PublicEngineering - DoESLiverpool/somebody-should GitHub Wiki
Public Engineering
SchauspielHaus Public Engineering Webpage
Public Engineering Talk
Find out about the PublicEngineeringTalk on Saturday 22nd June at 5pm
Event Dates
Friday 21st June 2014 1800-2100
Saturday 22nd June 2014 1200 - 1900
Sunday 23rd June 2014 1200 - 1800
Event Location
Rotunde, Alter Bochumer Hauptbahnhof, Konrad-Adenauer-Platz 3
The Project
Public Engineering is a project by artist Ross Dalziel for DAS DETROIT-PROJEKT, a project by Schauspielhaus Bochum and Urbane Künste Ruhr in collaboration with DasLabor a hackspace in Bochum the Ruhr region of Germany and DoESLiverpool a co-working maker space in Liverpool, which this webpage is part of.
This page is part of the project wiki which is the portal for all information on the event in Bochum Germany 21st-23rd June 2014. Like most wikis its a mix of essential information for the public, specialist info for organisers and various technical detritus and the occasional note to self.
It's part of a response to Bochum losing a big part of its car industry, a Vauxhall/Opel factory (General Motors) while counterpart GM factories remain open like the one in Ellesmere Port near Liverpool. Local cultural organisations in Bochum have set up artistic projects in response to this, one of which they invited Ross Dalziel to develop through curator Paul Domela.
PUBLICENGINEERING is his response; a family friendly event for local engineers, hackers, makers and industrial hobbyists. Its a way of putting the city's local hackerspace, DasLabor in a more public platform and as a model for social and economic practice . DasLabor already do yearly events like this but for PUBLICENGINEERING we wanted to setup a specific collaborative event based on an exchange between Ross Dalziel, DoESLiverpool the maker/co-working space Ross is based at, the DasLabor community and DoESLiverpool's engineer in residence Patrick Fenner
The project is a celebration of DIY engineering, maker and hackspace culture in the Ruhr region. It's an attempt to discuss strategies & practices that retain & support technical knowledge in a region that loses part of it's industry. The focus of the event is the #TLRN (Tri-Lateration) crane built by Patrick Fenner and a cardboard box press and production line built by DasLabor. The crane, controlled by the public uses 3 motors to move a grabber head to pickup and place cardboard units: alot like a robotic lego set. The production line makes up an installation and social space designed to spark up conversations about local engineering and manufacturing.
The main aim is to make local spaces like DasLabor more visible, valuable and accessible to the public and to get them involved in making and building something in a public space. Ross hopes that by visiting this public event and talking to the people who made it will open up alternative discourse around what industry, engineering and manufacture really means. When a major company closes operations, where does the technical knowledge go? Does it pull out with the company or does it seep and leak into alternative infrastructures, into the internet or spaces like DasLabor or DoesLiverpool
** "If investment decisions are to be made more accountable, the criterion of efficiency has to be something other than profit. Efficiency ought to be measured by such things as: does it answer real, as distinct from manufactured, needs; does it enhance the quality of life; does it conserve rather than squander natural resources; and not least, does it provide an outlet for people's creative talents?" **
Quote from "Merseyside in Crisis" by Merseyside Socialist Research Group, published in 1980. Via @amcewen
Das Labor
You can see some of the excellent stuff DasLabor get up to here
The hackspace is a really nice ever growing creative tech community that not many in the city really know about (not sure how true this is ;)) [https://www.das-labor.org/wiki/PublicEngineering Their wiki for the project is here]. And the Schauspielhaus site and description of the public event DasLabor and I will be making is here
The DOES / DASLABOR EXCHANGE
The basic idea of the project is to build an exchange and collaboration between DoES and
DasLabor for a friendly public 'mini-maker-faire' / Maker Day style event in Germany;
This has evolved into the cardboard box production line built by the Das Labor group.
The DOES / DASLABOR EXCHANGE / MAKERDAY
Kai Michaelis & Laurenz Halthoff from Daslabor took part in Maker Day at Doesliverpool back in May 2014
and apart from playing asteroids on an oscilloscope, worked out with Patrick Fenner
the design of the TLRN Crane and how the event might work in Bochum. You can see development plans on the PubEngEventDesign page.
You can see images and a short video from the day on this page; MakerDay
Information for DasLabor vistors
Have a look at the DoesExchange page
The Event / The Vibe
This is the vibe and scale in image form we want: somewhere between Mini-Maker-Faire-Manchester (not nearly as big) [Robot Unicorn Invasion]](http://www.das-labor.org/?p#1150) (maybe bit bigger with less stormtroopers) and Interface Amnesty I did in 2010 (which is about right scale wise). Then combine with Patrick Fenners crane The Schauspielhaus have released their online brochure here, with print already in the wild
Please check this page for event setup: PubEngEventDesign
Planning
8th & 9th May Patrick and I will set the crane up in the DoES Workshop.
Kai and Laurenz will visit DoES and experiment and play with the crane over the weekend. Ross will do all the hosting, looking after, buying of pizza and showing round. Ross will pick Kai & Laurenz up on Friday from Manchester and take them to Liverpool.
That date coincides with a DoES Maker Day which is a good chance for the Das Labor people to see some of the wider DoES community at work and also means we could have something else for people coming to Maker Day to see: Patrick and DasLabor guys and me would be playing/modding the crane all weekend basically
18th June 2014 Patrick and Ross arrived at DasLabor with the #TLRN flight case and help out at the workshop
NextSteps
To see progress of design have a look at NextSteps
If anyone at DoES can think of any issues or you would like to come to MakerDay and meet the DasLabor people please get in touch with me next week here or if I fail to respond try @cheapjack
Event Location
The Rotunde was originally a railway station especially built for a church congress. Since then it became an old well-known event location). It's got a big entrance hall with a round window in the roof (the "Rotunde", see pictures) and a few more rooms, but we would prefer the entrance hall. Using the main entrance there's only one stair, but there's also a side entrance without stairs at all. The Rotunde is near by the Schauspielhaus.
Location Pre-Production Images
