What are the challenges and awesomeness behind making your own tools? and why should we make our own tools in the first place?

As rapid fabrication technologies become cheaper and more readily available, society will re-invent their understanding of everyday objects and their relationship with a consumption based culture.

The promise of rapid personal fabrication is that in time there will be no need for massive investments in tooling or outsourcing, this is very analogous to the way the laser printer removed the need for printing presses and movable type. We will explore methods of personal fabrication, the implications of open source hardware, what we are doing with it (Lasersaur Project) and ways it is being used by artist, hackers and researchers and what future might look like, or at least, how we hope it will look like.

BIO:

Over the last half decade, nortd’s open source hardware has been built and used by thousands of people, labs, hacker-spaces and universities worldwide. We believe that people should think globally and build locally. Nortd was founded as an international open source collaborative by ITP alumni Addie Wagenknecht and Stefan Hechenberger. Nortd’s work has been covered internationally by outlets such as the Economist, CNN, MIT Technology Review, Popular Mechanics and Make Magazine. Most recently they have been fellows at Hyperwerk Institute for Postindustrial Design, CultureLab UK and Eyebeam Art + Technology Center.