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Redefining Manufacturing

Wander around a Tokyo neighbourhood and you'll soon come across a small engineering workshop - part of the urban infrastructure and a skill base that enables small scale repair and manufacturing and is very much part of the flavour of living here (and lies in stark contrast to growing up in a we-do-services-not-objects London). But what of manufacturing in the age of cheap electronics, mass personalisation and a shared knowledge? The re-definition of manufacturing discussed in this essay by Julian Bleeker & Nicholas Nova titled What Is Manufacturing in the Era of Design-Art-Technology? including slides here.

Photos: small scale manufacturing in Chongqing China (above) and a reverse engineered mobile phone repair manual - with the latest versions updated over the internet from Accra, Ghana (below).

Writing from Tokyo | March 24, 2008 | Permalink