Author Archives: remko
THE BEGINNING OF A BEGINNING OF THE BEGINNING OF A TREND / PETER TROXLER
This portrait of open designer Ronen Kadushin reveals his vision of ‘opening’ industrial design and putting the designer firmly back in the centre of the design process. It tells of successful examples of Ronen’s design practice – the Hack Chair, … Continue reading
NO MORE BESTSELLERS / JOOST SMIERS
The present copyright system is beneficial for a few best-selling artists while providing no benefits at all for most creative professionals. Joost Smiers explores ways to improve the market, including the financial situation of most artists and designers, and to … Continue reading
LIBRARIES OF THE PEER PRODUCTION ERA / PETER TROXLER
Mapping the landscape of commons-based peer production, Peter Troxler analyses the arena of open source hardware and looks into various initiatives being spawned by fabrication labs, trying to identify their business potential and asking how these initiatives contribute to giving … Continue reading
MADE IN MY BACKYARD / BRE PETTIS
Envisioning the potential of open source tools to facilitate making, Bre Pettis retraces the thorny and convoluted path from wanting to produce self-replicating robots, through a series of prototypes, to being at the core of a little universe of 2,500 … Continue reading
AUTHORS AND OWNERS / ANDREW KATZ
Andrew Katz traces the origins of the problems of copyright legislation and practice when confronted with the natural, human, social mode of creative endeavour. Building on developments in open source software, he outlines how designers could benefit from a similar … Continue reading
THE GENERATIVE BEDROCK OF OPEN DESIGN / MICHEL AVITAL
A shift in communications infrastructure is an important factor in how open design has taken shape and the possibilities it offers. It is a transition from the ‘internet of things’ to the things of the internet. Michel Avital analyses the … Continue reading
INTO THE OPEN / JOHN THACKARA
John Thackara portrays openness in general as a matter of survival to overcome the legacy of an industrial economy obsessed with control, and open design in particular as a new way to make, use and look after things. He calls … Continue reading
REDESIGNING DESIGN / JOS DE MUL
Open design is not a clear and unambiguous development or practice. Jos de Mul names a few of the problems he perceives with open design, without venturing to suggest any indication of how they might be solved. He then goes … Continue reading
ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN DESIGN / PAUL ATKINSON
Investigating the roots of open design and identifying its resulting technological, economical and societal changes, Atkinson contemplates the vast consequences this development will have for the design profession and the distribution of design. Paul Atkinson The concepts of open design … Continue reading
WYS ≠ WYG
Automated production processes have become so refined that it has become virtually impossible for enthusiasts to re-engineer microscopic parts of machines. That sets limits on to how open an open design can be, for instance if it comes to open … Continue reading