Presenters for 2004:   Stephanie Andrews   Christopher Bailey   Joanna Berzowska   Shushil Bhakar   and Eric Hortop   Cliff Burgess   Paulo Chagas   Dennis Dollens   Dan Falk   Sarah Filley   Ivette Fuentes-Guridi   Lila Kari   Narendra Pachkhede   Chris Salter   Chelsea Smock   Clara Ursitti   Derek van der Kooy   Yon Visell   Fabian Winkler   Panel Discussion Symposium, 2004 Electronic Fashion: the Future of Wearable Technology By Joanna Berzowska Concordia University and XS Design Studio http://www.berzowska.com Electronic textiles, also referred to as smart fabrics, are quite fashionable right now. Their close relationship with the field of computer wearables gives us many diverging research directions and possible definitions. On one end of the spectrum, there are pragmatic applications such as military research into interactive camouflage or textiles saturated with nanorobots that can heal wounded soldiers. On the other end of the spectrum, work is being done by artists and designers in the area of reactive clothes: "second skins" that can adapt to the environment and to the individual. Fashion, health and telecommunication industries are also pursuing the vision of clothing that can express aspects of people's personalities, needs and desires or augment social dynamics through the use and display of aggregate social information. I develop enabling technology for electronic textiles based upon my theoretical evaluation of the historical and cultural modalities of textiles as they relate to future computational forms. My work involves the use of conductive yarns and fibers for power delivery, communication and networking, as well as new materials for display that use electronic ink, nitinol and thermochromic pigments. The textiles are created using traditional textile manufacturing techniques: spinning conductive yarns, weaving, knitting, embroidering, sewing and printing with inks. Conductive yarns and fabrics, thermochromic inks and flexible sensors allow the construction of soft electronic garments. The goal (the "soft computation" vision) is to achieve the seamless integration of technology into the tradition of textile and fashion design. Textiles have a uniquely intimate relationship with the human body. Designers of electronic textiles need to focus on personal expression and the social, cultural and economic history of textiles instead of striving to replace (or "augment") human experience. Biography: Joanna Berzowska works with "soft computation": electronic textiles, responsive clothing as wearable technology, reactive materials and squishy interfaces. Her art and design work has been shown in the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in NYC, SIGGRAPH, Art Directors Club in NYC, Australian Museum in Sydney, NTT ICC in Tokyo and Ars Electronica Center in Linz among others   Page Top Copyright © 2004 Subtle Technologies Festival