#digitalskins18

[joshbaxterbct]

These photos due to the lighting don’t exactly do it justice, but besides a few minor tweaks this more or less resembles our final exhibit. This week has really allowed us to find a display method that works best for the space we have. Initially we thought about utilizing the wall space available to us However, in arranging the things available to us, we realized that we have other options that can be far more effective.

 Due to the studio space being dark for submission, any writing needs to be illuminated in some way or another to make sure that the projects intentions are clear. We found a use for the old e-mac we acquired at the beginning of this project to frame our project name. The empty space on the plinth provided a perfect setting for us to briefly describe the projects premise.

 A light that shines onto project name our keyboard art creates a subtle glow that then gradually illuminates the project description on the plinth. This creates a focal point as to which the viewer sees first. The intention of this is to help the viewer easily understand the framing around our project. As we don’t have a “Poster” this becomes an important aspect of the exhibit. The way by which the viewer engages with these purposeful display techniques will be what ultimately allows the projects concept to be communicated effectively.

 We have also added in a series of keyboards that we collected on one of our excursions one day. The purpose of this is to fill out the backdrop and make the setting appear less bear. These are also the keyboards we took apart to create our keyboard art piece, while we know it probably won’t communicate like this. We thought is would be a cool way of showing how much waste is needed to get so little gain out of it. It also helps add scale and present physical example of e-waste.

 It is a shame we can’t remove the massive pin board that can been seen on the left. Removing it would clean up the backdrop nicely, but unfortunately, we are stuck with it and there is not much we can do about that. Regardless, I am happy with what we have produced here. I don’t think there would be many other ways we could present what we have chosen to as effectively as this.

[giannisbct-blog]

Welp.

So this is our final garment all put together and the photos we submitted to WoW. Unfortunately, Human Residue was not selected to be sent down to Nelson. Having said that though I am pretty happy with what we made, we hadn’t actually seen it all together until the photoshoot so when I modelled it in front of the black background we were pretty stoked with the result. Despite the little teapot pose I think it looks really good, could do with a little bit of polishing up though, which we will do for open studio. And once again to contradict myself, I like it but I wasn’t overly confident that we would make it to WoW. For the amount of time we had to execute the idea we didn’t really produce an amazing piece. Also as the concept has sot of changed throughout, there hasn’t really been a solid base for it to sprout out of. If I enter WoW again next year I will definitely make sure I have a solid idea well ahead of schedule so I can consistently work on it at a steady pace so its both a high quality and developed garment.

But now we must look forward to what is next. For studio we want to elaborate on the idea that we submitted to WoW that is:

Human residue is testament to the anthropocene's immortal geological witness of humans on earth. Informed by residues of our atomic endeavours, and the unseen detritus of global man-made networks mirrored by those of fungal mycelium. This is made visible as an irradiated fruiting body, whose form is provided in equal parts by the Native New Zealand Basket fungus and the unsympathetic classical atomic model.

Or to put it in short:

An anthropomorphic imagining of enduring residue from human activity on Earth.

The idea of enduring human residue on Earth is interesting because that refers to anthropogenic markers which are things that in theory are preserved and last forever. So we want to get the point across that our actions today have the potential to produce these markers which will stand forever. So the idea is that we get the audience to engage with something that brings that message across. One example Liam had was that the user could do something which would then send a beam of light up in the sky. The idea then being that the light doesn’t decay and it being in space then transcends just the boundaries that are our world and transforms the anthropocene from a geological to universal era. At the same time we do want it to still relate to the garment itself so its not just a random thing sitting there. Shades made the point that our piece is not really a character but more the environment of the future brought up and embodied in a humanoid. So something along those lines would effective too. Lastly we want to make sure it is something that is done well and we don’t want it to seem like it was just an add on. At the same time we do need to boost our use of technology for the rubric’s sake as all we really have done is laser cutting. Hence why we think something interactive would be good and it makes the idea more personalised to the user and as they are part of them it makes it easier to understand. Now we just need the actual idea...

[colabpixelpusher]

Late stage changes

Last week Jolie and I finally had enough pieces of our garment together to try it all on. The results were.... unexpected.

Unlike our drawing where our model looks tall and elegant, the garment looks stunted and awkward. The main problem is that the model seems to have no legs as both the skirt and the bodice are too long. We were surprised and quite disappointed by the odd proportions, but determined to fix the problem, we have decided to shrink the size of the skirt and also remove the bottom half of the bodice so it is only half as long.

The result is much better!!! We are far happier with the size, and it was very exciting to see the whole garment coming together. I also like the layers of pattern from the small delicate lace, to the slightly larger chromatophore bodice, and then the large coral-like wave of the skirt.

Next steps are to remodel and print the back of the bodice, attach the lace to the neck piece and secure the motor, and finish sewing and stuffing the skirt. Stay tuned! Only a few weeks to go!

[giannisbct-blog]

About time

So we are a week since we submitted for WoW and have actually gained traction and have an idea. We thought about the idea of something interactive over the weekend but came to the conclusion that with the time we have left, we would most likely get something that either worked well or didn’t but communicated our concept effectively, however we probably wouldn’t achieve both. Considering we have already produced something what we create should be something that reinforces and supports the garment and effectively shows the concept. And as we also have to present our idea clearly and the word ‘poster’ has been thrown around, we could kill two birds with one stone. 

As our garment is a representation of the relationship between the actions of humans and the natural, organic world with a heavy focus around the idea that anthropogenic markers that we will leave behind will last forever, we thought why not do a timeline. A timeline that incorporates key events that have produced anthropogenic geological markers such as the trinity test and black carbon particles from the burning of fossil fuels. Shades and I brainstormed this today and thought we could have two timelines (Human and Earth’s) which could cross over at these key dates to show that the human actions affect the Earth and then have a section which is post-human where our garment would fit in. 

From here we need to focus on two things, firstly the key events and dates and how to communicate the concept effectively and also the visual element of it as that will also help with getting the concept across while linking directly to the garment. We also need to bear in mind that we need to use some form of technology for it as that is lacking a bit in our garment so just something to think about.

[joshbaxterbct]

Todays, aim was to roughly get everything together to see how what we have produced so far looks. Obviously, everything isn’t fixed properly so it does look a bit thrown together and not totally aligned at this stage however, It more or less fits the design we derived. The obvious differencing being it’s shape is rougher as expected due to the nature of the cables.

 With the morph suit on you can see how the parts of the frame that are currently visible will disappear once painted black, as the harness did which seems to be almost invisible.

 While we are happy with the result, we both agree that it definably lacks something as it currently stands. We hope that what we are proposing with our use of tech will help fill this void. What has become clear in putting everything together, it will be extremely difficult for us to implement the use of fairy lights beneath the layers as well as woven in. This is physically due to there not being enough room between the body and the first layer for the desired effect to see through as well as it potentially impeding on the effect created by the cables. This has got us thinking that we need focus our efforts on a smaller section of the skin as opposed to the entire thing. The one point of the body that is left free being the head.

 We initially were thinking a head piece would not fit with our use of a morph suit however, we could use the head as a structural support rather than using it as a way of incorporating the face into the design. One idea that has been mention is creating some sort of halo that illuminates the same way as how I have been experimenting with the fairy lights. This is something that we need to grab feedback on when we come back next week. We possibly need to look into other forms of inspiration from the biosphere which would be a cool way of adding to our initial concept and the use of biomimicry within the skins design.

 The next step will be gaining this feedback, revisiting our concept ad seeing how we can develop it to further strengthen the skins message.

[giannisbct-blog]

Group Formation and initial Idea

Over the past couple of days Liam and I have been discussing our ideas together and I have to say I am quite intrigued by his concept. Through some development we decided to work together which could prove quite interesting as neither of us have any background in textiles.

The Idea:

Based on the evidence we leave behind, how will the dominant, intelligent species in a future geological age view anthropogenic humans?

We have no images or videos of real life dinosaurs however we all know what a T-rex looks like. Over the years of discovering fossils we have reconstructed these creatures and imagined what they would have looked like when they were roaming the Earth. The same thing will happen about us in the future. We will leave geological markers (like fossils) which will be preserved for thousands even millions of years and will one day be discovered by the dominant, intelligent species of that era. Liam and I are imagining that these discoveries are made in a world were there is no documentation of modern day humans (books, images, video) and the only way to know we were here would be to look through the Earth’s strata.

The final product will be what we imagine to be their interpretation of what humans would have looked like based on the geological markers we have left behind.

Today was to research what the current key markers of the Anthropocene are and what else could be something that we leave behind. The obvious stand out is the Plastiglomerate I mentioned in my previous post which is rock that has formed with melted plastic in it. This has been the big wake up call that tells us that we have entered this new geological epoch. However, it is thought that the Anthropocene actually began in 1945 after the Trinity test. The first test of a nuclear weapon that left the local area around the test site in New Mexico with radioactive ions and general nuclear fallout. This fallout has since been observed globally after the constant thermonuclear weapon testing that occurred between 1950-1980.

Another anthropogenic marker is black carbon particles found in ice cores and and rock strata which are the result of fossil fuel burning. The black carbon is too small to notice in the air but over time it deposits and is trapped and preserved. On top of that the minerals and rocks in the Earth have changed. Prior to the 19th century, aluminium was very rare in a native form and since then 98% of all of the aluminium we have today has been manufactured by humans. This increase also goes hand in hand with the introduction of concrete to the environment which was first invented by the Romans and is still used today.

Something that is not quite existent but is definitely on its way to happening is the introduction of technofossils to the land. Technofossils are fossilised traces of technologies used over time. The idea was initially proposed when pre-human primate tools were discovered. Developing on from that the technofossils we will leave behind will be a little more advanced (Phones, computers, TV’s, etc...). There are already mass e-waste dumps in Africa which hold thousands of old electrical components which will be preserved over time.

We are not looking at how we will show these markers on a garment yet but we have had a couple of ideas. The next step will be to talk to Miranda and see what the progression to a garment would be but for I now we are happy that we have a solidified pair and an idea that is still quite abstract and provides many creative avenues to take it down.

References:

Black carbon Novakov, T., Ramanathan, V., Hansen, J. E., Kirchstetter, T. W., Sato, M., Sinton, J. E., & Sathaye, J. A. (2003). Large historical changes of fossil‐fuel black carbon aerosols. Geophysical Research Letters, 30(6).

Radionuclides Waters, C. N., Syvitski, J. P., Gałuszka, A., Hancock, G. J., Zalasiewicz, J., Cearreta, A., ... & Barnosky, A. (2015). Can nuclear weapons fallout mark the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch?. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 71(3), 46-57.

Zalasiewicz, J., Waters, C. N., Williams, M., Barnosky, A. D., Cearreta, A., Crutzen, P., ... & Haff, P. K. (2015). When did the Anthropocene begin? A mid-twentieth century boundary level is stratigraphically optimal. Quaternary International, 383, 196-203.

Plastics Corcoran, P. L. (2015). Benthic plastic debris in marine and fresh water environments. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, 17(8), 1363-1369.

Jambeck, J. R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T. R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., ... & Law, K. L. (2015). Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science, 347(6223), 768-771.

Aluminium & Concrete Waters, C. N., Zalasiewicz, J., Summerhayes, C., Barnosky, A. D., Poirier, C., Gałuszka, A., ... & Jeandel, C. (2016). The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene. Science, 351(6269), aad2622.

Technofossils Zalasiewicz, J., Williams, M., Waters, C. N., Barnosky, A. D., & Haff, P. (2014). The technofossil record of humans. The Anthropocene Review, 1(1), 34-43.

[bambi-ct]

Digital Skins - Week 10

We only have a few weeks left and we are only just making way with conceptualising. I’ve felt like sticking to water. But Rachael has been pressing an air quality idea. I had been pretty worried about the idea of that as I feel like it differs too far from our original water-based concepts way back in the WOW Ideas and even the Algae concept. But talking with her has reassured me that this is a good path. She reminded me of the bacteria she read about (Vibrio fischeri) back in this blog where she states, “They can be used to detect pollutants in air and water as they are sensitive to it, will change the amount of brightness given off. This will be the emphasis on the fragility of the environments around us as a small environmental change may affect them significantly.”

This is still bioluminescence, we can do something about this.

So as far as our new wearable goes, It will react the same way as bioluminescent bacteria, changing the brightness of its glow depending on the surrounding environment, it glows brightly when conditions are correct and it dims when the conditions are worse. So we intend to create a basic wearable that changes brightness according to the surrounding environment, instead of it being pollution in water, the sensors will change the brightness depending on particulates in the air.

[bambi-ct]

Digital Skins - Week 9

We’re stuck and I’m worried, but I’ve been really caught up with stuff that’s due.

I’m really scared about how we’ll recover from this.

We’ve been stuck on an inspiration kind of kick, I’ve come up with the idea of giving kids the ability to measure water quality. But all my options so far seem to include a live electrical current. That doesn’t mix well with Kids I don't believe...