A fundamental tenet of Humblefacture is the importance of scale. Yes, material composition of products is important. And certainly the location of production realative to use is also key. But the concept of scale implies that there are some intensities, or sizes, or durations which are simply too large to fit within the Humblefacture framework. The reason for this, it turns out, is that there is one common unit we all share - the human.
Showing posts with label resilince. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resilince. Show all posts
What can a puzzle that is not really a puzzle teach us about the future of product design? Actually, maybe a lot. The above image shows a Jigazo puzzle -- like so many things, only available in Japan -- which has been assembled to display the face of a child. This isn't anything special, since puzzles already are able to faithfully depict any face, or any other image, for that matter. What makes Jigazo unique is that its single set of pieces can be arranged to display any face. The company even offers the option to run your image through software which will generate build instructions for a unique puzzle. In fact, this un-puzzle is more like a paint-by-number: reconfigurable, generic parts which derive function through their structure. This shift in thinking will have far-reaching impacts as it continues to be applied to product design.
The Colony, the newest project from Original Productions (creators of Deadliest Catch, among others) presents a group of "survivors" with the task of rebuilding civilization in the face of a viral plague and massive infrastructure breakdown. Realistically, it seems like junkyard wars with a slightly campy storyline (there are gangs of motorcycle thugs who periodically harass the group, among other things). It does, however, do a wonderful job of illustrating how difficult it would be for even a highly trained group (they've got a rocket scientist, for crying out loud) to quickly and smoothly respond to the kind of societal bump that a major epidemic would present. By focusing on low-energy, low education, highly flexible methods of manufacturing, Humblefacture seeks to make this sort of scenario much easier to respond to. It will be interesting to watch and see how changes like pervasive personal fabbing technology might alter the way this scenario unfolds.
Fellow humility advocate Jamais Cascio at the Institute for the Future has written a great article on future economies of resilience. It got us thinking: what makes for resilient making? Resilience means sacrificing some efficiency in order to have reserves and flexibility so that when circumstances change, instead of collapse, a system can sustain itself long enough so that it can change. In modern manufacturing, we see signs of brittleness in factory riots due to economic downturns, and in indicators like the meteoric rise and crash of world cardboard box markets. Hopefully, humblefacturing and other open-source, small-scale manufacturing paradigms will be able to respond more quickly to changing economies, and transition to making other items, or even transition from growing materials to growing food. Whatever the solution, it seems like more makers, more spread out, with more flexibility has to be part of the answer.
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