Hello you.
I am J.travis russett.

You found it. This is my experience in The 2017 Fab Academy. Fab Academy is a globally distributed educational model teaching people to turn code into things. Our leader is Neil Gershenfeld.

Do you know Saverio Silli? You should. Without his patience and dedication, these works do not exist. Thank you, Saverio.
Visit FablabO in Shanghai.

Empowered...
Be the Programmer-Designer-Artist
Think it up and build it

In his book Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--from Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication, Neil Gershenfeld asked us to "consider what would happen if the physical world outside computers was as malleable as the digital world inside computers... with technology better reflecting the needs and wishes of its users because it’s been developed by and for its users.". While practicing architecture is in many ways been a journey towards realizing that potential, I am inpsired to take a step back and investigate critical ideas difficult to engage from within the profession. This is my motivation for joining the Fab Academy: to challenge, to learn, to contribute, to go to the uncomfortable extremes, to evolve and open some new doors.

The next sections links to progress reports of my final project, a question of sourcing energy then dishuBot, a robot for painting Chinese water calligraphy. The subsequent sections delve into exercises I completed while learning methods of digital prototyping, electronics design and fabrication, and coding, the way of the Fab Lab.

Or maybe you would like to learn something about me. Biography.

If you would like to write me russett at bestia.xyz you can do that.
Final work
most recent update : 28 June 2017

My ambition is to make an energy harvesting system using biological photovoltaics as an exhibition work to bring attention to clean possibilites for sourcing energy and the fact that we need [wildness] nature more than it needs humans.


The following are links to investigations done throughout the cycle directly related to the development of this final work.

Mechanical work
most recent update : 11 June 2017

dìshūBot, a water calligraphy device inspired by the modern Chinese custom of painting calligraphy on public sidewalks with a water brush, a “practice [that] corresponds to both a socializing need and an individual search for self accomplishment or improvement” (Francois Chastanet). Fabricated at FablabO in Shanghai, dìshūBot is a composition of 3D printed and laser cut materials and employs a combination of stepper motors, a pump, Arduino and a custom G-code transcoder to endlessly trace passages composed of «hanzi» that slowly disappear as water evaporate. This is a work in progress. Following are links directly to specific sections of ongoing development:

Here I will post comprehensive updates of my weekly activity.
  1. Principles & practices, project management.
  2. Computer-aided design.
  3. Computer-controlled cutting.
  4. Electronics production.
  5. Three dimensional scanning & printing.
  6. Electronics design.
  7. Computer-controlled machining.
  8. Embedded programming.
  9. Machine design. plus 2 sections
  10. Output Devices.
  11. Molding and Casting.
  12. Input Devices.
  13. Composites.
  14. Networking and Communications.
  15. Interface and Application Programming.
  16. Applications and Implications.
  17. Invention, Intellectual Property and Business Models.
  18. Project Development.
  19. Final work
Here I will link to highlights of my weekly activity.
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"I've got one that can see." They Live



J.travis Russett © 2017
Creative Commons License All the work contained within is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License
You may remix, tweak, and build upon my work non-commercially, as long as you credit me and license your new creations under the identical terms.