Archive

February 2023

Monday musing on making and play – 2/27/23

Exploded woodworking diagram of a live-edge river table build: slab top, tempered glass, legs, and joinery details

The way we look at the world is influenced by our experiences and preconceptions. We use them to understand something new and to develop perspective. In doing so, we synthesize information from one context to inform another.   The experiences that I often find myself…

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Monday musing on 808s and transistors – 2/20/23

Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer drum machine with its row of orange, yellow, and white step-sequencer buttons

Developing real, tangible things is a messy process where one must listen to, and work with, the material they have available to them. By allowing the materials to lead the process of development, we embed their imperfections and constraints into our designs, which subsequently influences…

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Monday musing on innovation – 2/13/23

Electronics workbench mid-build: joystick modules wired to perfboards, an Arduino, a multimeter, and tangled jumper wires

Everything around us is magic, and nobody knows how things work. From the phones in our pockets, to the cars that ferry us around, to our systems of government, all of the critical things that have changed the way we think, work, and play are…

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Monday musing on design and understanding – 2/6/23

Notebook page of ink sketches for handheld electronics — badge with LEDs, buttons and SAO pins, gamepad, interactive stick

Tim Ingold describes thinking through making — a concept he interrelates with design — as a line that meanders, much like a donkey following its own path. Conversely, design has been described (through design thinking) as a straight line toward achieving some objective or solving…

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Friday links and objects of interest – 2/3/23

Students watch a robot navigate an arena at a DePaul Robotics Club competition in the makerspace

Lately, I’ve been working on a blueprint for what I’m thinking of broadly as “innovation spaces.” That is, physical spaces that support innovation. This is tricky, because any physical space is necessarily located within a community — whether that’s a company, a school, a town,…

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