To fully express and exploit their potential both traditional artisan crafts and modern digital technologies need to constantly evolve into something new. MakeTank is an online shop that fulfils this by letting artists and makers tell their public, potential customers and other artists who they are, what they do and how they do it, so that others like them – or perhaps very different from them – can find points of contact to work together and create something that was never done before.
The explosion of 3D printing technologies and, in general, digital manufacturing, is often described as the third industrial revolution of manufacturing. However the explosion of artistic creativity that has ensued could more easily be compared to a new Renaissance (in this case it would be the second). In fact it is both. And neither.
The combination of advanced manufacturing technology and new artistic creativity is making the era in which we live a phenomenon like no other before it, something that is altering every dynamic we have become accustomed to and revolutionizes itself constantly at an amazing rate. Its strength is the combination of digital fabrication and artisan craftsmanship at all levels — for example, when a 3D printed object needs a careful finish, it is is commonly done using traditional artisan methods and skill.
The MakeTank website was founded by three partners in Florence, the cradle of the first Renaissance. They shared the same passion for digitally crafted designs but come form very different backgrounds that, unsurprisingly, are united in the realm of digital creativity: a web expert, a property rights lawyer and an engineer.
“We founded MakeTank as an innovative start-up in May 2012 and then opened a dedicated blog the following September,” says Laura De Benedetto, one of the three partners (the web designer). “We wanted it to be a multi-vendor marketplace that could combine the artisan tradition with the new techniques of digital fabrication and open hardware. We now have about 100 digital artisans and over 800 objects on sale and we have received a number of recognitions on a national and international level.”
After more than a year in business Laura now works full time on MakeTank and wants to grow it into a place where technologies and creativity can mix through the experiences of the people behind them. “At first we did not fully understand if it was just a fad or something that was going to last but we believed it would grow and now we know it is just going to continue to evolve,” says Laura. “In fact the fads do fade but only because they become normal ways of doing things, while giving rise to new fads and new ways of designing objects.”
On MakeTank you will find a lot of 3D printed works as well as laser cut art and wearable technologies based on Arduino. That means you might see a laser cut leather keychain with a chip to send you sms’s or a stone cut by CNC and finished by hand. And of course lots of 3D printed designs which, by the way, are preferred by the male customers whom, Laura explains “are generally more keen to look at the technology behind the product, while women tend to be more interested in the final result when making a choice.”
“The hardest part,” Laura continues, “is helping people understand that digital fabrication and traditional techniques do not have to be opposites but, in fact, they run parallel and they complement each other. That is why we try to organize events where people can meet in person. This way many things that seem impossible become surprisingly easy and natural.”
