Home¶
Hi! I am Mai.
I am a maker, circular designer and creative social entrepreneur based in Ho Chi Minh City. A maker friend and I set up Fablab Saigon at Toong Vista Verde, currently the only publicly accessible makerspace in Ho Chi Minh City. I also co-organized 4th Fablab Asia Network Conference in 2018 focusing on SDGs.
The joys of my life include making playful food recipes, biomaterials, interactive media and collaborating with various communities to do all things creative and socially meaningful.
I enjoy working at the intersection between arts, technology and social innovation, taking inspiration from nature, craftsmanship, indigenous materials and processes to create sustainable developments.
My lab¶
I am taking Fab Academy as a remote student of FabLab Taipei with the goal of getting better at digital fabrication and pushing myself to physical develop some ideas that have stayed in my head for a while. Below is a picture of the facility at FabLab Saigon. In terms of equipments, we have a 3d-printer, CNC machine, sewing machine and a lasercutter.
My background¶
I was born in a small coastal city in central Vietnam called Da Nang, then my family moved to Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s commercial hub. Then I studied mechanical engineering at the National University of Singapore and became a robotics engineer for ABB for almost 4 years before going back to Vietnam to start my own social business.
Previous work¶
FabLab Asia Network (FAN4) Conference, May 2018¶
Woodblock printing kits¶
I made these do-it-yourself kits for children to learn about a dwindling art of printmaking in Vietnam. These are currently used in some schools. More at this website
Musical river¶
Musical river was a fun collaborative project created in Gifu, Japan when I was invited by the Japan Foundation to participate in a “Hack The World” camp held at IAMAS, a well-known media art school. We went on a field trip to Neo, a remote village in Gifu Prefecture, sitting by a beautiful river. There we brainstormed ways to revitalize this aging village with media-art approaches. That’s when our team came up with the idea of letting the beloved river of Neo set the scene for a lantern and musical festival, in the hope that it will attract youngsters back to the village and create opportunities for interaction between Neo’s rural community and city dwellers.
MUSICAL RIVER - NEO NO NEIRO from junkamei on Vimeo.
Biomaterials & Circular Design¶
As a circular designer, I also designed bio-materials from waste such as fruit peel and agricultural waste.
Feel free to check out more fun works at my website www.curiousmeye.com, or connect with me on Linkedin