Last week I was invited to judge an influential maker competitions in Tokyo. Recently, I have been pushing meaningful content creation in VR/AR/MR at Parsons and trying to emphasis coding as a way of digital fabrication, and advocate for code support across the school. This trip has further confirmed these ideas on an international level. Thanks so much for having me!!
I arrived two days earlier and participated Fabcafe Tokyo’s 2016 Bonenkai as one of the speakers. Each of us get to pick 4 words that inform the future of making. It was a fun, inspiring, and highly informative night with a community of great makers based in Tokyo – Hiroya Tanaka from Keio University, Pieter Franken who founded Safecast, Tim Wong from Fabcafe Taipei, and many more.
The four words that I came up with were “IoT”, “Holodeck”, “Zero GUI”, and “Mixed Intelligent”. Here are reasons behind choosing these words based on my fading memories:
IoT: with all the new, modular, prototype driven IoT kits available in the market right now, it makes it easier to incorporate new functionalities into one’s making. Makers can achieve high-level of wireless connectivity and interactions without in-depth knowledge in electronics.
Holodeck: Inspired by Star Trek and the recent success of Tilt Brush by Google, the idea of virtual makerspace is finally coming to live. With a proper pipeline that connects the digital and physical making, the holodeck could bring the embodied making to the next level.
Zero GUI: This is a follow up to the Holodeck idea, in order to bring the virtual and embodied making experience to the level where the quality of outcome is ensured, we as makers would have to reinvent the way we interact with digital tools, especially in an immersive digital space where the tradition understanding of UX/UI has become obsolete.
Mixed Intelligence: Many of the digital fabrication pipelines today, makers are collaborating with computer algorithms in one way or another. This idea of writing instructions and have the 3rd party (humans or machines) execute or visualize these instructions can be traced back to Sol Lewitt’s drawing series in late 1960s. With all the advancement in Artificial Intelligence, or works done around bio art with living tissues, the idea of collaborating with other types of intelligence in the process of making will be a norm in the future of making.
I also spent 2 hours in Akihabara and it completed the trip for me.