User:Zebraic/Smart Textiles Research

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[edit] Research & Ideas - MICA

Introduction I believe it's helpful to think of this project as being researched similar to the way a novelist would go about researching a book: Speculative fiction authors have, for years, predicted many technological and sociological trends. This is not some mystical prescience, but rather the result of a great amount of research combined with the ability to keep one's finger on the pulse of a paradigm and see its future iteration(s).

I believe that the hard work it takes to gain that foresight, and that foresight itself, is important to the development of this program.

[edit] Class Ideas

[edit] Cultural Impact

This assignment is relatively simple and straightforward: "For the next week, I would like you all to start thinking about how fabrics impact your every-day lives. Think about it when you make your bed (or if you don't), when you do laundry, when you choose what to wear to work, etc. Think about WHY you change your clothes, for example. Is it just so they don't smell? How much goes into that?"

"For the next week, I want your impressions of how much and in what ways textiles are integrated into every-day living. It'd be a good idea to come to class prepared with those impressions, because we're going to do something with them."

The next week, the instructor should also have their research ready in regards to facts and figures pertaining to the fashion industry, the textile industry, etc., and be able to correlate the students' impressions with said facts and figures (but making them seem dynamic). There are probably ways in which textiles impact the students' lives that they have not thought of.

[edit] Saving Lives

This class idea would have the students explore the ways in which they think about other human beings' lives, and the importance of textiles and (of course) human life.

"For this course, design a piece that incorporates 'smart textiles' which can also 'save a life'. By next week I want several concept ideas about this written down, sketched out, etc. They don't have to be complete, they can be rough; Right now, we are at the development stage of this assignment, so keep your options open. What does the phrase, 'save a life' mean? I want your 5 best ideas on this ready when we meet next week."

[edit] Gender Roles

This projected assignment would question how fashion defines sex and gender in today's "global" society.

Have the students think about fashion and its roles in defining gender, sex, age, etc. How do they feel about that? Have them think about those ramifications of fashion when smart textiles which are capable of interacting with the body are thrown into the mix. They should then start to design an article of clothing addressing these issues.

Addendum: A permutation of this assignment/project could be one in which gender roles are not questioned so much as identity in general (under which gender falls).

[edit] Course Description

Course Title: Post-Humanism, Cybernetics, & Bio-interface Textiles (Alternative Title: Cybernetics, E-textiles, and Identities)

Being art-educated has its advantages in that while the rest of the world is dragged kicking and screaming into a social space just now beginning to truly explore the elusive concepts of post-modernism, we're already there.

Begin description: This course consists of aspects of both a seminar and a studio art course. It aims to explore the questions arising regarding personal & social identity in a world where concepts such as cybernetics and e-textiles ensure the paradigm only increases its state of flux. Using the tenants of social and critical post-humanism as the foundation for discussion (seminar aspect), particularly as regards human identity, students would create design projects of a relevant nature. Specific assignments of an open-ended, "studio design" nature would be given each week to explore the practicality in the theory discussed during seminar. Each assignment would follow a seminar/class discussion and be followed up by an in-course group critique. This hands-on aspect of the course would fortify the "real world" applications of the roles textiles in particular play in defining current and future society.

This course would be offered during the second semester of the MFA in Smart Textile Design and Material Culture.

  • Note: This course could be redefined primarily as a lecture course and be offered as an option for continuing studies or the like. It would be utilized to explore the social relevance of smart textiles & other technology to the future of human identity. Something like this could be presented as a prototypical course example for the proposed MFA program.

[edit] Nano-technology

It seems that nanotechnology is integral to the future of smart textiles. [1]