Last week I went to see another exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Inspiria - How Cirque du Soleil Inspired the House of Boucheron (one of the most esteemed in firms in Paris) to Create a Collection of Luxury Jewelry. The House of Boucheron is celebrating their 150^th anniversary and chose the 20 most beautiful Cirque Du Soleil shows as inspiration for the wonderful collection. The exhibit is free to the public and is a must see! It consists of about 20 paintings (which helped to execute the Jewellery pieces) that are normally private to the public. The jewelry is made from a beautiful array different colours of gold and many precious stones like rubies, emeralds (a personal favorite), diamonds and many others. One of my favorite parts was being able to see the initial drawings and explanations of the techniques used for the pieces and to see how they were transformed from a 2D idea to an exquisite piece of jewelry. As a designer it is the design process that always interests me the most so that was enjoyable to see, as the finished designs were amazing! The blending of the metals with jewels was breathtaking and I really liked how many of the designs were rebellious, abstract and often A-symmetrical. Even though they were still pieces, I could see how the movement and choreography of Cirque Du Soleil inspired the designs. They were almost poetic and a pleasure to see in person, as photographs do not give beauties like these justice. I love the fact that these two profound artists (Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque de Soleil and Jean-Christophe Bédos, CEO of Boucheron) collaborated to produce such beautiful pieces of art really.  I’m also delighted to see that the MMoFA is adding fashion and design to their curriculum (considering the recent Yves St-Laurent and the current Tiffany Glass exhibits) In 2011 they will be featuring exhibitions showcasing the work of Jean-Paul Gaultier in addition to a exhibit focusing on Montreal designer, Denis Gagnon.

Source of the images: theluxechronicles.com

I recently went to see the highly anticipated Tiffany Glass: A Passion for Colour Exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. As a long time fan of Louis Comfort Tiffany, I had been waiting since last fall for it to arrive in Montreal. It is the first exhibit like this one, focusing only on the master glassmaker’s contribution to the design and technology of glass. I had previously acquired a small Taschen book on some of his famous creations and couldn’t wait to see them in person. The traditional “Tiffany style” lamp that led to many knockoffs (one in my grandma’s living room for sure) is not really my style. As a designer however, it is hard not to appreciate his talents, his love of his work, the many advances he made in the field off glass 9such as developing ‘Favrille’ glass and the sheer beauty of his pieces. The exhibit featured much of it, ranging from lamps, some of his more experimental work like vases and jewelry, photographs from the Tiffany Studios and period and the biggest feature, one room entirely dedicated to extremely large stained-glass commissions for churches (which were absolutely stunning!) From a design perspective, it was amazing to see pieces like the Wisteria table lamp (1901-02) that consisted of so many intricate pieces and really was a marvel to see in person. I previously knew that L.C. Tiffany did employ women to help create some of his highly delicate works but it was nice to see that Clara Driscoll (one of his leading designers) received credit for pieces like the Wisteria lamp at the Montreal exhibit. Considering it was the turn of the 21st century, it is inspiring to see that women have been paving the way with good design for a long time. I enjoyed how they had a display case featuring pieces of different glasses that Tiffany created and used. As a designer I enjoy seeing these tactic components on their own as it makes me appreciate them more when put together to create such beautiful pieces. It was also fun to see the exhibit speak about his friends and influences such as Siegfried Bing in Paris who help retail and expose Tiffany’s work to the European market. It makes me happy that a lot of time and effort went into restoring much of the work for the exhibit (especially some that are part of the museums permanent collection) and that others in the US will get to appreciate it next (as it finishes on May 2nd). I just hope none of that beautiful yet fragile glass gets broken in the process!

Photos from Montreal Gazette

On the other hand, the natural capabilities of skin are not always embraced or mimiced. Lupton also mentions that ‘As products become more like living things, the body is increasingly approached as a consumer product.’ I think this is very accurate as the skin (being susceptible to many procedures like Botox, peels, surgeries) is evolving into a pliable product for cultural consumption. Botox has become increasingly popular since the late 1990’s, regardless of the fact that it paralyses the emotions that your face portrays, leading you away from what is natural. Trying to “prolong the attributes of youth” is causing people to become plasticized. It is as if technology is striving to become more natural and organic and humans (not all but more increasingly some) are striving to become more artificial. There are many concepts of what second skin is. After reading this article, the category just got a lot bigger. I believe that anything that strives to combine, mimic, emulate or replace the organic with the inorganic (whether is is a thing, method etc.) is, in a way, a second skin.

Illumination can be used to connect one person to another. For Project 02, I want to create a belt that when worn biking, illuminates itself in the front and back, identifying the user to traffic, pedestrians and other bikers at night or in dark situations.  The illumination will be created from embedded LEDs, powered by the motion created from the legs. On one side of the belt there will be a pull-cord system that starts at the hip and straps around the lower leg, just below the knee. The system will be encased in a non-abrasive, tough but slightly slippery fabric (such as a waterproof nylon/polyester) that will allow the cord to lengthen and shorten next to the leg of the user without being invasive or irritating. The same fabric will be used to encase the slightly more rigid belt and electronics around the waist. I want to create the belt so it is symmetric and can be rotated from one leg to the other. The pulley system does not create an unhealthy amount of resistance against the leg but it is still important to give the user options and the ability to create balance if needed.  The belt and leg band will be attached using Velcro fastening.

The materials I will need for this project are:

-Light grey/neutral coloured fabric (some sort of waterproof polyester/nylon)

-Thread to match

-Large Velcro strips

-6 small white LEDs

-Conductive thread

-Death star

- Reused pulley dynamo system

The skills I will need and develop during the creation of this project will be sewing (something I wish to continue improving and learning about) and also knowledge of electronic systems. This is an area where I lack expertise so creating the human powered system (and converting AC power into DC in order to charge my battery) will be by biggest challenge.

Using conductive material and thread, I created a soft switch that can illuminate an LED by simply apply slight pressure, bringing the two conductive fabric layers into contact. This is not my prettiest work as it was done quickly  for fun to play around with this type of switch. Check out the video link!

Kinetic Energy Powered Dynamic Lamp by Karin Johansson

This lamp transforms kinetic energy to light, through a dynamo placed inside the globe.  As you spin it, it glows.

“My Dynamic Lamp‹ is a part of the wireless society. It doesn’t need any power supply or  batteries, it just works with your own energy. It is based on the idea of producing your  energy where you are, instead of transporting it in all directions across the earth. The sole by-product is exercise.” – Karin Johansson

The Human-Powered Home – Choosing Muscle Over Motors by  Tamara Dean

This book (available as an Ebook through Concordia’s library), was published by New Society Publishers out of B.C. gives an informative look into the history and modern usage of human powered devices in the home. Writter, Tamara Dean lives in Wisconsin with her partner David in an eco-friendly home they built from compressed earth blocks and reclaimed timbers. They routinely use human-powered devices in the home and garden and experiment with new contraptions in the workshop.

Interactive Hermit Kinetic Shelter by Kerry Jia Yi Lin

This kinetic shelter, designed specifically for use in a communal environment, offers individual temporary privacy to nap or just relax. It is construsted from felt and is inspired from the nautilus. Wearable arm bands embedded with RFID sensors and tags trigger the shell to open and close when the user crosses his arms. I like how the comforting action of crossing one’s arms is what triggers the object perform the desired action.

Heat-powered Electronics Research developed at MIT

MIT researchers (Professor Anantha Chandrakasan and alumnus Yogesh Ramadas) are working on a new breed of heat-harvesting electronic that can gather power from temperature differences between objects (like the body) and the air. The system can’t produce much yet (only about 100 microwatts from a few degress differnece) but still, it could revolutionize the way we think about powering low-energy electrical devices such as heart rate monitors.

Motion-powered Remote Control by Lee Sung Hoon, Kang Sooyeon, Cho Eun Bee, Lee Junehwa and Kim Jean

With this remote, your physical action of not just pointing but shaking the remote is what controls changing the channel or volume. When shaken, an electromagnetic induction generates a 20-30mA current, enough to send infra-red signals needed to the TV. This object ties into our second project and gets me thinking about how the movement or choreography of the object acts as an part of the design. I also like how this remote forces even slight physical activity during a normally unphysical act..sort of like what the Wii controlled did to video-gamers!

Dance Powered Phone Charger by Orange

This phone charger uses  kinetic energy  (created from dancing and rapid arm movement), stored  to a battery using a system of magnets and weights. *See Faraday’s Law of Induction for a more scientific explanation. The physical concept is great but i feel it would tie better to perhaps as an Ipod or mp3 charger that you could actually store in the arm band and listen to WHILE dancing (as music is not always around). An good example of something like this are Dancepants (see next source). This object, again is making me think about the body’s action and movement and how they relate to the design of my hand powered illuminated object.

Dancepants Kinetic Music Player by Lithuanian designers Inesa Malafej and Arunas Sukarevicius

This concept is simple  and brilliant, using kinetic energy to generate the power for MP3 player while you running and dancing. The kinetic module is attached at the pants leg with a connection running along the leg up to a pocket where the MP3 player is connected. This object not only converts your physical movement into energy but also acts as a motivational tool..as long as you keep running the music keeps playing!

Contact-less Dynamo Bike Lamp Kit by Magtenlight

The Magtenlight MLS-150 is a lighting system for your bike that uses a contact-less dynamo to generate the energy to power your lights. The system works by mounting a large ring of 32 magnets on the spokes of your bike, which moves past the dynamo coil, generating an electric current. Since the dynamo is not in physical contact with the magnet, the system is frictionless, which means you don’t feel much resistance (otherwise caused by friction) when cycling.

See video here.

Jumping Light Skipping Rope by Yanko Design

This skipping rope converts kinetic energy into stored energy to light the “touches” at the end of each handle. I love the concept but only wish that either the handles or the storage batteries inside could be removed and used for other purposes (such as a simple flashlight without a giant rope attached to it.

Interactive Systems in Architecture by Houston Drum and Professor  Bricker

This paper discusses the bringing together of traditional static buildings with kinetic objects that are unpredictable, unstable and in motion to create what is known as Kinetic Architecture. I found this paper useful as it addresses issues such as design interaction with humans and lighting. As much as architecture in the paper is larger scale, some works mentioned are small scale projects and deal with how people react when given interactive situations. I particularly like  the Aperature project discussed on page 8 (images below) by Frederic Eyl and Gunnar Green as it “not only interacts directly with the user, but also informs the public of the actions of the user and the duration of the interaction between the person and Aperture.”

Source: Professor Bricker. “Interactive Systems in Architecture: Eliminating the Communication Barrier between Humans and the Built Environment.” Houston Drum,  American Architecture, Web. 13 March. 2007.http://www.houstondrum.com/documents/InteractiveSystems.pdf

Above are images of my final curtain, made from silver organza and phosphorescent thread for the embroidered rain pattern. Due to the nature of the project, there are no images of the curtain glowing in dark because they are hard to capture.

For my interactive memory object, I want to create a curtain that bridges the separation created when the curtain is closed. By day it will be quite plain and by night it will retain the visual memory of rain on a window pain. I chose rain as my intended “natural effect” because for me personally, I associate it with calmness, tranquility and a sense of motion and rhythm. Its soothing and organic patterns and after effects (especially on a window pane) I find to be quite beautiful. I am going to embroider a pattern imitating rain on my curtain on one area using phosphorescent thread. The amount of “rain” the user will see is depending on their interaction with the curtain.

If I close the curtain for an extended period of time while functioning in a lit environment, disconnected from outside, the phosphorescent pigment in the thread will charge from the interior and exterior light (as my fabric will be slightly translucent). When I go to turn off the lights, maybe to sleep or relax, the pattern of rain will emit a glow and create the visual effect of rain on a windowpane. I will be exposed to the “rain” only when I have closed myself off from the outside long enough for it to charge.

Because everyone’s associate/connection with rain is different, the exterior “pattern” concept could be taken farther to imitate other “positive effects” like the actual physical view outdoors (i.e. trees, plants or the even the sky). The important thing, no matter what the view the user prefers, is the natural view is enriching the person. In my case, the curtain would be used in my bedroom, a place where there is often little light because its primary use is for sleeping. I often however, need vices to wind down at night and the visual effects of rain could be used as one.

To make this object I will need:  

- sewing machine

- embroidery needles

- white organza

- white cotton thread

- phosphorescent thread

- silver embellishing thread

The production of this object will consist of sewing the large 3’x6’8” curtain, made from white organza first. This will be done entirely by machine. The “rain” will then be embroidered partially on the top of the curtain spanning an area roughly 2’x1’6”. The embroidery will mainly be done by hand in sections using an embroidery ring for precision. This will be a skill I will develop more as I have not done a lot of hand embroidery. Some embroidery will be done using a machine.

Influences/References:

Window and Raindrops by Steve Somerville

Photo by Stockphoto

ElectronicElectronic Textiles by Loop.pH

Woven Light Glow Textiles by Kathy Schicker

Star Ceiling by James Clar

Night Lamp by Nathalle Dewez

Full Moon Sideboard by Sotirios Papadopoulos

LED Lit Radiator by Caleido

Uniproducts