Lucy McRae merges fashion, technology and the body

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Artist Lucy McRae created this evocative piece titled TransNatural. Trained as a classical ballerina and also as an architect, there's no questions why she is fascinated with the human form and investigates architectural structures and engineering applied to the body.

"TransNatural is an art and design exhibition looking at the crossover between nature and technology. Opening Amsterdam at the TROUW February 19th. Image Lucy McRae. Photo Maarten Willemstein. www.multiplexart.nl" (source)

Read more on McRae's site.

Swine flu mask reacts to your temperature

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"Tis the season for the flu, and if the regular strain wasn’t bad enough, we have a new, porcine terror to contend with. These brightly patterned medical face masks, however, may ward off H1N1 and its brethren simply by virtue of being stylish—looking like Wacko Jacko in his latter days notwithstanding. Designed by Marjan Kooroshnia, a Swedish textile-design student, these face masks have a bonus feature: They’re printed with thermochromic ink that changes color with any uptick in breathing temperature." (source)

If you've ever experimented with thermochromatic inks, I am skeptical that this concept will even work as the variations of temperature from your breath might be too small. Some of the inks are fairly sensitive to heat so the pattern might change no matter what temperature your breath is. Regardless, it's a nice concept.

Read the rest of the article on couterre. Images from couterre.

Rodarte lights up his collection

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During fashion week 2010, fashion designer Rodarte lit up the runway with gorgeous glowing heels that he incorporated into his showcase collection. I've seen a lot of "light up" clothing that is poorly executed and somewhat inconsequential. What I like about this attempt is the connection between electronics, high fashion, and self expression. Aside from Rodarte's heels being absolutely beautiful (I'll take two please!) is that he integrates the electronics into the design to add more richness to the solution as opposed to focusing solely on the electronics only. In other words, he uses the technology as an additional aesthetic that helps create a richer context and story for self expression.

Read more on Alison Lewis' blog here. Images via switch and TheFrisky

Architecting a sleeping suit

Architect Forrest Jessee is dabbling in architecture structures applied to garments in this gorgeous and cocoon-like functional pattern. "Inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s practice of Dymaxion Sleeping, which involves four segments of half-hour naps every six hours, Jessee redefined the sleeping ritual while challenging the roles of private and public space by designing the portable Sleep Suit. Structural pleats made of EVA foam which absorbs shock in sports equipment is used to “dress” or contain the body much like a sleeping bag. By testing and recording sleeping positions, areas of comfort and discomfort are identified, and thus determined the thickness of the foam where the support is needed. I can’t help but be reminded of the napping challenges endured by taking on the benches, crates, floors and chairs during my architecture school days." (source)

View all the photos and read more about this project on Pleat Farm.

Always-available natural user interfaces

I met with Desney Tan at Microsoft Research today, who walked me through a few mind-blowing demos and prototypes he has recently developed. One of his prototypes demonstrates the capabilities of using on-body musclecomputer inputs that can be integrated into garments. Listening to Tan articulately describe a bloom of possibilities and how he sees the evolution of interfacing was incredibly inspiring. Just imagine the potential.

Read Tan's publication for more info.

Smart textiles integrated into your dashboard

This project, sent in from one of my colleagues, makes it clear that there are no boundaries to how technology can be integrated into textiles to create beautiful, useful and richly tactile experiences. Car Design News shows off Toyota's FT86 concept car. Here's an image of the interior dashboard. It includes traditional garment hardware, red zippers, located at each corner of the passengers side dash that control airflow and integrates the stereo controls directly into the leather. Hot.

Click the image to zoom in.