Published: 21 March 2022
Hack the process
Let’s imagine what will happen if we combine a few well-known processes, materials and tools, but in a different way than before? Firstly: a process of industrial manufacturing of porcelain. Not much has changed in this regard since the 19th century, when the process of serial manufacture of porcelain was invented. Secondly: the hand work. Can we use only one hand to do all the things we usually do with both hands? Thirdly: the material. How will porcelain behave when combined with breakfast cereal, yeast and vitamin C effervescent tablet or hygroscopic granules? Lastly: the Kuka robot. An industrial tool known from production halls, used rather for heavy force processes than precision jobs with fragile matter.
Designer and KUKA robot
Their task, which spanned two semesters, was to combine the presented elements in sequences leading to the creation of ceramic vessels. A one-handed artisan is just a step away from a robotic arm. However, it is a challenging feat to translate the fluent and organic movements of a human into a code controlling a robot’s arm. In order to replace the hand, one needs to invent, design and make grips that the arm can be equipped with. Sometimes, it is a 3D-printed extruder; at other times, a suction pad or an inflated balloon. At the same time, the students experimented with the material: they changed its consistency, composition and application methods.
The goal of these endeavours was to carry out a process of preparing a bowl from liquid porcelain in such a way as to challenge a manufacturing process that has not changed for the last 200 years. The results are amazing: bowls that are thinner than the thinnest Chinese porcelain, porous and retaining water, structural and resembling spaghetti, melted like the remnants of a volcano eruption.
International exhibition
Vienna Design Week
The Hack the Process exhibition was presented for one month at the gallery of the Polish Institute in Vienna as part of the Vienna Design Week (17.9-3.11.2022).
