Matthew Borgatti

I'm a maker / thinker / builder / designer / artist / geek.

Matthew Borgatti

Design Wizard

Think Tanks | Greater New York City Area, US

It's my eventual goal to develop technologies that change the way people access the world. I'd like to expand the limits of human senses and the devices that let us extend them. I'm also highly interested in the technologies that will attach these extensions to ourselves whether it's through the surgical tools, bioengineering, or new venues for portraying information.

Specialties: cnc machining, industrial design, mechanical design, cad, solidworks, physical computing, prototyping, human interfaces

2009 - 2009

Assistant Designer / Eyebeam
2008 - 2009

Designer/Engineer / Instinct Engineering

Corbett (owner of Instinct) and I first got in touch discussing the fabrication of one of his projects the Steampunk Treehouse. Months later he needed an extra set of eyes and mouse clicky hands to help him complete some product prototypes. I ended up staying with the company for several more projects through mid 2009.
Dec 2008 - Jul 2009

Instructor / TechShop

During my tenure at TechShop SF I designed the curriculum for and taught Concepts of CNC, 4-Axis CNC on the Tormach, 3-Axis CNC on the ShopBot, 3-Axis CNC on the Techno Mill, as well as some studio classes on designing jewelry, puzzles, and origami on the Laser Cutter.
2008 - 2008

CNC Machinist / Beyond Productions

I was brought on to help Terry Sandin and Zoz finish up some prototypes of a Biomimetic Gecko Climbing Suit. This was part of the Spiderman Technologies episode of Prototype This.
Sept 2007 - Feb 2008

Intern: Content Production and Community Management / Instructables

I got hired after making some rocking Instructables. My job included wrestling with the (metaphorical) bears of forum wars, calming down arguments and keeping the community happy, helping new members create Instructables that were clear, pretty, and well documented, and making more content to enhance the site's depth. I also spent much of my time talking with potential contributers asking them to upload their projects to our site and encouraging current members to keep making awesome things.
2007 - 2007

Mechanical Designer / Tellart

Making robots has always been a hobby of mine. Most of them are hacked together from what I can scrounge but Tellart hired me to use my prototyping skills and low budget design techniques to get a robot fully functional and installed in a bar called Pacific Standard.
2007 - 2007

Machinist / Creature Effects, Inc.

I worked under machinists Dwight Roberts and Todd Minobe producing mechanical props and prototypes for Epic Movie, In the Wall, and I Am Legend.
2006 - 2006

Machinist / ADI
2005 - 2005

Intern / The CharacterShop

2002 - 2007

Rhode Island School of Design

Websites:

My Website

Honors:

Editorial Excellence Award from How Magazine for Show Me How (Art Editor, 2008)

Interests:

Hacking, machining, lowtech/hitech, creative reuse, hacktivism, digital music, industrial design, human interfaces, social engineering

Assoc.:

Noisebridge, NYCResistor, IDSA, BARCamp, TechShop

March 10, 01:54 AM

The Anywhere Organ and the Awesome Foundation

I’ve got wonderful news! My project, the Anywhere Organ has just gotten funding from the Awesome Foundation. For those of you who don’t know the Awesome Foundation is a fabulous collection of folks who choose a new project every month and get it started with $1000 with no strings attached.
March 06, 03:11 AM

Little Spaceman Lamp on Kickstarter

A little while back I made this cute little lamp. He made the rounds on the internet and I started getting calls. I started hearing from people who wanted one for their very own. In fact, I started hearing from people who own stores saying they wanted him on their shelves. Now, I was floored. I love this little guy but never thought he’d be such a hit. Now, I’m gathering funds to get a real production line off the ground. Please take a look at my kickstarter page to see how you can help.

Wouldn't you like one on your nightstand?
January 13, 10:52 PM

The Fun Theory contest ends Friday!

Don’t forget to vote for the Anywhere Organ before it’s too late! http://bit.ly/anywhere-organ
December 30, 01:11 PM

Nominated for a Fun Theory grant!

The Fun Theory Group was founded to gently change people’s behavior through fun and play. They seek to create a public dialog of interaction with open art installations. I’ve been nominated for a grant to help me create something called the Anywhere Organ.

I’ve designed a pipe organ that can be installed into any space, a fire escape, an abandoned warehouse, a drawbridge, turning the entire space into an aspect of the larger instrument. Pipe organs have always fascinated me and it will become a tremendous instrument for getting people to play with space and sound. I’ll be collaborating with Brooklyn musicians to record the sound it makes and put on interactive shows with the organ. Still, I need you to vote for the project to make it happen. Take a look here http://bit.ly/6CDc08 and rate the project.

Thanks for looking. Thanks for reading.

-M@
December 24, 04:14 PM

3d Brains

I’ve discovered a few sources for MRI images and the software to turn them into editable 3d meshes. You should check out my process on Thingiverse!
November 28, 05:57 PM

MST3shades

Of course you want to be part of the world’s greatest experiment. You know, the one where a man is shot into space and forced to watch bad movies. Well you’re most fortunately in luck.

Download the files from Thingiverse here.
November 28, 02:10 AM

Handcuffs on MAKE!

I’d like to extend a fond thank you to MAKE for putting out the word on my Functional 3d Printed Handcuff design. Plus if you already caught it here take a look at the new photos.

See the whole set on Flickr.
November 28, 12:57 AM

Bokode @ Home

See the full writeup here.

A few months ago I published some experiments I’d been doing emulating MIT’s Bokode technology at home. For those of you who don’t know Bokode is a method developed in the Camera Culture Group at the Media Lab that tucks huge amounts of readable graphic information into a space as small as a LED. This is done by using tiny printed info just behind a lens and just in front of a strong light. When you point a camera at the lens and pull out of focus the lens projects a blown up image of the microprint on your camera’s film plane.

You might have noticed the blurry blobs that show up on film when you take a picture of distant lights or pinpoint bright spots that aren’t quite in focus. This effect is called Bokeh, after the Japanese word for blurry. You can find details on how it works here, and details on how MIT used this effect and turned it into a way to create passive, unobtrusive tagging with Bokode here.
November 21, 05:00 PM

Printable Handcuffs

I love the new set of home fabrication 3d printers that are emerging. RepRap is a pretty fascinating project. Makerbot is amazing, affordable, and the folks who operate the company are the salt of the earth (though they don’t cause crops to wither.) At the moment the machines are pretty basic. They’re not very well suited to jobs that require strength or precision. However, the quality of their output is improving daily and given how easy they are to modify and how open the projects are people come along regularly, releasing their experiments and improving the designs by leaps and bounds. I thought I’d create a design that creates a working mechanism using only printed parts from these machines. This pair of handcuffs is downloadable, printable, and functional. If you print a copy of your own please let me know.

Ferret7 fabricated his own set! Hot!
November 19, 01:32 AM

Music Video – Erlend Oye – Symptom of Disease

Jake Appelbaum posted some incredibly hispeed film of himself on twitter. I just had to do a cut.

On YouTube and Vimeo.

March 05, 11:15 PM

Don't...

Don't forget to check on how I made those rocket cards http://bit.ly/9e7tdl
March 01, 05:34 AM

Booyah,...

Booyah, world! These cards are FINISHED! http://bit.ly/9tUayh I did a little writeup of the method for anyone who's curious
March 01, 04:49 AM

Finished product

Giant Eye posted a photo:

One with and without its scratcher.

The Story
------------------------------------------------------
Instinct Engineering { withinstinct.com } commissioned me to make them some exciting, unique business cards. I decided to create a scratch off design, where you'd scratch away the plan drawing of one of their engineering projects, the Raygun Gothic Rocket { www.raygungothicrocket.com/ } to reveal the finished sculpture.

I designed the graphics, invented the scratch ink screenprinting method, and the manufacture of the stamps myself. I screened these with the help of Marsha Pugachevsky { www.chevskystudio.com/ } and did all of the stamping by hand. I am incredibly relieved to have these done and out the door.

See the finished product here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=r00I2A-2mXs

Watch a time lapse video of me printing them: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiWsgdAXX4s
March 01, 04:48 AM

Ready to ship

Giant Eye posted a photo:

It is so cathartic, seeing them all boxed up like this. I can't count how many hours were spent tinkering, testing, designing, stamping, talking with printers and experts, and generally worrying about this project.

The Story
------------------------------------------------------
Instinct Engineering { withinstinct.com } commissioned me to make them some exciting, unique business cards. I decided to create a scratch off design, where you'd scratch away the plan drawing of one of their engineering projects, the Raygun Gothic Rocket { www.raygungothicrocket.com/ } to reveal the finished sculpture.

I designed the graphics, invented the scratch ink screenprinting method, and the manufacture of the stamps myself. I screened these with the help of Marsha Pugachevsky { www.chevskystudio.com/ } and did all of the stamping by hand. I am incredibly relieved to have these done and out the door.

See the finished product here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=r00I2A-2mXs

Watch a time lapse video of me printing them: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiWsgdAXX4s
March 01, 04:47 AM

Final Product

Giant Eye posted a photo:

Looks fantastic, doesn't it? You wouldn't figure they were hand printed and hand stamped.

The Story
------------------------------------------------------
Instinct Engineering { withinstinct.com } commissioned me to make them some exciting, unique business cards. I decided to create a scratch off design, where you'd scratch away the plan drawing of one of their engineering projects, the Raygun Gothic Rocket { www.raygungothicrocket.com/ } to reveal the finished sculpture.

I designed the graphics, invented the scratch ink screenprinting method, and the manufacture of the stamps myself. I screened these with the help of Marsha Pugachevsky { www.chevskystudio.com/ } and did all of the stamping by hand. I am incredibly relieved to have these done and out the door.

See the finished product here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=r00I2A-2mXs

Watch a time lapse video of me printing them: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiWsgdAXX4s
February 28, 09:06 PM

Card Production Panorama

Giant Eye posted a photo:

I caught a break while testing out some early stampings to take a few pictures.

See the finished product here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=r00I2A-2mXs

Watch a time lapse video of me printing them: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiWsgdAXX4s
February 28, 04:28 AM

Finally....

Finally. Business cards finished. http://bit.ly/bLXJXr
February 25, 05:05 AM

Just...

Just finished off this time lapse video of myself working on some scratch off business cards http://bit.ly/cNcmkV #fb
January 22, 04:48 PM

Finally...

Finally printing the 3d cameo. I'll update http://gianteye.soup.io with details on how to merge CAd meshes with OBJ's from zbrush
January 22, 02:56 PM

I'm...

I'm dealing with Catalyst EX printers. Though they've been some of the friendliest 3dprinters I've used they still lack a clear UI #workflow
January 21, 01:19 AM

Here's...

Here's my Cosmonaut Lamp Proposal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfQ-f1AA4Fw http://bit.ly/kickstarterspaceman #workflow
January 20, 05:47 AM

Alright....

Alright. I'm going to bed. Leaving Netfabb to do hole repair while I nap. Just started a soup about #workflow http://gianteye.soup.io
January 20, 04:14 AM

Zbrush Cameo

Giant Eye posted a photo:

I think this is looking pretty good. It does translate a lot of warped geometry to the back side of the object. Might require some cleaning in SW or Max. We'll see.

The process was creating a relief image in Photoshop, importing it to Zbrush as an alpha, modeling the oval pendant in Solidworks, and applying the alpha after importing the SW data into Zbrush. I use 3dDoctor to convert STL to OBJ formats because I'm lazy and like a GUI.

+ fairytalefashion.org
January 20, 03:37 AM

Just...

Just switched to SolidWorks for some precision modeling for these 3d printed cameos. It's a bit of a bear. Surely I'll survive. #workflow
January 20, 03:34 AM

Further developments in Cameos

Giant Eye posted a photo:

I'm creating the basic shape on which the cameo will be laid in Solidworks to make sure everything's measured properly. At some point I've really got to work out the overall workflow between these programs.

+ fairytalefashion.org
January 20, 02:58 AM

Working...

Working on some 3d printed cameos for http://fairytalefashion.org Transitioning between zbrush, meshmixer, netfabb, and 3dsmax #workflow
January 20, 01:00 AM

3d Printed Cameo

Giant Eye posted a photo:

I'm designing an antique-style cameo to house some of our electronics for a color changing dress. I'm using an alpha channel in Zbrush to create the relief from a photoshopped image. I'm debating using a skin created from 3ds or the Zbrush relief brush to create the geometry on the final cameo.

+ fairytalefashion.org
January 20, 01:00 AM

3d Printed Cameo

Giant Eye posted a photo:

I'm designing an antique-style cameo to house some of our electronics for a color changing dress. I'm using an alpha channel in Zbrush to create the relief from a photoshopped image. I'm debating using a skin created from 3ds or the Zbrush relief brush to create the geometry on the final cameo.

+ fairytalefashion.org