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AMP 2020-2024 and next…

Posted on by pervasiveyaz

Dear reader,

First, our best wishes for 2024! Let’s hope this year be better than the last four – the world has faced a succession of challenging events since our last post. You have all read about the violent demolition of the scrapyard… These uncertainties have strengthened our point of view that architecture needs a complete repositioning. The next few posts will be dedicated to update you on AMP and the steps taken to develop its technology. The various events that AMP participated to were the opportunity to develop with the AMP Makers Collective (often remotely!) the architecture toolkit, which has evolved to become lighter (using less metal and more bamboo), scalar and completely customizable. Here below is a photograph taken by community agent Kay A. in 2021 of the next generation prototype made in and around Agbogbloshie.

Season of Media Arts: City of Participative Visions

Posted on by dkoa
© ZKM | Videostudio

Video source. From ZKM | Center for Arts and Media:

Made in Ghana by a grassroots group of makers and shipped from AMP’s first makers hub in Accra’s Agbogbloshie scrapyard, the spacecraft, stationed at ZKM during the exhibition Digital Imaginaries, has now landed in the center of Karlsruhe within the Seasons of Media Arts framework. 

The alternative architecture of Spacecraft_ZKM – a low-cost, open-source, and small-scale capsule – operates as an open arena to provide makers and the broader public with means to work together and exchange knowledge. It is an urban mining platform aimed at more sustainable recycling of information technology equipment. 

Several lectures, talks, and hands-on workshops will be offered at the Spacecraft_ZKM weekly, including a workshop on building a DIY particulate matter sensor and following fine-dust measurements in Karlsruhe, as well as »data labs« for creating data evaluations from the city’s transparency portal. 

Artistic research seminar NO FAQ

Posted on by dkoa
Digital collage of the event NO FAQ, a colorful structure over the desert
© Elyssa Fleig

From ZKM | Center for Arts and Media:

Master students of the Faculty for Architecture at the KIT present the results of the research seminar »NO FAQ« at Spacecraft_ZKM in the exhibition »Digital Imaginaries«.

»NO FAQ« sees itself as a researching collective in which scientific and artistic approaches are linked. The research and exhibition project »Digital Imaginaries – Africas in Production« served as a theoretical framework for the independent artistic-research practice of the students. The research object of the seminar was »Not Frequently Asked Questions« in dealing with postcolonial and digital contexts. Drawings, photographs, videos and objects created during the seminar will be presented.

Design Innovation for Coastal Resilience

Posted on by dkoa

Two-day maker workshop with Ashesi Design Lab, Penn State’s Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering and Design with Africa, and the AIR Centre, a trans-national research consortium. Part of developing the “scanopy” environmental sensor for third-generation AMP spacecraft.

Shuttleworth Grant Accelerates the AMP Spacecraft

Posted on by pervasiveyaz

The Shuttleworth Foundation Flash Grant received in November 2016 has helped tremendously to amplify groundwork on the Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform and the AMP spacecraft. It freed us from immediate constraints and enabled us to:

  • Upgrade the Spacecraft in Agbogbloshie
  • Prototype a new roof system
  • Devise of an action plan for the Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform mobile application
  • And advance plans to introduce AMP at the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism— Shipping a second prototype #MadeinAgbogbloshie of the Spacecraft and showcase grassroots makers’ production while interacting with local grassroots makers, all of this as an attempt to link and strenghten different communities of makers around the globe.

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The last months’ production, including the conversation with the Public Interest Design community met in Portland (AMP won the SEED Award 2017), are ground work to our next phase of AMP, which is to prototype a sustainable and viable business model so the Spacecraft operates in autonomous manner in a variety of grassroots communities.

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Thank you to the Shuttleworth Foundation, Ugo Vallauri and Janet Gunter co-founders of the Restart Project and the Restart Project community.

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2016 Summary, Welcome 2017!

Posted on by pervasiveyaz

Dear AMPers,

A happy new year from the AMP team!

2016 was rich in milestones and interclass innovation workshops to advance makers and development objectives:

The 2016 trip team, led by Sell and Christie Jiang, also a junior, split into three groups to tackle filming and editing. Each group focused on different topic areas – like copper burning(link is external), working with lead batteries(link is external), or the health hazards of aluminum(link is external). The students worked closely with on-the-ground support from AMP to meet and interview workers and community leaders at Agbogbloshie and better understand the complex workings of the scrapyard. (via Princeton University)

We are now ready for 2017 and looking forward to meeting you again for more special maker and interclass innovation events…

Best Regards,

The AMP Team

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AMP it up ;-)