This project explores how engineering design, collaborative design, materials culture, digital fabrication and service design can be combined to revolutionise the personal selection of materials in prosthetic hands. Prosthetics is one industry in which the use of materials is inherently socio-technical: a prosthetic hand is not just a medical device or a tool, but an extension of its wearer's identity. Currently the aesthetics of prosthetic hands are polarised between 'realistic' (or uncanny) silicone gloves and cyborg-like robotic hands. Many amputees feel that neither of these alternatives fit their own body image. Our radical proposal for a materials-led approach to personalised manufacture would offer a common design in a combination of materials chosen by the wearer, ranging from new, unfamiliar materials to everyday materials that are rich in cultural associations and resonances. Given that each material choice may imply a different manufacturing process, we will explore how accessible digital fabrication could make this inclusive and empowering approach to prosthetics viable and affordable.
The project's second, complementary aim is to gain an in-depth understanding of how this particular application might catalyse a more sophisticated socio-technical engagement with materials across digital fabrication as a whole. The uptake of 3D printing can lead to a reliance on materials that can be directly printed, actually reducing our engagement with a richer material culture. Bespoke fabrication is currently usually restricted in scale, colour and materials. Offering a wider palette of materials implies a wider service, beyond individual digital fabrication facilities. This project will examine how a network of digital fabrication facilities could be combined to afford a choice of materials within the same design. We believe this case study of prosthetic hands will grant unique perspectives and inspire innovative approaches to bespoke inclusive manufacturing in other sectors. This project will illustrate how supposedly niche applications can unlock radical new practices across manufacturing as a whole.
The research will be carried out in five workstages:
'Participatory workshops', in which we will explore materials by making hands with diverse participants, including amputees, prosthetists, material scientists, designers and other makers;
'Co-designing prostheses', in which we will collaborate with a few chosen amputees to design representational prototypes of prosthetic hands in materials of their choosing;
'Designing the service', in which we will conceive of the network and service that would be needed to support this degree of choice, and prototype the user's experience of such a service;
'Looking beyond prosthetics', in which we interview further stakeholders and extract a set of generic design principles for wider digital manufacture;
'Exhibition and dissemination', in which we will stage a public exhibition to illustrate inclusive manufacturing.
Outputs will include a collection of co-designed material hands, a public exhibition of these, a prototyped user experience of the service, an edited video documenting our processes, a technical report aimed at the digital fabrication sector and articles in peer-reviewed materials science and design journals (e.g. Materials & Design; the Design Journal). This project will encourage a more creative, participatory approach to design, involving users as partners in the creation of new products. It will also influence the materials science, engineering and manufacturing communities by drawing attention to user and design-driven requirements for new materials, influencing research agendas and promoting design-led materials science in other bespoke applications.
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