V2_ Knowledgebase

Deborah Hustic aka body pixel – artist, blogger, web dreamer… working with analogue and digital media. Holds MA in Comparative Literature and Ethnology, thesis on the topic of Butoh. Trained in graphic design; workshops in the fields of photography, dance, computer arts, semantic web, podcasts, textile arts, dance criticism, wearable technology, etc. For 15 years involved in new media. Interested in interactive performance and motion, wearable technology and the usage of new media art in performative context, DIY and free culture movement.

Craftivism is the practice of engaged creativity, especially regarding political or social causes. By using their creative energy to help make the world a better place, craftivists help bring about positive change via personalized activism. Craftivism allows practitioners to customize their particular skills to address particular causes.

Small resource for handmade electronics

Thesis: This thesis consists of a series of extensive projects which aim to explore a new designer role for fashion. It is a role that experiments with how fashion can be reverse engineered, hacked, tuned and shared among many participants as a form of social activism. This social design practice can be called the hacktivism of fashion. It is an engaged and collective process of enablement, creative resistance and DIY practice, where a community share methods and experiences on how to expand action spaces and develop new forms of craftsmanship. In this practice, the designer engages participants to reform fashion from a phenomenon of dictations and anxiety to a collective experience of empowerment, in other words, to make them become fashion-able. As its point of departure, the research takes the practice of hands-on exploration in the DIY upcycling of clothes through “open source” fashion “cookbooks”. By means of hands-on processes, the projects endeavour to create a complementary understanding of the modes of production within the field of fashion design. The artistic research projects have ranged from DIY-kits released at an international fashion week, fashion experiments in galleries, collaborative “hacking” at a shoe factory, engaged design at a rehabilitation centre as well as combined efforts with established fashion brands. Using parallels from hacking, heresy, fan fiction, small change and professional-amateurs, the thesis builds a non-linear framework by which the reader can draw diagonal interpretations through the artistic research projects presented. By means of this alternative reading new understandings may emerge that can expand the action spaces available for fashion design. This approach is not about subverting fashion as much as hacking and tuning it, and making its sub-routines run in new ways, or in other words, bending the current while still keeping the power on.

This valuable little book offers a thorough introduction to the open-source electronics prototyping platform that's taking the design and hobbyist world by storm. Getting Started with Arduino gives you lots of ideas for projects and helps you get going on them right away. To use the introductory examples in this book, all you need is a USB Arduino, USB A-B cable, and an LED. This 128-page book is a greatly expanded follow-up to the author's original short PDF that's available on the Arduino website.

Diana Eng, in collaboration with Emily Albinski, created this gorgeous dress way back in 2003, which ended up making its way on the cover of ID Magazine. The designers used this project to explore how they could use electronics to change the shape and color of a gown. The dress inflates to allow you to change itís shape. Pump up the back or the sides to change its silhouette. The designers made no attempt to hide the electronics, rather, they exposed the spaghetti-ball of wires and components as the main aesthetic.

-Founded and Directed by designer-maker Elena Corchero, Lost Values holds the vision of innovating craft by melding it with technology and vice versa, to inspire a future where design is environmental and emotional yet smart and playful. Qualities that she believes are important aspects of life but are being forgotten in the quest for faster and more convenient products. http://www.lostvalues.com/ - Distance Lab is a creative research organisation bringing together digital media technology, design and the arts to redefine and overcome the disadvantages of distance in learning, health care, relationships, culture and other domains.

In Making is Connecting, David Gauntlett argues that through making things, people engage with the world and create connections with each other. Both online and offline, we see that people want to make their mark on the world, and to make connections. During the previous century, the production of culture became dominated by professional elite producers. But today, a vast array of people are making and sharing their own ideas, videos, and other creative material online, as well as engaging in real-world crafts, art projects, and hands-on experiences. Gauntlett argues that we are seeing a shift from a 'sit-back-and-be-told culture' to a 'making-and-doing culture'. People are rejecting traditional teaching and television, and making their own learning and entertainment instead. Drawing on evidence from psychology, politics, philosophy, and economics, he shows how this shift is necessary and essential for the happiness and survival of modern societies.

Through a series of simple projects, this book teaches you how to get your creations to communicate with one another by forming networks of smart devices that carry on conversations with you and your environment. Whether you need to plug some sensors in your home to the Internet or create a device that can interact wirelessly with other creations, Making Things Talk explains exactly what you need.

Meta (Making Electronic Thingies in Amsterdam) is sort of a self-help group for artists, designers & other (normal) people with an interest in electronics.

Platforms, the latest series of work in the ongoing Aphrodite Project, is a social sculpture: an interactive, wearable device that is a conceptual homage to the cult of the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, a practical object for contemporary sex workers, and a vehicle for public dialogue. An integrated system of shoes and online services, Platforms draws on innovations made by venerated courtesans from antiquity to improve conditions of 21st century women. Despite advances in culture and technology, sex workers are now perceived to be outlaws by trade and are vulnerable to surveillance and violence. Platforms empowers people by providing tools they need to stay safe.

This seminar will provide an overview of the materials and methods that are typically used to create lighted clothing, such as LEDs and EL-based illumination. It will also discuss a range of practical and artistic design challenges, drawing upon case studies from the entertainment industry. Other key topics will involve business-related issues for illuminated apparel, including market selection, product design, manufacturing, pricing, advertising, consumer education, and predictions for the future.

Switch is a technology life & style blog, which showcases innovative design, fashion and topics from a female perspective. Switch is not just another tech blog about gadgets or digital design, but rather a social look at technology through the genres of fashion, beauty, design and craft.

This site is dedicated to Wearable Electronics in the purest sense: Textile based, Clothing and Fashion Accessories. Thatís all. If a new product claims to be Wearable (Electronics) but does not meet this criteria, it will not be included in this site. Portable (Electronics) does not mean Wearable (Electronics). Talk2myShirt wants to be a platform to bring together the consumer and the designer of Wearable Electronic products. This site is connecting with Plug and Wear and is always updated.