getting pumped

getting pumped
Originally uploaded by Marcelo Coelho.

Joey at the Fleshing Out event

Joey at the Fleshing Out event
Originally uploaded by berzowska.

Check out the we-make-money-not-art entry about the event.

v2

virtueelplatform

mediamatic

FLESHING OUT

I just got back from Rotterdam and Amsterdam after participating in the Fleshing Out Wearable Interfaces, Smart Materials and Living Fabrics seminar and workshop (organized by V2 and Virtueel Platform).
On Thursday, I talked about our new XS Labs SKORPIONS project and our work with shape-memory alloys in textiles, including the Kukkia dress. The day also included two great and inspiring presentations from Suzanne Lee (author of Fashioning The Future), Anne Galloway’s insights on Seams and Scars, Thecla Schiphorst's demo of Exhale, and Kristina Andersen cool work with "naive electronics".
An interesting addition to the usual topics covered in the "Wearable Interfaces and Smart Materials" conferences came in the form of "Living Fabrics". This involved integrating presentations and discussions around biotechnology and ideas around growing bone, skin, and other fleshy things as a way of framing Wearable Technologies. The day included two presentations from the Biotech world, Tobie Kerridge (Biojewellery) and the Victimless Leather from Symbiotica's Ionat Zurr.
A longer description of the day can be found here.
On Friday, after my workshop, I had the pleasure of meeting Angel Chang, who gave me her look book for her Spring 2007 Fashion Technology Collection. She describes it as "a series of concepts I developed in the last year: color-changing inks, 3-D images, iPod clothing, and light-up gear. Some serve a specific function while others are for personal entertainment."

I really appreciated her design methodology, her aesthetic philosophy, and her approach to technology deployment in fashion: "Each piece is a collaboration with someone in the technology world. It goes beyond the forced superficial fashion & tech marketing pairings we've seen in recent years, and is based on a more organic creative process. The technology itself is oftentimes concealed in the design, so the clothes can maintain their design integrity. I hope to show the fashion world that innovation goes beyond just rearranging ruffles, and to convince tech companies that they should invest further in these types of collaborations."
You can read about her collection online in Craftzine and Fashion Wire Daily, and see photos of her collection on Flickr.
Our workshop was d a critical Intervention by: Kristina Andersen, Joanna Berzowska, Anne Galloway
Keywords: power, make, body, identity, research directions, hackability, critique
A critical look at how technologies come to be, a look that will go beyond existing funding structures, happy-go-gadget applications, techno optimism, and grey goo scenarios. What means and methods do artists and designers use to take a critical stand? How can they intervene in the process by which social acceptance of wearable technologies takes place? And how can they use or abuse the power of the user, and the way he or she appropriates and reuses technologies?
Other participants included:
Anne Nigten
Thecla Schiphorst
Sabine Seymour: Interface Culture
Toby Kerridge: growing human bones for rings
Ionat Zurr: growing animal-free leather
Sue Lee: growing cellulose for making clothes
Michiel Scheffer said that Europeans consume 30 kilos in fibers per year (Chinese consume 6 kilos). If the Chinese were to match the Europeans, we would need to take over Brazil and turn it all over to cotton plantations.
Some links he mentioned include:
One of the advertising messages that SCOTTeVEST is using with their new Sport Jacket is "Imagine what would happen if Giorgio Armani and Bill Gates were stranded on a desert island, and you’ll have a good idea of what the TEC Sport Jacket offers."
Hybrids-Fusion, Nanosilver
Digitex