1. CRITICAL MAKING
Research & Development
Matt Ratto (with thanks to Dan Southwick, Isaac Record, and critical making lab)
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. Critical making signals the
ways in which productions—
whether of video, web-based
communications, gardens,
radio transmitters, or robots—
are understood as
politically transformative
activities by the individuals
and groups described in each
chapter. (Ratto & Boler,
introduction to DIY
Citizenship, MIT Press)
12. • …it is of the paramount importance that the means of
general information should be so diffused that the
largest possible number of persons be induced to
read and understand questions going down to the
very foundations of social order…
• City of Boston Report on Libraries – July 1852
13. …in an age when the public has become accustomed to
scientific investigation and experimentation, to rapid
technological development, and to social and culture
changes incident to them, the library cannot perform its
educational function with distinction unless it utilizes all
possible aids in broadening and enriching its own
educational services and in promoting other adult
education organizations.
Louis Wilson (1937)
14. • These changes in technology, media, and society require
the development of critical media literacy to empower
students and citizens to adequately read media messages
and produce media themselves in order to be active
participants in a democratic society (Kellner, 1995; Kellner
& Share, 2005).
• In Kellner & Share, 2007
15. it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be
reminded that, in operational and
practical fact, the medium is the
message. (Mcluhan, Understanding
Media, 7)
16. HOW TO TEACH 3D
PRINTING?
Tropes, History, and Implications
24. History and Development of the
Technology
First 3D printers Developed in 1980s
• Design by Chuck Hull of 3D Systems, this early printer used the
Stereolithography technique
RepRap Project Begins in 2005
• The first object is successfully printed by RepRap 0.2 prototype in
September 2006
MakerBot Industries Founded in 2009
• 3,500 units were sold as of March 2011
• On June 19, 2013 Stratasys Incorporated announced it acquired
MakerBot in a stock deal worth $403 Million (USD)
25. History and Development of the
Technology
3D Printing is Not Just One Technology
• Stereolithography
• Fused Deposition
• Laser Sintering
30. cc Matt Ratto, matt.ratto@utoronto.ca 30
Culture of tinkering, hacking & DIY:
RepRap
RepRap is a seminal UK-based
project that seeks the ongoing
development of an extremely
affordable, open source 3d printer
that is designed to be self-replicating
(capable of printing all of its own key
structural components).
31. cc Matt Ratto, matt.ratto@utoronto.ca 31
Towards desktop fabrication:
MakerBot
Building on the intellectual and physical
resources borne of the RepRap project,
a team of NYC hackers start MakerBot
Industries, a company that manufactures
and markets affordable 3d printer kits.
(Some assembly required - a kind of
“DIY-lite”.)
Their mission: to hasten the forthcoming
3D Printing Revolution.
33. History and Development of the
Technology
Model Objet 30 Pro Replicator 2
Resolution 0.028 mm
600 x 600 x 900 dpi
0.100 mm
approx. 150 dpi
Build
Envelope
300 x 200 x 150
mm
285 x 153 x 155
mm
Material Cost $0.33/gram* $0.05/gram*
Price CA$45,000 CA$2,199
48. Critical Issues
• Novel Spaces for Fabrication
• Citizen Empowerment
• The evolving consumer
• New conceptions of labour
• Unlocking latent entrepreneurship
(Ratto, M., & Ree, R. (2012). Materializing information: 3D printing and social
change. First Monday, 17(7). doi:10.5210/fm.v17i7.3968)
50. The World Health Organization
estimates that in Latin America,
Africa, and Asia combined, almost 30
million people require prosthetic
limbs, braces, or other devices, up
from 24 million in 2006 (Aleccia
2010).
51. Amputation Causes
• Vascular Disease (rising incidents)
• Land Mines (26,000 amputations/year)
• 300,000 worldwide
• Industrial or Environmental Accidents
• Terrorist Attacks
• Lack of Basic Public Health
• Diabetes
• Gangrene
• Infection
• Bone diseases like poliomyelitis and osteomyelitis.
53. How Many Prosthetics?
• Children – every 6 to 12 months.
• Adults – every 3 to 5 years.
• Limb deficient child at 10 years of age will need
approximately 25 limbs in his/her lifetime.
• Limb deficient adult will need approximately 15
to 20 limbs during their lifetime.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59. The First Problem
• World Health Organization studies (2003).
• Current confirmation by International Society of
Prosthetics and Orthotics and Michiel Steenbeek, CBM
Advisor Physical Impairment and Rehabilitation.
• Current supply of Prosthetic Technicians falls
short by approximately 40,000.
• It will take approximately 50 years to train
just 18,000 more skilled professionals.
60. Solution
1. Scan (infrared laser surface scan).
2. Software (Manipulate/edit digital data scan).
3. 3D Print (Output of plastic socket).
• 3-year Project to prove concept viability.
• 35 children aged 2-18 as direct beneficiaries.
• 68 appliances (comparing conventional made to
3D-printed).
• Supply-chain & plastic recycling business model.
• CoRSU Training Centre for Prosthetists.
81. Reader’s Advisory
• Doctorow, C. (2006). Printcrime. Retrieved from
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19000
• Sterling, B. (2008). The Kiosk. Retrieved from
http://web.archive.org/web/20080402023736/http://www.sf
site.com/fsf/fiction/bs01.htm
• Mayo, M., & Ross, T. (1999). Why the Sea is Salt and
Other Stories. London: Orchard Books.
82. • ...the older you get, as a student, the work becomes
• much less playful and much more about a straightforward
and logical approach to facts. That’s not especially
surprising because the latter approach is normally seen
as the more ‘grown-up’, mature approach to things. I’d
say that’s not helpful at all. In fact as the ideas we are
learning become more complex, and we need to be more
sophisticated in dealing with them, then a playful and
imaginative approach is exactly what you need.
(Gauntlett, 2006
83. "Many people are trying to
recover a field of vision that
is basically human in scale,
and extricate themselves
from dependence on the
obscure forces of a global
economy” (Matthew
Crawford)
84. • While we agree that the creation of library maker spaces
is a good first step and that the development of technical
skills is important, our goal in this essay is to describe
how these spaces and the content associated with them
can be developed inline with the notion of critical literacy
already embraced within the library tradition.
(Ratto, M & Southwick, D. (forthcoming) Critical Maker Spaces.
