are tentative first steps and open

DAILYDUMP.ORG

can be made available for private use

design pioneers are drawing additional attention due

Another illustrative example for the

under a Creative Commons license.

to a still small market which can easily be kept track of. But more and more young designers are taking the

use of CC licenses for open design in practice comes from a small business

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/FALAB

philosophy behind open design, sharing and collabo-

in India. The Daily Dump offers com-

In contrast to open source software,

ration, for granted. Open design has come to stay.

posters made of Terracotta, plus plenty

where everybody can work on a com-

of information on the subject of com-

puter at home, the production of design

posting. The entire business model, the

objects always requires materials and

design of the pots, info material and all

in many cases specific tools, from sol-

sorts of other items used in the business

dering irons and sewing machines to

process, such as aprons etc, are public-

laser cutters and 3D printers. Thus,

ly available on the Internet under a CC

along with the open design movement,

license. Prospective business partners

we have also seen the emergence of

can experiment with the material; if

places where tools can be collabo-

they want to open their own shop and

ratively used. In many countries of the

enter a business relationship with Dai-

world there are meanwhile so called

ly Dump, they have to make a contract

Fab Labs, which make tools for the

with the parent company.

production of open design objects available. Open Design City in Berlin

If this business is successful it can achieve much more than only one single small composting business. So what can be achieved?

is one such example.

“

OPEN DESIGN HAS COME TO STAY

”

Seite 28

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Georg Russegger

BIOGRAPHY Georg Russegger is a software developer, curator, media and communication scholar. As an artist he uses the pseudonym of Grischinka Teufl. He lives and works in Vienna and Tokyo. Currently he is Scientific Manager at Kunstuniversität Linz, AT.

Georg Russegger ALEATORY DESIGN MODELS tion dispositions and cultures of interaction, complexity design has now more My idea of design in the given context

than ever become a fundamental and

is one of an artificial process (Poiesis)

global requirement for humankind.

SMARTJECT

of conceiving and creating possible

Collaboration models between humans

realities. But I don’t refer to “artifici-

and machines can only be perpetuat-

ality” as opposed to “naturalness” be-

ed within these data and information

cause we cannot make this distinction

structures, if access and possibilities of

so easily in a highly complex neural

modification and intervention are, as

network of invention such as the hu-

a matter of principle, laid out open for

Hybrid program consisting of subject culture and modifications of artifacts, collaboratively coupled in project dispositions

man brain. According to Herbert A.

communities and projects, so that the

Simon’s seminal work, engineering,

complexity associated to them can be

medicine, economy, architecture and

kept manageable and developable in the

art do not deal with necessities but

long run. Computerized and automated

with contingencies, i.e. contexts that

systems are increasingly being deplo-

operate with the transformation of un-

yed in order to relate human producti-

likely things into probabilities hence

vity especially to the fields of invention

frequently under conditions of aleatory

and design. To achieve this we test, de-

moments (coincidences). In this short

velop and apply smart, i.e. intelligent,

text contribution I am going to focus on

clever, ingenious, shrewd, skillful and

the question how things can be (design)

elegant or resourceful methods, in or-

with particular reference to the human

der to put the complexity around us,

capabilities and knowledge cultures

which results from computer-assist-

linked to this, which claim so called

ed operating systems and living envi-

RELATED LINKS

openness for themselves.

ronments, to good use in an innovative

datadandy.net

SMARTIFACTS Semi-intelligent, multi-sensorially networked and partially automated soft- and hardware agents in media-integrated interaction environments and configurations of information

manner.

Proceeding on the reality of sociocultural everyday life which is increas-

Although this starting point is marked

ingly being negotiated in digitally

in principle by the linking of human

networked,

codified

and non-human powers, it manifests

and computer-centered communica-

a shift in the material relationships,

multi-sensorial

to be continued on page 30

Seite 29

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Pre Bettis

RELATED LINKS brepettis.com

BIOGRAPHY Bre Pettis is an entrepreneur, video blogger and founder of Makerbot Industries. Bre is also known for DIY video podcasts for MAKE and for the History Hacker pilot on the History Channel. He is one of the founders of the Brooklyn - based hacker space NYC Resistor.

Bre Pettis

Photo: Patrick Dax

THE FUTURE OF WORKING AT HOME

In a interview with cnn, you where talking about democratizing manufacturing - could you describe what you mean by that?

Our mission with MakerBot is to bring the tools of

Photo: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

manufacturing to the masses. We‘re dedicated to supporting creative people so they can make anything.

We got started hacking on 3D printers so that we could afford to have a 3D printer and then we decided to make it so that everyone could have one.

Makerbot is a huge success - who is buying this machine?

It‘s a mix. It‘s mostly programmers, engineers, tinkering moms and dads, and regular folks that want to live in the future.

How do people use it in their business - or do people create new business opportunities by using a MakerBot? Most people use a MakerBot for their own satisfaction and to make the things that they need but there are a bunch of people using a MakerBot in their business. My favorite is when people come up with a product and sell it. I‘ve seen everything from camera accessories to iPod docks. People also use it to make parts for other 3D printers like the RepRap and then sell those parts on eBay. Also, when used in design

A SMALL MACHINE, ... ... not bigger than a microwave which can produce everything you need for everyday life – sounds like a science-fiction novel, doesn’t it? But already today we can see what will be taken for granted in many households in the foreseeable future. The replicator of Star Trek, which “replicated“ food and everyday consumer goods still was an idealistic thought experiment but the projects that have been underway in the DIY scene for the past three years are bringing us a big step closer to this vision of the future.

Founder Bre Pettis describes the idea behind it as follows: “We want to democratize manufacturing ... and therefore we developed the MakerBot self assembling kit ...... it´s about personal manufacturing“. In another interview, which can be found on the Shapeways website, Bre Pettis outlines its differences to the two other comparable projects: “The main difference between a MakerBot Cupcake CNC and a RepRap is how much time it takes to make one. The RepRap project is an academic research project and it can take a few months to gather the materials and then put a RepRap together and then a lot of experimentation to get it to print. The MakerBot CupCake CNC is a kit and can be printing things out after a weekend of assembly with a friend.“ Along with commercially distributing the MakerBot assembly kit, the founders of MakerBot also run a platform for sharing and exchanging 3D designs – Thingiverse.

shops it gets used to make prototypes for mass manufactured things.

Bre Pettis in a conversation with Gerin Trautenberger.

With these projects the idea of independent self-supply has indeed come within reach. You can build your own home manufactory and, in addition, you can deliver commissioned work for others whenever there are surplus time and resources available.

Seite 30

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Georg Russegger

Georg Russegger

“

COMPLEXITY DESIGN HAS NOW MORE THAN EVER BEFORE BECOME A FUNDAMENTAL AND GLOBAL REQUIREMENT FOR HUMANKIND.

continued from page 28

” attention performance, attendance models and colla-

Georg Russegger

borative relations between these agents, which no longer can be classified along the lines of the traditional distinction between subject and object. It is in the reproduction of skills rather than in the replication of products where I see the foundations of the abilities which

social and cultural codes existing de-

gain significance under the paradigm of open design.

signs are transformed in such a way

Already in 1982 Serge Moscovici noted in this respect

that they are transferred into novel

that: “manpower is modeled by skills and abilities,

versions or variants in the form of a

by a code that provides it with a leeway to work in a

reconfiguration of existing offers. This

In this context aleatory moments and

given frame”. In project-related design environments

fundamental formability is an impor-

situations, which can be cross-read

(cf. Flusser 1989, Faßler 1999) this updated open sour-

tant basis for further development and

as synonyms for combinatory coinci-

ce coding of ability models and working methods is

the creation of dynamic norms and

dences and loss of control that goes

increasingly being transformed in a way that the pro-

standards. In the recent human design

along with them, the center action is

ject participants’ own skills become communicatively,

history, which was and still is marked

applied in form of a ludic turn within

collaboratively and normatively linkable and acces-

by media evolution, the shift from

creation processes – which claims a

sible, in the form of design and production processes,

highly standardized design processes

fundamental error-friendliness and

techniques being edited and presented in line with

towards normative yet open source sys-

dynamics of modification in the pro-

Open Cast objectives.

tems marks a fundamental paradigm

duction processes of open design as it

shift in design processes.

places its emphasis on playing or ex-

These basically highly dynamic forms of cooperation

perimentalizing – a known innovati-

and co-organization in project communities are ar-

What takes center stage in this study is

on strategy but definitely one that has

ranged by information and design programs in short-

a life form (or form of survival) which I

to be revisited in explorations for the

term or medium-term models in order to be concen-

call Smartject. As a hybrid socio-cul-

future. Here, coincidence plays a more

trated in material contexts. Project sense is always

tural program of bio-neuronally and

and more important role, as it does

marked as open (changeable, adaptable, etc) in relati-

technologically and medially coupled

in all creative processes. Or, as Klaus

on to the respective know-how of the project commu-

bodies it makes use of cultural operat-

Mainzer puts it: “The interplay of

nities and, due to its flexibility, it is the opposite of the

ing systems by applying the method of

contingency and redundancy enables

standardized production process because it is fueled

self-design. This self-design manifests

creativity and innovation” (Mainzer,

by heterogeneous skills and techniques of individual

itself in the interactive interconnec-

2007). These randomizers will show if

project participants. Thus design, form and function

tion of semi-intelligent agents (Smarti-

an open design paradigm can set off

(with regard to the design process) cannot be separa-

facts) and multi-senso-mechatronically

the artificial introduction of changes

ted from both: technology and medium, the software

coupled programs. So the Smartject

of perspective and thus can be used for

becomes cultureware in the process. This suggests

by necessity provides new framework

constructively further developing de-

that we use “open source intelligence” (Stalder, Hir-

conditions and criteria for productivity

sign processes and exploring the blind

sh; 2002) in form of complexity design and informati-

and life planning which are only over

spots inherent in them. What is pre-

on design based on related knowledge cultures.

time transformed into conventions and

sently necessary for the terminological

values. Yet these values are not neces-

frame of open design is the following:

In this respect the definition of the moddr, who in

sarily subject to a logic or causality but

To design open and collaborative alea-

modification cultures not only modifies and extends

more and more come into operation in

tory processes in such a way that ma-

existing design models and systems on the basis of

the form of biographical scenography

ximum accessibility of (in)formation

computerized design and production environments

which must be understood as a view

offers are guaranteed, coupled with

but also rebuilds and uses them contrary to their ini-

through the eyes of a player on his or

models of usable complexity, generate

tial purposes, takes up an important position in open

her game – a game whose rules can be

globally connectable forms of commu-

design prototyping. In the course of the further de-

constantly transformed as required or

nication and thus new foundations for

velopment of existing generations of technological,

desired.

innovation.

Seite 31

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Mark Frauenfelder

BIOGRAPHY Mark Frauenfelder is a blogger, illustrator, and journalist.

He is founder and editor-inchief of MAKE magazine and

Mark Frauenfelder

co-editor of the collaborative weblog Boing Boing.

DO IT YOURSELF INNOVATION

RELATED LINKS boingboing.net makezine.com

Eventually 3D printers will become as commonplace in people‘s homes and offices as laser printers are today. But in the meantime, websites like Ponoko.com and Shapeways.com are the equivalent

In the last couple of years do-it-yourselfers have gained access to

of desktop publishing service bureaus. For a small fee you can send

a myriad of new tools and services to help them design, prototype,

your 3D design to Ponoko.com and Shapeways.com and have them

fund, manufacture, and sell the things they make. Most of these

print out a model in plastic, metal, or other material. These ser-

tools and services are free or very inexpensive, and they hint at a

vice bureaus will also manufacture and sell your product to anyone

future in which individuals and small collectives will offer viable

around the world who wants one.

alternatives to mass-produced goods.

Most of the things that DIYers make are funded out-of-pocket. But When I went to work in 1985 at Memorex as a disk drive design en-

for more ambitious garage entrepreneurs, websites like Kickstarter.

gineer, I designed components on a drafting table with pencil and

com allow DIYers to post requests for project funding. The next

paper. In 1986 the company installed a CAD/CAM system, which

phase in crowdsource funding will be small scale securities mar-

cost many thousands of dollars per seat with an additional charge

kets in which individual investors will share in the profits of finan-

for every minute anyone used the software.

cially successful project.

Today, 3D design programs like Google SketchUp, Blender, and

And finally, the Web itself has become the great enabler of do-it-

Alibre PE are not only much more powerful than the software I

yourself innovation. It allows communities of interest to communi-

was using 25 years ago, they are much cheaper, too. (Alibre PE is

cate with each other, greatly accelerating the evolution of designs of

$99 and Google SketchUp and Blender are free.) DIYers are using

everything from amateur unmanned flying drones to cigar box gui-

these programs to design everything from bicycles to chicken coops

tars. The Web also serves as an indexed surplus store where almost

to model rocket components. And they are sharing their 3D designs

anything anyone would want can be found with a simple search.

on websites like Thingiverse.com, where other people can download the designs, modify them, and then make their own versions of pro-

In the 19th century people made most of the things that they used

ducts using the models.

– furniture, clothing, shelter, food. We may see a return to a world where individuals make many of the things they use every day, but

And the tools that they are using to make these objects are getting

be connected to other innovative individuals around the world who

more powerful and cheaper all the time, too. Do you remember when

help them realize their goals.

laser printers, which cost $100 today, used to cost $10,000? A similar thing is happening with manufacturing machines. Low-end laser cutters cost about $7000, compared to $20,000 just a couple of years ago. And 3D printers, such as MakerBot Industries‘ Thing-O-Matic (a rapid prototyping machine that prints out objects in the same kind of plastic that Lego bricks are made of) sell for about $1200.

Seite 32

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Manfred Faßler

4.

Manfred Faßler

Is this the betrayal of the online

consumption of the living space didn’t

commons? No. If the creative abun-

get in each other’s way. Design subsist-

dance of inconsistency means a lot

ed on these highly prolonged asyn-

to designing web users, they cannot

chronies which were alien to or remote

exclusively refer to openness. If they

from each other. Design had his own

did, some sort of design per contin-

economy of time, although it depended

gency or design per click frequency

on the market. Yet precisely this has

would at best remain. Designers as

broken away. So talking about open-

clickworkers? It is possible that some

ness without considering the collapse

We cannot rule out that Open De-

of us think along these lines. Yet for

of temporal and perceptive borders is

sign is a real but virtual cloud of cog-

me the artistic, creative, aesthetic, po-

something I definitely cannot relate to.

nitive capitalism (T. Negri; Y. Boutang-

etic and functional decision for a de-

Moulier). Hence: How is OPEN? What

sign is not only more than all this. It

for? I have nothing against openness

is something different. It is deliberate

beyond or even against traditional

and well-justified differentiation from

hierarchies, institutions and power

ego-consuming the big web cake. Pos-

structures. Even less if it is about on-

sibly, using Web 2.0 events and product

line structures, online/offline habitats,

formats is cool, at least cooler than

neighborly web action, the intelligence

over-air-conditioned malls and sudo-

of correlations / in correlations. Yet

rific style shops. But consumption is no

this is exactly what can only very rare-

design only because design encourages

ly be found on the web pages, forums

consumption. Thus this phrase doesn’t

and blogs on the issue of openness

express any equation. Design is an op-

I guess this won’t work, as taking out products from

that I have viewed. I guess this contin-

tion, an expectation; design is billions

the open market randomness brings lifetime into

ues on all the more than one hundred

of options and expectations. Of course,

play. How can we conceive of design between the po-

million websites that call for, present,

any design plays in the world league

les of offline and online? Design as border-crossing

explain and praise open design, open

of promise, and of appearance. As op-

in a collaborative no-man’s-land, or as an interme-

access, open creativity, open whatever

posed to the big truths and grand narra-

diary? Which economies of time are thinkable? Real

– I wasn’t able to check out all of them.

tives that emphasize the >once forever<

time/lifetime or real time = lifetime or real time plus

But if openness is linked to creativity,

design stands for >forever for once<, for

lifetime, or real time minus lifetime? What looks

or even any variant of design – thus

the moment of use and consumption.

playful at first is serious web culture. When we read

crosses the borderline between main-

And as we deal with a travelling cir-

about user generated content today, go in for it and

tenance and moderated access rights –

cus here, travelling consumption, the

represent it, we are mediators of complex dynamics

it isn’t first and foremost about market

styles are subject to change. Only for

where collapse is no day-to-day event but the cri-

and consumption anymore. Then the

this reason can design disappear and

sis of our concepts of control and design more than

inventing and designing subject not

reappear in a different shape, or, rare-

apparent. Our web present isn’t marked by open-

only has to differentiate him- or her-

ly, turn into a classic, beyond its initial

ness anymore but by “competing paradigms” (Nina

self from others but also to make his or

promise of use. No openness can re-

Lilian Etkins). And this competition manifests itself

her design distinctive, one-of-a-kind

place this. The singularity of any crea-

in all those discussions about knowledge, attention

and eye-catching. And this means:

tion of color, form, function, movement

deficits, the dumbing-down through the Internet and

highlight it. So difference as a brand

or use is a double agent: it encourages

saving our society (an educated and well-informed

merges into the claim for openness.

us to consume an offer but, possibly, it

society where reflection is encouraged). It’s about

Possibly, community as a project brand

is also the vehicle of status advantages

interpretative supremacy, patterns of regulation and

is aimed for within the FOSS struc-

within different social strata. What is

lead concepts. The battle for the virtual topologies,

tures. Yet this would require commu-

even more important is the fact that it

the political and economical reach, is in full swing,

nity design – not in the fashion of Se-

can evoke changes in our perception or

not only since documentation of the cyber attack

cond Life but with a similar gesture.

perhaps support socio-political pro-

on nuclear facilities in the Iran, which are run with

So the question >WHERE is OPEN?<

grams such as the architectural ideal of

Siemens software, has been available. And this has a

turns into >HOW is OPEN?<, or into the

functionalism of the nineteen twenties

considerable impact on the discussion of the aesthe-

following question: Who on the Inter-

– light, air and sun. This worked out

tics and pragmatics of openness.

net shuts the door, for how long and for

because the times of the social func-

which people?

tions, the designs, and the times of the

continued from page 14

3.

5. SO HOW SHALL WE

CONCEIVE OF DESIGN IN REAL TIME? TIMELESS?

to be continued on page 34

Seite 33

Creative Industries Convention 2011

BIOGRAPHY Ponoko calls itself „your personal factory“ and is a small, but significant manufacturer of three-dimensional products based in Wellington, New Zealand. It gained some considerable media attention because of its unique business model.

Ponoko is one of the first manufacturers that uses distributed manufacturing and on-demand manufacturing.

Photos: ©Ponoko

Ponoko

THE FACTORY OF THE FUTURE

Not only the starting point of the value chain – such

A creator can use the digital platform to present

as design and product development – is changed by

and sell his designs and cutting plans of a product.

the digitization and standardization of interfaces but

Customers who like a product design can pay for the

also the end of traditional value creation: production.

design in the Pomoko online shop and download the

In the near future traditional manufactories and the

files. After successfully downloading the files the

production of small series will follow rules of the game

customer can have the product manufactured by the

which are completely different from today’s rules.

producer of his confidence or by Ponoko. Then it is packaged and shipped to the customer.

The present picture of productive holdings is either marked by the craftsmanship of a family business or

Thus the radical new approach exemplified by Pono-

specialized departments of medium-sized companies.

ko promises the division of design, payment and pro-

Within these structures traditional working tech-

duction. So a product can be designed in Europe, it is

niques are passed down from generation to genera-

paid via Ponoko in New Zealand and it is produced in

tion or specialized production techniques become the

a local production facility in the United States.

unique selling proposition by means of extensive machine use in order to be able to produce standardized products at low cost. These closed systems work according to their own rules and new innovative production or collaborative working models have a hard time asserting themselves within these structures One project that aims to break this closed cycle is a small startup from New Zealand named Ponoko. Ponoko call themselves digital fabricators who want to offer new freedoms to creators, and new possibilities of participation in the design process to buyers.

RELATED LINKS ponoko.com

Seite 34

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Manfred Faßler

Continued from page 32

8. WE HAVE TO

FIND A DIFFERENT APPROACH. Consumption has moved to the top of

7.

the list of issues.

Linguistic help to describe this

What I want to propose is to eventually

was provided by Alvin Toffler, with

talk about what’s happening: about

“prosumer”, hence the merging of

consumption,

Only a quick glance on backs of books and into

“producer” and “consumer”. In his

consumption, about converging con-

digital archives reveals that we are still looking for a

book The Third Wave (1980) he respon-

sumption and performance-enhancing

coherent understanding of digital transformations of

ded with this term to the end of serial

consumption. It’s not noble lounge or

our everyday life in the information age. The unas-

mass production seeing the emergence

seminar room reflection that calls for

suming library in my office alone is filled with design

of a stronger product and market po-

the slowdown and selection of informa-

words such as cyberspace, smartmobs, virtual real-

wer of the consumer. In recent years a

tion streams but the consuming body:

ities, intelligent environments, science of the artifi-

successor of this neologism emerged –

it is the biochemistry of perception, of

cial, visual intelligence, networks, scaled networks,

the “produser”, a combination of “pro-

fun, of sensomotorics, of recognition, of

geospaces, evolutionary algorithms, post social time,

ducer” and “user”.

the dull or electrifying thought. In this

cultural evolution, artificial intelligence, glocali-

This is a response to the creative and

case switching from communication

sation, second modernity, games, e-sports, Space In-

collaborative participation required in

to consumption means taking altered

vaders, homo ludens, screenagers, Interface I, II, III

user-controlled projects. In these proj-

conditions of context seriously. What

and time and time again media, communication, in-

ects information is not only dissemi-

takes center stage is learning & selec-

formation, les immateriaux, cyborgs, weblogs, social

nated but it is provided with semantic

tive consumption. This covers the con-

software, Second Life. We abandon the questions that

markers. Content is created, informa-

sumption of data, information, images

result in these terms as quickly as we consume the

tion and content is collected. They pro-

and communities. Learning is a change

terms and some of their points and learn about them.

vide the structural frame for the inter-

of behavioral possibilities that outlasts

Above all, what we learn from them, slowly but never-

temporal consumption of information.

time. It is initiated by experience and

theless: The world’s experimental cultures cannot be

This can be found in the fields of open

observation, use and reflection. It won’t

reduced to things, and the latter cannot be reduced to

source software, computer games, file

be immediately and easily make sense

materials and functions. Things are conceived, have

sharing, video hosting, photo sharing,

to everyone to hear of the consump-

programmatic and generative kinship relations to us

platforms such as Flickr, Wikipedia

tion of informational group life. But for

human beings, and, more recently, they even think,

and real-time sharing. Although dif-

a couple of years already the problem

are networked and interactive in a cybernetic sense.

ferent in focus they nevertheless build

hasn’t only been about data, image,

Do we have an idea, a concept, or several ideas and

upon a small number of universal basic

film and information streams that peo-

concepts that might help us to explain the pressing

principles.

ple expose themselves recklessly to.

questions of the present life of our species? No, we are

This directs our attention to different

Meanwhile it seems that communities

still looking for them. Understandably. For 40 years

formats of information transformation

and content networks represent a haz-

of digital media stand against 4,000 years of analog

and links up questions pertaining con-

ard similar to the immense volumes of

explanations of God and the world, hence 1% against

sumption to the product and its pro-

data.

99%. Pointing out that nowadays not only a small

duction. The concept underlying this

We are talking about content overload

bunch of wise guys but billions of clever friends par-

assumes that information consumption

(Steve Hardagon), content overdose

ticipate can be well justified though but this is also

is commons-based, that it consists of

(Rob Blatt), or social network overdose.

where the difficulties actually begin, as these friends

peer-to-peer relations and that inno-

In the context of the social media hype

have no common home, no common city, no perma-

vation is guaranteed by creative com-

we are talking of overload caused by

nent territory. The digital classical age begins with

mons. This comes close to the model of

social networks, of an overdose of rela-

the end of the Neolithic Period. Moreover, the friends,

endogenous growth as proposed by the

tionships. Who would have thought five

fans and communities are no displaced people but

Portuguese economist Sérgio Rebelo

years ago that at some point in the fu-

fall in the categories of nomads, driven people, exper-

in 1991 but won’t take us any further

ture an overdose of the social is brought

imental people, developers or beta testers. How can

forward if we want to find an answer

forward as criticism of digital changes

we speak of culture, of social systems, when there is

to the following question: What kind of

of the world as we know it? Overdose?

no final test, no guarantee that it works and no perma-

correlations are we talking about when

Wasn’t the social of the past centuries

nent functional dependencies? So what are we talk-

talking about information-based hu-

ing about when talking about design?

man lifestyles?

6.

about

experimental

to be continued on page 36

Seite 35

Creative Industries Convention 2011

BIOGRAPHY wienett is an online marketplace for local handicraft and design products. The platform was founded by Anita Posch and Martina Gruber in 2007. What wienett aims for is selling one-of-a-kind handmade and sustainable products and making them available for the public at large via sales exhibitions.

wienett

Photo: Susanne Jakszus

HANDWERK 3.0

wienett was founded as an online marketplace for

- Production in the region

handicraft and design created by small businesses.

- Fair working conditions

More than three years ago, its two founders, Anita

- Ecological aspects

Posch und Martina Gruber, had the idea to create a

- Products that last

sales platform for local products. What wienett aims

- Handicraft products, i.e. handmade products

for is selling one-of-a-kind handmade and sustainab-

- Guarantee the continued existence of the small

le products and making them available for the public

businesses

at large via sales exhibitions.

At the same time wienett is a community of small businesses and creative people who jointly run and

NEW CRAFTS

further develop the online platform.

We, the wienett team, coined the term HANDWERK On the basis of our experiences with wienett and in

3.0 in the frame of a project and as the title of a sales

collaboration with a large number of small-scale pro-

exhibition in summer 2009. What we mean with

ducers we created the manifesto Handwerk 3.0 for

HANDWERK 3.0 is the renaissance of crafts among

the wienett platform in summer 2009.

the ‘neue Selbstständige’ (i.e. the new self-employed, a term that only applies to Austria) and entrepreneurs.

NEW WORK

These include crafts such as bookbinding, shoe making, jewelry design, textile and furniture design etc.

What lasts longer is what counts for us.

HANDWERK 3.0 demands independent and high

In the wienett online shop you find a large selection of

quality design, product sustainability and ethical

sustainably produced products from the region. Nei-

manufacture. 3.0 refers to the appreciation of work as

ther people nor the environment have been exploited

we claim it. It must be self-determined and positive,

for the products we bring to market. This is what we

and it must create values – for the producers too. Thus

consider important.

we ask for the end of the exploitation of all the people working self-employed, not only of those who work in the creative field. Entrepreneurs create jobs, creativity derives from diversity.

3.0 also stands for innovation within the crafts –and

RELATED LINKS wienett.at

here, first and foremost, for the further development of existing and available manual skills by means of fresh approaches and with a focus on their actual application. In this respect we remove creations and products from their traditionally known contexts and newly interpret and develop them (as prototypes). The final result is, ideally, a new, marketable, individual and local product.

Seite 36

Creative Industries Convention 2011

Manfred Faßler

Continued from page 34

“ THE CREATIVE PARADOX OF DESIGN CONSUMING CONTENT, THE SELF-CONSUMING OPENNESS THAT ALWAYS AIMS FOR A NEW EVENT.

” Manfred Faßler

9.

Has this still anything to do with

culture, economy and society, with politics and the public? If yes, in which sense? If no, is there any change we can embrace? If no again: What drives

the Holy Grail of modernity, which is

us? Which rules do we follow? Or are

being invoked now to save what can

the rules only options anymore, shouts

sumption can be translated from the

still be saved? Hence, no OPENNESS

from the sewer or from the roadside?

individual decision into a network or

but conventional CLOSEDNESS? And

And which options do we support? In

group decision. This might not make

what should this be? And how can

2005 Michel Bauwens addressed this

sense to everyone: group consumption.

OPEN COMMUNITY DESIGN positi-

issue in his book Peer to Peer and Hu-

In this way the intertemporal, prepar-

on itself in this matter?

man Evolution, thus discussing what

ative consumption could be translated

What we hear from the direction of di-

he called integral processes of infor-

into interactive consumption. Possibly,

gital communities are proposals that

mation use. The gist of it: Leave off all

this wording contradicts our common-

only relate to the communities them-

attitudes of observation from the out-

sensical feeling for language, as we

selves – which is logical. A little bit of

side. In 2006 Chris Anderson published

are used to understand consumption

technological assistance is added to the

The Long Tail, which was subtitled

exclusively on an individual or micro-

content overdose: ping.fm, for simul-

How Endless Choice Is Creating Unli-

economical level. Interactive consump-

taneous news updates, TweetDeck, to

mited Demand. Both approaches shif-

tion focuses on networking and puts the

select the forwards of the news, RSS,

ted our attention to processes whose

individual’s satisfaction on the waiting

to be able to read blogs, websites and

formats are unclear or not yet exist-

list. Thus we have achieved a threefold

updates in a structured way.

ing. In a way as if the consumption of

definition of consumption: As uninten-

Yet there is indeed reason to fear that

information created the information

tional storing of future possibilities,

we fail in the social aspect of the net-

economy, which in its turn, creates the

as current preservation of the working

works; that we fail in the social, as if

consumption of information, one could

power and adaptation to given condi-

social software betrayed the social.

speak of integral consumption and of

tions, and as the production and main-

Shall a society which is differentiated

“intertemporal consumption” (A. Stob-

tenance of interactive group processes.

along the lines of class and function be

be 1991).

ideologically activated against social

This new format of consumption con-

networks?

tradicts the classic theory of the pre-

10.

Over the past decades of digital over-

servation of the current working pow-

content generated design. It is about

whelming we still haven’t learnt to keep

er – as productive consumption was

the creative paradox of design con-

the right distance from the switches,

formulated from John Stuart Mill to

suming content or: the openness that

ports, hard-discs, soft-, hard- and wet-

Karl Marx. Thus neither management

consumes itself, that always aims for

ware items, information streams and

scientists nor socialists got themselves

a new event. So, which community are

data that allows us to switch from the

into this so far. The idea behind the

we looking for, which one do we really

aesthetics of information to intelligent

term “intertemporal consumption“, as

want and dream of, design and pro-

consumption, to conceive a condition

used by Stobbe and others, is a decision

gram? Then openness means: to adapt

of life organized around information.

to save up money and accrue interest.

to the heterogeneity of both the origin

We talked and we are still talking of

Hence we deal with a rational indivi-

of ideas and the future of projects. So,

interactivity, immersion, participati-

dual decision. Future production and

no randomized design but the respon-

on, deliberative or direct democracy,

distribution shall be influenced.

sibility to design the forms of open-

creativity – yet there is a fundamental

Yet this term can also be used in a dif-

ness with an open civilization in mind.

lack of discourse around the economic,

ferent sense, i.e. as consumption with-

Hence, WHERE is OPEN? In the per-

normative, legal, ethic and competitive

out a clear goal in mind, as random or

manently changing forms of collabora-

condition of informational contexts.

networked consumption. For this, con-

tion between the people.

Not user generated content but

content consuming design to achieve

Seite 37

Creative Industries Convention 2011 Photo: www.happylab.at © INNOC

RELATED LINKS opendesignnow.org petertroxler.net

Photo: Light bottles http://www.flickr.com/photos/fablabamsterdam/

Peter Troxler

THE PROLIFERATION OF FAB LABS

BIOGRAPHY Peter Troxler is an independent researcher at the intersection of business administration, society and technology. His interest and expertise are in management systems, such as quality and knowledge management.

Currently he is editor of the book Open Design Now – Why Design Can No Longer Be Exclusive.

With the advent of digital fabrication technology, what used to be

What makes Fab Labs different from just any

called ‘shared machine shops’ and hackerspaces are becoming the in-

shared machine shop is that they explicitly subscribe

cubators of the digital age: Fab Lab, short for fabrication laboratory.

to a common charter that firmly institutes Fab Labs as a global network of local labs, stipulates open ac-

Based on a concept developed by Neil Gershenfeld at the MIT,

cess, and establishes peer learning as a core feature.

these initiatives are typically centred around workshops equipped with relatively inexpensive, digitally controlled fabrication machi-

The charter makes Fab Labs the ideal places to

nes such as laser cutters, CNC routers and 3D printers. Users produ-

practice open design, as it requires that ‘designs and

ce two- and three-dimensional things that once could only be made

processes developed in fab labs must remain available

using equipment that cost hundreds of thousands of Euros. They use

for individual use’. Beyond that it allows intellectual

digital drawings and open-source software to control the machines;

property protection ‘however you choose’. Even more,

and they build electronic circuits and digital gadgets.

the charter explicitly continues that ‘commercial activities can be incubated in fab labs’. Yet it cautions

From a handful of Fab Labs in 2004 the network has grown to

against potential conflict with open access, and en-

over fifty active labs with as many in preparation. Some of the labs

courages business activity to both grow beyond the

are part of an educational institution, be it a high school or universi-

lab. Successful businesses should give back to the in-

ty, some act as business incubators for inventors and tinkerers, and

ventors, labs, and networks that contributed to their

others have found their place as catalysers for artists, designers and

success.

other creative minds.

Fab Labs incorporate an interesting mix of charThe Alpine region has been relatively slow in taking up the con-

acteristics that might seem contradictory at first, but

cept of Fab Labs. The Ars Electronica Center, Linz, operates a Fab

might well be considered the best practical approx-

Lab, equipped with a small selection of digital production tools and

imation of what Yochai Benkler describes as com-

geared more towards playful learning than open design. The Vienna

mons-based peer production that gives more people

Happylab – founded in 2006 as an innovation incubator, later hacker-

more control over their productivity in a self-directed

space – has recently been rebranded as a FabLab. The first Fab Lab

and community-oriented way, essentially the basis of

in Switzerland has just opened in Lucerne, and a few more labs are

open design.

planned at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and in Munich.

James: Collage aus 380 Bildern unter CC-by Lizenz (siehe Seite 21) K端nstler: Evan Jones James: Collage of 380 pictures under CC-by license (page 21) Artist: Evan Jones