About me

Hi! I am Marc Kohlen. I am based in Kamp-Lintfort, Germany. Actually I´m Dutch, living and working in Germany.

My background

I studied art in the Netherlands with the intention to become an artist, sculptur. After some time I concluded that being an artist did not feel satisfying. I felt more satisfied when I shared my skills, knowledge and experience with other people. So I decided to work at an Artist in Residency Centre in the Netherlands as an advisor for artist, designers and architects in the field of ceramics called the European Ceramic Workcentre. I did this job for 16 years and then, due to budget cuts from a populist right wing government, I lost my job…I had to reinvent myself.

How I got into Digital Fabrication

During those 16 years at the European Ceramic Workcentre I got fascinated with Digital Fabrication. We were able to buy a CNC Mill and some super Computer, which was needed in those days because the CAD programms were very demanding (2000). Back then Digital Fabrication as a term was not used, it was called Rapid Prototyping or Cad Cam. My intention was to combine making Ceramics with Digital Fabrication. That involved making all kinds of assets and utensils as helpers in the ceramic process. Or to mill directly into clay or plaster. I was also fascinated by the idea to combine things which were not so obviously connected to each other…or the opposite. Like this crafty dirty, uncontrollolable, artisanal, with eons of history, unprecise stuff called clay and on the opposite side this high-tec, neat and shiny, very precise, very young, growing exponential, digital hardware, machines and software. So we started to experiment with the CNC and software on a very modest level. Making templates for molds, jiggering, throwing, All that experience was enough to get some more budget, so I decided to establish a FabLab inside the Institute. That was 2010. We got some more CNC´s, 3D printers, huge Styrofoam cutter, 3D scanner. Back then it was state of the art.

Now

I work at the Fablab Kamp-LIntfort, Germany, which is part of the Rhine Waal University of Applied Science. My main job is to create, develop, organise and give workshops for vocational schools. This is done under the monniker of zdi, a NGO which promotes STEM education in out-of-school activities. Meanwhile we are organising schools into a regional network to share knowledge and experience and to help them establishing fablabs/maker spaces at school.

As a side job I help my friend and former colleugue Daniele Ingrassa with his FabCity project in Hamburg to develop open source hardware. I´m involved in making an online assembly manual for DF machines