S/2021
Columbia GSAPP, Advanced Studio V
Collaborators: Tina Marinaki
Professor: Mimi Hoang
Labor is considered as the force that drives industry. Markets, economies and countries rely on their production rate and efficiency. A capitalist society is determined by the goods it trades for money, and the more, the better; but humans involved in the process of making become a mere item in the chain of manufacture and transportation. A loss of principle and ethics can rise when the sight is set only in one goal: the production of Wealth. A city like New York knows well of this, its density permits overlooking ethical details and its speed forces efficiency. Raw materials are externalised to cheap-labor countries, and brought only to be put together for the “made in the USA” label and price tag.
Technology and automation have evolved in aid of human exploitation and towards the efficiency of the manufacturing processes, throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, industrial revolutions and machines became a necessity for factories, helping humans with high physical demand jobs. But Industries in New York have only recently started to question its production process from beginning to end: the life cycle of its produce from its extraction on earth to its disposal and decomposition. Ethics and sustainability are to be considered, and so is fair labor. No job is too small or unqualified if it plays a role in any part of making. Workers are not flesh machines, bodies get tired and need care.
We propose a factory that understands the dynamics of sourcing, and strives for the responsible creation of raw materials without the exploitation of natural resources, where the combination of automation and technology plays to collaborate with humans, and where labor is considered the most precious good. Training and education is fundamental in this Factory, because knowledge, skill and dedication is cherished as it provokes a safe environment and a quality product. We are a catalyst for sustainability, where the laboratory factory grows its own raw materials in machines operated by scientists, controlling its composition and decomposition, using its space for the production of knowledge and training of community members.
We strive for the industry of the source, creating a transparent and ethical space, where there is a correspondence between bodies and technology. A movement that starts with lab grown diamonds, the production of gems where its origin is clean and fair, and its use is multiple: industrial, medical, computational, jewelry, dentistry, optical, audio related, in beauty, and others. It continues with fabrics: lab grown strands and dyes, and can even end up in food production.
The Factory converses with its surrounding business, markets and community, elevating the responsibility for what is sold, where it comes from and how it is manufactured. If we are accountable for every step of the way,
What can we grow together?
Technology and automation have evolved in aid of human exploitation and towards the efficiency of the manufacturing processes, throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, industrial revolutions and machines became a necessity for factories, helping humans with high physical demand jobs. But Industries in New York have only recently started to question its production process from beginning to end: the life cycle of its produce from its extraction on earth to its disposal and decomposition. Ethics and sustainability are to be considered, and so is fair labor. No job is too small or unqualified if it plays a role in any part of making. Workers are not flesh machines, bodies get tired and need care.
We propose a factory that understands the dynamics of sourcing, and strives for the responsible creation of raw materials without the exploitation of natural resources, where the combination of automation and technology plays to collaborate with humans, and where labor is considered the most precious good. Training and education is fundamental in this Factory, because knowledge, skill and dedication is cherished as it provokes a safe environment and a quality product. We are a catalyst for sustainability, where the laboratory factory grows its own raw materials in machines operated by scientists, controlling its composition and decomposition, using its space for the production of knowledge and training of community members.
We strive for the industry of the source, creating a transparent and ethical space, where there is a correspondence between bodies and technology. A movement that starts with lab grown diamonds, the production of gems where its origin is clean and fair, and its use is multiple: industrial, medical, computational, jewelry, dentistry, optical, audio related, in beauty, and others. It continues with fabrics: lab grown strands and dyes, and can even end up in food production.
The Factory converses with its surrounding business, markets and community, elevating the responsibility for what is sold, where it comes from and how it is manufactured. If we are accountable for every step of the way,
What can we grow together?
