My work "Electromagnetic Field Detector Bracelet" has been accepted as a video. The video will be presented at Ubicomp in Seoul South Korea during the one minute madness Monday 22nd and during the video reception 17:15 - 19:00!
Abstract of the work
We present the design of a cost-effective wearable sensor to detect and indicate the strength and other characteristics of the electric field emanating from a laptop display. Our bracelet can provide an immediate awareness of electric fields radiated from an object used frequently. Our technology thus supports awareness of ambient background emanation beyond human perception. We discuss how detection of such radiation might help to “fingerprint” devices and aid in applications that require determination of indoor location.
Come see me to talk about this work! If you cannot make it, here is the video:
A bit of motivation for this work
Today, many people fear electromagnetic fields. They believe that ambient fields can negatively influence their health. Perhaps, by visualizing the presence of common electromagnetic (EM) fields, users might feel in control of difficult-to-perceive information and transcend their fear, beginning the process of recognizing and moving beyond fear. An analogy might be found in the cheap RF power meters that are sold to enable people to gauge radiation leakage from their microwave ovens. Conversely, providing users with blind data could increase their paranoia when low-level field leakage from common appliances is visualized. Clearly, people need to be educated in how to properly interpret this data. Regardless of one’s belief on the health impact of background EM fields, visualizing the unseen in this way always leads to fascinating and playful exploration. All devices emit background signals (electrostatically, magnetically, acoustically, and optically) that are characteristic of particular devices and also sometimes indicate that device’s mode of operation. Indeed, government contracts mandate that computers and displays used in highly classified work be kept in shielded rooms (SCIFs) to thwart espionage that monitors such background leakage fields.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Low cost wearable sensor for detecting Electromagnetic fields
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Graphic design competition -> A new logo for C'N'C Plug Generation!
C'N'C plug generation asked me to spread the word about the C'N'C Plug Generation Contest, a new graphic design competition for talented graphic designers! Interpret in your own way the slogan C'N'C Plug Generation with a photo, a composite, mural, stickers, video clip or sculpture and send it in!
The best creations will be used as graphics for a series of T-shirts and accessories to be showcased during Milan Fashion Week in February. You’ve got till 30 January 2009 to focus your ideas, create them and send them in! The jury will select three original and unpublished concepts (such as pictures, composites, wall-paintings, stickers, graphics, banner, sculpture) representing in a young and creative way the logo "C'N'C PLUG GENERATION".
Prizes
1st - 1000€
2nd - an iPhone
3rd - an iPhone
+ your winning T-shirts and accessories logo will be presented during Milan Fashion Week this February 2009!
Rules
Read the rules ->here<- Participant must create a concept with any artistic technique, including free-hand drawing and digital art, photography and sculpture. The concept must be sent online to CND in JPG, TIFF, GIF, PDF or PNG format, file of a maximum of 5 MB. The directions on how to upload your creation can be found ->here<-
Monday, August 25, 2008
Robots need hugs too.
Thank you Adrien!
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Iced Chest
I had designed a system to cool down the body for mental health support. It is always nice to see how such system can be used in another context such as the Nike Lab that designs innovative garments for athletes. One of the product, that I found in the Print edition of Fast Company Magazine, is a jacket that cools down the body. Discovering that performance falls off drastically when core body temperature hits 103 degrees, the Nike lab designed a vest that slows the rise of core body temperature. It is simply filled in with water, then frozen overnight. The vest is meant to be wear an hour prior to competition.
Screenshot from the Nike designer story
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Ghost of a Victorian christening dress
This is the photogram of a Victorian christening dress by Adam Fuss. Gelatin silver print photogram. Discovered in ARTnews, is this the ghost of a child or the ghost of a dress? is it instinct of culture that makes us automatically assume that transparency and translucency are properties of the spirit? This work makes us feel as if a spirit had brushed the hem of its garments across a photographic plate.
"Subject and technique conspire to let us participate vicariously in the experience of those early photographic pioneers, high on darkroom chemicals and on the possibilities of their new toy --Francine Prose for ARTnews"
Monday, June 30, 2008
Organic prosthesis
Grow On You by LucyandBart.
LucyandBart is a collaboration between Lucy McRae and Bart Hess described as an instinctual stalking of fashion, architecture, performance and the body. They share a fascination with genetic manipulation and beauty expression. Unconsciously their work touches upon these themes, however it is not their intention to communicate this. They work in a primitive and limitless way creating future human shapes, blindly discovering low – tech prosthetic ways for human enhancement.
Playing with suggestive photography for high impact, they seem obsessed with the body metamorphosis. I call their work organic prosthesis, because they mainly use organic material in their body extension. For instance, they grow seeds on a fabric, which gives the impression of a body grown of grass and soil. The following pictures show the germination from day one to day eight.
I love their work with foam. The foam transforms the body in a gentle way. Here the artists embrace the prosthetic impulse ...
Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
My contribution in the field of fashionable technology!
I had previously mentioned the book Fashionable Technology, edited by Sabine Seymour in which I present my work on fashion garments designed in the context of technology -including the Touch Sensitive apparel developed with Yasmine Abbas. The book is available on Amazon and I recently received my copy!
Here are the pages of my contribution and the book itself features outstanding designers. I will try to report about them soon !!!
Abstract: The interplay of electronic textiles and wearable technology, wearables for short, and fashion, design and science is a highly promising and topical subject. Offered here is a compact survey of the theory involved and an explanation of the role technology plays in a fabric or article of clothing. The practical application is explained in detail and numerous illustrations serve as clarification. Over 50 well-known designers, research institutes, companies and artists, among them Philips, Burton, MIT Media Lab, XS Labs, New York University, Hussein Chalayan, Cute Circuit or International Fashion Machines are introduced by means of their latest, often still unpublished, project, and a survey of their work to date. Given for the first time is a list of all the relevant information on research institutes, materials, publications etc. A must for all those wishing to know everything about fashionable technology.
->Buy the book<-
Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
Friday, June 13, 2008
Blogging in Motion
I met Diana Eng at the seamless fashion show in 2006 when my team and I presented Taptap: the scarf that hugs you back! She was showing an impressive inflatable dress, a gown that fits the body to later inflates ...
Photos from the rehearsal & Photos from the show that I took during the event.
One of her newest project, Blogging in motion, is a purse which involuntarily blogs your day. Each time the wearer walks 30 steps, the purse takes a photograph and automatically uploads it to a blog online. Time and GPS location for each photo can also be added to the blog. At the end of the day, blog readers can trace back through the wearer's footsteps by viewing the photographs taken during the day.
Project by Diana Eng, Emily Albinski, Audrey Roy, Jeannie Yang and Yahoo Research Berkley.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
The secrets of syrian seduction
Ayah Bdeir examines the role technology plays in cross cultural communication and attempts to create technologies that promote human rights. One of her latest work "Teta Haniya's secrets" is one of the most hilarious one -> pics here <-
After decades of running her kinky Syrian lingerie store in the Hamidiya souk of Damascus, Teta Haniya has arrived in America bearing gifts. Drawing on more than 60 years of Islamic teachings on seduction, and updating it using her arsenal of kitschy technology, Teta Haniya hijacks the Western panty, triggering the sexual liberation of American women.
Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
Monday, May 12, 2008
DIY videos by young artists
New Urban Arts is a nationally recognized interdisciplinary arts studio for high school students and emerging artists that promotes youth voice, collaboration, and self-directed learning toward a lifelong creative practice. It provides studio, exhibition space, and mentoring for young artists who explore the visual, performing, and literary arts through yearlong free out-of-school programs. Founded in 1997, New Urban Arts serves 125 high school students in the Providence Public High Schools and 15 artists each year. They have been named one of fifty premiere arts and youth development programs in the country for four consecutive years.
Discovered on Zones of Emergency, New Urban Arts offers online videos for DIY explorations. For instance How to Screenprint? How To Sew A Ruffle? or How to make a silicone Mold (below):
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Saturday, May 10, 2008
A chair to peel
The Cabbage Chair, 2008
Nendo designed the cabbage chair for XXIst Century Man exhibition curated by Issey Miyake to commemorate the first anniversary of 21_21 Design Sight in Roppongi, Tokyo.
Miyake asked the designers to make furniture out of the pleated paper that is produced in mass amounts during the process of making pleated fabric, and usually abandoned as an unwanted by-product. The designers' solution to his challenge transformed a roll of pleated paper into a small chair that appears naturally as you peel away its outside layers, one layer at a time.
Resins added during the original paper production process adds strength and the ability to remember forms, and the pleats themselves give the chair elasticity and a springy resilience, for an overall effect that looks almost rough, but gives the user a soft, comfortable seating experience.
Photo by Masayuki Hayashi
Since the production process is so simple, the designers thought that eventually, the chair could be shipped as one compact roll for the user to cut open and peel back at home. The chair has no internal structure. It is not finished, and it is assembled without nails or screws. This primitive design responds gently to fabrication and distribution costs and environmental concerns, the kinds of issues that face our 21st century selves. Thus, the cabbage chair fits active, optimistic and forward-moving "21st century people", the kind of people who, to borrow a concept Miyake expressed during a meeting with Nendo, "don't just wear clothes, but shed their skin".
Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure.............................................................................................
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Friday, May 09, 2008
Mini tech in fashion
The Masai dress!
Discovered via Stumbleupon, Studio 5050 makes really cool products: from a dress that generates musical patterns as the wearer moves, to the moi "a light to wear, a light to share!
Inspired by Masai wedding collars, this dress salutes both our global provenance and our desire to create our own soundtrack as we move in mysterious ways. With every step, strings of hand-formed silver beads that hung from the collar brush against conductive threads sewn into the dress, generating a series of sounds. A leisurely walk or a night at a cocktail party turns into an improvisational performance.
A long asymmetrical swoop in the back of the dress recalls Balenciaga’s famed wedding dress – an homage to a maestro that visually and aurally blends cultures, traditions and emotions. The dress comes in a luscious deep-sky blue silk jersey and white nourishing Sea-Tiva (75% cotton, 25% algae).
The company also design modules, a series of electronic building blocks for creating systems that sense and respond. The modules were originally created to help them rapidly develop new wearable applications but they now are available to the public to create any interaction design project!
Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
Thursday, May 08, 2008
International PhD Studentship in Tectonic Textiles!
An announcement for the good cause. I know how hard it is to find a great PhD in a field that you love! Here is a call for an international PhD studentship in tectonic textiles between the Centre for IT and Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, and the Textiles Future Research Group, Central Saint Martins, College of Art and Design.
The position will be based in both research environments so as to make full use of the expertise and equipment available. The applicant will be expected to move between the institutions placed in Copenhagen and London, respectively. The position is offered as a 3-year contract under the regulations of the Danish Ministry of Finance and the Danish Federation of Professional Associations, AC.
This Ph.D. application will be administerd by CITA.
Click ->here<- for further information
The deadline for application is 23 May 2008. Material received by CITA after this time will not be taken into account.
A bit of research context for the studentship
The last decade has seen an extensive development in the textile industry. The invention of new high technology fibres and yarns as well as new fabrication techniques for weaving, knitting, pleating, welding or laminating of materials, is causing an increase in the use of textiles across multiple disciplines. From the miniature detailing of knitted arteries inserted into the body to the extreme scales of geotextiles, textiles are entering new fields of fabrication, hybridising existing technologies and inventing new ones. In architecture, the metaphor of textiles is increasingly informing design practice. Whereas textiles have always been used in tensile structures and within the interior, the idea of weaving, pleating or knitting a building is challenging traditional construction techniques. The idea of a curtain wall, an independent and self-supporting membrane of steel and glass that wraps around the building, is now being explored through the metaphor of fabric.
One of the key developments in this technological innovation has been the emergence of smart textiles, or intelligent textiles, that embed digital technology in woven, pleated or knitted surfaces. These materials enable wiring or circuitry to become a direct part of the material. Intelligent clothes, wearables and soft computing are research fields that have been receiving huge amounts of international interest during the last decade. The use of conductive threads and fabrics and the embroidery of standard electronic components as well as stand-alone microprocessors have allowed the imagining of a material that holds its own capacity for sensing and actuation. Here, state-changes: the intensification of colour, the emergence of light or the stirring of movement, allow the material itself to become a reactive surface that engages with its occupant or wearer. These materials have mostly had their application in the development of smart uniforms for the military, but have also lead to more experimental and probing explorations allowing for a new conditioning of technology as something soft, pliable, adaptive and mobile. Questioning the idea of a fixed user behind a standard terminal within a rigid office environment, these investigations propose a flexible technology that ultimately is ported and changed by its usage.
The International PhD Studentship will focus on the siting of these technologies within an architectural research context. Investigating the embedding of soft technology within the interior, the project will seek to define new means by which a dynamic and user-controlled architecture can be imagined. It is the intention that the candidate will work in a practice-based and experimental manner where direct experience and engagement with materials and technologies will create the foundation for innovative research.
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