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.
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:
We like how the improved roof solution sits on the #spacecraft upgrade and maintenance #workinprogress #Agbogbloshie pic.twitter.com/WNSk9QCdL3
— & (@qampnet) January 4, 2017
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Quality control, maker table and toolbox, Timber Market next to #Agbogbloshie pic.twitter.com/eAh6cWBqwV
— & (@qampnet) December 31, 2016
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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.
We are pleased to announce this year’s SEED Awards go to 6 #PublicInterestDesign projects from around the world https://t.co/X0uE4tfcUx
— SEED Ntwk (@SEEDNtwk) January 25, 2017
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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.
Some weight lifting ahead.. using car parts :-) #MadeinAgbogbloshie pic.twitter.com/hldaVqLOqy
— & (@qampnet) December 31, 2016
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)
Looking back on 2016: #PrincetonU students traveled to Africa to work with @qampnet https://t.co/dGHLr0OSZQ pic.twitter.com/itDflHJ9Oo
— Pace Center (@pace_princeton) December 28, 2016
Maintenance and upgrade at #spacecraft #Agbogbloshie pic.twitter.com/6kFd2hZrHL
— & (@qampnet) December 31, 2016
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
Share this video with a maker you know.
Let us know how you would want to contribute to the project.
Email us at info@qamp.net
AMP it up ;-)
"The role of an artist is to be an activist"- #FabriceMonteiro #atAshesi https://t.co/KInrUr82LP—
Philip Asare (@theophilipoo) October 05, 2016
Today Agbogbloshie scrap dealers, together with Ashesi University students from Kobby Ankomah-Graham‘s seminar, helped Belgian-Beninese artist Fabrice Monteiro and Senegalese designer Doulsy scout locations for their Prophecy II photo series. The Prophecy I series probed the issue of environmental pollution by evoking spirits of the earth, dispatched to either plead or warn humans to change our ways lest we kill our mother planet. Per panel discussion with Fabrice at Ashesi, the Prophecy II series will be a diptych contrasting the needless excess of planned obsolescence against the devastating human and environmental destruction used to extract the resources from which our electronic devices are produced out of the earth.
It was noticeable and community members confirmed that you now see only smaller stockpiles of circuit boards and plastic monitor cases, for example, because buyers are more consistent and frequent. What AMP affirms about Fabrice’s project is that it is creating a space—mythical but real at the same time—reminding us all to take action now, before its too late to save this planet.
Fabrice testing frames and Doulsy smiling upon a scrap dealer’s reveal of treasure trove of VHS cassette tapes (part of the costume design):
Download from a selection of 3E-Manuals (Electrical & Electronic Equipment) here below. You can also do a keyword search using the search bar or browse the cloud of tags. Enjoy making and let us know any edits to amplify this initial work. We look forward to hear from you: info@qamp.net!
(A long-term goal of the AMP digital platform ~qampnet~ is to digitize material reality and better position automation to assist with ambiance creation. A first step is to help make people aware of what is inside their devices and equipment.)
Air Conditioner [Front & Back]
qamp.net/tag/ac/
Search @qampnet: air conditioner
Computer Desktop [Front & Back]
qamp.net/tag/computer/
Search @qampnet: computer
Microwave oven [Front & Back]
qamp.net/tag/microwave/
Search @qampnet: microwave oven
Mobile Phone [Front & Back]
qamp.net/tag/mobile-phone/
Search @qampnet: mobile phone
Plastics [Front & Back]
qamp.net/tag/plastics/
Search @qampnet: plastic
Refrigerator [Front & Back]
qamp.net/tag/fridge/
Search @qampnet: fridge or refrigerator
Monitor CRT [Front & Back]
qamp.net/tag/monitor/
Search @qampnet: tv
Washing Machine [Front & Back]
qamp.net/tag/washing-machine/
Search @qampnet: washing machine
More on spacecrafting:
In January 2016 AMP ran a one-week #ampqamp with students from Princeton University’s PACE Center for Civic Engagement focused on making short health & safety videos for the Agbogbloshie scrap dealers community, narrated in Dagbani.
This group of students, led by Ellie Sell ’17 and Christie Jiang ’17, opted not only to volunteer collaborating on the AMP project as a form of ‘alternative spring break’, but also to spend months prior planning their trip and conducting research around issues of health and safety related to unregulated e-waste processing plus weeks after their visit to Ghana editing and producing the videos. (They blogged about it here.)
Watch the Youtube playlist of videos they produced below. For more on how this connects to the full AMP project, check out this Q&A with the Princeton PACE Center. A huge thank you to the whole team from all of AMP!
The AMP makers collective has run over 35 workshops to date around the theme of transforming the Agbogbloshie scrap and recycling ecosystem into a network for distributed manufacturing and digital fabrication.
Here is a list of the main events held as part of the AMP series of informal maker workshops to build the future of Agbogbloshie:
The two outermost square faces of semi-octet trusses join in a bolted connection to form an octehedron. Holes for bolts should be pre-drilled for easy assembly, using this drill template or similar.
Students engaging in a debriefing session at the Hub Accra to talk about the sites visited @Ashesi @MCFoundation pic.twitter.com/TRAWnAwU0d
— Ashesi Design (@AshesiDesign) August 6, 2015
Talk on the concept of pyrolysis by @AmmaAninkora at Hub Accra. @Ashesi @MCFoundation pic.twitter.com/vuEYaYYyBQ
— Ashesi Design (@AshesiDesign) August 6, 2015
#ampqamp 2015—building on student work around storyboarding in the latest M&D cycle—centered on codesign of the AMP app through a participatory design process involving Agbogbloshie scrap dealers, #STEAM students and recent graduates from Ghana, Senegal/Mali, Estonia, Russia, France and USA through collaboration between AMP, Bazaar Strategies and The Cobalt Partners with support from the Fetzer Institute.
AMP 