Earth’s Natural Wealth: an Audit explores the depletion of exotic materials necessary for manufacturing high-tech products through a series of intense infographics. The lesson is that some of our most desirable elements (Indium for LCD screens, Gallium for lasers and LEDs) are set to become completely extinct with ten or twenty years with no substitute […]
Category Archives: fabrication
material extinction
Also posted in environment, materials, supply chain, upcycling, visualization
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how things aren’t made
Transparency in manufacturing is fascinating – being able to peer inside the LEGO factory or watching how TCHO chocolate is made really gives you a feel for the product that you wouldn’t otherwise have. But transparency can also be selective: what about a photogenic cigarette factory or Nike’s pride about their only non-sweatshop shoes? Then […]
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lap sack
HP announced it would start shipping laptops in reusable cloth bags instead of the usual cardboard boxes, a step toward reducing materials that have nowhere to go but away. via
Also posted in energy, environment, futurecraft, materials, product design, soft/glowing, supply chain
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digital sweat
I recently watched Stephanie Rothenberg speak about her project doublehappinessjeans, a Second Life sweatshop that produces designer denim by the underpaid labor of virtual avatars; producing the goods in both physical and digital form. The idea makes an intriguing point about the ideal of Personal Fabrication: that one day manufacturing of complex products will be […]
Also posted in fashion, futurecraft, marketing, possessed products, product design, soft/glowing
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black tin 2
Tin Mining In Bangka Island – Click here for this week’s top video clips I’ve talked about the devastation that illegal tin mining has wrought on the island of Bangka (Indonesia), and while preparing my talk for the Nightmarket 2008 workshop I came across this video which gives us a glimpse into the squalid conditions […]
Also posted in conviviality, environment, materials, supply chain
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monolithic shoes
I couldn’t resist these Puma Injex shoes injection molded in one piece from non-PVC (presumably Polyurethane) foam rubber: they’re light and cushy and they appear to waste less material than typical shoes. In reality these are just attractive crocs, and they made me wonder whether they represent any benefit over traditional sneakers. They weigh about […]
Also posted in energy, fashion, product design, soft/glowing
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DIY vase
Enzo Mari’s Ecolo’ vase kit is a gift and a method: it contains four household plastic containers artfully cut up into flower vases, and it prompts you to do the same with all of the other plastic containers you might throw out.
Also posted in free & open, open objects, upcycling
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being wrong
Patagonia’s Footprint Chronicles is a remarkable feat for a fashion company: a visualization of their products’ global supply chains on a map, along with videos of each step in the manufacturing process, and descriptions of each item in terms of distance traveled, CO2 emissions, waste generated and energy consumption. Not only is it impressive that […]
Also posted in blogogracy, fashion, free & open, futurecraft, marketing, materials, open objects, product design, supply chain, traceability, visualization
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