Makers, design and exaptation

Pierpaolo AndrianiKedge Business School

Marseille, France

What is a horse?

What is a chair?

Biology

Data (genome)

Unfolding history

Organism

Technology

Information (file)

Unfolding history

Product/service

machinery machinery

The evolution of form

Form (bits)

Form (atoms)

We can separate the design of a product from its manufacture for the first time in history, because all the information necessary to print that object is built into the design

Bass: The past present and future of 3-D printing http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/the-past-present-and-future-of-3-d printing/2011/08/21/gIQAg4fJZJ_story.html

Like in biology, the evolution of form proceeds on two levels

Atom/form becomes the instantiation of the bit/form

Form as information

embedded in atoms

From bits to atoms: 3D printersBrook Drumm

Form 1

Pwdr 3D Printer

Reprap

Makerbot – Replicator 2XTinkerine Ditto

Solidoodle

ORDbot

Reprap – Rostock Design

From atoms to bits: 3D scanners

Zcorp

Viuscan Laser Scanner

Photosimile 5000

SCENECT: scanning with Kinect

Go!SCAN 3D

http://www.bitrebels.com/technology/lego-3d-scanner-bringing-real-objects-into-a-3d-world/

Makerbot scanner

http://www.soyacincau.com/2011/01/08/trimensional-turn-your-iphone-4-into-a-3d-scanner/

The Maker Design Cycle (MDC)

Form (bits)

Form (atoms)

3D scanning

3D printing

3D design

What does it mean for design?

but … can we have a proliferation of forms without limits?

What drives forms?

FunctionForm (bits)

Form (atoms)

3D scanning

3D printing

3D design

The synthesis of artificial form

Design is

‘the process of inventing physical things which display new physical

order, form, in response to function’ (Alexander, 1964, page 1)

But then what drives function?

FunctionForm (bits)

Form (atoms)

3D scanning

3D printing

3D design

Well …

it turns out that form controls function

Through the process of

Exaptation!

The “invention” of the microwave oven

From a radar system To the microwave industry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Goodbar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h1ESUz2H3E&feature=player_detailpage

Solar bottles

The very first synthetic drug was a dye used in the textile industry

The first antidepressant

If we open Life Magazine at page 20 …

Life Magazine, page 20

Life Magazine, page 21

Gould’s tyre to sandal principle

Lift Marseille

Form (bits)

Form (atoms)

3D scanning

3D printing

3D design

Production and design under (literally) the same roof (or garage)?

Users

Canalising attention toward integrated experience?

bits atoms

3D scanning

3D printing

DesignerProducer

User Bits Atoms

3D scanning

3D printing

Function

Traditional design

Exaptive design

Function

Traditional design

Exaptive design

Form (bits)

Form (atoms)

3D scanning

3D printing

3D design

Form (bits)

Form (atoms)

3D scanning

3D printing

3D design

Production

Adaptive design, production and exaptive design

Toward the experience economy?

• ...thank you for your attention…

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Courtesy: Giuseppe Carignani

The space of potential applications of product/service is not pre-statable