2025
Internal Manufacturing
What if machines could respond to their own internal states, rather than just follow commands?
Internal Manufacturing is a design research project exploring the role of machines as active participants in the act of making. As a case study, I worked with clay 3D printing to examine how a machine’s internal condition might influence the objects it creates.
At the core of the project is a custom system that collects internal data from the machine — such as processor load or memory usage — and translates these parameters into visual deviations in the printed object.
Each object starts from the same digital file, yet the outcome is never identical. The result is a series of clay vases: identical in origin, but each materially unique — a reflection of a specific moment in the machine’s operational state.
Now, Internal Manufacturing offers a kind of circular return: the machine becomes a digital craftsperson, with its internal technological state shaping the outcome. It is no longer just executing instructions — it’s a creative partner in the design process. Each object becomes a material record of the machine’s internal — almost emotional — condition.
The project is especially relevant in the age of artificial intelligence, as machines increasingly become autonomous creative agents. It invites us to reconsider unintended glitches and responses not as faults to be eliminated, but as the unique voice of the machine.
In a world where machines and algorithms shape nearly everything we do — including how we create — this project invites us to pause and reflect: What will our relationship with the machines around us look like — and in what ways will it reshape our act of creation?