Fabricating the Future: Makers in the Shared Economy

“Fabricating the Future: Makers in the Shared Economy”

Physical fabrication forms a core discipline of contemporary design education. The mandate to ‘make’ crosses almost every path a student can take through school. And just as often as designers, creatives, technologists, policymakers, faculty, and students are asked to substantiate their design research with physical products, they find opportunities to turn made objects into launching points for truly creative research. Meanwhile in the city, practicing makers increasingly blur the distinctions between digital and ‘conventional’ fabrication, as well as the meanings of ‘research’ and ‘product.’ This selection of designers does exactly that, with work that is as creative and conscientious as it is accomplished and entrepreneurial. This facilitated discussion (workshop) will offer the opportunity to further extend the domain of innovative methods and technologies within digital fabrication in the field of design and built environment, through an active presentation of three to four presenters, and a moderated panel discussion.

Meanwhile, the facilitated discussions will include participation and extend partnerships between New York and learning further from a) Autodesk (in San Francisco and Boston), b) from the various actors within the NYCEDC Futureworks partnerships in New York, such as NEW Inc, NEW lab, A/D/O, and c) bring the foundations of these relationships from NYC institutions such as Parsons and the Future Factory (http://futurefactory.cc) lab, Columbia GSAPP, and CUNY, and d) to foster a critical discussion on the future of urban living. Future Factory (FF) with the intention of it is an educational and student-led “research group and laboratory investigating the access and ownership of technological information that is distributed amongst the various private and public players within New York City”, the mentorship through the various mentioned players, especially through discussion with the Futureworks network, could better structure the future discussions of: 1) the future of work, 2) the future of urban living, and 3) the future of cities. These research interests of the above three categories, with the assistant of the research assistants already part of the research lab, will then be documented through case-studies broadcasted on the website and shared within the larger community.

Participants within this workshop will be generating new case studies, and discussions towards a digital publication after the 4-hour workshop. Published case-studies will be found at the Future Factory digital platform.