The House of Natural Fiber (HONF), the Netherlands-based Waag Society, local authorities and guests celebrated the HONFablab grand opening in its new office in Jl Taman Siswa, Yogyakarta on Friday, July 29th, 2011. Yogyakarta Mayor Herry Zudianto delivered an opening speech, in which he show his enthusiasm about the lab, followed by speeches by the Jogja National Museum Executive Director KPH Wironegoro and HONF Director Venzha Christiawan.

Paulien Melis (Waag Society), Tommy Suryo (HONFablab Manager) and Alex Schaub (FabLab Amsterdam) proceeded to give a presentation on Fab Labs. Fab Labs (fabrication laboratory), which started off as a project from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), are digital fabrication workshops which provides the opportunity for everyone to create almost everything. At the moment, Fab Labs have been established in more than 20 countries.

HONFablab, the moniker with which Fab Lab Yogyakarta is known, is the result of a collaboration between HONF and Waag Society. It is also the first amongst a number of Fab Labs to be established in the South East Asian region, as stated by the MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms Director Neil Gershenfeld via video conference. Two HONFablab-associated projects were presented in the event: the Unlimited Design Contest by Deanna Herst and Irene Agrivina, and the 50$ Prosthetics Project by Arjen Bergsma and Bagus Budiarto.

Upstairs, guests were treated to a simple, Javanese-style buffet to the accompaniment of DJ Sir Jacques’ chill tunes. Wine from HONF’s Intelligent Bacteria project was also available at the bar. As the night drew to a close, the FabLab Orchestra conducted by Alex Schaub played on the first floor while Electrocore versus Manticore mesmerized guests with their noise-charged experimental visual code performance on the rooftop. (E)