Seminar 9th November 2006
Scenario Workshops 10th November 2006
V2_Groundfloor, Eendrachtsstraat 10 / Pakhuis De Zwijger, Amsterdam
Thursday 9th NovemberIn the 21st century, cutting-edge technology, such as nano-technology, is dropping into our design and clothing, without a second through on the social and ethical consequences. The discourse and values of the fashion industry clash with those of the electronic giants, and we find ourselves in a situation where new manufacturing protocols are required. Below, several design projects are described that spark the discussion on these new manufacturing protocols, before the industry can sneak such developments into our everyday lives.
It was through the publication Fashioning the Future - Tomorrows wardrobe (Thames & Hudson, 2005) that Suzanne Lee, senior research fellow in fashion at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, University of the Arts London, made a landmark contribution to the awareness of the influence of technology on today’s fashion design. By providing an overview of the technological developments that continue to influence contemporary fashion design and by exemplifying new technologies that are about to leave the experimental phase and enter our everyday lives, Lee’s book is not only an excellent overview of past and new technological developments in fashion design, but also a critical signal of things to come.
Taking this critical signal as a starting point to spark discussion on new manufacturing protocols, a selection of the most exciting and critical projects that adopt new technologies for fashion, art, and design were presented at an event titled FLESHING OUT Wearable Interfaces, Smart Materials, Living Fabrics, at V2_ Rotterdam, in November 2006. Some of the most exciting (and sometimes confronting and shocking) projects presented during the FLESHING OUT seminar, were those that adopt biotechnology to grow material into a design. After a history of successively wearing animal skin, creating cotton, and creating nylon, it seems that a new era has started, in which materials will be grown into wearable products. The projects BioCouture, Victimless Leather, and Biojewellery, presented at FLESHING OUT, all adopt biotechnology to allow control over the growth of natural materials and the manipulation of these processes for design purposes at a nano-scale.