Wearable Technology?

How do we all feel about wearable technology?

Are you all going to feel as though you are part of a sci-fi movie or geeky? Who does it appeal to?

My Biomimicry project is about to take a turn, a new path, one I think I was avoiding, shutting my eyes on, yet I think it makes so much sense, it kills me to be so stubborn at times.

So I can't quite share the secret, but I can give you a few clues: A/ Im still taking inspiration on the Courtship ritual of Spiders, especially on the humoristic part of it where the male must perform a dance to signify to the female that he isn't a meal but her mate. B/ It will communicate an element between two signifiers.......
At least, this is the intention behind it. Now the question is will I manage to make it happen.
Virtually this needs some good animation, short movie to mock up the final concept.

Have you guessed what it s going to be about?

London Digital Week


Click on the above words to learn more about London Digital Week.

Milan Design week, My Favorites

Milan Design Week was as expected Mad. It was an overload of Design, products, people, objects and items. However it was inspiring and worth going. Its making me as always reposition myself as a Designer. I still wonder whether I am a Designer, am I? I might be a satellite of creativity but not with the deep soul of commercial design. So perhaps I should define myself as a satellite of creative conceptual input with no commercial output?
My mind has a thousand ideas but I'm either too ahead of the game or too far a part from it. When will be the right timing? Anyhow folks , it was great to see so many people out there designing, good or bad people are out there believing in their ideas and going ahead. Is there room for more, I wonder.
Can we sustain so many ideas? There has been many focus on eco-friendly, sustainable design, which is the new trend as you hear it nearly at every corner. Opulence was another big theme. Minimalism wasnt part of Milan design week.

Picture 1 : Cerith Wyn Evans - I=N=V=O=C=A=T=I=O=N Milan
Picture 2: Papier Mache furniture FuioriSalone
Picture 3: Cloud Designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec- Ligne Roset Milan ISalone

Stages of Courtship Ritual of Spiders, "Can I be your mate?"

Those are the different movements in the dance the male performs to seduce the female and make her understand that he is a mate not a meal! the male puts in a lot of effort. From my observations of this afternoon, I noticed firstly the male had to perform three times the dance before the female even accepted to look at him, she seemed very busy weaving her web. At the third time she gave him a signal through vibration of her abdomen that he would be her mate. Phew I didn't witness murder!
Secondly, when they were done mating the female jumped away from the male and carried on her business. No cuddles! ha!
Thirdly the male being very interested in the female (please let me believe this) decided to give it another go so there he was performing again his little dance, except this time around the female didn't even resist, the male was again successful! Wow he 's got the footwork right!
Finally this entire process was repeated a few more times. They've got endurance those little creatures!

Courtship Ritual Of Spiders London April 2009

©clementinedebos 2009



This is the Courtship Ritual of Spiders I had described in an earlier post. Except this time you can see images of it and the beauty of it all is it happened in my garden this afternoon as I was taking a break from my work. I took the pictures. As you know I'm drawing inspiration from it in the context of Biomimicry so this is really great! I feel so lucky to have witnessed it. What were the odds of that? I have been living in this house for the past 4 years and never have I observed such a phenomenon. This documentation will be very helpful. It is how it was described in all I read and is quite close to the diagrams I had seen. What the images here dont show is the intense dance the male performed as well as the drumming of the abdomen against the web. Fascinating it was!
I find it all very symbolic, not to have witnessed it, more how spiders weave their web, use it as a sense aid to communicate their intentions, to exchange a series of vibrations to express their feelings, their silk is stronger than steel and finally the attempt to persuade the female to be her mate. By all means I have always had a fear of spiders and a fascination for them, arent they just amazing creatures if you put aside all the prejudice and fear?
My mind is buzzing with a million ideas on how to best use all this info and to convey it in a smart fabric with a real purpose and aesthetic.
Magic is in the air!

Work in progress

Currently in the process of creating a range of fabrics (©clementinedebos 2009). Both are just test samples, here I'm playing around with assembling different layers of fabrics together and stitching them. Layers, transparency, textures, surfaces are the tools to start this work in progress. At a later stage some technology will be added, some programming and obviously our dear Arduino platform to create the magic! And all fabrics will be handwoven.

"Sustainable is the new Design"

Really like this article for its simplicity of facts and honesty. Check out this link http://tinyurl.com/c7yz9a

E-Textiles

I' ve just read an article about e-textiles, smart textiles, which, frankly has provoked in me a lot of annoyance, to stay very polite and to say the least.
Why do people constantly refer to those as being the latest gadgets?
A/Because most of the wearable technology is not very sexy and looks like a gadget, mainly because it has been thought and made by engineers rather than designer. Engineer are doing a great job technology wise but they should really be paired up with a Designer preferably a Textile Designer.
B/ They are only the beginning of an idea, most of them wont even hit the high-street as no one is ready for this big revolution. We are all very hooked on technology today but we are not yet ready to be part of a sci-fi movie.
C/ No matter what we say we have to admit, we are after aesthetic more than functionality. When Aesthetics and Functionality come together we will have hit it very high and its almost perfection, again I'm referring to e-textiles (as I am aware that we already have a few products out there which have both).
My annoyance comes merely from reading articles where they criticize e-textiles without giving any solutions or suggestions on how they would like to see those smart textiles evolve.
My point being see the bigger picture.
As a Textile designer I'm currently working and have worked in the field of smart textiles, and I am confronted constantly to the aesthetic issues as well as making a fabric which isn't a gadget though there is technology embedded in it and serves a real purpose.
Moreover I'm also now confronting the critical question of Can a Smart Textile be sustainable?

New Creative Ventures

I'm embarking yet again on a new adventure in parallel to the one I m still on. I've been selected among 30 creatives out of 150 to participate to a New Creative Ventures at London business school. 30 creatives will be paired up with 30 MBA students from LBS to make a project happen, well the aim is that one of our ventures comes to life, we have 10 weeks to build up the business plan and the final week we present in front of potential investors, yes like 'Dragons Den". The winning team gets a cash prize and to get their new creative ventures on the go! Wish me luck.....

Net Present Value Rules! Its not so much about the profit your company can make its more about how the company can seek opportunities which have positive Net Present value, which makes sense.
Also we cannot predict, forecast what will happen we can only produce an estimate of what can happen.
However one constant remains the one of taking risks. I think you can apply this in any areas of your life. Take risks won't hurt, it will make you move forward whatever the outcome.
It it of course easier said then done.
For all I can remember in my life every time I've taken a risk, I haven't been disappointed whatever the outcome was. This is especially true in my career.
Actually risk taking and intuition have led me to where I am today. They both keep me going and drive my passion!