Abao Nano Doctor Blade Hacker Residency

Shih Wei-Chieh (Taipei, Taiwan) Hacker residency documentation- 11. September - 1. November 2023

Shih Wei Chieh, aka Abao with labcoat.

Abao Doctor Blade in Bitwascherei.

施惟捷 Shih Wei Chieh works with wearable art, e-textile, and laser audiovisual. He is also a self-taught material science researcher. His "Laser Dye Project" innovates an optical textile printing method by programmable laser projector and New Cyanotype solution, which inspire him to explore the trans-disciplinary collaboration between new medias and traditional craft techniques. He’s the founder of “Tribe Against Machine”, a project exploring how culture preservation works with modern technologies. His current research develops a DIY dye sensitized solar glass made with natural dye in a large size format, which is used for both energy and as a smart interface for sonic art.

The amusing title of this residency title from the substantial involvement of the Doctor blade in DIY coating experiments, marking the outset of Shih Wei Chieh's first year of phd programe at Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. The primary objective of the residency was to identify substitutes for FTO glass in order to develop a transparent film substrate. Although the goal was not achieved during the 7-weeks residency, various parameters were meticulously documented, including low-temperature sintering for TiO2 photo-electrodes and high-temperature sintering for TiO2-electrodes on mineral fibers. These details can be found in the "Residency Research Documentations" section.

Residency Interview in Makery, Dec 2023

What was the purpose of your residency in Zurich? What did you learn from it?

“In addition to my pursuit of practical solar applications, my most successful DSSC prototype currently produces only around ~2.5 mA per square centimeter. The significance lies more in the opportunities to collaborate with scientists and engage in visits to the laboratory at ETH. This experience has served as valuable training for me, offering insights into how scientists work with nanomaterials. Understanding the conventional applications and purposes, as well as the established protocols for synthesizing nano materials, has been a rare and precious experience for artists. It raises pertinent questions about the relationship between art and science, and how these two domains can and should collaborate effectively.”

“Although it was a fantastic experience for artists to work with scientists with complete freedom and full access to knowledge, I wonder how we can repeat the model without any funding to support the free sofa accommodation and the efforts from volunteers. On the other hand, I believe this is a great model that differs from those residency organized by institutes and centers which always comes with political requirements and demands. The property of the community plays a big part too. During the residency I have met many community members in Bitwäscherei, the role of them are usually very mixed, like chemist with musician background or artist with scientific degree, or engineer with profound knowledge for history of analog computer, the people are a great library and the culture was naturally provided by the community. This dynamic is relatively rare in Taiwan, where career roles tend to be more singular, and scientists typically don’t serve other fields in the same integrated manner.”

Part 1/2: “From e-textile to Grätzel cells, encounter with the taiwanese designer Shih Wei Chieh“, Makery 2023

Part 2/2: “A residency to research Grätzel cells at Hackteria, encounter with Shih Wei Chieh“, Makery 2023

Residency research documentations

1. Guava seeds synthesized silver nanowires
2. RISO PRINT GOCCO LAMP sintered silver nanowires
3. Low temperature sintered TiO2 porous layer
4. Photonics and CMOS (on going)
5. Conductive thin coating made of AgNWs (on going)
6. Mineral fiber based TiO2 photo-electrode in DSSC
7. DSSC Laser sonic art with Neutone

Earlier Activities with Hackteria

1. Non-governmental Matters (NGM) booklet
2. HLabX Programme
3. Abao in GaudiLabs micro-Residency
4. HLabX Jogja Meeting
5. HLabX_Fellows#HLabX_Fellow_Shih_Wei_Chieh
6. Wormolution - Hackteria Temporary Autonomous Laboratory at 1000 Ecologies, Geneva
7. Application to NanoArts grant done / not received :-(: https://www.hackteria.org/wiki/Prep-NanoArts
8. Now combined with Workshop at Energy Giveaway @ WEAREAIA, to be held on 22/23 September 2023 and the existing Hacker-in-Residence Programme by SGMK and Hackteria Open Science Lab @ Bitwäscherei, Zürich.

Residency logs

12.September - 16.September Co-Mentoring project Week Medizintechnik DIY

Shih Wei Chieh was developing real-time face tracking laser projection during the Medizintechnik DIY workshop.

"Das Modul verbindet Anwendungen der Medizintechnik mit Do It Yourself (DIY) Ansätzen. Dadurch wird das tiefere Verständnis von Medizintechnischen Geräten durch einen direkten, interdisziplinären und möglichst selbstgesteuerten Zugang gefördert. Basierend auf verschiedenen elektrophysiologischen Messmodulen (EMG, EKG, EOG, EEG) entwickeln die Studierenden im Team Ideen für innovative Projekte. Erste Prototypen werden mit den Mitteln der Digitalen Fabrikation hergestellt und getestet."

23.September - 24.September Loose Energy Curriculum: Grow your own solar cell at AIA Space, Löwenbräukunst Areal

Grow Your Own Solar Cell: Energy crafting with 施 惟 捷 Shih Wei Chieh, Maya Minder, Wiriya Rattanasuwan, TITiPI (Femke Snelting, Martino Morandi) and Regenerative Energy Communities (REC) The workshop is part of the Loose Energy Curriculum at the Humuspunk library curated by Regenerative Energy Communities and in collaboration with Hackteria, SGMK, The Institute of Experimental Design and Media Culture Basel (IXDM), Academy of Art and Design and Design+Change LNU. In this workshop, a greenhouse project in Tibet was introduced by Wiriya Rattanasuwan remotely. And a basic protocol of dye sensitized solar cell was introduced to the participants. See description on AIA website.

Loose Energy Curriculum: Grow your own solar cell workshop poster made by Miranda Moss.

27.September - 29.September RandeLab retreat: Fullmoon discussions on Scanning Electron Microscopy

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29.September NanoMaterials and DIY meetup, Hackteria Open Science Lab

First meet with René Easily. Having Chinese moon festival rice ball together.

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4.October micro residency and love project in Gaudilab (again)

Short visit to Gaudilab for 2 days. Preparing Ag-NWs samples synthesized by guava seeds for SEM analyzing in ETH Zurich, sputtering silver coating on mineral fabric as DSSC textile electrode. Having piezo ice creams.

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6.October Scanning electron microscopy surfing #1

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7.October - 9.October RandeLab again, picking up Daiki Kanaoka to join the club

Reunite with Daiki at RandeLab. Forest trip and Cheese pot course for Daiki.

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10.October Daiki presentation in SGMK and the visit to Zurich Fablab

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16.October visiting China City and c-base in Berlin

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18.October Multifunction department lab surfing at ETH

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19.October Visiting 18 AI models by Nao Tokui, founder of Neutone

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22.October Meeting Miao and Luis Sanz at UMBO

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27.October Scanning electron microscope surfing #2

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Tentative Schedule

• 11 September: Arrival in Zürich and install workplace at Bitwäscherei, Switzerland https://wiki.sgmk-ssam.ch/wiki/Hacker-in-Residence_Programme
• 12 - 16 September: Co-Mentoring MedTech-DIY Project-Class at HSLU, Luzern, Switzerland Medizintechnik DIY
• 23 - 24 September: Solar Crafting Workshop at AIA Space, Zürich, Switzerland
• 25 September - 31. October: Research and explorations at Bitwäscherei, Hackteria Open Science Lab, Zürich, Switzerland
  • 29 September: NanoMaterials and DIY meetup, Hackteria Open Science Lab, Zürich, Switzerland
  • tba: Visit and micro-Residency at GaudiLabs, Luzern, Switzerland
  • tba: Visits to Nanomaterial Research labs and Electron Microscopy Center, various, Switzerland
• 7 - 11 October: Hosting Visitor, Daiki from FabCafé Tokyo, various places, Switzerland
  • 7. Oct: Retreat in RandeLab
  • 9. Oct: Daiki visit to ETHZ
  • 10. Oct: Participate at SGMK OpenLab and informal presentation about FabCafe Tokyo
• 11 - 17 October: Trip to Berlin, Germany
  • 11. Oct: Travel to Berlin
  • 12-13. Oct: Participate at Scientific Workshop: Supporting Open Source Hardware in Academia, TU Berlin
  • Explore different DIY and MediaArt communities, Berlin

Follow on workshop at IAA, Taiwan

DSSC & Laser Dye workshop at IAA