CURRENT

printers designed to be shared—modified and re-shared—aim to
bring high quality, low cost printing to anyone [6, 5]. Meanwhile
large industry players, commercial manufacturers, continue to
compete by absorbing competitors and other manufacturers into
higher verticals on a regular basis [2].

All of this activity has created a broad understanding of the
technology and a wider base of engagement. There is a highly
diversified field of opportunity that ranges across: how content is
made (modeling software, user interface, output technology type),
what our relationships to products and markets are (shared, co-de-
signed, disposable, customizable) and how production is defined
(made at home, made locally, or made offshore). Like the freedom
of complexity found in the virtual 3D space, each of these elements
are scalable, they can address the individual and/or large collec-
tion of allied individuals, small industry with a local mandate or
large industry with considerable geographic reach.

WHAT IS IT WE DO?

The Material Matters research centre at Emily Carr University of
Art + Design is actively exploring these new digital properties in
tandem with traditional methods and material production. “As 3D
printing becomes less expensive, more powerful and more perva-
sive it diffuses into a wider range of opportunities” [7]. As hybrid
forms of methodology and processes emerge they intersect with
established means for making and knowledge transfer for students
and faculty alike. “Material Matters examines these intersec-
tions with an emphasis on four interrelated components: material
research and development, lateral application, partnerships, and
knowledge transfer” [7].

CRITICAL THINKING IS CRITICAL STRATEGY

What does it meant to identify as makers in contemporary soci-
ety? What does it mean to re-situate and to re-contextualize our

knowledge of making and craft? Contemporary reflective practices
in both Design and Material Practice act as a means to identify

an evolving connection between new digital processes and estab-
lished material practices. How we approach our craft and Craft’s
implicit relationship to the individual, ultimately affects the way
objects are perceived.

This raises numerous opportunities for exploration: Process
knowledge—3p printing at a large scale is a relatively new field
with a multifaceted workflow. In order to adequately engage the
technology multiple skill-sets must be implemented; Design Meth-
odology—as 3D printing redefines production pathways objects
take on the very character of their design parametrics, influencing
the complexity of material practice and production while affording
variables in ever increasing diversity; and Knowledge Mobilization
through distributed Social/relational Forums—social forums are
at the ready, offering an immediate call out to expertise.

MATERIALS MATTER

We are developing alternate pathways to object making that
conflate the new digital workflow with the inherent strengths of
legacy processes like Ceramics, like Foundry. Collaborations in
material research with teaching faculty and students enrolled in
studio courses, both in fine art and design, have lead to a greater
integration and enabled forums for reciprocal knowledge transfer
between what we recognize as the distributed processes of making
(the craft) and the artisanal (the Craft). Our research and peda-
gogic activities have us casting directly into 3pP forms and objects
in “true-life” materials in the foundry, forms that are originally
conceived and iterated in digital modeling software and printed as
a void of the true materiality of the intended outcome. The tensions
that are found in this translation between this conflagration of
“true-life” material properties drive discovery and new insights [10].

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Figure 1. 3D Printing offers access to design development to an audience that was previously unaware of it.