Neurotransmitter 3000
By DANIELDEBRUIN
JUDGES,
COMMENTS
We are thrilled to announce the 20 Winners of the YouFab Global Creative Awards 2017. This year's winners were selected from 227 works from 26 countries.
The Winning Works will be displayed at Good Design Marunouchi (Tokyo) from February 9th to February 23rd, 2018.
Referencing the traditional presentation of relics in their reliquaries, “Regenerative Reliquary” is a finely detailed skeleton-like sculpture encased in the mechanical womb of a glass bioreactor. Instead of enshrining the inanimate remains left after death as a memorial to the life that was once there, “Regenerative Reliquary” presents the opposite, depicting the possibility of life from an inanimate object.
Minima | Maxima stands at a crossroad of extremes: an ultra-thin shell of just 6mm rises to a height of 43 feet by way of its sprawling, double-curved surfaces. In this whimsical yet durable universe created by MARC FORNES / THEVERYMANY, curves win out over angles. A “networked'” surface rolls in, on and around itself, transforming into a space that upends preconceived notions of enclosure, threshold and limit, while also providing its own support. The visual transition -- from pleated base to smooth and doubly-curved, continuous surface -- is subtle, yet its structural effect is significant, allowing it to rise to impressive heights.
United Kingdom
The Third Thumb is a 3d printed thumb extension for your hand, controlled by your feet. The project investigates the relationship between the body and prosthetic technology in new ways.
Since its launch in 2014, YouFab has continued to serve
as an opportunity for our judges to re-examine the definition of Fab.
The judging of YouFab to date has taken a somewhat negative approach
by identifying what boxes the entries did not tick off,
in a bid to prevent taking Fab in too much of an easy-going
and uncomplicated direction so as to maintain a more critical and experimental landscape.
The concept of this year’s YouFab was Rock It! and one of the reasons for this was
to emphasize that Fab goes above and beyond just prototyping
where the product is the ultimate goal.
This year the judging panel moved away from the negativity of focusing on
what was not Fab about the entries,
and instead took a more positive approach of identifying
what Fab boxes the entries ticked.
It’s these never-seen-before new collaborations that we are looking for.
For instance, the fusion of art and bio-engineering seen
in Amy Karle’s Grand Prize entry titled Regenerative Reliquary.
The only way to produce solid output in this day and age is
to come together with people of diverse backgrounds
and challenge each other’s ideas,
engage in serious debate and combine each individual’s skill set for a common purpose.
This could also be seen in the other finalist entries.
I feel like YouFab 2017 serves as a foundation
which has sparked a major shift in the discussions about what Fab is.
Having said that, this is still the first step.
What is the absolute essential core element that we identify with things we call Fab?
While continuing to seek answers to this question,
I think that YouFab can continue to serve as a platform
to showcase radical experiments and attempts at making various things.
YouFab Global Creative Awards 2017, Chief Judge, Hiroya Tanaka
on behalf of the entire team of judges.
Professor at Keio University, Representative of SFC Social Fabrication Lab
Professor at Keio University, Representative of SFC Social Fabrication Lab
Hiroya Tanaka opened the first Fab Lab in Japan and in East Asia. He researches the possibility of digital fabrication from both sides, "technology" and "society." In recent years, he has served in a large number of government committees, notably including the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and has also been involved in policy recommendations such as local creation. He works as a chairman of the "Fab Campus Committee" at Keio University. His specialties include 3D-CAD/CAE/CAM as well as design engineering. He has a PhD in engineering. He is a Fab Lab Japan Founder and a Fab Lab Asia Foundation Board Member.
Co-founder, Terreform ONE
Professor at NYU
Co-founder, Terreform ONE
Professor at NYU
Formerly, he was an architect at the offices of Frank Gehry and I.M. Pei. He has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and fellowships with TED, MIT and more. He was chosen by WIRED magazine for “The Smart List” and selected by Rolling Stone for “The 100 People Who Are Changing America”. Mitchell won many honors including; ARCHITECT R+D Award, 1st Place International Architecture Award, Victor Papanek Social Design Award, and Time magazine’s Best Invention with MIT Smart Cities Car. He co-authored “XXL-XS: New Directions in Ecological Design”, “Super Cells: Building with Biology”, and so on. His design work has been exhibited at MoMA and the Venice Biennale. He earned: PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MAUD Harvard University, MArch Columbia University.
Product designer
Professor at Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin (HEAR)
Product designer
Professor at Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin (HEAR)
Co-founder of Fab Lab AV.lab in France and professor of design at Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin, her work within the collective of designer Ateliers BAH questions the possibilities of digital manufacturing integrated in the fields of craftsmanship.
Professor at KYOTO Design Lab Kyoto Institute of Technology
Professor at KYOTO Design Lab Kyoto Institute of Technology
Julia Cassim’s career spans the worlds of art, design, museum studies and social activism. She studied fine art at Manchester College of Art and Design and Tokyo University of the Arts on a Japanese Government scholarship. She has an MPhil from the International Centre for Heritage Studies at the University of Newcastle and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Art (RCA) and of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and is an international authority on inclusive design. The 24 and 48 Hour Inclusive Design Challenges she organised at the RCA Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design have been held in 21 cities worldwide, involved over 800 designers and were the subject of an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2010.
In May 2014, she was appointed Professor at the KYOTO Design Lab, a centre for interdisciplinary design innovation at the Kyoto Institute of Technology. A recent project bringing together science and design won a Dutch Design Award in 2016. She was included in Design Week’s ‘Hot 50’ list of people who most influenced the design world in 2010.
Artist
Co-Founder, BCL / CEO, Poiesis Labs
Artist
Co-Founder, BCL / CEO, Poiesis Labs
In 2001, graduate of London's Central Saint Martins University, finishing degree in 2003 at the Royal College of Art. In 2004, developed an artistic research framework [bcl] alongside Georg Tremmel. Following this, maintaining a focus on water environmental issues, particularly the development of biotechnologies and their impact on society, as well as a mission to think critically about how to open up access to these technologies to those who cannot access them at present. Poiesis Lab Representative. Google ATAP Project Jacquard Textile Development and Creative Innovation Lead.