Fab Academy 2018 by JEAN-BAPTISTE NATALI jbnatali@gmail.com

how to make (almost) anything
about me

Attending the Fab Academy in Barcelona, I document the development of my final project: developing an educational platform where makers can compile the "how-to" of their successful projects and share it, spreading knowledge in digital fabrication across fab labs worldwide.






Hi there, I am Baptiste and I live in Auckland, New Zealand. At the end of Fab12, I decided to set up a Fab Lab in Auckland in 2018. I am attending the Fab Academy with this purpose.
In relation to this goal, I am going to develop an educational tool for the planned lab (see description below).


My interest in digital fabrication comes from way back. First, I am a Lego kid, so the appeal of designing stuff from scratch has been instilled in me from when I was as tall as a pea. Second, In 2015, I bumped into a book from Jeremy Rifkin called "the zero marginal cost society" describing amongst other things the potential of recently affordable digital fabrication tools for communities. His precise description of the manufacturing industry stuck to the back of my mind.


When back in New Zealand, surrounded by fantastic landscape mosly protected from human interferences, the fact that my lifestyle was unsustainable became very obvious. Many alarming signs made me wonder whether I will live in a happy place for much longer. I am priviledged enough to be in the position to think and act upon it. Our selection, use and disposal of natural resources is at the core of the problem. To make a tangible difference, I must scale up my personal effort by inviting others along with me on that ride. That is why I wish to set up a place where people can learn, question and tinker. On top of spreading my concern, I also wish to attempt to find solutions to this issues in a practical way.


To achieve that, I will have to embrace a steep learning curve. My skills are not directly related to digital fabrication, having mainly worked as a 3D Animator, Manager and Tutor.

by JEAN-BAPTISTE NATALI jbnatali@gmail.com