MYTHS-BUSTING

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, or 3D printing as we have come to know
it, represents both an emergent personal production platform and
a scale-able manufacturing process. Fundamentally it is really
nothing new. Researchers and private enterprise first filed patents
on stereolithography in the early 1980s. And it has been present
in Industry for some time since, though usually expensive and
usually complicated. Though the fundamental process of material
production of a “real world” 3p dimensional objects from 3D data
still seems pretty far out for most of us, it is only recently that we
have felt its impact widely through a new era of personal produc-
tion platforms and hybrid applications [9, 7].

Itis no small coincidence that we are experiencing a renewed
interest in the fundamental technology of 3p printing given that
40 years have passed since the original industrial patents took

effect. Commercial machines beget personal production platforms.

This newly enabled production capacity on the desktop—the tran-
sition from digital content directly to true-life object regardless of
geometric complexity—presents massive challenges and develop-
ment opportunities. We now have the ability to realize previously
unimaginable material goods quickly (of one material or other)
simply and if need be, serially, at home. Virtually any object can be
printed now, albeit in fairly limited materials enabling a virtually
limitless applicability. At what cost? This paper will discuss this in
greater detail in the sections that follow.

Additive Manufacturing processes or Direct Digital Manufactur-
ing (DDM) are built upon a fluid digital infrastructure that actually
allows for a level of public participation and interaction that is
unprecedented, perhaps unpredicted. Powerful pcs and laptops,
affordable full-featured 3p modeling programs, and high-speed
communications networks allow for the design, production, shar-
ing and refinement of any aspect of 3D printing architecture, even
at home. It was only a matter of time that proprietary rights held
through industrial patents fell away offering a pivot, an unlock to
access (and meaning) [8].

Traditionally, Research and Development (R&D) that incor-
porated 3p printing was a complicated, expensive, material and
time-consuming process controlled primarily through vertical
proprietary technologies and materials. It was out of sight, and out
of reach for most of us. 3D printing as we now knowit, has emerged
from the Open Source. 3D printing offers access to design devel-
opment to an audience that was previously unaware of it, never
seriously considered it and most probably unable to afford it.

WHAT IS IT?

So, 3D printing is a technology with the capability to produce vir-
tually any type of form regardless of its complexity, in a range of
materials. Despite this asset there are distinct barriers and com-
promises to uptake. As commercial 3D printers produce objects
of high resolution with high reliability, but operate at a relatively
high cost, most commercial systems operate within a closed
loop—output equipment is tied to proprietary consumables—

this arrangement produces an ongoing, reliable revenue stream to
manufacturers but also acts to perpetuate common commercial
verticals. In turn, many printed objects tend to be limited by bud-
getary considerations and constrained material palate rather than
opportune design intent or technological capacity.

OPEN SOURCE HARD-WARES

Open Source communities, Doing It With Others, and 3D Print ser-
vice bureaus are rich Social/Make sites that help shape solutions
by lending a greater cultural context to a problem, be it endemic to
material things, hardware, a communication strategy or product
service. Direct Digital Design and Additive Manufacture are facil-
itating new pathways for the design, development and distribution
of material goods within this paradigm. Existing sites for knowl-
edge exchange and our core assumptions about what makes up a
contemporary material practice are being radically redefined. This
renders the likeness of objecthood in a new, more meaning-full
light. Here is an opportunity for Makers, Artisans and Designers
to develop anew as we shift towards a new paradigm for making/
design/craft and production.

Within the design process and analogous to any research and
development cycle, carefully considered iteration is a core concept.
One could argue that matching a refined concept to its appropriate
material production, is a core strength. Open Source Appropriate
Technologies (OSAT) remove barriers to knowledge production
and design development [4]. Pearce, writing from the perspective
of a research scientist, looks to identify the key characteristics of
what OSAT is, “Open source appropriate technology ... is the ability
to harness the power of distributed peer review, source trans-
parency, and the gift culture from the open source movement/
academia and the contextual development capacity of ATs” (appro-
priate technology). Pearce’s definition of OSAT, for our purposes
in the pmP lab here at Emily Carr University affords a mean-
ing-making directive to our emergent technology, techniques and
processes. OSAT and Peer Production are disrupting our notions of
what it means to make on a large scale just as new media has rede-
fined our relationship to entertainment.

We have entered an era of democratized production, an era
of product on demand, and an era where ideas are largely inde-
pendent of vertical infrastructures. The relationship between an
object, how it is made, what is made of, where it is made, by whom
and when is now the responsibility of the consumer/designer of
that object. “Transformative change happens when industries
democratize, when they’re ripped from the sole domain of com-
panies, governments, and other institutions and handed over to
regular folks” [1].

3D printing has seen a great deal of proliferation and diversifica-
tion (democratization) in recent years as influenced by the Open
Source. Inspired, and in some instance parented by Adrian Bow-
yer’s Rep Rap, a machine that is “revolutionary” and one that will

“bring down global capitalism,” a vast selection of open source

MATERIAL PRACTICES