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FAB ACADEMY 2013

Jonathan Minchin @ BCN supernode

Background and Interests


Hello all, I am Jonathan Minchin from London England. I am now a proud student of the Fab Academy 2013 at the Barcelona FabLab. I moved to the city 3 years ago to study a Masters degree in International Cooperation and Sustainable Emergency Architecture. I have stayed here for the weather but mostly so I could bug the people who run the various FabLabs in and around the city.

My studies have included art, product design and architecture. I have worked for UNESCO in Cuba and UN Habitat in Barcelona. Besides the FabAcademy I am also part of the team developing the Green FabLab at Valldaura and am working on an open collaboration platform with the project incubator at FabLab BCN.

What is a Fab Lab?

A 'Fab Lab' is short for 'Fabrication Labratory'. The term is the name given to a number of physical and spaces but also describes a networked movement towards local and digital manufacturing. Fab labs began as an outreach project from MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) directed by Neil Gershenfeld, there are currently around 120 networked spaces that call themselves Fablabs around the world from Wellington New Zealand to Addis Abbaba Ethiopia and are self-organized in regional and local organisations. Each Fab Lab provides local access to the modern means of invention and production and brings together a core set of capabilites and machines, in order for people not only consume technology but be able to produce it. The fablabs are part of a major research program, which is developing programmable molecular assemblers that will be able to make almost anything! Fablabs differ in their focus but on a day to day basis whether you are a kid, company or interested induviduals a fablab acts as a project incubator with the capacity and support to take ideas from conception to construction in one place.

More information from the Fablab website : About the Fablabs

More information from the Fablab Barcelona website : The Fablab BCN website

What is the Fabacademy

The Fabacademy is ... Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Here is some more information from the course creators : About the Academy

The Green FabLab at Valldaura.

The Green Fablab at Valldaura subscribes to the open and enabling philosophy to digital manufacturing being developed by the network of fablabs. The Green Fab Lab will explore complex relations between technology, environment and people, in order to develop synergies in the way we produce objects, it will create new machines and raw materials, or use biodegradable electronics. But more than a local manufacturing hub and project incubator, Valldaura extends the core principles to encompass all aspects of living; food, materiality, housing, environment etc. Although expansive the focus here is to explore, improve and innovate the tools needed to build a self-sufficient community, and to apply those tools and the self sufficient approach in practice to the site located in the Collserola national park of Barcelona.

Open Philosophy : How to Make Almost Anything.

Here is an article written by Neil Gershenfeld in the November issue of Foreign Affairs:
How to Make Almost Anything, The Digital Fabrication Revolution

FabAcademy 2013 - introduction from Fab Academy on Vimeo.

Key Terminology: Capacitor, Diode, Resistor, Eagle, LED

KEY RESOURCES:
Fab Academy Website and Blog Posts
My Twitter Account : @jonnyminch