Title

Maker Technologies for DIY-Body-Enhancements

Short thesis:

We want to speak about a future in which everybody creates his/her own technology in a way the lines between assistive technologies and body enhancements start to blurr. At the Maker Fair 2015 in Berlin the project "Made for my Wheelchair" with Raul Krauthausen started with workshops and ideas for objects for wheelchair created by the people who needs them. We discuss with participants and users of DIY body enhancement projects about their experiences.

Description:

Not only people like Stephen Hawkings, Kanya Sesser, Johannes Floors and Oscar Pistorius give an idea how way of thinking chances reality. Annemarie Hackel lost her forearm. She gets her self-styled adaptive protheses out of the 3d printer.

DIY technologies like 3d print or laser cutting are DIY technologies everybody can learn and use to produce useful prototypes for everyday live. But are diy-assistive technologies really useful for daily live of impaired people? What are the obstacles and the chances of this new movement? How could the future look like?

We speak with participants of running projects for the development of diy assistive technologies in discussion with specialists of professional prothesis production.

This session is part of the re:health track, which is powered by BARMER.