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• To classify and critically reflect on the currently most common approaches and techniques of digital fabrication
• To analyze the technical possibilities and limitations of selected manufacturing technologies and to understand what they mean for design practice
• To understand how to use digital fabrication technologies and how to use them in your own projects
• To implement a design idea using digital fabrication
• To document an original creative design process, preparing fabrication steps for replication by others, and presenting created artifacts
• To apply computational thinking in the production of 3D artefacts

This course focuses on digital fabrication technologies that have gained popularity in recent years, mainly in the context of the so-called maker movement. Supposedly new smart tools such as 3D printers, CNC machines and microcontrollers theoretically open up the possibility for every (technically adept) person to produce everything themselves. However, despite this great creative and innovative potential, the practice looks different when you consider the manual complexity of designing new things and various socio-technical barriers that make it difficult for people without a technical background to access and deal with manufacturing technologies.

The course therefore offers practical opportunities for an in-depth study of selected fabrication tools that are often used in the design and digital fabrication of interactive prototypes, as well as associated design methods.

The lecture part includes:

• An overview of technologies and methods of digital fabrication;
• Basics of additive and subtractive manufacturing using selected manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing and laser cutting;
• Microcontroller and the use of smart materials such as in the area of paper circuits and e-textiles;
• 3D formats, computational/generative approaches to 3d object creation

The exercise part includes:

• Guided experimentation with digital fabrication and independent exploration of design spaces;
• A critical examination of conflicts of interest around manufacturing technologies between innovative potentials and socio-technical, ecological and ethical problems;
• Several projects in which design ideas are put into practice and the design process is documented;

ECTS BREAKDOWN: 6 ECTS = 150h

• 25h lectures, demos, workshops
• 25h individual work in maker lab on mini-projects
• 75h autonomous work on group project
• 25h individual essay (incl visit to a makerspace, documentation, review of literature and online ressources, critical reflection)

• Active participation in the course
• Quality of project work
• Cooperation with colleagues
• Quality of project documentation