[EAS]Inventions and Surplus

pjk pjk at design.eng.yale.edu
Thu Jan 2 19:02:33 EST 2003


Subject:   Inventions and Surplus

Dear Colleagues -

http://www.ProgressiveEngineer.com/frm_pro1.htm

A charming little profile, in the current issue of the Progressive
Engineer, of inventor-engineer Tim Anderson whose 3-D "printer"
invention used parts from dumpsters (at MIT though, where dumpsters
are presumably in a class by themselves), and who continues to
practice his unconventional vision of technology:

"An art museum has the ability to turn an ordinary object into art,
and a dumpster has the ability to turn an ordinary object into
garbage," he says. "I see things for what they are, regardless of
whether they're in a dumpster or an art museum." 

With the rapid obsolescence rates that fuel our economy and our
diverse "secular religions" of ownership and "with-it-ness", there
is certainly a huge abundance of free technology available for art,
invention, technological archeology and anthropology, and for
turning kids on to technical ideas and inventiveness. E.g. just
think of all the digital cameras made obsolete by this Christmas's
upgrade purchases.

Consider this a follow-up to my "Heathkit" EAS-INFO mailing
<http://jove.eng.yale.edu/pipermail/eas-info/2003/000563.html> and
the earlier follow-up
<http://jove.eng.yale.edu/pipermail/eas-info/2002/000558.html>

All best,  --PJK




More information about the EAS-INFO mailing list