03
Planetary Thinking: Insights for People
05
Living Lightning: biodesign starter kit
09
RoboMade: Bolesławiec ceramic
12
Knot of happines: Kawasaki 100
15
Make Here: makers spaces mapping
19
Swings Morphology: MEDS workshop
22
Profile: Introduction
01
PLANETARY THINKING: Insights for People 2020-2021 | ongoing remote: Spain, Poland, Japan, Australia, Brasil, Iceland weak signals research / design for community / design for emergent futures digital publication, digital platform, print team project
01
The rise of COVID-19 is and has been a global occurrence in time to discuss how we, as a community, should design our post-Corona society. ‘Planetary Thinking’ is a research-driven space to face the facts and reflect upon them in order to think collectively, critically, and radically about the futures of our society. A world of plurality. ‘Planetary Thinking’ is a series of written pieces that culminates into a larger body of work that takes the form of a research report. During this year, we will introduce, frame, unpack, and explore a different signal of change already present in our societies (seen as a weak signal) which has been intensified during COVID-19 times, through the lenses of designers. The project intends to bring the state of the art of such signals, promoting visibility to the new questions arising, inviting readers to feel provoked by these questions — maintaining reflections, without the rush to look for instant solutions. In the process of learning about complex systemic issues, we hope that readers will be able to expand their understanding of the dimension of such signals of change and feel empowered to gather for the development of collective long-term visions. Each team member analyzes a given weak signal in the scope of the country in which they found hemselves during the pandemic and writes an article, and then a report. The country I am observing is Poland. The Australian, Japanese, Icelandic, Brazilian and Spanish are overing their countries.
4
The publication takes the form of a series of articles that afterwards will be distributed as a free report available to all interested parties. The platform will work on the basis of donations and crowdfunding
02
LIVING LIGHTNING: biodesign starter kit 2019 Barcelona, Spain design for education / design for learning / biodesign / industrial design / science communication Pyrocystis Lunula algae, nutrients, lab glass equipment, PPE, printed instruction personal project Master Thesis
02
Living Lightning Starter Kit contains basic necessary elements to perform the first biodesgin exercise/experiment, which can be carried out at home or used as a starter to conduct workshops. Most of those objects can be “hacked”, used for different goals or customised which leaves the whole set open and possible for future use. Students go through the whole process - from theoretical knowledge, through preparation of a lab station to creating the medium and algae for growth - learning through hands-on experience and play. 6
02
7
During the hands-on exercise, a kid or any other older user learns about the organisms that are used for this activity - the algae - and about its natural habitat, living conditions and processes that may occur, like photosynthesis. Additionally, some extra pieces of information apply, like the fact that some of the algae could be edible. Secondly, the child gets to learn a bit about biohacking communities (through objects like the microscope) and following, about bioethics. The user may tickle the experience of biodesigning, facing the concept of the possibility of working with bioluminescence organisms and interspersing them into objects of everyday use exists. And last but not least, the user familiarizes with lab procedures and equipment.
Queralt, 13 years old student, exploring kit’s elements that will allow her to grow her own culture of glowing algae
The instructions included in the kit are used to guide the user in a teacher-less atmosphere. The instruction can be used as a lesson plan and cards for the teacher conducting the workshop
02
GROWING ALGAE ON MY TABLE
8
The box in which the kit is packed transforms into a chamber for illumination - and thus cycle hacking - algae.
GLOWING ALGAE ON MY TABLE THEY ARE ALIVE!
Algae illuminate in the dark by reacting to movement - movement and shaking makes them glow
03
ROBO MADE: Bolesławiec ceramic 2016 Poznań, Poland design for machine-human collaboration / ceramics / industrial design / handcraft KUKA robot arm, cermic, enamel, glaze, all kind of sponges team project
03
Project was made in cooperation with Manufactura Bolesławiec, famous for their hand stamped pottery. The goal was to introduce a robotic arm in a handmade-fouced work space.
What an imperfect human hand cannot make is at the same time the basic movement for the robot
- arc motion and parallel lines and that was team’s start point. The series „Robomade” was created to show the imperfection of an „arm” of a robot - which is there in a way just because of human’s mistakes and errors in the process of tool making or programming. The robot itself is not only a machine responding for a code repetitively but more of a unpredictable creator of the final effect.
During this project I was co-responsible for interviews with painters from the workshop, documenting
this part. Together with a team member, we analyzed hand movements, decomposing them into prime factors and translating them into the language of the robot. I was an active participant in the process of idealization, prototyping and understanding.
10
The hands of the manufactory employees - stamping, painting and casting ceramics in the manufactory - a hand-made but extremely automated process.
A KUKA robotic arm that erforming a program, stamping a parallel arc on a ceramic plate with a pigment from the manufactory, which will later be burnt
03
11
Parallel lines drawn by the robot arm - linear motion is perhaps the most basic motion - as opposed to drawing by hand. Breaks result from changes in pressure and distance from the painted plate.
Pattern resulting from the incorrect program and the robot glitch - and thus human error
04
KNOT OF HAPPINESS Kawasaki 100 2017 Poznań, Poland industrial design / robotics / human-robot inteaction Kawasaki Robot Arm, waxed cotton string, PET matrix team project
04
„Knot of happiness” is an answer to a question „Mr Kawasaki, can you knot?”. Analysis of nodes, bindings, knots - from laces, through ties to sailings knots - led us to chinese knot of happiness. We translated the p recise work of human’s hand to the motion of robotic arm. Final effect changes the popular image of robotic movement as straight and inelegant: Mr Kawasaki has turned out to be agile, smooth and ingenious. Additional goal was to go through the whole process, meaning designing a product, working on a tool and producing 100 pics within a cost less than 3 PLN per piece. All in all, we were working with almost 25 prototyped matrices to understand the mechanism of knotting and to came to the final, completly working one - without human help.
13
04
14
05
MAKE HERE makers spaces mapping 2019 Barcelona, Spain research / mapping / design for community / design for circular economy digital platform, SM platforms, Toolkit publication team project
05
Make Here is a project to map and create a community around local production to share knowledge,
information, ideas and recommendations in a city or neighbourhood. We want to connect people who make to people wanting to make.
Make Here started as an one-week project by students of the Master in Design for Emergent Futures
(MDEF) @ IAAC - inspired by Make Works and Fab City. We initially mapped information about maker-spaces, material suppliers, workshops and other creative spaces in Poblenou, Barcelona.
In this project, I conducted some interviews with makers, took photos - in this matter we worked in
rotations, always having someone cover needed role. I co-wrote a publication with tips for starting, the toolkit. Many tasks, such as ideation, brainstorming, planning, were performed as group.
16
One of the most characteristic places on the makers map in Poblenou, Barcelona - bicycle workshop that brings bicycles back to life, hands-on teaches young people how to repair and educates about cycling culture in the city
One of the media used in the project is the GitHub platform, which can be cloned and adapted to activities in one’s city, together with map, showing visited maker spaces, studios, material sources, design schools and other valuable nodes
05
Anyone can go through the same process, developing this project in their own cities through the aid of the toolkit. The toolkit contains all the necessary elements to apply the project in one’s city - from the first steps, the most informative „nodes”, i.e. places from which one can learn the most, through interview questions, to visual identification. A global network can be developed in which these different communities learn and thrive off each other. Therefore, laying the foundations for change towards a more circular economy, and rethinking our relationships with local production.
05
chef at restaurant LEKA, explaining the fermentation process and its role in reducing food waste
18
member of Verdllimona, creatice space, telling about the specification of Poblenou - Barcelona district - and the streets as a material source
Visit at UP STUDIO, interior architecture design, key moment for mapping all the other maker spaces in Poblenou, Barcelona
06
SWINGS MORPHOLOGY: MEDS workshop 2016 Bucharest, Romania parametric design / construction / design for learnign / workshops / spatial design 81 sqe meters of scafolding, 30 km of string, 20 participants, 3 tutors for MEDS Bucharest - City of Contrast team project
06
SWINGS MORPHOLOGY is a project of structure and workshops for Meeting of European Design Students
in Bucharest, Romania, 2016. The undertaking aims to create the playground space for adults with swings of different sorts, create comfortable park seats for people of all ages and serve as a social-mixer for multiple users and their needs, a llow for different activities like sitting, laying down, snoozing, observing, reading books, swinging on the swings and hammocks etc, create elegant and inspiring space.
The MEDS participants benefit from taking part in this workshop by exploring the aesthetics of nets
and string in art and architecture, dealing with c omplex structure based on extracting data from parametric model, studying the topic and c hallenges of designing urban furniture, getting to know the technique of making string ruled surfaces, practicing team work and ability to work within the f ramework for the design as a whole, having great time doing cool things (as MEDS has it).
I joined this project in its final phase, contributing to the process of prototyping the swing before the
start of the workshop, to research on materials in practical terms. During the trip and the workshop I was responsible for communicating the project to a group of participants, supervising the process and timetable.
20
left: weaving the seat | middle: participants building metal structure for seat frame
Exercising the weaving proces, using sailing knots; this technique will be used to weave the main ropes of the swings
06
Visualization of materials needed to conduct the workshops
21
Possible twine threading settings
Morphology of swings and seats - transformation - from form to skeleton and braid
I am a multidisciplinary designer gravitating towards design of intervention for untested futures. I am a hands-on researcher - through participation, experimentation and prototyping. I am a maker diving into rapid prototyping and digital fabrication. I am currently gaining experience at a creative studio specializing in strategic design and development of new business and research ventures at the interface between art, science, education and entertainment. I am self-disciplined and able to work on my own, but I prefer and value teamwork and collaborative projects.
22
Aleksandra Łukaszewska she/her lukaszewska.o@gmail.com +48 502 914 180