FabLab - Ars Electronica Center
2008 - 2011
The FabLab, as described under Exhibition Projects: FabLab includes a significant amount of customized software, developed and adopted to provide children and novice users and easy and playful start with Fablab-technologies.
Fab labs, as coined by Neil Gershenfeld, have established a great point of view for educational access to modern means of invention and technological empowerment. Our main goal was to provide an easy entry level to design software and digital manufacturing machines through intuitive interfaces to enables visitors of the FabLab to get in contact with the technical infrastructure and produce their own ideas.
Creative Prototyping: Visitors can use special made intuitive 3D software when beginners, or work with professional products, in case they are already experienced users.
Shared Creativity: All designs made in the Lab appear on the Digital Gallery next to the gallery of physical objects directly in the lab to give also other visitors and users an idea what is going on and possible with the given infrastructure.
Integrative System: All computer controlled devices (and installations) are interconnected. Saving a design makes it appear in the Digital Gallery and at the same time at the Fabrication Stations (printer laser cutter, 3D printer,...) where customized interfaces again help unexperiencens users in the fabrication process.
Pictures on the left show screenshots of the software environments.
Introducing the FabLab as Interactive Exhibition Space (IDC 2010)
Research and realization of the FabLab was part of my work at Ars Electronica Futurelab.