What is FABLCC ?

FABLCC is a learning and teaching initiative based at the London College of Communication (LCC) focused on digital fabrication technology. A digital fabricator (or fabber) is a machine that builds (layer-by-layer) three-dimensional plastic objects from digital data. Click here to see a time-lapse build video of our MakerBot Industries Thing-O-Matic in action.

This associated website provides a space to showcase past/present projects as well as a mechanism for LCC students/staff to submit future project ideas ... encouraging developments driven by bottom-up ownership, à la Fab Labs, not top-down planning.

Current Projects / January - February 2012 3D Exquisite Corpse [v2] / Digital Fabrication Workshops
Invitation for ABC Diploma in 3D Modelling and Animation students ...

Monday/Tuesday Group
Monday 30th January / 3:00-4:30pm / Main Lecture Theatre

Wednesday/Thursday Group
Thursday 2nd February / 3:00-4:30pm / Street Lecture Theatre RepRap Redux : Self-Replicating Machines
Research Project info. coming soon ...

LCC Research Mode Staff Development Funding 2011/12 application being written.
Submission deadline 15 February 2012. The poorly RepRap bequeathed to FABLCC on November 21st by the IMI (Interactive and Moving Image) team.

Project Archive / November 2011 Digital SLR Photography Workshop
w208, London College of Communication
November 9th 2011 / 01:00-04.00 pm

FABLCC collaboration with photographer Pablo Antolí. Pablo talked about Digital SLR Photography and produced an exquisite time-lapse video of the Thing-O-Matic building a plastic whistle with BA Digital Media Design students. Click here to see the time-lapse build video shot using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with a 40mm f2 len [Actual build time 13 minutes]. FAB Futures talk by Tim Fransen at the Futures Conference 2011
Podium Lecture Theater, London College of Communication
November 4th 2011 / 10:00-10.45 am

Tim Fransen will be talking about grassroots digital fabrication and demonstrating a MakerBot Industries : Thing-O-Matic. He will also be inviting attendees to submit future project ideas to help shape digital fabrications presence at the LCC.

Video & Slideshow Recommended Reading

1. Philip K. Dick's sci-fi short story Autofac (1955)
2. Bruce Sterling's sci-fi short story The Kiosk (2008)
3. Cory Doctorow's sci-fi short story Printcrime (2007) and novel Makers (2010)
4. Neil Gershenfeld's book FAB : The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop : From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication (2005)
5. Peter Day's programme Global Business from the BBC World Service Part I Part II (2011)
6. V&A and Crafts Council Exhibition Power of Making (6 Sept 2011 - 2 Jan 2012)
7. MakerBot Industries website
8. RepRap website / July 2011 FABLCC vitrine at LCC Summer Show / June 2011 3D Exquisite Corpse This poseable figurine was produced with students studying the ABC Diploma in 3D Modelling and Animation.

Exquisite Corpse was a Surrealists technique, a kind of collective collage of words or images. Based on an old parlor game, it was played by several people, each of whom would write a phrase/or draw a body part on a sheet of paper, fold the paper to conceal part of it, and pass it on to the next player for his/her contribution.

We decided to give Exquisite Corpse a 3D twist, whereby each student independently designed a body part. The designs were outputted in ABS Plastic on a MakerBot Industries Thing-O-Matic and affixed using embedded grub screws and Neodymium magnetic spheres. / April 2011 Assembled MakerBot Industries Thing-O-Matic The MakerBot is an open source digital fabricator kit assembled by Design Technician Tim Fransen as part of a staff development research project. It produces three-dimensional plastic objects from digital data. Click here to see a time-lapse build video.

Project Submission Form

Please submit future project ideas using the form below ...