Serendipitous is a ubiquitous word.
It deals with chance, and chance is a game played daily. It is how humanity is programmed, it is how we live and how we make.
Ambitious Lab has a theory, that serendipity emerges even in the most perfect, methodical of crafts. In a series of workshops titled, ‘Serendipitous Encounter Programme’, they put it to the test: by using a technologist’s approach to traditional craftsmanship, they could imagine playing with manual technologies using digital methods and vice-versa, thereby creating new combinations of the two, that, in their randomness, could create new intersections between the old and the new.
In its local context, Serendipitous worked on Maltese Heritage and local traditions, particularly embroidery and ceramics. Both are significant crafts in the Mediterranean, but the central villages of Malta, namely Attard, Balzan and Birkirkara, boast a long history of craftsmanship based on the research gathered. This leg of the project is funded by Arts Council Malta.
The Design
In Serendipitous, the end result (digital product) is dictated by the production process of the artefact. Through the workshops, Ambitious Lab experiments in fabric design to study the potential interaction between analogue and digital techniques. A chronological understanding of the craft allowed the process to include its essential ancient intricacy. In an almost etymological sense, the clock is turned backwards to understand the root, and then forwards to the embody a computerised Digital Technique and achieve the final Digital Product.
The reconfiguration sees Digital Technology generate a form that, with the use of Additive Manufacturing, allows a 3D Digital product to be created. Fusing hyper-futuristic polymer material with local traditional craft creates new serendipitous possibilities for both.
The Making
For this project, Ambitious Lab collaborated with fashion designer Jean-Claude Farrugia. He put forward his custom embroidery technique, described as the analogue component, which is the process by which the artisan normally embroiders. During this process, the scientist observes the delicate and precise process of the craft. After the scientist generates a computational pattern, and through a compromise with the designer, the form is created.
Additive Manufacturing, specifically Fusion 3D Printing, was employed as the digital method in the creation of the garment. By applying different densities of the polymer, as the raw material, the garment was shaped with geometry that complements the body. Subsequently, the artisan and the scientists took turns in embedding the crystal beads into the garment by embroidering and 3D printing them, blending the work of the artisan and the scientist into an elaborate hybrid textile.
The Studio
Ambitious Lab was founded by Matthew Catania who is an architect and technologist. It is a Bio-Digital Lab, specialising in cutting-edge manufacturing methods, developing a multidisciplinary design approach with the interplay of biological designs, digital fabrication, and programmable matter. Ambitious aims to explore the translation of biological processes into digital fabrication through the use of novel 3D printing techniques to contemporarise traditional crafts.
