We wrote about Fab City earlier this year so it’s great to see more. We explored it in terms of 3D printing, but this article from GreenBiz looks at how local Fab Labs are inspiring makers and fostering community connections all over the US and Europe. We love the idea of creating a formal movement…
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Much of our focus on designing our spaces goes on optimising home life or fostering better learning practices. And rightly so. However, forgetting and dismissing our cities’ infrastructure as a necessarily complex evil is having devastating effects. This article from Curbed explores how one firm is trying to humanise our approach to transportation design through…
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This article into a new area of research, dubbed culturomics, is fascinating. Long before massive digital infrastructure and the concept of ‘big data’, humans have been creating a record. What we thought culturally important to write down tells our story, not just our tales. And more important than anything is to get the measure of…
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For us, making represents the practical application of our most important themes, imagination and creativity. Through projects like this summer’s Mega Maker Lab, we play, experiment and invent, finding intriguing solutions and learning along the way. It’s so inspiring to see this explored in a feature-film documentary. We love the idea that making has a…
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The idea of creativity being ‘educated out’ or just losing that spark of imagination as we age is common. We’d certainly support nurturing it in children in every way possible, but there’s debate on how this develops as we get older. Some studies actually show a boost and peak between our 20s and 40s. What…
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Learning and play is one of our central themes at IM, so for us the link between the two is a cause we always champion. However, one could still see one-player video games as the antithesis to positive personal and social development. What we really love about educational gaming is that it acknowledges that learning…
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This one takes a moment to sink in. At first it looks like any other game of hide-and-seek, but once you realise the ‘bots’ have been let loose with no environmental knowledge and learned to play and strategise on their own, it’s truly extraordinary. Advances like this are like gaping into a world of infinite…
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Making, by nature, implies being hands-on – or does it? This new VR app gives unprecedented access to maker workshops. Even physically being there wouldn’t allow this close an involvement in the making process. It’s a revolutionary way to break down the barriers of safety, access and expertise in order to engage and inspire. A…
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As artificial intelligence and automation innovates, so, it seems, should we. Exercising creative skills allows us to bring to the table what only we can in terms of abstract, free, untaught thinking. This endorsement from the tech industry places much-welcome value on alternative methods of learning and arts education. uniquely human skills John Fallon, Pearson…
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Now for the final instalment in our series looking at this BBC programme – it’s ‘The Rocket‘. With each invention humanity tell its story and adds a new string to its bow; and rockets virtually represent an entirely new dimension. In some ways they’re the ultimate symbol of freethinking. We want to know what lies…
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