Manual Labor Chic
The New York Times Magazine ran a great article called The Case For Working With Your Hands about the rewarding nature of manual labor in our modern, information-based economy. Having worked in the building trades I agree with much of it, though I think his account of manual labor is overly glamorized while knowledge work is given its darkest treatment outside a Douglas Coupland novel. This article is an analytical take on the subject specifically whether our societal focus on college degrees is healthy.
In the same vein, the Boston Globe has a short article on Boston area makers and the organizations that have grown up around them.
An Aesthetic Algorithm
I wrote yesterday about how lack of training is one of the reasons mass customization has yet to reach the mainstream. This brief article on color theory does a great job explaining why certain color combination works in entirely empirical and objective terms. More tutorials like this, packaged correctly, could do a great deal to help people feel comfortable designing.
Too often art and design are treated like mystical endeavors only open to those visited by the muse. In reality, the principles of aesthetics are as concrete as principles of computer programming or mathematics. They are largely based in biology, rule based, and teachable. As with anything the creative application of these frameworks is where the real magic happens.
XL 3D Printer
This is the largest thing I’ve ever seen made with a 3D printer and the scale is very impressive. Though, I don’t understand why you would spend that amount of time and money and not make something a little nicer looking? Or at least something that better accentuates the 3D printer’s capabilities? This just looks deformed. Photo Credit
Hacker Space
Fun documentary video of a Hacker space in Montreal. It does a good job of highlighting the kinds of people who are drawn to these spaces, the types of projects they work on, and the spirit that drives them.
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