Leseprobe

85 TRYING OUT POSSIBLE FUTURES own projects. These machines include 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC milling machines or cutting plotters. Operating them has become much easier in recent years. This has been made possible by a worldwide network of committed tinkerers. What unites them is their shared vision of a world in which people make more things themselves. Today, the 3D printers at Futurium are almost as easy to use as kitchen aids. Many great projects have already been developed in fab labs. One of them is the senseBox. The small green weather station looks just like a sandwich box with cables inside. It was developed at the University of Münster’s Institute of Geoinformatics. It can measure environmental phenomena such as temperature, humidity, UV radiation, sound volume and levels of pollutants or fine dust. Everyone can access the mea­ surement data freely online. In this way, it can be used and evaluated not only by scientists, but also by interested members of the public. A senseBox is so easy to build and programme that even children and teenagers have no trouble doing it. Throughout Berlin, Futurium has set up a measuring network of 50 senseBoxes. The self-built weather stations are being operated by members of the public. The live data is displayed in the Lab on an interactive map of Berlin. Regular work­ shops in the Lab demonstrate how the senseBox works.