Keynote @ C2-MTL, Montreal

From the website: Set in the creative hotbed of Montréal, C2-MTL is a new kind of annual global conference: one that explores the relationship between commerce and creativity, and its potential to redefine business. This immersive three-day event is designed to inspire right and left brain thinking through a smorgasbord of non-traditional experiences, including multimedia conferences by world-class speakers, engaging exhibitions, collaborative workshops, a creativity Boot Camp and evening festivities. It all happens in an unconventional innovation village, designed specifically to enhance the C2-MTL experience. Curated by international creative agency Sid Lee, in collaboration with founding partner Cirque du Soleil and content partner Fast Company, C2-MTL brings together the brightest and most influential minds from a network of countries and industries. From black-clad creatives to tie-wearing executives, participants unite in an innovative, immersive, and wildly creative environment designed to spark collaboration and inspire solutions to business challenges.

The Columnists @ WSJ

WSJ. asks six luminaries to weigh in on a single topic. This month: Design. Read more

Material Ecology @ Print Shift Magazine

From the website: Dezeen launches Print Shift, a print-on-demand magazine about 3D printing produced in collaboration with cutting-edge publisher Blurb (+ slideshow). The 60-page, advert-free magazine explores the fast changing world of additive manufacturing and examines how it is transforming architecture, design, fashion and other disciplines. It is one of the first ever magazines to be printed on demand and can only be bought online via the Blurb bookstore. Written by the Dezeen editorial team, Print Shift is the result of extensive research into a technology that is developing at exhilarating speed. We have spoken to architects, designers, scientists and researchers around the world, travelled across Europe and visited some of the leading studios and factories at the cutting edge of a technological revolution. Order here.

Keynote @ HOPES

HOPES #19

School of Architecture and Allied Arts

Thursday, April 4, 2013 - 7:00pm - 8:00pm

Eugene, Oregon 

Since its creation in 1995, the EDC’s HOPES (Holistic Options for Planet Earth Sustainability) conference has remained the only ecological design conference developed and managed by students. Held every year in April, HOPES works to promote the deeper understanding and broader application of sustainable design principles.Over the past ten years, the conference has brought such luminaries asShigeru Ban, Sim Van der Ryn, Samuel Mockbee, James Hubbel, Angela Danadijieva, Michael Pyatok, Steve Badanes, Richard Register, David Orr, John Schaeffer and Clare Cooper Marcus to the University of Oregon campus.

Keynote @ ArchiSpec Summit

ArchiSpec Summit
An Exclusive Event for Architects and Heads of Specification
March 17-19, 2013
Savanna, Georgia 

http://www.archispecsummit.com/

ICON: Engineering the Future

Featuring "Imaginary Beings: Mythologies of the Not Yet"

The collection was sponsored by Objet and created in close collaboration with W. Craig Carter (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT) and Joe Hicklin (The Mathworks). Other contributors include Dr. James Weaver (Wyss Institute, Harvard University), Turlif Vilbrandt (Symvol, Uformia), Kevin Cohan (The Mathworks), Sarah Zaranek (The Mathworks), Seth DeLand (The Mathworks), Dr. Benjamin Hutton (Wyss Institute, Harvard University), Prof. Christine Ortiz (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT) , Mary C. Boyce (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT), Neil Katz (SOM, NY), and Mikey Siegel. More materials to appear on the website following the official public opening.

FROM ICON Issue No. 118 on 3D Printing

The affordable and ubiquitous 3D printer can realise digital ideas and make sculptural copies. However, the objects that have been produced on them so far have been of relatively poor quality. In this issue, rather than discussing the limitations of existing technology, we wanted to look into the future at the possibilities rapid prototyping might offer. Liam Young offers a tour of such a future, imagining a sci-fi city that might 3D print itself so that it is ever expanding. We talk to Neri Oxman (our cover star), who is producing “biologically inspired” designs in her lab at MIT. And we meet DUS architects, the Amsterdam firm racing to complete the first 3D-printed house. Up front, an Antarctic research station that can ski, MVRDV’s glass farm, animatronic objects by Dover and Cederbaum, an addition to Aalto’s Seinäjoki library, Edouard François’s housing scheme, Matali Crasset’s concrete furniture and highlights from Stockholm Furniture Fair and Maison & Objet. In Review: Light Show at the Hayward Gallery, Alice Rawsthorn’s Hello World, a Brazilian modernist at The Photographers’ Gallery and a report from Detroit in decline.

CAD: Call for Papers on Material Ecology

http://www.journals.elsevier.com/computer-aided-design/call-for-papers/special-issue-on-material-ecology-design/

The New Eco-Activism

Oxman to speak at the Todd Lecture Series in Norwich University 
Title: The New Eco-Activism
Wednesday, March 6, Dole Auditorium
http://www.norwich.edu/

New Exhibit: Natures Toolbox

Talk @ Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Oxman to talk at RPI
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
Title: Towards a Material Ecology

Design Across Scales @ MIT

New Spring Course Offering at MIT

4.110J / MAS 330J / MAS.S64J DESIGN ACROSS SCALES

INTEGRATIVE DESIGN ACROSS DISCIPLINES, SCALES, AND PROBLEM CONTEXTS

Prof. Neri Oxman / Prof. Meejin Yoon

Inspired by Charles and Ray Eames’ canonical “Powers of Ten”, the course explores the relationship between science and engineering through the lens of Design. It examines how transformations in science and technology have influenced design thinking and vice versa. It offers interdisciplinary tools and methods to represent, model, design and fabricate objects, machines, and systems. Structured as core lectures and lab sessions, the course is organized by “systems” : Design of Information, Design of Fabrication, Design of Intelligence, Design of Play, Design of Organization and Design of Innovation. World-renowned designers, scientists and engineers will contribute with guest lectures. We will design things – material and immaterial; we will learn new computational and fabrication tools along the way; we will develop methodologies for design research of interdisciplinary problems; we will practice what it means to think, live, and breathe Design.

(2-2-8) R 10-12 in E14-493; Rec. M 7-9pm in E14-493 

NOTE: First class on Thursday, February 7th, 10-12, E14-244

3D Printed Dress @ Iris Van Herpen Paris Fashion Show

A 3-D printed dress was debuted in the Paris Fashion Week Spring 2013 as part of collaboration with fashion designer Iris Van Herpen for her show "Voltage". The 3D printed skirt and cape were produced using Stratasys’ unique Objet Connex multi-material 3D printing technology, which allows a variety of material properties to be printed in a single build. This allowed both hard and soft materials to be incorporated within the design, crucial to the movement and texture of the piece. 

Core contributors

Prof. W. Craig Carter

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT

Keren Oxman

Artist and Designer, NY

Fabrication: Connex, Stratasis

Above: photos from Paris Fashion Week, "Voltage" by Iris Van Herpen, Spring Collection, 2013

Above: early prints of cape. Photo: Yoram Reshef for Stratasis.

Above: unfolded cape and skirt patterns. Diagrams and mappings: W. Craig Carter and Keren Oxman. Photo: Yoram Reshef for Stratasis.

IoA Sliver Lecture

CNN Next List

Neri Oxman @ The NEXT LIST on CNN
Airing Sunday, December 9, 2pm EST

On Bones and Silk @ Mediated Matter

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/11/play/design-from-life
http://media.mit.edu/research/groups/mediated-matter

On Printing Clothing

http://www.psfk.com/2012/11/mit-designer-3d-printed-clothing.html
Image source: Imaginary Beings, Pompidou, 2012
In collaboration with Uformia, Prof. W. Craig Carter (MIT) and Joe Hicklin (The Mathworks). Fabrication: Objet, Ltd. 
Photo: Yoram Reshef 

Innovation IdeaLab talk @ WGBH

http://www.wgbh.org/

Imaginary Beings @ WIRED

http://materialecology.com/Wired-Magazine-Nov2012%20.pdf
http://www.wired.co.uk/

Digital Fabrication in Architecture is out

Digital Fabrication in Architecture by Nick Dunn is out and available here.
Works featured by Neri Oxman include Beast and Fatemaps.

"Becoming Innovation" Workshop @ GWAMIT

GWAMIT: Graduate Women at MIT Leadership Conference
Becoming an Innovator:
The Practice of the Seeing Mind

Workshop information

Photo: Mikey Siegel