Democratise... Stuff?!

[This is the advert for a new workshop series I'm putting together with Kisha Bradley and Gareth Coleman... watch this space for dates!]

The net revolutionised the virtual world and made publishing free to all.

But what about the chair your sit on or the fork you eat with?

What if we get the ability to share, modify and build anything, in the same way we can publish anything? What if we can democratise the creation and recreation of the physical world? What if we can devolve manufacturing to individuals and communities?

Perhaps we would make different choices? Perhaps we wouldn't put profit before people? Perhaps we would stop melting the poles...?

This workshop series offers a snapshot of the technology behind devolved manufacturing. We'll create a digital model of a physical object (your face in profile, or the outline of your hand). We'll use open source software running on the Raspberry Pi (made in Wales!) to manipulate the model and send it as control codes to a vinyl cutter. We'll produce a personalised sticker for you to take away as a souvenir.

And we'll take a little step towards democratic stuff :)