Sunday 29 November 2015

New Location: Japan

After spending the past few years working on a series of international events from my base just outside London, I'm delighted to be setting up a new, nomadic life for myself over on the other side of the world for a few months: Japan.


The experience of working temporarily within a number of different countries (UK, USA, France, Germany, Spain, UAE) over the last few months has hugely shaped both my interests and my perspective - along with my desire to experience a more varied range of cultural understanding. Knowledge sharing is a beautiful way to transcend barriers between people, and from the (translated) conferences, exhibitions and events I've produced so far in my career, what I've come to love more and more is witnessing connections being made between individuals, industries and cultures.
 
Moving to Japan has not been a difficult decision for me. I have been desperate to experience life and work beyond my own culture for a while now: America and Europe offer a stunning variation of ideas and approaches to art and technology, but it was the mild culture-shock of working in the UAE last month that helped me confirm my decision to cut ties with the UK for a while and leave in search of (my understanding of) stranger places.

I'll be spending the first few months of my Japanese adventure based on the Northern island of Hokkaido - where I will be indulging in one of my real, physical passions in life: powder skiing. From here, I'll be writing freelance while I continue my research into some of Japan's most interesting art/tech institutes - whether that be innovative companies in Tokyo, or arts museums / galleries / bodies elsewhere. I hope to find out more about Japan's arts and academic communities (especially in terms of Digital Humanities), in addition to grappling with the language as much as I can.

All ideas are welcome at this point, so if there's any way I could help with your project, then please do not hesitate to let me know. Please feel free to check up on my personal blog for more posts relating to my travels - and the interesting art, tech and design that I find along the way.

Monday 23 November 2015

Ze illest Skejdaz

I've moved to Japan!

I'm having a bit of a break from the 9 - 5 to indulge in another of my passions in life: skiing!
Keep up with my other world on my other blog: http://zeillestskejdaz.tumblr.com/ - it's going to be beautiful!

In the meantime, I'm still working on a freelance basis with editorial work specific to the 3D printing industry. If there's any way I can support your business, then please do get in touch with me via email as I'm always interested in collaborations.




Sunday 22 November 2015

Dubai: Hungry for New Technology

Last week I returned from my first trip to Dubai to support the Management team producing one of the largest events I've ever been a part of: The Dubai Airshow. This exhibition has a strong history, and stands as one of the many jewels in the Sheik's crown when it comes to national pride, engineering prowess, and of course, the ability to showcase wealth.

3D printing plays a (currently) minimal part in the Aerospace industry, but looks to transform the way that people build all kinds of machines - including aircraft. Now, what's important to outline is that I am not professionally interested in the aerospace industry - but I was thrilled to have the experience of working in the UAE amongst some amazingly forward-thinking technologists.

In terms of interest in the tech, I was surprised by how few people attended the conference tracks that I had created. Curated towards the Engineering / Aerospace professional, it seemed as though attendees either already knew all about the topic, or knew and cared very little for a discussion of 3D printing. In all honestly, I was disappointed by how little interest was shown, but I was fascinated to learn more about Dubai's attitude towards innovation and new technology in generally: it's basically very, very important to them. One other huge benefit of the trip was that I was invited to the Gala Dinner for the event on its closing night - which consisted of a huge silver service, black tie party for 2,500 guests at the Palm, Atlantis, with none other than Katy Perry as the evening entertainment. If that's not the height of UAE hosting, then I don't know what is.







Monday 16 November 2015

Goodbye to 3D Printshow from me

After an incredible experience working full time for nearly two and half years (directly after graduation), I'm finally saying goodbye to 3D Printshow.

I wrote a post on Linkedin about my thoughts and experiences - which has had an overwhelming reaction. Please feel free to have a read via the link below:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3d-printshow-unforgettable-journey-faith-robinson?trk=prof-post


After more than two and a half years, today marks my last day as Content Curator for international tech event, 3D Printshow.


I can't quite believe it! It's been an absolute pleasure working with this community all around the world - and from our flagship events in London, right through to our European, American and UAE shows, the people I have met and worked with have been consisently wonderful.
The generosity of knowledge, along with a genuine excitement and passion for progressing this world-changing industry continues to make our community a very special place. I feel privaleged to have taken this journey with so many of you: the established and start-up companies whose businesses have grown in sync with our event; the artists and fashion designers who have continued to create more and more stunning 3D printed work since I first met you as an intern here; the press and journalists who continue to drive public excitement for the tech; and of course, the attendees and delegates who always inspired me with their enthusiasm to learn as much as possible within my conference tracks. In addition to all of this, I'm lucky enough to have been heavily involved in creating Disruptive Magazine - with a team of exceptionally experienced individuals. This was and still is a dream come true.
For me, the focus of my work has always been to create a platform for 3D printing as a way to educate, inspire and innovate. As curator, I do not physically produce anything - I still find it difficult to get my head around CAD programs, materials as well as the specifics of the hardware. Yet I feel as though I have contributed to a very special industry, and I hope the relationships (business and otherwise) that so many of you have found at 3D Printshow continue to produce brilliant ideas and products for many years to come.

There's still a lot more coming from the 3D Printshow team in the next few weeks (along with a very special new event structure and image for 2016), so keep your eyes out.
In the meantime, I'll be working freelance on a range of relevent production, content and editorial projects in and around the 3D printing industry - whilst ticking off a few exciting destinations from my bucket list on the way. I'd be delighted to hear from you if you have any ideas about how we could work together, and wherever in the world you happen to be based, it would be my pleasure to connect and potentially collaborate.
So finally: thank you to everyone who has made my experience within the 3D printing community so special. It truly has been an unforgettable journey, and I can't wait to see what we all achieve next.

Follow me on twitter to keep in touch: @faith__robinson - and if you've enjoyed working with me, then please feel free to write a reference / endorse me on my Linkedin profile.

Monday 2 November 2015

3D Printing in Paris

My third annual trip to Paris to produce a platform for creativity and education at Le Carrousel du Louvre went just as well as expected. Within the context of culture and heritage that is the museum itself, I was delighted to put together another five conference tracks over two days, which hosted presentations and panel discussions about 3D printing for numerous sectors.

My role at 3D Printshow requires me to produce sessions exploring topics like Industry and Healthcare - but for me, the opportunity to create a Design track was the highlight of my work. In order to focus on a France / European 3D printing community, I was thrilled to work once again with Arthur Mamou-Mani, fresh back from California on a school trip to Burning Man, along with the inspiring individual that is Patrick Baudisch from Germany's prestigious Hasso-Plattner Institute. Seperately, their investigations - both in a design and an academic sense - into 3D printing for modular and conceptual design are stunningly beuatiful, and I'm convinced that they are leading this area of innnovation towards some incredible results.

Creating platforms for discussion and knowledge sharing is a huge passion of mine, and at Paris this year, I certainly felt a few "wow" moments in which I knew I'd created an extremely special moment of conversation. I was especially proud of the event, and look forward to my next (and final!) job for 3D Printshow in Dubai a little later this month.


Thursday 29 October 2015

Textile Futures: article for SURFACE ZINE

Super happy to contribute a short piece about 3D printing for textile futures in last months inaugural issue of Surface Zine.

With a love of all things fluffy / shiny / colourful, the collective's aesthetic focuses on a post-internet yet critically tangible mixture of sculptural art and fashion - which perfectly suited my interest in the contemporary use of 3D printing for textile development.

The girls have got an ever-growing intsagram following - so be sure to visit them at @surfacezine for some beautiful delights on your daily feed.



See the little article below (PDF). Unfortuntely, the team picked a slightly irrelevent image to support the work (that garment is NOT 3D printed!), but I'm still really happy to see my work printed in such an awesome indepenednt zine. Good luck to the team behind it, and I hope their work continues!

Pick up your copy via the link below:
http://www.surfacezine.bigcartel.com/


Thursday 22 October 2015

Expo 15: Careers in the Arts


 I was delighted yesterday to make my way up to Leeds to contribute to Expo 15: A careers event organised by the University of Leeeds across a number of different subjects and University schools.

After having immensely enjoyed my time in the city within the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, I was more than happy to take a day off work to give a presentation about my story to a group of really enthusiastic (and really cool) freshers - all of whom were desperate to start gaining experience now to make them as employable as possible in the future.

I was asked to discuss my role at 3D Printshow in sync with my degree (History of Art) and the work experience / internships that I engaged with during my time as an undergraduate at the uni - and it was a brilliant experience. Working in the 3D printing industry has given me the opportunity to travel the world and work with an extremely varied collection of individuals, and it was only when I began explaining what I do and how I got to doing it that I realised how lucky I have been.

I then took part in a really interactive panel discussion about what it means to be employable - including questions from the audience about how to tweak your CV, how to get that first internship, and where to look for opportunities and funding. I was seriously impressed not only by the outgoing way in which this group of 18 year olds were engaging with what I was saying, but it was also great to see so many young people taking the initiative to really work out how they were going to realise their project ideas. I would never have even attended such an event as a fresher - so its clear that the culture is really changing in terms of young people knowing how hard it will be for them to find work after graduation.

I left feeling inspired, and happy to have encouraged some younger students to continue pursuing their goals - and it was great being back in Leeds.

I stopped by two of my favourite museums spaces on my way back to the station: The Henry Moore Institute and Leeds Art Gallery. Catching up on the city's incredible scene is always a pleasure - and I was delighted in particular by touring exhibition British Art Show 8, which was presenting some very strange and interesting work. The highlight for me was a 1 hour video by Rachel Maclean - I had never seen anything like it (also, kudos to Leeds Art Museum for some excellent curation and some daring wall-painting in the galleries themselves). What a great city!
http://britishartshow8.com/artists



Monday 5 October 2015

3D Printing + California: Highlights

Feeling immediately fabulous on my return - and dropping the "..just back from LA" card whenever and wherever possible - a trip to California to produce the seventh 3D Printshow event of the year provided me with an incredible opportunity to connect with some of America's leading 3D printing innovators. I put together three seperate conference tracks exploring Business, Contemporary Making, and Design, in addition to writing another feature piece for Disruptive Magazine and exhibiting a small collection of 3D printed fashion pieces.

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Julia Koerner
After a long online friendship (after writing about her work for a number of different publications), I finally got to meet Julia Koerner in LA, as she lead the keynote presentation within my Design program. Julia is not only a wonderful and fantastically accomplished young woman, but her stunning work is arguably leading the way in terms of 3D printed haute couture. She has produced 3D printed elements and designs for both Iris van Herpen and more recently, Chanel, and her experience and understanding of the material and it's design constraints are seriously impressive.

Anouk Wipprecht
Another incredible female innovator that I was so delighted to finally meet was Anouk Wipprecht - who is building the future of fashion through A.I, microcontrollers and 3D printing. Email comms between Anouk and myself have been going on for (literally) years, so it was amazing to hang out at long last. Anouk contributed to a seriously fantastic panel discussion which explored how 3D printing is implementing and changing not only designed products, but the design process itself - and her insights were invaluable. 

Behnaz Farahi
This young designer is fairly new to the 3D printing scene, but Behnaz Farahi's recent artist residency at Autodesk's Pier 9 program has driven some incredible work, which I was delighted to exhibit in California. The piece in question, named the "Caress of the Gaze", is literally reactionary, and the texture at play within the piece absolutely fascinated visitors to our event.

Nervous System
This is another design collective that I've not only been working with for sometime, but one that I've also really admired. Although Jessica Rozenkratz (from Nervous System) was not present at our event, I was really happy to show and interact with a print of the Kinematics Dress - the garment which was recenty acquired and exhibted by the MoMA. After initially meeting Nervous System in New York a few years ago when I was curating their work into the city's first 3D printed Fashion Show, it's been amaizng to see how far they've come.

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Working in this industry allows me to interact with some amazing individuals who aren't only interested in fashion and seasonal aesthetic, but who are driving the industry forward by innovating and suggesting some incredible fashion futures.  Personally, it is a privaledge to research, co-ordinate and write about their content, and I look forward to more and more people around the world appreciating the incredible work that they are all doing.

Next up, I'm in Paris and then Amsterdam later this month, followed by a trip to Dubai to produce my first UAE event. As always, I'll be documenting my experiences on the blog, so don't forget to check back in soon.

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Build day one at 3D Printshow California

 
"Caress of the Gaze" by Behnaz Farahi

 "Kinematics Dress" by Nervous Sytem