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

Futuristic Festivity: Radiant metallic snow

Seasonal cupcake containers are perfect - flatten them out and fold into sixths.

After cutting, unfold to see what you've produced. You can achieve 3D effect by bending the sides - the metallic foil holds its shape!

And thus, you have snow in Los Angeles. You can also use them to make sweet handcrafted cards to go along with your gifts, or simply give them as the gift itself. The process isn't very complex, and yet the outcome can be lovely and elaborate.

Puff and Flock mid Summer crit

Because we try to be serious and because we often get stuck on our own stuff, there is nothing like meeting and use fresh eyes. Man, we really needed that one !
Thank you Kathy for hosting (and feeding, or that wouldn't be a proper Puff & Flock meeting)

Elisabeth and I with our Godzilla looking inflatable test... no comment

Jenny's fascinating magnetic mutations

Melissa's metal lace WIP (warrior princess style)

Kathy is going UV and EVIL (apparently)

When our cars become textiles

Textiles are of all the revolutions but we too often forget it. Because they are in the very grain of our lives, we take them for granted, so much so that their presence remains most of the time invisible to our minds. But even architects claim it now: tomorrow will be textiles or would not be. The new concept car by BMW, GINA Light Visionary Model, highly illustrates this societal shift toward a textilisation of our everyday. Traditionnally speaking, nothing seems more distant than textiles and the automotive industry, -at the most, fabrics are used as upholstery within the car interior-. But even the car, one of this fabulous icon of masculinity is looking for textiles: this two-seater concept car by BMW left his metallic skin for a a more flexible, virtually seamless one made of a textile fabric and stretched over a metal wire structure enforced with carbon fiber. This gives the owner the flexibility to change the shape of the car, from within and without, all with the touch of a button. It might take a while for this kind of concept to hit our everyday road but it emphasizes how much the 21st century is about a new textile revolution.

Check the video at http://asia.cnet.com/crave/2008/06/12/bmw-s-shape-shifting-car/?tag=mncol;txt