Dec202017 by lesukNo Comments

‘Paper could be considered the first industrial revolution,’ says Angela Loveridge. ‘We wouldn’t be where we are today without it.’

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Angela Loveridge has had a varied career, teaching English as a foreign language, working in radio, as a counsellor, and with people with mental health issues. It was her work with people with mental health issues that led her to set up an origami group; she now collaborates with business partners Zulay Newell and Dr Lizzie Burns. ‘My whole set of life experiences have been brought together to get me here – focusing on possibilities through numerous avenues of origami,’ says Angela. ‘It has played its part in the technological revolution – I once met with world famous origamist Robert Lang, who is working with NASA to develop a shield to block out light pollution from earth to enable better vision into space. I also worked in one of his classes…
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Nov282017 by lesukNo Comments

‘How can we use 4.0 for good to challenge issues like overproduction and waste?’ asks Fiona Armstrong-Gibbs

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Fiona Armstrong-Gibbs is an author, lecturer and initiator in the fashion and footwear industry, with a particular interest in new and better ways to do business. She is also a director of Baltic Creative CIC, a social enterprise property company established in 2009 to support the creative and digital ecosystem in Liverpool. Fiona led the Liverbird Shoe Project in July 2017, collaborating with Fab Lab Liverpool at the School of Art and Design in LJMU, and with artist and honorary visiting fellow Emma Rodgers. The project originated from an exploration of different approaches to shoes, sculpture and technology, highlighting challenges in the fashion industry around over-production, and developing innovative ways to mix traditional types of making and 3D printing technologies.  ‘I have limited practical skills and hope this project will help…
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Nov272017 by lesukNo Comments

UK chooses ten semi-finalists

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Ten semi finalists from the UK have been selected for the OpenMaker programme. The programme has been facilitated in the UK by the Beautiful Ideas Company, alongside fellow teams in Spain, Italy and Slovakia. The UK judging panel included Liverpool deputy mayor Cllr Nick Small, local entrepreneur Gemma McGowan, Paul Dickson from LJMU and Anthony Walker, project manager of the LCR4.0 project at LJMU, acting as a technical advisor. [caption id="attachment_376" align="alignleft" width="300"] Smart Print will create an archive of over 50,000 wallpapers and textiles dating from the early 18th century, providing a large digital database of antique motifs.[/caption] Seven of the semi-finalists are from the Liverpool City Region, including Wirral and North Liverpool, with a further three from Salford. Each of the semi-finalists is active in an area that…
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Nov22017 by lesukNo Comments
Give creatives control over their means of production, says John Lancaster

Give creatives control over their means of production, says John Lancaster

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Sound engineer John Lancaster co-runs Birdshit Records. As a maker and a manufacturer, he makes his own equipment, from amplifiers to studio equipment, and is currently working on a project to cut vinyl records. John’s project idea revolves around the manufacture of vinyl records. Normally, vinyl involves a minimum pressing quantity, with an order of at least a few hundred discs for recording artists and creatives to distribute vinyl records of their work. His plan is to use his own lathe to cut individual copies and to accept a minimum order of one copy. Typical, his clients are hip-hop artists who need single copies of 12 inch records to use in scratching; creatives who need them to use as promotional tools; and musicians and artists who aren’t able to –…
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Oct122017 by lesukNo Comments
Paul Myers: streamlining and efficiency are critical to development when you’re collaborating

Paul Myers: streamlining and efficiency are critical to development when you’re collaborating

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Dr. Paul Myers is a director of Farm Urban, which links scientific research with local food production. Its founder members are bio-scientists based at the University of Liverpool, focusing on developing the knowledge and systems to introduce innovative urban farms into communities nationwide. How did your idea develop, and what technologies and tools do you use? Rising food and energy prices, increasing unemployment and unhealthy, unsustainable lifestyles are major concerns for today’s society. We believe that the development and implementation of efficient, technologically-advanced urban farms are a key part of the solution. By taking science fresh from the lab and implementing it at the farm in the heart of urban communities, we aim to change both how we do science and how we farm our food. We develop and test…
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Oct62017 by lesukNo Comments
OpenMaker launches at Sensor City

OpenMaker launches at Sensor City

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A group of more than 50 makers and manufacturers gathered at Liverpool’s state-of-the-art Sensor City for the OpenMaker launch evening. A collaboration between the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, the centre bills itself as a global hub for sensor technologies; a collaboration space for people who want to come together to tap into the Internet of Things, using the development of sensors to spark innovation. ‘Sensors and the Internet of Things are driving the next wave of technological innovation,’ says its executive director, Alison Mitchell. ‘By connecting digital devices to the physical world around them, the impact of these emerging technologies on our data-driven society is limitless. ‘We understand how hard it is for businesses to collaborate. Big businesses need a spark that is sometimes only possible through…
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Sep152017 by lesukNo Comments
Kirsten Little: you need people to turn ideas into reality

Kirsten Little: you need people to turn ideas into reality

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Kirsten Little is a Liverpool-based artist and maker, who is involved with OpenMaker. With a Masters in Fine Art from Wimbledon College of Art, she makes collage-based art. Struggling to access the resources that were so abundant during her degree, Kirsten co-founded the maker space Make Liverpool on her return to her home city. She has worked with the Beautiful Ideas Company since its 2015 LaunchPad programme, which supported the development and expansion of Make Liverpool. What do you make, and what technologies/tools do you use? I work with ‘found’ materials, using traditional skills including metalwork, woodwork and casting. I use a lot of old photographs, and ‘lost’ objects, repurposing them into new items or artworks with new uses. Alongside skills like mig welding, casting and woodwork, I use photocopies…
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