AIM AND INTENT:

To make a delta 3d printer using the parts of the cartesian 3d printer available to us. Writing and constructing a working code for the printer to work. Also, to design a blueprint of the next step of the 3d printer. Along with diagrams.

The approach to form-making or form-finding and material explorations are seen through the idea of tools. How do the tools shape our idea of form and space? How are design processes shaped around the tools which we use, or in the other way? Also, with the tools that exist today, how can tools be rethought, or how can the tools be upgraded with advancement in technology? So, we decided to rethink the present cartesian 3d printer and upgrade it to a delta 3d printer, which makes it much faster, efficient and more versatile. We would also be setting up a base for the next version of the printing tool.

RESEARCH QUESTION: 

The process of form generation starts from questioning the idea of tools which then tries to put forth a few propositions  of imagination of a new tool through new technologies, and these propositions are made looking at the wide spectrum of tools that are being used today, and the various upgrades that can be done on them.

Few tools are thus transformed further when the human body is studied and hence replicated in the form of a machine that is programmed or choreographed to perform certain tasks, like a 3D printer. The human involvement in this process is thus at the input level and the remaining process is autonomous. These tools were mainly used at the level of industrial generation, but domestic models of the tools are also created where there is an idea of personal fabrication has become very common with 3D printers and other desktop machines. The idea of personal fabrication thus leading a shift in the idea of skills and material. The idea of potter where the making of pots is not taken from any drawing but it is due to the human mind and hands which work together to get the form. Also, there is a constant change in the form. When this comes to personal fabrication tools, the idea of a form is first generated which hence takes a material input or vice versa, but the skill here is questioned. This is different when it comes to a generative or digital process when the input is provided by the human, where the input is a set of parameters and we get many iterations of form as an output. Here, the skills of humans can be seen as the lines of code input in the process. Digital or generative tools can also be seen as an extension to human beings, whereas tools which are autonomous can be seen as individuals like human beings. Here, we are also made to rethink the making processes because of the autonomy.

Looking at the autonomous tools, and studying human engagement, there is very little involvement or engagement in the process of making. The proposed idea of the tool looks at the process of involvement of humans in making, this is where the human is seen not as a third person operating the tool but as an identity operating with the tool. There is a sense of play that is seen in this process, and hence the process becomes joyful along with form generation.

Research Source:
http://www.keep-art.co.uk/Self_build.html
http://www.keep-art.co.uk/printhead.html