The philosophy behind the project
Global society is facing the arrival of a storm of innovations and disruptive applications as a fallout of the exponentially developing technological, process that has been accelerating since the turn of the current century. The changes will be very profound at an economic, cultural, social, political level and these trends will also poses challenges in the educational fields. Overlapping this scenario are the widely anticipated consequences of climate change, as well as the unforeseen and unpredictable impacts of the SARS COV2 pandemic that entered the scene as a black swan in a preexistent very fluid situation. These phenomena, which are already underway, lead to a widespread situation of great insecurity and destabilization; but also, as in all deep crises, great opportunities for changes and evolution. Among human activities and occupations, those based on creative and lateral thinking skills will be those probably least at risk from Artificial Intelligence (AI) , Machine Learning and automation-induced technological unemployment; and those most useful for imagining the necessary innovative solutions (being those that more difficultly or later in time, will be supplanted by automation).An aspect that is too much neglected in the process of digitization, virtualization and automation of society is the urgent need to develop children’s minds towards an artistic, creative and mathematical direction and an education to the use of digital technologies in a proactive and creative way. Greater efforts should be made to reduce the risk of passivation of natural intelligence along a digital transition ( digital addiction ) based on the increasingly pervasive presence of artificial intelligences; mainly whereas the standard lifestyle in several parts of the world is starting to be characterized by remote social interactions through virtual means and with reduced physical contacts.
Since the first months in the cradle, when not only baby cells but also its mind is pulsing with growing potential, the toy is for a baby, after the body and the voice of the mother, the first sensory stimulus, growth and exploration of tangible external world, i.e. the first learning tool.In the past, toys were made by family members or by a village carpenter, or – for the most fortunate ones – commissioned to specialized local craftsmen capable of shaping and sculpting wood, molding and coloring ceramic and clay, modeling and casting metals: the toy was a sort of age-old meme, a public cultural heritage. Once upon a time, toys also reflected the culture and the story of place where they are created and used; and at the same time were handed down as a private and intimate object, from father to his sons, and so on, between generations.
Today, toys are mostly manufactured and purchased, and too much similar to each other, without soul and personality and lacking harmonic forms or beauty messages, missing the link to local cultures. Even toys are today the victims and expression of the culture of disposability, without history or conceptual or artistic elaboration, often a vector of the current or desired or induced lifestyle by the films, video games or cartoons marketing; and moreover, too often toys are today very far from European cultural and artistic heritage. They draw inspiration for example from North American ( anorexic dolls) or Japanese (monsters, ninja, anime) creations; or by a Chinese designer who arranges the parts at random, or works consciously on planned obsolescence projects.
Recently, there is also the trend of a progressive trivialization of the variegated world of bricks (Lego or Lego alike) that were, at the beginning, simple units that could be assembled together to compose different objects each time – and therefore representing exceptional tools for the development of the child’s creativity. Now bricks are just pieces to assembly for recreating scenarios, or figures, or subjects already determined by the manufacturer itself.
These trends cause losing along the way the spirit of diversity, which is the basis of the development of the ability to create and imagine; and if it is true that the human being, from the cradle and for all the time of developmental age, is “shaped” according to the environment in which he grows, if children are born and develop surrounded by mass-produced and unsightly objects (and places), without geometries and proportions, there is the risk of incapacity to recognize, recreate and conceive beauty and harmony.
TOYS4HUMANITY was created to realize in Additive Manufacturing and bring to market, toys, dolls with special designs reproducing and/or revisiting toys from the past that now lie only in museums; three-dimensional figurine, dolls and puppet as reinterpretations of characters depicted in famous paintings; scaled famous architectures of the recent and remote past to make little dolly houses and castles for children; toys, puzzle, walker and tutorial with an exclusive golden ratio inspired designs. Such cultural recovery activity aims at producing special three-dimensional objects and make them enter the homes of European citizens and beyond, occupying a no more existent niche in the toy market. In case of global and worldwide expansion TOYS4HUMANITY, also wants to recovery the specificities and diversities of the various cultures, the most currently affected by globalization and homologation.TOYS4HUMANITY represents a step forward, providing not only unique and customizable toys thanks to new disruptive technologies as AM, but also – and above all – objects that recall or rework the forms of the great Hellenistic and Renaissance European tradition, including the avant-garde toys of the twentieth century, to educate new digital age generations to beauty, mathematics and golden ratio, while unfolding their natural intelligence to the best of their potentials. For 3DItaly and TOYS4HUMANI T Y, this also means fulfilling an ethical and social commitment to let XXII century children to grow adequately equipped to face the next era of artificial intelligence, automation and digital society challenges.
THE FOCUS OF TOYS4HUMANITY
The focus of Toys4Humanity is on the use of AM for the creation, the enhancement of the performance and robust manufacturability of toys and tutorials based on mathematical and artistic shapes inspired by:
Platonic and Archimedean polyhedra with eventual inserted electronics for lights and wireless charging if budget allows, also through three-dimensional reworking of polyhedral, i.e. in the artwork of Renaissance ” The portrait of Luca Pacioli “. The products are cave for insertion of 3d printed rattles for acoustic stimulation.
Golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence inspired doll house furniture sets or 3D puzzles, as toys for education to recognize these patterns in the natural world ( flowers, branches, shells ) and in architecture.
Puppet in a golden ratio that can be rolled up.
Reproduction of some ” Toys of avant-garde” of the 1900s as democratization of artistic toys by pulling them out of museums (for example the reproduction of the “Eight Assembled Objects” by Ermann Finsterlin , exposed at The International Design Museum Munich ) as single gadgets, with cavities with rattles for acoustic stimulation or in groups as substitutes for small bees above the cradles of newborns).
Scale model of 3/4-wheels vehicles based on the golden ratio (i.e. the activity which is aimed in this experiment at creating scale toys and is also a preparation to the rump up scenario for the construction of cars, walkers, tricycles, cradles, life-size strollers).
Objectives and challenges
The objectives and the challenges of the experiment are:
Conceptualization and creation (requirements)
1) CAD DESIGN: polygonal/curve modelling and digital sculpting (by Autodesk Fusion 360, ZBrush and Rhinoceros) to develop files of toys as various polyhedra; puzzles, doll furnitures, puppets and tutorials in the Golden ratio/Fibonacci sequence, dolls and puppets elaborated from 2D paintings and sculptures by past and avant-garde artists of the 1900s, one mock-up of golden ratio based of a baby walker/car. Multicolor/multimaterial FDM using Ultimaker 3/5 and eventually resins with Formlab 2/3.
Design and construction (AM restrictions, degrees of freedom)
2) Analysis of economic sustainability both “downwards” towards mass market and “upwards” towards the market of personalized and hand-finished designer toys.
Printing technology (suitable platforms, technical requirements)
3) Use of electronics embedded in the 3D printed toy. Initial trials with Classic PLA and planned experimentations with biobased polycarbonate, tough PLA, recycled/recyclable/compostable materials and elastic filaments etc.
4) Use of integrated wireless receivers (prefabricated and eventually with 3D printed with conductive material filaments) to reduce the use of connections (cleanability) and using rechargeable batteries (reduced environmental impact).
Finishing and QA (final processing, customer requirements)
5) Materials as PLA and innovative 3D printable materials which allow the limitation of products finishing.
Skills gaps (training, expert consultation, outsourcing)
6) Analysis of IP protection of images, 3d files and tutorials for possible use in the educational non-profit sector.
Business case (deployment, ramp-up scenario, financing)
7) Promotional channels will include, fairs, professional media, publications, crowdfunding operations, art exhibitions, a book with the story telling of concepts at the base of Toys4Humanity idea. Sales point as museums, pharmacies, shops for high-level toys.
