#15791 - Distributed Design Platform

Detailed Description

The open-source Macro Yarn Machine allows folx to create experimental yarns in architectural scale, which are used to build transformative or temporal spaces.

Project Details

In your project's current stage of development, how does it align with the OPENNESS value of the Distributed Design Platform?: There are no secrets here: The machine consists of 3d printed parts, hardware from the hardware store, and runs with arduino. Instructions and source files will be uploaded in Github after checking again for errors, by the end of July. I am looking forward to collaborate on iterations or seeing other people building and using this machine for their own experimentation.

In your project's current stage of development, how does it align with the COLLABORATIVE value of the Distributed Design Platform?: Folx can iterate the machine itself, however, I haven't yet had the opportunity to experiment to the extend I wanted – in the near future I want to facilitate workshops and write in-depth instructions to teach other people to use the machine, to play with materials and take a closer look at material ecologies in this process. I believe that through co-creating we will develop the machine and its possible material outcomes further. My favorite material so far is the growing yarn, which consists of light wool felt embedded with soil and local flower seeds.

In your project's current stage of development, how does it align with the REGENERATIVE value of the Distributed Design Platform?: My motivation in building this machine was the inaccessibility of a specific industrial textile processes, and the design fatigue I had when . I saw the potential of this technique for the future of temporal and transformative spaces, but more even for using raw, low-threshold and waste materials that otherwise would never end up in a textile shape and are given new design opportunities through this technology. The machine allows for small-scale and local prototyping for new shapes of yarn materials by playing with the machine's customizability.

In your project's current stage of development, how does it align with the ECOSYSTEMIC value of the Distributed Design Platform?: Schumacher said in 1976 in Small is Beautiful that "mass production is inherently violent". With the constant inertia of capitalism and globalisation, this quote can be applied to current times. I believe in alternative ways of production, with a focus on local materials and for local needs. As a textile and material designer I want to contribute with design research and the building of open-source textile fabrication machines to foster collective growth and people-centered technologies.