What do you think of when you hear the words ‘material ecology’ ?

Mix shrimp peals and silk and what do you get ? Shrill..!.. an engineered biodegradable alternative to plastic. Confuse a sikworm and bild a tet ? Hack a utility truck into a giant 3d printer. All ideas we heard abotu today while meeting with  Prof Neri  Oxman from MIT. Neri was up at UVM giving the annual George Aiken lecture. I also had the chance to sit down with Prof Oxman in a smaller group this afternoon. I was impressed with her creativity and vision. The talk tonight was really packed.. She had so much material to share… left my head spinning. She showed how there are many lessons we can learn in nature which we can then apply to digital manufacturing processes like 3D printing. My favorite was concrete with variable density.. just like our own bobes. .. now why didn’t i think of that ?

The crowd gathered there this evenign was as interesting as the talk itelf.. sceintists, artists and makers enoguh to fill Ira Allen chapel. It was great meeting up with so many freinds..

Now its time for me to meet up wit my pillow. I’m workign too hard right now.. and not gettign enough sleep. Time to fix that  !

night all, nite sam

-me