On April 11, the DGI team visited the St Vincent and the Grenadines prison to continue building our collaboration on open-source technologies workshops for inmates.
We had presentations from:
— Adrian Bowyer, engineer, founder of the RepRap project — a talk on self-replicating 3D printers and the future of 3D printing;
— Igor Tylman, engineer and designer, founder of Tylman Design — an introduction to PET recycling and welding;
— Javier Rodriguez Ruiz, engineer, founder of PETciclo — a practical workshop on PET recycling from plastic waste;
— Biomaterials Studio and GenSpace— on making bioplastic in the microwave with just 3 ingredients.
The prison authorities were already familiar with how 3D printers can be used to produce essential, low-cost medical items like crutches, and they responded to the project with strong support.
An unexpected but fascinating conversation took place between Nika Dubrovsky, Alastair Parvin, a prison administrator with knowledge of the local construction industry, and one of the inmates — a trained architect.
The suggestion to use end-of-life telegraph poles to build a playground on St. Vincent turned out to be the final missing piece in shaping a design that could be locally manufactured.
Recordings of all the presentations are now available in the Survival Kit Collection room.
Work on this project will continue in our next visit in Saint Vincent and Grenadines, when we’ll also bring to the island everything needed for plastic collection and recycling, 3D printing, a spirulina growing kit, and ingredients for making simple bioplastics.
See the dedicated rooms in the Museum of Care:
