Designing location-specific 3d-printed vessels using mobile-based multisensor data fusion

This statement presents an innovative creative process for designing ceramic vessels. The authors detail how three disparate concepts— mobile device-driven creativity, digitally designed and fabricated ceramics, and multisensor data fusion—are unified and applied to an emerging practice in which sensor data are used to generate vessel designs via a prototype smartphone app. In a pilot study users in a variety of locations tested the app, and their designs were 3D printed, with location becoming a tangible parameter. Results show the feasibility of using data fusion, mobile devices and digital fabrication to create physical, location-specific artifacts. Broad implications and potential ways forward are then discussed.