Exploring Emergent Technologies
Syllabus⇝
Exploring emergent technologies continues the journey through the underlying layers, the boundaries, and the frictions of modern tech.
We will focus on emergent technologies, in other words, cultural practices we might have heard about, but we want you to explore on your own, to question and master them, before they become a marketing buzzword.
We selected two key areas of exploration:
Remixing Materials:⇝
We will take a hands-on approach to materials, with a specific focus on upcycling waste into newer materials and bio-based recipes. For many years designers thought of materials as something to choose from a catalog, a patented formula developed in giant laboratories. However, our home kitchen offers tonnes of possibilities to start the design process from material sources such as waste and use systemic design practices to connect it with the local socio-economic context.
Collective intelligence:⇝
More than a space for collective exploration, the Internet became a magnified lens of existing systems of power. In the last term, in the Extended Intelligences seminar, we looked at the applications and implications of AI, this time we will unfold technologies and key concepts that could allow users to retake collective control of nowadays digital platforms.
Faculty⇝
Guillem Camprodon is a designer and technologist working in the intersection between emergent technologies and grassroots communities. He is the executive director of Fab Lab Barcelona at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), a benchmark in the network of over 2000 Fab Labs and home of the Distributed Design Platform. He has a passion for teaching and is the co-director of the Master on Design For Emergent Futures (MDEF), a collaboration between IAAC and ELISAVA. Previously, he led Smart Citizen, a platform that opposes the traditional top-down Smart City model, empowering communities with tools to understand their environment. As a former research lead, he participated in many European-funded research and innovation projects, such as Making Sense, iSCAPE, GROW Observatory, Organicity, DECODE, ROMI and Reflow.
Anastasia is a Greek architect that has been working with Digital Fabrication technologies, design and education since 2009. She has been part of Fab Lab Barcelona (IAAC) since 2011 as a researcher, practitioner, advanced manufacturing officer and project leader in the Textiles and Materials research area. In 2013 she co-founded fabtextiles.org, a research laboratory on textiles, soft architectures, innovative materials, and sustainability. In 2017 she co-founded Fabricademy, Textile and Technology Academy, a distributed educational program and community of practitioners that promotes and researches the implications and applications of wearable technology and Digital Fabrication in Fashion, Textiles and Biology. Anastasia has participated in several European-funded projects managing topics such as artistic residencies, society and culture, circular economy and sustainability in the European Textile & Clothing sector, co-creation methodologies, science with and for society, gender inclusion, female creativity and innovation potential, among others: EASTN, Made@EU, TCBL, SISCODE and Shemakes. She promotes open knowledge and sharing practices with various available publications in biomaterial making, additive manufacturing, digital fabrication and sustainability. Moreover, Anastasia has been a curator and producer of the annual exhibition on FabTextiles Digital Fashion and Wearables Showcase since 2014. Combining digital fabrication techniques and crafts, she demonstrates how new technologies can shift the massive consumption and fast production to a customized, open-source, personal and local fabrication applied to education, everyday life and new enterprises.
Oscar Gonzalez
Sense Making Expert
Óscar González is an Industrial Engineer based in Barcelona with expertise in data analysis, testing and calibration through his experience in automotive and sensor development. Óscar is the Sense Making lead at Fab Lab Barcelona team doing research and development within the Smart Citizen project and is an instructor at the Fabacademy program.
Víctor Barberán Soler
Hardware and Software Expert
Víctor Barberán is an Industrial Designer with more than 20 years of experience developing custom technology for multidisciplinary art and science projects. Throughout his career, Victor Barberán has worked in electronics design, software development, data analysis, modelling and animation, and digital postproduction. Currently, Victor works as part of the Fab Lab Barcelona as a software and hardware developer in multiple research projects, such as the Smart Citizen project. He is also the Electronics lead for the Fabricademy, Fab Academy and the Masters of Design for Emergent Futures program.