Posts tagged Fab Lab Residents
Craft-Centered CNC Tool Design
Craft-Centered CNC Tool Design

Digital fabrication offers new opportunities for craft, but contemporary digital fabrication technologies reinforce industrial manufacturing conventions. Jennifer Jacob’s research lab seeks to support skilled craftspeople by reimagining digital fabrication machines as extensions of traditional craft tools with a focus on the domain of ceramics. Jacobs’s and Ilan Moyers’s work focuses on developing new clay 3D printing mechanisms that preserve the look and feel of manual pottery tools and new interfaces that allow potters to integrate automated fabrication with manual control. This work situates technologies in craft communities to co-design products and workflows that reflect a craft-centric vision of digital fabrication. During their residency, Jacobs and Moyer will share the work they create on campus, and at times during the two-week session, invite workshop participants to engage with these digital fabrication tools.

Jennifer Jacobs (she/her) is an Assistant Professor at the University of California Santa Barbara and the Director of Expressive Computation. She is developing new clay 3D printing mechanisms that preserve the look and feel of manual pottery tools.

Ilan Moyer (he/him) is a PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He builds digital fabrication tools for craftspeople.

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Session 4Molly FlaniganFab Lab Residents, Jennifer Jacobs + Ilan Moyer
Instructive Assembly
Instructive Assembly

Throughout the residency, Jiyoo Jye and Nathan Melenbrink will focus on design research, exploring a modular assembly system enhanced with embedded electronics to create an intuitive construction experience. The system integrates color-coded LEDs that light up sequentially, guiding users through the next assembly steps. By embedding instructive visual cues directly into each module, the assembly process becomes more accessible, reducing reliance on traditional, text-heavy instructions. Through this work, they aim to streamline the learning curve and enable efficient, user-friendly assembly across various applications.

Jiyoo Jye (she/her) is on a quest for creative inquiry, the role of the arts, and doing crafts.

Nathan Melenbrink (he/him) is a designer, researcher, and educator specializing in digital fabrication, construction automation, and sustainable design.

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Session 5Molly FlaniganFab Lab Residents, Jiyoo Jye + Nathan Melenbrink