Imitation as the sincerest form of flattery.

In Western culture imitation is often seen as lack of originality and disrespect towards the original creator. With the rise of a new sharing culture and open source developments the lines between creation and imitation start to blur. Inspired by the Chinese long tradition of learning by imitating and valuing master-student relation ship over isolated original thought Urs Gaudenz set out to replicate some sophisticated technical products. Combing his maker skills, digital fabrication tools and the information available on the Internet he recreated the OpenPCR, an open source DNA copy machine, from parts found in the dumpster or open sourced the NASA Space wrench, the first 3D printable part sent to the international space station. The gynepunk speculum, an open source medical speculum he designed was featured on makery and many other online news blogs. In his talk Urs Gaudenz will reflect on the reactions he provoked though his projects and share some insights.