For our Visual Culture and Design class, the assignment is to create some sort of design fiction project based on the science we have described in our research on nanotechnology.\u00a0 We were given the opportunity to work either separately or in groups.\u00a0 I chose to work with Lauren Langley and Don Fernandez.\u00a0 Our first meeting on October 24 took place at the Barnes and Noble in Buckhead, and we discussed the possibility of creating a fashion magazine featuring products that were made with nanotechnology.\u00a0 Lauren stayed on after the meeting and found a great book on futuristic fashion.\u00a0\u00a0 We used the cover of this book in our presentation to the class on November 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don was able to arrange for us to meet with Clint Zeagler, a fashion designer working in the College of Architecture on wearable computing, on October 27.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He described the work of Hussein Chalayan, who has designed clothing with led displays and lasers in it, and furniture that turns into clothing.\u00a0 He gave us several references of web sites to view.\u00a0 He also described the work of Maggie Orth, Ph.D., who has used conductive thread and thermochromatic ink to make ambient color change in fabrics.\u00a0 A third application he showed us was using nanotube ink to make batteries out of paper.\u00a0 This might unlock the potential for fabric and clothing to house computing applications.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mr. Zeagler also explained the three-year\u00a0process of trending in fashion design, and suggested that the idea of sustainable clothing made of natural fibers such as\u00a0cotton\u00a0would be important in the future since petroleum will likely become less available for making synthetic fibers.\u00a0\u00a0We also had\u00a0the opportunity to meet with Scott Gilliland, who is working on a project to create wearable computing by using\u00a0cotton thread coated with conductive paint and embroidering patterns onto fabric.\u00a0 He showed us how the embroidered patterns can be used as interfaces\u00a0for a computer.\u00a0\u00a0The fabric was “plugged in” to the computer with a special circuit board, and touching various parts of\u00a0the embroidered pattern brought up images on the\u00a0computer screen.<\/p>\n
On October 28, we met with students from Prof. Yaszek’s science fiction class to discuss our project.<\/p>\n
On October 29, we met again as a group and produced a draft of\u00a0\u00a0a\u00a0PowerPoint presentation for the following week.\u00a0\u00a0 Lauren refined our draft over the weekend to improve the appearance\u00a0and make our slides more visually appealing.<\/p>\n
The research we presented included\u00a0several web sites describing various advances in nanotechnology.\u00a0 There have already been fabrics made and used in general consumer products that use nanotechnology.\u00a0\u00a0 One example is a stain-resistant pair of jeans sold by the\u00a0Gap.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Cornell University web site\u00a0showed\u00a0some clothing that was designed in a project called “Glitterati” that used nanoparticles to make a dress with antibacterial properties and a denim jacket with anti-smog properties.\u00a0 A site called Nanotec–usa.com described paint that had nanoparticles that self-assemble to make a surface textured like shark skin.\u00a0 This type of pattern of self-assembly could potentially be used to make more streamlined swimsuits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our goal in this project is to create a synthesis of what would\u00a0appear to be scientifically realistic and\u00a0what would also seem to be good fashion design, to create a visual and verbal representation of future lifestyles informed by nanotechnology.\u00a0 Because we do not know\u00a0what the future holds, it is necessarily a work of fiction.\u00a0 But there is enough science and enough of an understanding of how fashion designers think today that it is possible to extrapolate in such a way that what we ultimately\u00a0present will have a measure of truth about it.<\/p>\n
We presented our\u00a0PowerPoint to the class on November 3.\u00a0 Here is the link to our presentation:<\/p>\n