My design interest centres around 3D printers and other small-scale digital fabrication technologies and how they can be effectively used in makerspaces and domestic settings. From the perspective of Actor-Network Theory (ANT), critical making, and speculative design, I prefer hands-on methods and conduct material explorations using a broad range of media, including wood, concrete, plastic, and re-purposed objects. I think about my work as post-anthropocentric studio experiments and the result of significant contribution from both humans and non-humans in diffuse constellations of maker practice. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory supports my contention that making is a networked practice involving more than just humans. Through ANT, non-human constituents of these networks are much more than neutral bystanders and this perspective offers an impartial way to reflect on how non-humans improvise during design processes, and, supports the idea of non-humans having agency in maker practice.
The Co-created Ceramic Object Experiments (CCOE) are hybrid material entanglement of white stoneware clay and poly-lactic-acid (PLA) 3D printer waste. Each form has been created through an experimental 3D printing process using clay and fragments of PLA plastic material. The form of each CCOE began during an online critical making workshop conducted as a chapter of my thesis research. As such, the CCOE are part of a complex and entrenched network of human and non-human actors highlighting how design objects are surreptitiously “gerrymandered by an equally long and hidden chain of actors” (Cypher, 2017, pg. 124). As basic geometric 3D models co-created by participants during the online workshops, we digitally pushed, pulled, and created 3D models using digital modelling software. Afterwards, the models were downloaded, 'sliced' using 3D printing software, and 3D printed into small polylactic acid (PLA) plastic objects. Over several weeks, these 3D printed objects continually associated with myriad human and non-human actors including myself, 3D printers, 'makerspace' workshop technicians, ceramicists, kilns, plastic 3D printer waste, and ceramics and maker techniques. Through a multitude of associations, manipulations, and experimentations involving human and non-human actors, the CCOE forms have been translated into their present state.
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The Co-created Ceramic Object Experiments (CCOE) are hybrid material entanglement of white stoneware clay and poly-lactic-acid (PLA) 3D printer waste. Each form has been created through an experimental 3D printing process using clay and fragments of PLA plastic material. The form of each CCOE began during an online critical making workshop conducted as a chapter of my thesis research. As such, the CCOE are part of a complex and entrenched network of human and non-human actors highlighting how design objects are surreptitiously “gerrymandered by an equally long and hidden chain of actors” (Cypher, 2017, pg. 124). As basic geometric 3D models co-created by participants during the online workshops, we digitally pushed, pulled, and created 3D models using digital modelling software. Afterwards, the models were downloaded, 'sliced' using 3D printing software, and 3D printed into small polylactic acid (PLA) plastic objects. Over several weeks, these 3D printed objects continually associated with myriad human and non-human actors including myself, 3D printers, 'makerspace' workshop technicians, ceramicists, kilns, plastic 3D printer waste, and ceramics and maker techniques. Through a multitude of associations, manipulations, and experimentations involving human and non-human actors, the CCOE forms have been translated into their present state.
Small Cylinder
No longer for sal
