Hacking Devices

This intensive workshop will be focused on the creation of a custom 3-axis CNC device combining motors, gears and mechanisms from obsolete electronic devices such as printers, plotters or scanners with the open source electronics platform Arduino and control software developed in Processing interfacing with Firefly-Grasshoper-Rhino. The aim will be to introduce tools, techniques and algorithms for the design of a complete workflow: from digital geometry to G-code to motor actuation. Alternative input devices and sensors to provide feedback and stimuli for interaction with the environment will also be introduced. At the end of the workshop students will demonstrate a full-operating device able to perform material transformation (cutting, weaving, melting, punching, drawing, drilling, molding, etc) on a given material based on a predefined design or on real-time sensorial data.