weekly challenge ten : power

I was asked what I'm going to do with my new found makers powers that I have developed through this course, and to be completely honest, I'm not too sure. It has been amazing getting stuck into the makers culture and practicing these skills, I am definitely a lot more confident in my making skills, and are a lot less afraid to try making. But I don't necessarily see myself practicing these things everyday or even just as a hobby. I think they'll really come into use if something I have breaks or needs tweaking - I can see myself trying to figure out ways which I cold fix things. Maybe the best thing I have gotten out of this paper is just thinking like a maker - always seeing the potential for something even if it is considered broken or used.

weekly challenge eight : i made this

We had to take a photo of what we made. I really really hate photos, and selfies are even worse. And adding to that the fact I had to do this in a public space I can say this was my least favourite challenge.

project three : summary

The Maker Movement promotes an innovative culture where concepts of participation, collaboration and creating are encouraged. The Maker Movement celebrates the realisation of individual’s creative potential and as technological innovations surge, the opportunity to explore this potential is increasingly prevalent. As makers openly share their work and processes online, they inspire others to make instead of buy, shifting the traditional roles of producers and consumers. This has spurred a demand for customisation and personalisation of products, extending the overlap of customer and creator (Deloitte, 2014).

This was a concept that was explored in the Revamp A Lamp project. Ideas of participation, recreating and customisation are central to the design process of the Revamp A Lamp. The project challenges traditional processes of manufacturing, distributing and designing to transform the consumer into a producer to encourage engagement with the Maker Movement.

The Revamp A Lamp project primarily targets users who have little or no engagement with or interest in the Maker Movement. This was considered in the design, distribution and interaction of the product. The Revamp a Lamp promotes participation through the products design by the easy kit set nature of the product. By creating a product that can easily be assembled, users are not discouraged to participate in making. Additionally, by creating a product that can easily be assembled and disassembled, consumers are encouraged to recreate. This helps in extending the product’s life cycle as it can adapt to the users changing values and needs. In terms of distribution, the Revamp A Lamp is flat packed to allow for easy and cheap circulation of the product in order to reach as many people as possible. Together, these aspects help consumers engage with the Maker Movement.

As the Revamp A Lamp project seeks to extend the outreach of the Maker Movement, I have engaged with the movement myself throughout the design process. I have experienced how to learn through making and doing. I have learnt the importance of collaboration in order to heighten my understandings and abilities in design. This was done through searching online forums such as instructables and by talking with my peers. As I engaged with the Maker Movement throughout this project while trying to get others to participate in making, an active exchange to facilitate maker culture is developed.

If values and ideologies from the Maker Movement are applied in everyday lives people will start to realise their creative potential and what they can do and what they can learn to do (Dougherty, n.d). Dougherty (n.d) explains this concept where consumers begin to reject the idea that they are defined by the goods that they purchase and that by instead making products themselves, their internal values and intrinsic goals are present in their work, offering a better representation of their identity. In this, the Maker Movement offers an opportunity for people to play a part in creating their own world. This idea can be applied to all aspects of life, ultimately encouraging people to actively participate in the makeup of their own environments.

Dougherty, D. (n.d). The Maker Mindset. Retrieved from: https://llk.media.mit.edu/ courses/readings/maker-mindset.pdf

Deloitte. (2014). Impact of the Maker Movement. Retrieved from: http://makermedia. com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/impact-of-the-maker-movement.pdf 

project three : finals

I went back and recut my lamp from the plywood that I had used in my prototype. It doesn't look the best but at least it works. Here are some images of my final product, the instructions for it and advertisement of it.

project three : laser cutting issues

So I decided that I was going to recut my lamp shade out of acrylic. I was given feedback on my last assignment to perhaps use a nice material to make it more believable as a product. I chose a frosted clear acrylic and thought that this would be nice as it would allow for the light to glow through. So I set off to the laser cutting workshop and was ready to get everything done. It did not go well.

Firstly, while I was setting up the file on the computer something with the keyboard went wrong and it stopped working. We ended up having to shut down the whole computer which took about 15 minutes to get back up and running. Once I had finally started my cut, maybe about a quarter of the way through, a piece of the protective paper caught fire. It melted one of the corners of the acrylic sheet. Because I wanted to use the offcuts for my packaging, this was not so great. I was thinking that I would just have to come up with another way to package the product and continued the cut. Everything was finished and I was a bit disheartened but it was alright - at least I had something done. I was wrong. Although the spacing was measured perfectly, the lamp shade just did not stay together. The acrylic was too smooth to lock into place and everything fell apart. I wanted to cry. I would have to go back to the workshop again and recut my lamp out of a different material.

weekly challenge six (again) : poster

For this weekly challenge, we had to make a poster for our end of ti exhibition. Here is my submission:

project three : laser cutting, packaging, and poster drafting

This week I laser cut my wooden components for my final product. I've now included four different shape sets which will allow people to construct their own unique design for the lamp shade. Each of these shapes all fit into the same one base, and are all the same height, so when used together there will still be a sense of cohesion in the lamp's design. I'm pretty happy with how they are all looking together at the moment, and have created some interesting looks so far. It will be great to see how other people interact with it when it's on exhibition - if people will of for real crazy and weird designs or for a more ordered one.

Unfortunately, the extra width that the laser cut added to the gaps in the base pieces means that the interlocking of the parts is too loose at the moment. I will need to recut these again a tiny faction smaller to accommodate for that extra width. Not really a big task though so not too worried about it.

I still haven't started making my packaging - I think I really need to have all the components together first before doing this to see how they all work together in a flat pack. My vision is for it to be very sleek and compact to make for easy distribution.

I have also done a draft advertisement poster for my lamp. At the moment, it's just using an image of my prototype so obviously that will have to change. I was struggling a little bit with how to fit all the explanations on the page required by the brief, while still making it look like an advertisement. But, I've decided to think of it as more of an ad that you would find in a home decor magazine.

That's pretty much where I'm at at the moment - have quite a bit to get onto for the weekend!