Test_Lab: Fashionable Technology

20 mei 2009

Test_Lab is a bi-monthly public event organized by V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media that provides an informal setting for the presentation, demonstration, testing, and discussion of artistic Research and Development (aRt&D).

Vergroot

Flyer - Bron: v2.nl

Clothing is an aspect of the human physical appearance with considerable social significance. Styles, logos and prints mediate our self-expression and publicly communicate our personal tastes and preferences. Popular ways of doing so reflectwhat is in fashion, which is under constant change due to new developments in fabrics, construction methods,ancillary objects, and their (re-)combination by fashion designers. Recent advances in wearable technology have resulted in a variety of technologies that seamlessly connect to the human body, or are integrated into clothing (such as shape memory alloys, soft circuits, and embedded displays). As a result, more and more fashion designers are turning to the field of wearable technology fornew developments. While these progressive fashion designers are currently setting the trend in fashionable technology with,what can broadly be considered, innocent implementations (such as embedded iPods, integrated LEDs, and adaptive contours), many artists and designers prophesize more provocative scenarios for the future of such technology. These artists foresee that this trend will eventually have an unprecedented social impact, due to the wide-ranging possibilities for self-expression, connectivity, and public communication of innovative fashionable technologies.

The scenarios for fashionable technology sketched by these artists provoke philosophical discussionas to the social impact that such developments may have. Will the public display of Twitter messages on our clothing open up new opportunities for social engagement? Will this stimulate physical proximity or rather deter us from it? Would we share the same private information as we often do in online networks when we publicly display these messages on our bodies? How desirable are scenarios for more intimate fashionable technologies, such asmobile transmission of fashion-mediated physical sensations? And what happens when these garments fall prey to fashion hackers?!

Featuring: Sabine Seymour (AT/US), Mark Coeckelbergh (B/NL), Aram Bartholl (DE), Cutecircuit: Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz (UK), and KOBAKANT: Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson (JP/AT).

This edition of Test_Lab is organized in collaboration with Rotterdam's acclaimed philosophy cafe Arminius Denkcafe.

This event will be streamed live at live.v2.nl

For more information, please contact Michel van Dartel
E: michel[at]v2.nl
T: +31 (0)10 2067272.