DMY Maker Lab

Yesterday I visited DMY Berlin, one of Berlin’s leading design festivals. In this post I’d like to share a few impressions.

This year, DMY was held at the recently-closed airport Tempelhof, so needless to say the architecture there is quite a backdrop for a design festival. (Check out what Flickr has to offer on Tempelhof.)

I was there primarily to check out the DMY Maker Lab, an area of DMY focused on Open Design.

DMY Maker Lab Trailer from KS12 on Vimeo.

It was initiated by a a loose network called Open Design Berlin, a bunch of folks doing everything from laser cutting to 3D printing to silk screening and much, much more. More than anything, the whole scene reminded me of a mix between a workshop and a playground, and I guess those metaphors both fit in a sense.

Long story short: I asked Michelle Thorne to briefly explain what the Maker Lab is all about; and then asked Christopher Doering and Mendel Heit to say a few words about cooking bioplastic. Below you’ll find a very quick & dirty edit of the video:

DMY Maker Lab from thewavingcat on Vimeo.

The video only covers a tiny fraction of what was going on at the Maker Lab, both in terms of tinkering and people, but alas, there you go. I didn’t even get around to look at the printing, screening, photo booth, food stuff and what not. Nor did I manage to talk to many of the folks as I had to run, and that’s really a pity. As those kinds of loose networks go, they tend to be very diverse and not to have one voice but many. So this video can only hope to give a glimpse.

(My apologies for the poor quality. If anyone wants to re-edit the material, feel free to download the files from my Vimeo channel here, here and here.)

But there was more to discover than the Maker Lab. Some random finds I noticed and found interesting, in no particular order, but worth checking out: nobrand, an Argentinian design studio that works strongly with Argentina’s national icons. The (Un)limited Design Contest where you can win a 3D printer. (The real stuff.) A whole group of Taiwanese designers and design students which pretty much all amazing. The KeepCup, a decent take on re-usable to go cups. The really intense YLWT // Your Sins (-) Our Virtues. And of course the gorgeous installation “for those who see” by Daniel Schulze:

DMY Berlin: Daniel Schulze “For Those Who See” from thewavingcat on Vimeo.

(All designers are listed here.)

To finish off, a few random pics I took while at DMY: