Assa was invited by the Victoria & Albert Museum over the London design week 2011 for a talk and an interactive installation.    

Guests at the museum where invited to PLAY and co-design some of Assas open 3D objects using his Digital Forming co-designing software. Selected guests were invited to send their 3D personalised objects to be 3D printed straight from the museums space...  

Words about Assa Ashuach studio workflow: Assa Studio practice and research is very much about the innovation and development of new industrial design methodologies within digital design and manufacturing. In the centre of the studio developments is the digital object as file, and the virtual 'life' of an object, before it is physically produced. Opened to users input, the digital object can be produced using a wide range of additive layer manufacturing (widely known as 3D printing) with a mix of mass production solutions. This is the key difference and maybe the most novel aspect of the studio's practice. Aesthetics, adaptation and reconfiguration of forms are elements in flux within this new product design workflow.  

Words about the digital forming technology: Digital forming was first introduced to the public in an exhibition at Londons Science Museum following a TSB grant in 2009. The notion of open objects within boundaries was introduced for the first time during Assa Ashuach research at London Metropolitan University in 2005. During his fellowship, Assa introduced the Digital Forming workflow. This novel workflow was created based on the assumption that 3D objects are fundamentally a line of code, a code that can be stored, embedded and rendered as a virtual open product (open, as with no boundaries). Online and offline, it can then be reconfigured and sent into production in the form of additive layer manufacturing... Introducing the notion of Open 3D products and the new Digital Forming technology file formats ODO - Original Designed Object and CODO - CO Designed Object. A novel two sided communication platform whereby a designer [the creator of the ODO] designs both the product and the product user experience as an integral and essential part of the product design process. An ODO file is presented to a user with its own product GUI (Graphical User Interface) and a set of built-in functions. The user is then able to co-design within the design experience set by the designer. Once the user is happy with the manipulated design a CODO file can be saved, ready to be sent into the ‘postcode production’ network. This framework has the potential to democratise the personalisation of everyday products through the utilisation of a synthesis of innovative 3D software solutions, which allow for online customisation and shape modification. Using a vision of ‘postcode production’ where products can be produced locally helping producers to capitalise on their redundant production capacities, with a real impact on the production and supply chain. This in turn reduces carbon footprints dramatically and with on-demand production, conventional storage and logistical issues for mass produced items are removed.

How can we collaborate on the design and engendering, How can we develop the distribution and management of objects as files, how can we stay in touch with the user, And how can we stay open to the connected city communities?

Assa Ashuach