Suzanne Lee - "What would you choose to grow in the future?"

Suzanne Lee, researcher and associate lecturer at Central Saint Martins College in MA Textile Future, talks about her research on growing materials with green tea, sugar, living bacteria, yeast and micro organisms. We have followed the evolution of her experiments since we were first introduced to her work in 2007 in college, and it is nice to see how colour and pattern were inserted in her work. Inspiring TED talk !

Milan Design for Textile Futures invasion :)

We could just about escape from our stand in Ventura Lambrate but we didn't want to miss the stunning work selection the students from MA textile Futures (Central Saint Martins College London) showcased this week in the Lambrate area.


The course (we ourselves graduated from in 2008) is celebrating this year its 10 years.
10 years of challenging perception of textiles and surfaces we live with in our material world.

Go Textile Futures !

Ventura Lambrate collective location
Via Massimiano 6, 20134, Milan
General Opening Hours: Tuesday April 12 – Sunday April 17, 10:00 – 20:00



Amelie and Melissa

Tweet

A softer pair of sunglasses

Those of you in London might not experience the same thing, but here in LA, most people hide their eyes behind sunglasses at most times. To me, the big black eye shield is a little menacing. It is as if everyone has their defenses up.

When I saw these specs, designed by Anna Terhaar for the Klavers van Engelen f/w 2008 runway show, they got me thinking. Are these sunglasses - defense shields - melting away to reveal a softer person? Are they covering up mascara-streaked teary eyes?

It's not clear what, but something interesting is happening here. Amazing what a little bit of black resin can evoke.

Makeup as Material

Above is Elisabeth's Make-up Wallpaper, installed at Designersblock in September and the Puff&Flock pop-up shop on Carnaby street.

We loved seeing makeup as a material used for surface design. But, it seems that the inverse relationship can have some fun results, too!

Below is a lipstick from Paul&Joe, who take inspiration from textile design into their makeup line:

Images from Urban Outfitters

I found this lipstick among other intriguing products on the lushlee blog: www.lushlee.com

The Only Clothing that Shows Up

Cargo Collective invented a range of garments with metallic ink-prints that have a subversive function: sending a message to airport security. Shirts are printed with the text of the 4th Amendment - the constitutional right to privacy for American citizens. When passing through the full-body scanner, that text appears.

Both the technology behind that full-body scanner and this creative response to it have attracted a lot of attention. The scanners emit high-frequency radio waves that return a realistic image of the human body. In those images, hair and clothing are missing, but metal objects which block the waves will appear. Understandably, the scanners have sparked controversy about privacy.

Apart from sending a very clear message, the Cargo Collective 4th Amendment Wear is interesting for HOW is communicates the message. A performative moment is created out of an otherwise anonymous scenario. Read more at http://cargocollective.com/4thamendment#806188/About

Image from Cargo Collective

Image from Spiegel.de

The Fragility of Time

Ignacio Canales Aracil collaborates with parks to collect the flowers used in these sculptures. They represent the spririt of the garden where the plants are from. He says: "The flowers are held together without any structure or glue, they stand and stick together as the straw in a hat after being dried and pressed all at once. The roughness of the process which requires lots of physical effort contrast with the delicacy and fragility of the finished sculpture. Although its fragile it is made to last, as some ancient collections of dried pressed flowers are dated 500 years ago. " Ignacio Canales Aracil uses varnish to conserve the sculptures.

From: The Fragility of Time




From: The Fragility of Time 2




www.canalesaracil.com

Laerke Hooge Andersen - EDF Energy Exhibition Collaboration

I was posting earlier about Dana Haim, now meet her good friend she and I met on the same MA course in Central Saint Martins, Textile designer Laerke Hooge Anderson. There is something so precise, balanced, yet totally original and mad about Laerke's work, that is quite fascinating.

Her latest commissioned collaborative work, Herbarium Energy Project", is an answer to a brief about re-thinking energy. Totally faithful to her hybrid-obsessed very personal style, these poetic artefacts express their function in the most inspiring and intuitive way.

It was showcased in the Saint Etienne Biennale this year :

'Herbarium energy project' aims to research ways in which to capture energy, embodied in new forms, which are influenced by living forms, and which differentiate between the heat emitted by the sun as radiation, and the constant temperature of fresh soil.

The 'Herbarium energy project' is a research and development collaboration between Laerke Hooge Andersen and Franck Magne. It lists the fragments of the most notable hypothetical technological developments related to the collection of renewable forms of energy. Thermodynamic systems with optimized exchangers, concentric heliotropic photovoltaic cells, millimetric piezoelectric fibres: all these fragments become the language of technical cuttings which fulfill their function as energy collectors in a more sensitive and intuitive way.

Solar Trumpets :

The specific feature of this type of solar collector is that it has been developed partly underground. It is always at a cool temperature, which cools its photovoltaic cells and increases their efficiency. Light-concentrating ‘trumpets’ convey a maximum amount of solar energy to them underground, where they convert it into electricity, sheltered from external heat.

Photovoltaic Efflorescence

Thermal Parasitic Cesi

Spectral evaporators

Electric Rhizhomes

More of Laerke's work here

Squishy Electronics

The IEEE Spectrum profiled a team of scientists who have engineered "squishy electronics" at NC State University. The memristors, made from liquid metal and films of the hydrogel agarose, are being developed as components for the human brain. Brain tissue is soft and wet (squishy), and conventional electronic components are hard. Much like all other regions of the human body, the brain is less likely to reject an electronic implant if it is physically more like itself.

Interesting! But how can it be used in textiles??

Please leave some suggestions, because for now, all I can think of is a light-up meat dress (concept: Katy Parry's dress marries Lady Gaga's dress).

Read full article here: http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/materials/chemists-construct-squishy-memristors-and-diodes/?utm_source=techalert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=101209

Not Putty - Still Silly

A slight squiggle is the first clue. If you see a rubberband on someone's wrist, and it has kinks in it, you could be looking at SillyBandz. Last time I was in the US, I found out about these trendy rubberbands. Kids are going mad for them. They are collecting them, wearing them all up and down their arms, asking for them for Christmas, even making YouTube videos and rap songs about them.



What differentiates SillyBandz from serious old rubberbands? When these colourful silicone bands are at rest, they are not circular, but rather take on the shape of objects. You can find Silly Bandz forming the silhouette of flowers, birds, chairs, Abraham Lincoln, hamburgers, Christian crosses, words - anything, really.

Kids love them because they are cheap, making them easy to collect and trade. But at the same time, these novel little invetions are becoming an iconic object for a whole generation of children. In the future, SillyBandz will trigger memories of elementary school for these people, much like SillyPutty does for my generation.

SillyPutty and SillyBandz have something else in common - they are weird materials! SillyPutty could provide hours of entertainment thanks to its bizarre behaviour, sometimes acting like a solid and sometimes as a liquid. We loved it, and we'll never forget it. It was so unlike the materials we were used to. SillyBandz has the same magic of novelty. It demonstrates principles of elasticity, so when these kids get to physics class, they will have a concrete example from the real world to think of.

Putty or Bandz, simple Silly materials can be commercially successful in the toy market.

CuteCircuit blazing through the Celebrity Circuit

Wearable electronics are finally going mainstream. CuteCircuit, a fashion label that is headed in part by an electrical engineer, has been designing electronic textiles for years. Their work finally came into the spotlight when Katy Perry wore a custom-made LED dress at the infamous Met Costume Institute Gala in New York. Thanks to the combined effect of Perry's celebrity status and the media frenzy that follows the Met Ball, the dress was all over the press.

It generated so much interest that other pop stars of the Katy Perry-type took notice. Rihanna wore a Moritz Waldemeyer-built LED dress onstage the following week. A month later, Safura wore one made by (again) CuteCircuit.

In fact, CuteCircuit, and powered garments in general, have been in the press for a long time. It just took the right kind of press to get them into the mainstream. WIRED and Computerworld took notice of them years ago, but the Katy Perry collaboration caught the attention of Grazia, Hello!, OK, The Daily Mail, Women's Wear Daily, etc.

Katy said, ‘I think sometimes in fashion it can get a little stuffy so I wanted to lighten up!’. She lit it up with her LEDs. It's very interesting to see how this exchange between the celebrity world and the electronic textile world has also sparked new life into wearable electronics, which up to now, hadn't successfully broken through into the mainstream. So what next for CuteCircuit?

They have designed a new line of light-up dresses to be available exclusively at Selfridges. The "K Dress", for example, was featured in the Selfridges Christmas Press Release, and will retail for £1,350.

Links:
Safura Takes The Stage at Eurovision Song Contest in CuteCircuit
http://www.cutecircuit.com/press/

Magnets: Material for the future

image from www.kraeutli.com

When I was a textile design student, and we had briefs looking at innovation in textiles, we looked at example upon example of electronics embedded in textiles. There has been a push to develop textiles that integrate new technology, in the hope that exciting materials of the future would result. However, the marriage of electronics and textiles always seems to lead down the same path - you have a garment that has to be plugged in or battery powered to perform a gimmick.

The real source for injecting novelty into textiles is magnetism. I really believe this, and use magnetic fields (obsessively) in my own work for this reason. Ferrofluid is a fantastic example of the potential of magnetism to inspire. Another example is Paul Cocksedge Studio's giant magnetic coin, that drew people to play with the effects of spare change on the surface of a giant magnet. It is an accessible physical property, much more reliable and durable than electronics.

Here is an example of how textiles and magnets can come together to produce new tactility and new aesthetics. Florian Krautli designed a prototype for a curtain embedded with high power rare earth magnets. He arranged them in a pattern so that the curtain can snap up and shrink. You can imagine how intriguing this material would be to interact with. That is the power of magnets - a material that inspires the future.

http://www.kraeutli.com/index.php/2008/01/31/magnetic-curtain/

Size+Matter: Paul Cocksedge Studio for LDF

Paul Cocksedge Studio has designed this year's Size+Matter installation for the London Design Festival. Size+Matter is a platform for showcasing materially fascinating work by London's talented designers in a public setting. It brings public awareness to the festival and to London's design culture in general.

Below is a special look inside the coin, at the shape of the magnetic field. Being a magnetic materials designer myself, I was happy to have a field viewing wand on hand!

Paul Cocksedge Studio is formed of designers Joana Pinho and Paul Cocksedge. They are based in London, but take on installation projects all around the world. The result of this commission from LDF, an enormous golden magnet, testifies to their talent at using uncanny physical effects to attract attention.In other past projects, you see a variety of fascinating materials from the scientific world being brought into a design context.

The Size+Matter coin uses the wonder of magnetism to engage people. Passerby stop, attach coins to the piece, play around with the coins that are already there, and generally look delighted. Kids love playing with the coins, but so do adults. You can hear whispers of "how did he make the coins magnetic?"

The magnetic coin, hovering on its end just at the bottom of the Jubilee bridge, attracts pennies from the generous (and curious) hands of passerby. By now, hundreds of pennies have been stuck to the brushed gold surface. Barnardo's, a children's charity organisation, is going to match every penny collected with a full pound through the help of its corporate partners.

Magnetic Cosmetic

Thanks to Martin Bauer for the link to an evilmadscientist piece about the shape of magnetic fields. The article, a thorough tour of the various ways to visualise magnetic fields, mentions a strange kind of nail varnish. Behold Le Magnetique, from Lancome: 

The nail varnish contains ferromagnetic particles that orient in a magnetic field. That little plastic hood on the bottle has a magnet inside, and when the nail varnish is still wet, it shifts it into the starbust formation. When dried, the particles stay in that formation. 

There's something about this product that reminds me of the glow-in-the-dark toilet paper. It's the same formula: novel material effect + ordinary thing = gadgety object of questionable safety.  

The paint pigments used in this varnish are the result of some serious research. I've been reading through US Patent applications related to magnetic field patterns. Paint particles such as these are engineered to have optimum length, drying time, flake shape, etc. 

All of those characteristics have been evolved by materials scientists competing for the best...nail varnish???

Unfortunately not. Although the paint has interesting decorative properties, as demonstrated here, it was originally developed for printing anti-counterfeiting elements on security documents. The scientists were backed by major companies in Japan, Switzerland and the US. 

The Lancome nail polish was released in several colours as part of their Mystery Game collection (Fall 2007), but was never re-realeased. There's a growing online demand for Lancome to bring it out again - you can join the e-mail campaign!! Think of all the crystal ball readers who would benefit from owning a bottle!

Puff & Flocking NYC (finally !)

Yo

Here are the visuals for the breaking news... we are so so busy (being on a break? working some more? visiting the family? witnessing weddings? if only you knew !)
FABULOUS SHOW and being in New York, obviously awesome.




Puff & Flock sponsored (we wish) by samsung mobile






saaaaaaammmmples !!!


Elisabeth's shower curtain "Spiky" is our star, check this "starfish" kid out :)


Jenny, intrigued, and intrigued the crowd with her magnetic wall coverings


Kathy's cosy woven light corner


Melissa's street corner, Urban Upholstery



The Cookie Wardrobe and Mess Eater Wallpaper,
I met the people from Kidrobot <3 wooooooooooh



Our cool neighbours, "Dead Good", at the end of the show :)
Summarizes well the physical state on tuesday night.

THANK YOU FOR COMING !
The fact some people knew us there already was a BIT scary but hey isn't it why we are doing it for?

LOVE, >Amelie + Puff + Flock