Hybrid Objects/Craft

Tangible Interaction and crafting platforms A number of existing Tangible Interaction systems can be considered platforms that support making or crafting. Some of these have looked repurposing and employing existing means to novels ends, such as the use of open-source hardware as a means to support creativity [46,47], the role of hacking and DIY in tangible interaction [48], or creating objects that can be used in home crafting projects.

Another article I came across: Cognitive Space

Hand sketch of an imagined hybrid object - 3D printing cheese building on a pizza

3D printing cheese building on Pizza3D printing cheese bldg on Pizza.png

Assignment Prompts Responses:

  1. Is hybridity a spectrum or a hard boundary in making your imagined object ? Where may boundary start/end for manual/machine, organic/inorganic etc.?

In the case of 3D printing cheese on a pizza it is a spectrum that expands and adds to the traditional process of layering cheese on a pizza. The boundary may be the texture of the cheese as it is supposed to melt in the beginning and then hold up. But what if we can do it the other way round? Can we 3D print solid form cheese and have the consumer melt the form on the pizza using oven heat?

  1. Can you visualize the machine and manual path (or organic/inorganic material boundaries) if you were to make this object?

First the dough making could be made or shaped using either the traditional hand form or machinery such as in frozen pizza making factories.

As for the sauce it could be poured and spread on the pizza either by an automated process or hand.

Then the topping and ingredients placed on the pizza could be hand placed since they are fresh organic and mostly delicate such as tomato, mushrooms, pepperoni...

As for the cheese, I imagined the layering of cheese to make up a form with height. more like a small built shape on top of the pizza which defies the regular shapes we're used to in seeing cheese on pizza. Most pizza lovers appreciate the extra cheese and what if we could be playful and create 3D printed structures with cheese?

Reference for machine/manual toolpaths (e.g. in Free-D):

3D printer, filler container for hard cheese, pressure push mechanism that pushes the cheese into a tube that in turn moves over the pizza and forms the shape.