Texile Innovations

VitalJacket by Biodevices monitors your heartbeat

Some time ago I went to the texprocess in Frankfurt, and only today got around to looking up the companies I had noted. The trade fair was amazing, and all the things my google searches put me on are fascinating, so I thought I'd compile them here!

The absolutely most interesting group I found was the Swedish group Smart Textiles, who work on mind-blowing research. I had to laugh when I read this quote on their website: “Electrically conductive fibers, interactive textiles, textile integrated medical electronics, textile acoustics, phase-change fibers, textile photonics. Taste the words; these are some of the research areas at Technology Lab.” What they do is super funky, though. Textile blood vessels? Technology is amazing. http://smarttextiles.se/en/

They also have a magazine, and if you click on only ONE link in this post, it should be this one. The entire magazine, packed with utterly mind-boggling work, in English, for free online. Seriously, it's more than worth the read. https://issuu.com/piffling/docs/stm2_eng_1


Moving on to other groups, here's one with heating, conductors, sensors, lights… http://www.frti.ch/en/technology/illuminated-textiles.html

Matrix Infusion Coating in particular is just so cool: http://www.outlast.com/en/applications/

“Research in anti-microbial textiles (…) has led to the development of bioprotective clothing materials(…). Biocidal functions can be divided into sterilization, disinfection, and sanitization in an order of the strength of the function. Biocidal functions for personal protection should be at least at the disinfection level, which can inactivate most infectious microorganisms.” (Links here and here.)
This is mainly for medicinal wear, but how cool would this be on winter gloves or protective face coverings??

Eco filament yarns: http://www.chainlon.com.tw/english/product/brand.php?dpid=10

You can’t tell me this isn’t adorable. http://www.chinareflective.com/product/SAFETY-RAINCOAT_CSW-009.html

Flame-resistant fabric is badass: http://pyro-tex.de/the-fiber/

http://organoclick.com/ develops non-toxic and sustainable methods for the textile and nonwoven (wood, etc) industry, particularly water-repellant coatings, fabric stiffeners and original fibers.

Suuuuuper cool is the Hövding helmet, which is a neck brace that inflates (much like a car’s airbag) into a protective helmet! It’s amazing; check this out: https://hovding.com/ 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikYFfxpu3I0

Not really textile-related since it dissolves in water, electric paint is still really neat. It can be used on a variety of surfaces, including skin, to create electric circuits. https://www.bareconductive.com/

LFLECT does neat things with reflective fibers: https://lflect.com/collections/LFLECT

Then there’s this strange and intriguing art/fashion concept of using the wearer’s movement to generate electric energy, which then powers a function of the garment. The hooded dress plays calming sounds near the wearer’s ears when the grotesquely exaggerated back is touched, fidgeting with the rope-like scarves causes one to light up, and pulling at the strap harness illuminates the pockets of the dress. Rather bizarre, but interesting. http://www.captain-electric.net/site/dresses.php

Biodevices’ VitalJacket is a wearable cardiomonitor, and not only is it a great medical device (since it easily monitors the wearer’s heart condition over hours, in a comfortable way), it’s also pretty gorgeous. Here’s the website, and an image of the shirt is above. http://www.vitaljacket.com/?page_id=156

For an even greater medical innovation, check out Mollii, the elektrodress that helps people with spasticity (cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury and other disabilities). It looks comfortable, the feedback seems to have been overwhelmingly good, and a few hours of wear help with motor functions for days! http://inerventions.se/en/

You've likely heard of fabric spray, but in case you somehow missed it: http://www.fabricanltd.com/

I would love for thermochromic (temperature sensitive) paint to be developed for stove tops, so that you can see at a glance what temperature the surface has. It seems you can get thermochromic strips (here), but I haven’t found anything about thermochromically coated appliances or dishes so far. And if you haven’t seen this table (and the comments about it), you’re missing out!

Very much worth checking out are the INDEX design award finalists 2017: http://designtoimprovelife.dk/category/award2017/
They don’t, in general, have much textile or fashion innovation, but SO many amazing projects and technological advances.

Then there's auxetic textiles, which stretch in fascinating and highly artistic ways: https://youtu.be/j6iDcIYTqNQ

And that’s it for the day! With all this new stuff going on, I wonder how long it’ll take for someone to create electricity-conductive tattoos and embed LEDs into their skin to make them light up. Between 3D printed organs, textile veins, electric generators in our own clothing and fabrics that dissolve at the touch of water, I feel like I live in a sci-fi world already.

Wintergatan

 

Meet the Swedish band Wintergatan, "Milky Way", with their debut song Sommarfågel. 

This is from 2013, but I only just found out about the band today because of their amazing "Marble Machine" video which you really need to check out here. They do such interesting things with both their music and their visuals, so hop over to youtube to get better acquainted!

Sana Takeda

A Japanese artist currently working mainly for Marvel, Sana Takeda came to my attention for her collaboration with writer Marjorie Liu on the series Monstress. It's an intrically drawn, stark tale of power and pain, supernatural forces and a particular barbaric type of slavery, and is an extremely compelling read.

This review, in particular, struck me and deserves to be shared: “That tenuous space between survival and terror is where Monstress lives. It’s a comic book with mud in its blood, unafraid to be a swirling epic as well as a ghastly dark fantasy.” – Vox

Acquainted With The Night

by Robert Frost

Yasunari Kawabata

The first Japanese author to have received the Nobel Prize for Literature, Yasunari Kawabata is a name I had regrettably not heard before today. Having read and thoroughly enjoyed his short story "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket", I purchased his "Palm-Of-The-Hand Stories" - a series of short stories written over the span of his career - and greatly look forward to reading them!

I picked up also the collection of short stories "A Tranquil Star: Unpublished Stories" by Primo Levi (an Italian writer) and "Ecstatic Cahoots: Fifty Short Stories" by Stuart Dybek - an American author whose excellent article "The Surprising Power of Stories That Are Shorter Than Short Stories" introduced me to both previously named writers. In it, he discusses the dual visuality of haiku in their original form, speaks of poetry in fiction, and wraps up the article with the beautiful finishing lines: "Even though we all write on computers now, I still think of writing as words on paper. And when you write a story or a poem, it just illuminates. Meaning shines through words like light through cut paper, beaming out into the night, and projecting its image onto another person’s heart."

Enhanced Illustration by Bill Wright

Interested in mixing traditional and digital illustration?
Last year I attended a short course at Central Saint Martins under Bill Wright, and he's now offering the same course as an online class - for £25! The live course continues to cost £550, and with the online course you get everything I got at the live course. I cannot emphasize enough what a steal this is - Bill is an excellent instructor, bringing in self-made videos, Adobe Certified Expert assistants, a thorough knowledge of both illustration techniques and the business of selling your work, and a willingness to impart all his knowledge in a clear and concise way.

Sound interesting? What if I said that you don't need prior knowledge of how to use Photoshop - or any technical knowledge when it comes to illustration? You'll get great tutorials for both, as well as a group of international and diverse artists working and learning alongside you. If you already know one - or both - then that's great, too! I already knew how to illustrate and use Photoshop before taking the course, but still got great advice, learned about working in different fields, met some very talented people, and created new and fresh art.

The online course isn't as time-limited as the live one, and you'll get a series of lessons (with written discussion, assignments, illustrations and video links) over a period of 7 weeks. Have a poke around his website (eshortcourses.uk) and the facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/156679341345879/), and if you have any questions or want to sign up, send him an email under billwrightmail@gmail.com. Go for it!

Colors of the World

Hey there! So I've had a project in the works that I debuted on Monday: Colors of the World! It's an artistic project exploring different cultures around the world, looking at traditional arts, textiles, patterns, culture, language and much more. Each month I'll be working on a new culture or country, posting a photoshoot at the beginning of each month and following it up with blog posts over on the website, so check it out! It's in its beginning stages still, but by the end of the month there'll be something of interest for everyone, and I'd love to have your feedback and support! Here's the LINK, and a sneak peak...