The SSBxFab Fellow Program will serve as an interface between people who have engineering and/or design backgrounds (at either an amateur or professional level) with residents of the community who wish to further their knowledge base in these areas. In exchange for access to the suite of digital fabrication equipment for use on their own personal projects, the Fab Fellow will teach either a class or do one-on-one tutorial sessions with South Bronx residents. SSBxFab Fellows are those who have a passion for making things, but also enjoy sharing, collaboration, and helping others.

All Fab Fellows will be contributing on a continuing basis to the SSBxFab blog, with photos, tutorials, drawings, and commentary on projects and teaching sessions. They will also meet regularly with the Coordinator to give updates and to share thoughts of the effectiveness of the ongoing teaching programs.

The program also involves “Future Fellows,” high school students who will an internship at SSBxFab, work on a personal project for school, and apprentice a Fab Fellow with their ongoing work.

Design Fellows 2008:

Eduardo Bringas

Nathan Carter

Alejandra Delfin

Yu-Chih Hsiao

JuWilCu

Chetan Mangat

Paris Marashi

Jordan Press

Zach ‘Hoeken’ Smith

Jeff Sturges

Lisa Wan

—

Eduardo Bringas is the Technology Coordinator at Vision Education & Media, an organization that provides after-school programs to youth in technology and multimedia. He has an MPS from NYU’s Interactive Telecommuncations Program. Ed teaches primarily high school programming, robotics and physical interactive arts using various microprocessors and analog circuitry. He hold two BA degrees in interdisciplinary studies focusing in Fine Arts and Biology and an MPS from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. As a fellow at SSBxFab, Ed is interested in teaching art with technology and introducing topics like sustainability and social responsibility. For his personal project he wants to continue work on his thesis which dealt with the concept of time as a both a man-made idea and as well as a natural phenomenon. Using birds as an indicator of time through migration, he would like to build a large-scale clock that tells time through their flocking behavior. The piece will be an outdoor installation powered by solar panels, consisting of twelve feeding nodes, each representing an hour. At each respected hour, one node will spray bird food attracting birds to feed.

—

Nathan Carter is currently finishing his Master’s in Architecture at Columbia University. His past experience with digital fabrication has centered mostly around architecture projects and furniture building. He was in a fabrication studio that dealt with issues of parametric design and eveloping new systems of construction. Nathan has extensive experience with CNC fabrication equipment, and has been a woodshop teaching assistant and monitor at Columbia. He is interested in SSBxFab because of its “direct interface with the community, my strong enthusiasm for making things, and the opportunity for sharing knowledge.” Nathan hesitates to use the work “teacher” because of the “one directional relationship it implies.” Working in the Fab Lab he’s interested in further exploring small scale design projects focusing on furniture or small structures/installations, finding ways to incorporate readily available “waste” materials in Hunts Point, such as pallets, crates, scrap wood, metal, etc. Some possible ideas include benches, picnic pavilions, bus stop shelters, playground equipment, or installations to exhibit community art work.

—

As an artist in an age of exponential information growth, Christian Croft’s work harnesses public data flows, filtering their contents to reveal changes in how people communicate. His work translates information trails into new and often contrary spaces to highlight the sociological influence of new technologies. His production methods include web programming, DIY electronics, rapid prototyping machinery, and telephone system networking. In Fall 2007, he finished his master’s research at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, and he worked at the Advanced Media Studio at NYU. His work has been shown at The Kitchen Summer Institute, Centre Pompidou, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens Institute of Contemporary Art (ATHICA), Rhizome Artbase, EYEBEAM Upgrade!, SIGGRAPH 2007, Conflux 2007. As a fellow at SSBxFab, Christian will be working on a project that involves inventing a suite of energy harvesting mechanisms designed for quick and easy construction on the CNC router, CNC milll, and laser cutter. These mechanisms will be human-powered and perhaps also wind-powered, an extension of research he undertook in a Sustainable Energy class at NYU. After realizing a set of reproducible prototypes, he would like to work with SSBx towards developing a workshop series that would involve members of the community to design and prototype their own energy harvesting mechanisms.

—

Alejandra Delfin is Director and Founder of Studio 889, a collaborative printmaking workshop for individuals of all backgrounds and levels of experience. Born in Peru and a resident in the South Bronx since 1989, Alejandra says her art is fed by being a “fusion of racial and cultural identities that is the legacy of colonialism” giving her an extensive catalog of images, experiences, and ideas. In Paris, she trained at Atelier 17 with renowned printmaker W.S. Hayter, at La Grande Chaumiere and at Ecole des Beaux Arts. Her work has been exhibited internationally, regionally, and in New York City at various institutions including Studio 889; BAAD!; The Bronx River Art Center; Longwood Gallery; Beacon Artist Union Gallery; Broom Gallery; Cinque Gallery; Smith College; The Brecht Forum; Convento de San Francisco Museo De La Nation and the Aliansa Francesa in Lima, Peru. As a child growing up in her father’s studio, she spent hours watching him make sculptures, designing/manufacturing chimneys, lamps, fountains, beds, etc, and would accompany him to the metal yard and antique shops to retrieve materials, which he then recycled and converted into art. Alejandra is interested in seeing how the Fab Lab can help an artist become more efficient in their craft by combining the digital and manual etching processes. The combination of both could bring printmaking techniques to another level. For example, some of her younger students are too young to carve or etch any material, but they could have a taste of seeing their work in an etched wood and experience the printing process.

—

Amy DiGi is a resident artist and teacher at Studio 889, a collaborative printmaking workshop for individuals of all backgrounds and levels of experience. She holds a BFA with honors from the Pratt Institute, and an MFA in Painting from Lehman College of the City University of New York. Amy has extensive experience in art education in New York City in drawing, painting, printmaking, and ceramics. She writes that, “Imagining the endless possibilities of translating artwork into a digital/laser cut piece, then using that product to create a hand-uplled print, is truly astonishing. The Fab Lab has amazing potential for me as a professional artist and an art educator.” At Studio 889 she has taught art using recycled materials, and is interested in making runners for the printing press. Runners are identical-sized pieces of wood used to prevent a plate from sliding while being printed, an important tool used in the printmaking process to help the artist print accurately. Amy is excited about how the Hunt’s Point community of artists, both adults and children, can benefit from the Fab Lab. Studio 889 teaches a Community Studio class that meets from 10:00am to 1:00PM every Saturday, and her fellowship allows her to be a direct link in teaching their artists about the possibilities available through digital fabrication.

—

Born in Taipei, Yu-Chih Hsiao moved to New York from Detroit after receiving his Master of Architecture degree at Cranbrook Academy of Art at 2007. He also holds his BFA in Interior Space Design from Shih-Chien University; as well as his Diploma of Photography and Printing from the World College of Journalism and Communication. He has developed his varied interests both separately and simultaneously for more than ten years through the fields of design, architecture and fine art. Recently he set up the Design Laboratory, investigating how to use technology, materiality, pattern, structure and architectural tectonics, to weave his multi-directional process into contemporary social content. This investigation resulted in a wide range of products including: pattern graphics, drawings, paintings, sculpture, interior furniture, light fixtures, daily objects, party ornamental objects, interior architecture installations, outdoor public benches as well as out door architecture installations. He is interested in working with the Bronx community and would like to collaborate with community participates to develop creative projects through explore the potential of digital tools.

—

JuWilCu is a young design-build group composed of local designers JUwariya Abdul-Karim, Gabe WILliams and Carlos <b>CU</b>lly. Their focus on construction projects that address socioeconomic and environmental issues led them to become collaborators with Sustainable South Bronx during the pilot phase of our fab lab initiative. JuWilCu has been able to help demonstrate the potential for creating “green-collar” entrepreneurship and job training opportunities with the use of computer controlled (CNC) machining equipment.

Their long-term vision is to create a new real estate development model which proves that developers can be careful, sensitive, responsible, and can still make substantial profit. Using the average working class income as our design criteria, JuWilCu will develop prototypical housing that addresses the two physical
conditions they’ve encountered; the shell and the vacant lot. They aim to promote functional social systems, domestic constructs, and architectural elements.

—

Chetan Mangat is an artist and designer working with multiple mediums. He has worked as an art director and designer in the areas of print, video, interactive and installations. He uses traditional materials in conjunction with new computational mediums to create unique projects. Chetan holds a masters degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University. His diverse work experiences include Art Direction and Design for Zing Magazine, Principal & Founder of Bow Design exchange (a platform to connect innovative artists from New York to special design projects in India), and associate production on various TV and film projects. Chetan has technical experience working at NYU’s Advanced Media Studio with rapid prototyping, laser cutting and large format printing machines for art and design projects. There he consulted artists and designers on the use of these machines, optimizing designs in 3d as well as 2d applications, and experimenting with new materials to reproduce physical objects that mimic photorealistic renderings. As a fellow at SSBxFab, Chetan wants use his skills in an innovative way to give back to the South Bronx community, and one day plans on doing similar outreach work in India. He has worked with artist Natalie Jeremijenko in the South Bronx, helping with a few projects that use participation as a medium of revelation and source of ideas. His topics of interests include participatory art and design, conceptual thinking applied towards real world projects, the importance of narrative, poetic expression in creating activist art, and the use of open source software for fabrication and design.

—

Paris Marashi is an architect, design researcher, and digital media strategist. Her love for sculpture, painting, and design led her to pursue a B.S. degree in architecture from the Ohio State University, where she explored the technical, artistic, and social aspects of architecture. After her undergraduate work, she moved to Iran to spend two years in business development, art direction, and public relations for the Investment Banking Group. She also coordinated discussions and events geared towards dialogue between Iranian architects and architects abroad, worked in collaboration with the British and Italian embassies, and promoted Iranian companies in Dubai, Bahrain, and Paris. This bridge between countries, made possible through online research and social media, led her back to the US to pursue her masters degree at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, where she began to explore social media, documentary and video production and distribution, physical computing, and interaction design. There she witnessed how digital fabrication allowed people to use algorithms to design all sorts of objects, from wearable and functional to the purely artistic; a drawing by hand taken further, an interactive object formed with impeccable craftsmanship. She’s thrilled about dedicating energy to the creation of beautiful, useful, and awe-inspiring objects and processes using recycled materials. In the Fab Lab she wants to teach about design processes and enable others to create what they love, clearly emerging from a strong and solid concept. In the past she has assisted in the teaching of videoblogging classes for BX21 in the Bronx through Vision Education & Media, and taught video shooting and editing to students at Xavier University in New Orleans. In Iran she taught people about videoblogging and online video, and eventually would like to teach courses and/or enable the teaching of courses in digital media, mobile technologies and digital fabrication.

—

Jordan Press studied ecology, evolution and biodiversity at Stony Brook University in Long Island New York and at Middlesex University in London England. After completing his studies he became interested in energy policy and power generation. His concern for the environment along with his strong belief that efficiency CAN be profitable drove him to start studying electrical engineering. Jordan is currently the principal investigator at a small scientific company called Atlas Scientific. Here he designs environmental control systems for industrial fish farming applications, water gardening and confined spaces/limited resource growing facilities. He is also doing preliminary research into robotic exploration devices and evolutionary computing using FPGAs. As a fellow at SSBxFab Jordan looks forward to continue developing his environmental technology. He also is a strong believer in teaching others about electrical engineering and environmental conservation. He looks forward to getting involved and teaching electronics and environmentalism.

_

Zach ‘Hoeken’ Smith calls himself a “maker.” He has no formal degree or training, but is a self-taught software programmer, learning to code at age 14, and now working for a backend web developer for the past 8 years. He is currently a Senior Developer at Connected Ventures in Manhattan, where he’s worked on nationally syndicated web forums like Collegehumor.com. Zach has alot of experience in microcontroller programming on both PIC chips as well as the Arduino. His true love, however, lies in the area of automated manufacturing. Fascinated with robots and automated creation tools ever since reading science fiction books as a kid, he has become an active member of the open source RepRap project to create a self-replicating 3D printer. He has been active in nearly every single facet of the project, creating electronics, writing software, designing and building multiple machines, as well as formally establishing the non-profit RepRap Research Foundation. Zach is also a founding member of NYCResistor, a hacker collective that meets regularly to share knowledge, hack on projects together, and build community. The main project he wants to work on in the the lab is building a RepRap for himself, and eventually work with a team to build one for SSBxFab’s permanent space. Zach is willing to teach many things, including software, basic electronics, electronics construction, and 2D CAD. Open source means a great deal to Zach, and he cites that his professional career has been built upon “LAMP” (short for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP).

—

Jeff Sturges has a BA in Economics from Middlebury College and Master of Architecture from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He has 8+ years of leadership experience in the research, conceptualization, and realization of elegant solutions to complex problems with diverse creative teams. Jeff has been an Associate Partner at THEM Architecture|Design, and an Assistant Director of Economic and Housing Development as Ridgewood Bushwich SCC, where he wrote grants, implemented IT systems, and managed the development and construction of over $20M of affordable housing. He recently began a residency at SmartDesign, a multi-disciplinary design consultancy that helps clients build strong consumer brands by creating solutions that focus on people. Jeff believes in the empowerment of challenged communities through education and available technology, and is committed to helping others create a lifestyle for themselves that is both enriching and satisfying. As a Fellow at SSBxFab, he intends to develop a body of work and educational curriculum that will be related to basic electronics, circuit board design/fabrication and physical artifact design/fabrication. Hands-on experiences will include the creation of simple amplifiers, signal generators, radio frequency transmitters/receivers, sensors, and triggers. Jeff is particularly interested in how open source digital fabrication can promote small-scale entrepreneurship, and everything that is taught, learned, and developed through his projects will be made available online in the form of words, photographs, and audio/video clips so that it may be shared and improved upon by anyone wishes to do so.

—

Lisa Wan is a Junior Architect at OCV Architects, a sustainable, green architecture firm that focuses on elevating the quality of design services provided for publicly funded projects. She completed her Bachelors of Architecture degree in May 2007 from City College of New York. Her thesis was titled “Hub Housing: Community + Garden + Housing + Integrated Systems” and was about rethinking how housing should be approached in the South Bronx, in the scales of urban plan, building massing, and unit structure. She views sustainability as an issue not just of ecology, but also of economics and ethics. Lisa’s research interests in urban solutions for sustainability. How does a building not only promote the use of daylight, but encourages the users to compost or understand where their food comes from? How does housing in the South Bronx not only provide shelter, but also opportunities for sustainable lifestyles? A major theme is her thesis work was to limit the input and output of building, which includes limiting energy uses of a building and finding ways to support and purchase locally grown food. This theme of reduction and reuse is something she’d like to take the opportunity as SSBxFab Fellow to develop. Lisa wants to use the FabLab machines to develop architectural models for her green building ideas, explore reclamation techniques at the lab (such as how to recycle old wood pallets and discarded furniture) and is willing teach her graphics and CAD skills to members of the community.