Future Materials

[futurematerials]

Responsive Car Interior

By creating a soft polymer-based fibre that can be woven into fabric that has electrical properties depending on where it is touched, now that means fabric can treated like a touch screen on a mobile phone. Maksim Skorobogatiy has led the research into reproducing a Smartphone experience in textile form, and the team is looking into applications where non-invasive control can be woven into the fabric instead of using buttons.

The starting point of the technology consisted of rolling conducting and insulating polymer films around a copper wire to create a 2cm wide cylindrical capacitor. The cylinder is then heated to 200 °C and stretched out until it is a soft, elastic fibre 0.9mm in diameter. This results in an easy to use fibre even in conventional weaving processes. This was proved when the fibres were woven into a 10cm by 15cm piece of material, which when touched or swiped with a finger modified the fabric’s ability to store charge. A software was then written to pinpoint where the fabric had been touched, meaning that this could be used to control air-conditioning or the volume on the radio.

Another great property of this fibre is that it is very easily cleaned, making an ideal material for everyday use in the home or in a car. BMW already has plans to install touch screen fabric in future models. These images are of BMW’s ‘Vision Connected Drive’ concept car shown at Geneva motor show in 2011, that has a display that appears digitally on the windscreen with touch sensitive fabric below the screen to allow the device to be easily turned on and interacted with. 

Rhiannon Gregory

[futurematerials]

A Flexible Battery

Maksim Skorobogatiy and his colleagues at the Polytechnic School of Montreal in Canada have developed a battery that can be built into a garment. This is done by sandwiching a solid polyethylene oxide electrolyte between a lithium iron phosphate cathode and lithium titanate anode. These are all thermoplastic materials so they can be stretched under mild heating, the finished material itself looking like artificial leather.

After stretching it is woven into cotton fabrics in strips, and then conductive threads are used to connect the batteries in series which then power LEDs.

“It’s the first fully wearable, soft lithium-ion battery that used no liquid electrolytes” – Skorobogatiy.

A garment that was made of this material could provide hundreds of volts, which means it could be used in a battery backed garment that could deliver power in an emergency.

“We have enough power to emit a powerful distress signal or even save a life by defibrillating a patient” – Skorobogatiy.

However, the team now face the difficult task of making the technology waterproof and washable.  This fascinates me, and also makes me really excited! If a commercial battery becomes available that can be integrated into fabric discreetly and effectively, it opens so many avenues for smart and interactive textiles. I hope this technology evolves quickly, and I see it being applied commercially in the near future. 

Rhiannon Gregory

[futurematerials]

Emily Crane

After only recently graduating with an MA from Kingston University, Emily Crane now lives and works in London as a fashion designer. She is a new type of designer who pushes the boundaries of creating with materials by using them in totally new, unconventional way.  Her work looks at fashion and materials for the future, seeing fashion as something that will have to respond to the demands of sustainability. She says that she is “conscious of the restraints of our future planet and the impact from current fashion cycles”.

Her creations of ‘Micro-Nutrient Couture’ come out of her lab in her kitchen where she works with bubbles. She then grows and freezes these bubbles to make ‘bio lace’ that can be worn as well as eaten.

One of her pieces ‘The Bubble Dress’ created in 2009/10, was her response to the possible idea that in the future there will be no resources to create fashion materials with, only government monitored heavy duty clothing with durability in mind – not aesthetic design.

In the event of this happening the value of customization is increased with the need for people to retain a style identity, so re-using materials in a new way is paramount. The Bubble Dress provides a solution, as it uses a material that is a bi-product as well as costing nothing.

Although this piece is an expression of this concept, the fundamentals behind the idea reflect a reality in the future of material production, and highlight the need for resourcefulness.The materials used in this piece are: water, foaming agents, temperature, transients, silk second skin, skin.

Another of her projects titled ‘Old Beginnings’ (2009) was about looking at how human beings deal with negative emotions, and how clothing or dress can provided a therapeutic feeling or sense of protection to the individual. A collection of quotes were used in order to produce a textile that reflected these negative feelings, which resulted in textiles that were dangerous or harmful in some way. Examples of some of the materials used are: shake-proof washers, rubber washers, alpaca roving, twisted galvanised nails, rubber sheeting, tweed, latex, panel pins, angular ring shank nails, metal washers and galvanized head nails.

Emily Crane’s work is innovative and intriguing. She looks at materials and objects in a somewhat obscure way, in order to challenge its usual or intended use. The image above of one of the textile pieces she has made would not be something I’d consider beautiful or desirable, but it is most definitely a thought provoker, and definitely makes me see the possibilities with just simple textures or objects. 

Rhiannon Gregory

[futurematerials]

Money doesn't grow on trees - but does Gold?

Now I know that Gold isn't exactly a new material – quite the opposite really. However, I think this information does relate to sustainability, as although these findings are in the early stages, could this mean that we now know how to find and locate more gold ?....

 Gold particles have been found around the soils of eucalyptus trees by researchers in Australia. The researchers have confirmed that the plants were in fact taking in the element.

Using a synchrotron, they found traces of gold in leaves, twigs, bark and some of the trees. The amounts found of the precious metal were in reality tiny, but the researchers have calculated that 500 trees growing over a gold deposit, could collectively contain enough gold to make a gold ring.

They believe that the presence of these particles points to greater deposits buried more that 30m below. Dr.Lintern said:  "We believe that the trees are acting like a hydraulic pump. They are bringing life-giving water from their roots, and in so doing, they are taking smaller dissolved gold particles up through the vascular system into the foliage."

The researchers say that analysing vegetation could offer a better method to find untapped gold deposits. Furthermore, this technique could be used to find other minerals such as iron, copper, and lead in other parts of the world.

This sort of research could lead to us finding alternative sources of materials. Not only could it help us locate areas of metals we though didn’t exist, but what are the potentials of using trees as a method of duplicating a material?

Yes farfetched, and probably impossible, but I can’t help thinking that surely there is a way that trees could in fact help produce metals? And therefore maintain a sustainable source?

Rhiannon Gregory

[futurematerials]

Mataerial printer (:

[futurematerials]

Technology - Claire Wormald

I have been looking at 3D  printing as it is a new and exciting technology related to design and has many possibilities within it and I think it is a big project for a lot of developers at the moment and so it is only going to get more exciting in the future. Currently the most exciting development I have seen in this area of technology is by Petr Novikov, Saša Jokić from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and Joris Laarman Studio, called ‘Mataerial’

It is an incredible development where rather than printing in thin, separate layers, it prints in these 3D tubular curves (above), and using their new extrusion (fixed, cross-sectional profile) technology the machine is able to defy gravity and create almost any shape desired, without support structures being needed, following the exact curves and creating true stress lines of the desired shape. Also because it is a free machine it can be placed in any setting and print anywhere at any angle on any shaped surface and therefore is an exciting development in many fields such as architecture, furniture design and art installation. The Mataerial printer also has full colour programming technology which allows you to control the colour of your ‘paths’ by injecting colour dye in the CMYK model, which is pretty exciting as colour 3D printing is a fairly new development in normal 3D printing alone.

I think this is a really exciting and innovative design, really pushing the boundaries of an already fairly new technology, showing how advanced and fast the rate at which we develop truly is and shows how interesting and useful technology in design really is. As I mentioned in my post about Viewpoint Magazine, technology developments such as this one do worry me by making human interaction with materials almost obsolete, but it’s hard not to be completely amazed by pieces such as this.

    http://www.mataerial.com/#innovations

[futurematerials]

Smart Materials - Claire Wormald

Smart materials are materials that respond to external stimuli or changes in the environment such as temperature, pressure, electric charges and pH. Smart materials are being utilised in many areas of life, such as in safety clothing, in medicine, engineering, computing and also for show in materials for fashion and interiors.

This example is in safety wear, this is an custom made indicator dye that changes colour when it comes into contact with harmful toxins to warn the wearer they are in danger, so they can know immediately that they are in danger. At the moment the dye is still being developed and tested by researchers at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Modular Solid State Technologies, but when finished could be applied to many other garments or items to help increase safety when working with toxic substances. It also is in line to be combined with other smart technologies such as a sensor that records time and date and the length of exposure so this can be monitored and controlled. I like this idea as it is a really practical use of these new smart materials that are being developed and shows how textiles can be useful and high tech as well as decorative, and has a lot of potential to be expanded on and used in a number of different applications

.

http://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/research-news/2013/may/glove-shows-its-true-colors.html

In design using smart materials I like the work of Maggie Orth. She works with E-textiles, combining traditional textile techniques such as weaving with electronics to create interactive surfaces that respond to touch by changing colour, emitting light or playing sound. I particularly like her light emitting fabrics as they have conductive yarns that contain a very low level of electrical charge, so that when these are touched by the body, as the body is conductive it allows the current to flow to the ground. This change is the external stimulus that triggers the fabric to begin emitting light. I like that the viewer is very in contact with the technology and it is body responsive. This is my favourite type of smart material, ones that are responsive to changes in humans such as changes in mood, body temperature and heart rate.

http://www.maggieorth.com/E_textiles.html

The future of smart materials is a very exciting one, particularly advances in smart technologies in army camouflage at the moment. Research is being carried out on smart materials that can ‘bend light’ around a person’s body or an object to trick the human eye into thinking it is not there. This is currently still being researched and so there are no prototypes available yet but it would be a very exciting and useful development in textiles. I saw this first in Fashion Futures, Bradley Quinn, and fashion designers are already looking to utilize these types of technology in the future, once they have been developed.

http://www.ecouterre.com/real-life-invisibility-cloak-claims-to-make-soldiers-virtually-undetectable/

[futurematerials]

Unconventional Materials - Claire Wormald

In my opinion an unconventional material is anything out of the ordinary, anything that could shock someone or surprise them that you are able to use it in that way. I find unconventional materials interesting as you can develop them yourself, and they are found through experimentation and being unique, trying something that no one has ever even thought to consider.

Unconventional materials are beneficial to use as it means that you are doing something different and this could make people interested in your work, you could develop a new fabric that is perfect for a certain purpose and fill a gap in the market or often unconventional materials are found through exploring uses for things that are currently wasted, and this is a huge benefit as it means that you could be helping the environment by tackling unwanted waste.

One designer I found that works with an unconventional material that is helping out with a wastage problem is Italian fashion designer Adriana Santanocito, she has become involved with a project from 3 young entrepreneurs that have developed a fabric using the citrus waste, which is becoming a big problem in Italy where they are struggling to control the disposal of it. The fibre is produced by extracting cellulose from the fruits and the fabric is also beneficial to the wearer as when it comes into contact with the skin it releases vitamin A, C and E as natural oils are embedded into the fabric, which is another bonus and makes it even more unique.

http://www.ecouterre.com/orange-fiber-a-high-fashion-textile-derived-from-citrus-waste/

There is another artist that works with more noticeably unconventional materials that I found when reading an article in Viewpoint magazine which prompted me to look at her work further. Sara Martin was mentioned on page 170 in Viewpoint 31 “Sara Martin takes this fascination with fungal species to the extreme, using traditional embroidery techniques to create faux mould on household groceries such as sliced bread.” I really like this work titled ‘Parasitic Embroidery’ as she is using the unconventional material, the bread and flower, as a kind of canvas and is still managing to create beautiful pieces of embroidery.

As seen in these images as well as the mould she embroiders on in beautifully chosen colours and techniques, she allows the piece to also go mouldy naturally and therefore brings another unconventional material into the pieces, one which cannot be controlled by her.

She also has another collection that uses moss, so in the same way as the mould on the bread this pattern creates itself and is an unconventional material as it would not usually used for decoration, more often it is a nuisance, like a weed, but she is making it into something beautiful and with a purpose by placing it in the folds of this ornamental concrete brain.

http://www.saramartin.nl/index.php?/embroidery/concrete-symbiosis/ 

[futurematerials]

video on the Haptic Intelligentsia from my previous post (:

[futurematerials]

Viewpoint Magazine - Claire Wormald

I found two articles in Viewpoint no. 31 that I found to be quite interesting; Digital Handmade, page 102 and The Haptic Tactic, Martin Bewick page 146. I think the two are pretty linked and so I thought I’d write about both.

The first article is about a new style of 3D printing in which the creator can be more involved and ‘hands-on’ with the process; rather than the making process being lost to a machine the maker is still quite important instead of just being a designer in the flat on a computer screen. Haptic Intelligentsia (photo) developed by Joonghan Lee at Studio Homunculus humanizes the 3D printing process using this haptic technology that gives the user a kind of force feedback, once you move the machine using your hands into the area where the object you designed on the screen should be, the machine reacts and then you produce the output, for example squeezing the trigger of a glue gun. It allows the making to be half controlled by machine and half by man, and the results can be very different from person to person unlike in standard 3D printing where the machine will produce in the precisely the same manner every time. Humans will react differently to the machines force each time, being slow and precise or going fast and careless. I really like this idea as it utilizes the wonder of new technology development whilst not losing the personality that can sometimes be lost when using such machinery. I fear that machines soon will take over human production completely and the sense of connection to materials, making and the beauty of someone’s handwriting could be lost and but this provides a kind of solution. I really like the idea of this machine and the objects that it has produced in the early stages using the glue gun are really expressive whilst still being partially controlled by the computer.

http://studio-homunculus.com/portfolio/haptic-intelligentsia-human-prototyping-machine/

There are two other examples of this mentioned in the article, ‘The Digital Hammer Project’ where a digital pillow is hit by a real life jewellers hammer and the indentations are then recorded as a CAD file to produce moulds for jewellery, and also a project by Studio Unfold who have transformed the process of pot turning into just a gestural action, which when performed between too laser beams that track the movements can be translated into a pot that can be seen on the computer then layer produced like in digital printing. But I prefer the first idea from this article as I think it is the most hands-on and the one with the most connection to physical material which is what I enjoy about designing/making the most, actually manipulating and experimenting with materials in real life to see what outcomes I can produce. It provides a great bridge between digital and human making.

I feel the second article backs up my point that this making process and materials exploration should not be lost. It states that “Amazon.co.uk announced that for every 100 paper back and hard back books combined, it was selling 114 kindle e-books.” Which is a pretty sad a shocking fact. I am not the biggest fan of touch screen technology in place of having real life experiences, and I think this fact shows that people are losing touch with reality in this new digitally developing era. I think an e- book must be so emotionless and senseless, no creasing or the way the page feels between your fingers.

However due to this development and change to digital it seems to have made some consumers desire hand crafted, tactile design in their life, which could suggest the increase in popularity of retailers such as Etsy, the article says. And it is also influencing a number of areas of contemporary design, such as the heavily sensory restaurant Twister in Ukraine which is inspired by hurricanes and nature, with heavily textured walls and floors, contoured seating and rich colours to provide an experience to excite all the senses of the receptor. It can also be seen in furniture design, the article mentions Sofie Brunner’s ‘Blush’ chair which focuses on tactility. I looked at this in my research journal. It contains contrasting feelings of soft felt and cold hard aluminium, as Sofie is trying to remind us of the unconscious knowledge that we all develop through touch at an early age. The article also mentions this new desire for texture and tactility appearing within digital, with Tactus Technology developing touch screens that have buttons that swell up above the surface when they need to be pressed, which I think is a really nice idea, like the Haptic Intelligentsia, having this high level of technology but allowing us to feel more connected to it through touch senses. Haptic knowledge is increasing in importance within design thanks to the very visual-focused, digital, flat market that is currently developing and I think this is a good thing; feeling connected through texture and touching  should not be lost as it is an important, simple pleasure that has previously been taken for granted.

http://sofiebrunner.com/index.php/1493812

[futurematerials]

Crocheted membrane

Sonja Baumel has been looking at mould in fashion and textiles with the help of science she has made the membrane form around human body parts in order to make clothing.

as a thought for me this would a pale wear mould but even after saying that it looks really delicate and refined as a piece.

for more info on her work i have also include her website 

http://www.sonjabaeumel.at

http://watkatiedid.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/fashion-art-and-science.html

Hettie Fisher

[futurematerials]

Pulse Urban Bike by teague

This bike is a new take on safe bikes Teague have made this modern bike, which has light on both handle bars to show when the cyclist is indicating and the middle panel of the bike light up when needed.

http://www.blessthisstuff.com/stuff/vehicles/concept/pulse-urban-bike-by-teague/

Hettie Fisher

[futurematerials]

Wood Skin

this interesting new textiles has been designed by Elisa Strozyk. the material is part treated wood and the other half if made from textiles in order to give the metals flexibility. it's use is for flooring, curtains, drapes, plaids, upholstery and also can be used for parts of furniture.

http://www.elisastrozyk.de/seite/woodtex/woodentextiles.html

Hettie Fisher

[futurematerials]

Sustainability - Claire Wormald

Being sustainable is important in design as it means that production can be continued and the environment is not being harmed in the process, therefore the future is not deprived of anything we have today, whether that be levels of biodiversity, amount of land available, clean water and the ability to produce.

There are a number of ways designers can be more sustainable; the material choices they make: natural vs. man-made, recyclable vs. non-recyclable, their production methods: high amounts of energy needed, potentially harmful chemicals used, how many miles the product has traveled overall, whether the product is biodegradable, how long it will last and also things such as packaging.

I have been looking at a number of materials that are currently being developed that i think could be interesting to use in design that are sustainable and biodegradable.

Mycobond - an organic adhesive made from mycelium an organism found in the roots of fungus such as mushrooms that can be used to bond agricultural waste materials such as seed husks or oat hulls. The waste materials are cleaned and inoculated with the mycelium and the combined materials are then placed into a mould of any shape and a lid is place on. Over a period of around 5 days when stored in the damp dark the mycelium grows through and around the waste material, using the energy contained in it to feed from and holds it all together with the tiny fibres it produces. The material is therefore self-assembling after it enters the mould and is completely 100% organic so therefore is 100% compostable and gives nutrients back to the soil. It has minimal production, uses up natural waste materials from agriculture and takes advantage of the rapidly renewable (so almost infinite if managed and maintained correctly) source of mycellium. The end result looks as though it could have some really interesting textures and I imagine different effects will be able to be achieved using different waste materials. I think this is a really exciting new sustainable material development that could be harnessed within design besides its main use at the moment which is for packaging. I think it has a lot of potential.

http://zeroenergyconstruction.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/mycobond.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/eben_bayer_are_mushrooms_the_new_plastic.html

Video 4: Eben Bayer, Are mushroms the new plastic?

Eben, co inventor of Mycobond talks in this video about the process of making the materials and it's a pretty interesting watch.

http://www.ted.com/speakers/eben_bayer.html

A designer/ artist currently working sustainably by using natural and recycled materials is Lea Balducci. She works with recycled materials such as plastic packaging and aluminium cans, generally the ones that have been mass produced by large brands and gives them a second life. She does this using a range of techniques, hand and machine, such as dying, screen printing, Expantex, changing their shapes by heating and melting and also things such as growing crystals on them. I really like her transforming techniques and the fact that she is giving these products that would have been discarded as waste before a new purpose. Her work is both aesthetically pleasing through her use of colours and shapes, especially using these transparent kind of dyes on the plastic and screen printing these abstract, expressive patterns on the metal here:

but also makes them quite tactile and 3D in some cases, using cutting and adding things to them such as below, therefore making people want to touch them and reconnect with the physical, and be stimulated by textures which is something that is lost in this digital period. I like this idea of giving waste a new life and I think it’s important within sustainability, people should not be so quick to throw things away as they seem to be, other uses could be found for it or it could be easily mended or altered or even recycled in the usual method, anything but being wasted and thrown away, to sit in landfill and cause harm to the environment. I like that Lea is making this potentially harmful waste into something enjoyable and quite beautiful.

http://leabalducci.tumblr.com/

http://www.artsthread.com/p/leabalducci/ 

[futurematerials]

Asif Khan - Harvest

Asif Khan has created a series of chairs and tables which are made from freeze-fried flowers. The meaning behind the harvest project is to produce furniture from flowers which are most commonly found in London. With the plants natural ability to interlock, the furniture can take advantage of this by making it more compatible and kept it tact with the furniture. For creating the whole the process of keeping these flowers in tact, the harvested plant material is put into moulds and is then freeze dried for over several weeks before being bonded with a linseed oil based resin.

I like how simple but effective it looks and i love the 3d forms the plant makes. I find this to be a wonderful concept design idea and i like the idea of less plastic and more simple bio-materials.

Book: Viewpoint 26 - The New Normal Issue

Imogen Horner

[futurematerials]

viewpoint issue 27 pg 15 'no silence,please'

The library is a new conceptual resort on Thailands Chaweng beach in Koh Samui. The resort has 26 studios and suites (known as pages not rooms) and a red swimming pool. the idea of this place is some where for modern people to go and do things in libraries that are usually forbidden like drinking cocktails, watching movies or listerning to music. The library does have books but is also made up of imacs with broadband connection, so guest never have to be far away from work or their favoured online media. The emphasis at the Library is on relaxation with a touch of mental stimilation in a luxury setting rather than complete mentak swtich off.

Libraries have been closing down all over the country with more and more people reading online or buying new technology allowing them to read off tablets or ipads. in order to try keep our libraries i think they should embrance ideas like they have done in tailand and indrouduce mordern technologly.

alot of people are having to work in the current climate and going on holidays can be hard if they have to work at home, the idea of having broadband and computers at your hotel so you can keep checking up on work but at the same time having time to relax in a red swimming pool is a great idea!

The interior has moved on from the steriotypical old fashion library, having it not too fussy and a clean white helps the brain focus on reading and helps the imganation with nothing to distract you. it incrudges people to read, as for the noise i understand if some people like to read in slience but playing relaxing music as a back ground noise i would find very relaxing.

Henrietta Chidsey

[futurematerials]

Fish Plastic

by erik de laurens

The fishing industry generates several circumstances where many tonsof fish scales are leftover, erik de laurens saw this as an opportunityto make a new materials instead of just putting fish scales in the bin- he has taken something that no one else would think to use and put it to use.

by making the fish scales into a kind of plastic will help our resources greatly as plastic uses alot of natural resocurces and some kinds can be hard to recyle,there not eco friendly.

How laurens makes the plastic:

Through a process that involves nothing but heat, high pressure and natural dyes.

you would think the plastic wouldnt be very strong and baffles me how it even works but Laurens has developed a sturdy plastic that can be used in cups, eyewear and even decorative tiles.

http://www.dezeen.com/2011/07/15/the-fish-feast-by-erik-de-laurens[accessed 14th may]

Henrietta Chidsey