Flexible Circuits

Flexible Circuits is creative research into novel methods and materials for electronic circuit board fabrication. The robotic and interactive work I produce requires short run and sometimes singular custom circuits boards. Production of these boards is often costly and time consuming as remote manufacturers introduce significant time lags to the process that greatly disrupt creative flow.

Circuit printing has recently emerged as a new strategy for rapid prototyping electrical hardware. Circuit printing combines the flexibility and knowledge of additive 3D-printing strategies with the subtractive fabrication power of milling into a single machine. These new tools form a novel system flexible enough to allow electrical traces and drilled solder points to be fabricated at a single workstation — often in a matter of minutes or hours. Even more promising, these machines open a pathway to printing onto diverse substrates such as flexible Kapton, polycarbonate and fabrics. Substrate flexibility opens countless opportunities to artists and makers interested in working in novel production contexts. To date we have completed preliminary research into Flexible Circuit fabrication using the FCAD Creative Technology Lab’s voltera.io circuit printer. Early outcomes include process exploration and evaluation, deepening our understanding of emerging circuit printing tools and refinement of strategies for making electronic circuits for behaviourally driven artworks.