Activating knowledge and empowering clothing communities with open source fashion

Oscar Ruiz Schmidt is originally from Costa Rica and studying in a master of Fashion Design at the Kunsthochschule Weißensee in Berlin. Together with his partner Ingrid Cordero, created Obra Gris, a clothing label (and a blog) with a metaphoric Spanish name referring to something in construction or in progress. He wrote to Openwear to exchange some views on the topic of Open Source in Fashion to be inserted in his 35-pages essay: “Having recently studied in Europe with all it’s facilities, and returning to my country, where materials are scarce, there is no fashion school and local design initiatives are uprising without enough educational support, I’m trying to find a solution to activate all this knowledge and empower communities to develop clothing competence since my recent research in the field has broadened my spectrum. The following questions arise.“ I answered as co-founder of Openwear but also as one of the creators of Serpica Naro back in 2005. Oscar Ruiz

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Openwear at World Wide Rome – Makers Edition

Next friday I’m going to present Openwear project to the audience participating at the first conference dedicated to the Makers scene in Italy with Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine, Massimo Banzi of Arduino, Dale Dougherty of Make Magazine and many more. All the content on the website is in italian, also the interview they did to me. See you in Rome! ——– Venerdì prossimo presenterò Openwear agli spettatori che partecipaeranno alla prima conferenza dedicata alla scena dei Makers in Italia. L’evento è stato organizzato da Riccardo Luna e sul palco ci saranno anche Chris Anderson di Wired Magazine, Massimo Banzi di Arduino e Dale Dougherty di Make Magazine e molti altri. Qui trovate l’intervista che mi hanno fatto e tutto il resto dei contenuti. Ci vediamo a Roma!

Sustainability and ThinkLifecycle

Have you ever given thought to where what you wear comes from? The fibre, the manufacture and the design process are all part of the lifecycle of a garment. Alice Payne, PhD student from Qeensland University of Technology, is investigating mass market fashion and has come up with a concept called ThinkLifecycle, a system to promote sustainability in the fashion process which won “Fashioning the Future Awards 2011″ for the Unique Enterprise category. The notion of ‘lifecycle’ is drawn from the natural world, in which, as McDonough and Braungart (2002) describe, all waste becomes food for the next lifecycle. This provides a model for developing materials and processes which mimic this natural order. Listen to RadioNational interview where she explain her project.

The Sublime And The Vulnerable. The Art Of Carrie Mae Rose

Article originally published on Digicult – Articolo originariamente pubblicato su Digicult Invented by the famous, controversial and brilliant scientist Nikola Tesla at the end of XIX century, the“Violet Ray” became a popular tool of healing in electrotherapy. In the thirties it was said that the discharge of electrical particles of a violet color emitted by the device could cure ailments ranging from back pain to the effects of anthrax. Edgar Cayce, the father of holistic medicine, strongly recommended its use, until the Food & Drug Administration forbade the sale after the manufacturer had to pay compensation for damage caused using this instrument. A few decades later, however, the “Violet Ray” came back. It began to spread through its derivative tool called Violet Wands, an electrical stimulator that became popular in police departments and S&M communities. In fact, thanks to the control of its various degrees of intensity, electric discharge could be applied at low voltage with variable intensity ranging from stimulating pleasure to permanently damaging the body parts affected.

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Io Artigianato / Tu Industria: un incontro in Olanda per parlare del futuro della manifattura

Nonostante nella società dell’informazione il lavoro manuale si sia guadagnato una brutta reputazione per la sua mancanza di status e per i bassi guadagni, il contributo degli artigiani e delle artigiane nell’economia olandese è considerevole: si contano infatti 900mila posti di lavoro su un totale di 16 milioni di popolazione. E’ snocciolando questi numeri che Henk Oosterling inizia il suo intervento. Filosofo, professore e fondatore di Skill City, il progetto che sta rivitalizzando e rinnovando il tessuto urbano di Rotterdam a partire proprio dal connettere le abilità manuali a traiettorie di formazione e occupazionali. Quello di Oosterling è il primo degli interventi programmati per MeCraft/YouIndustry, il simposio organizzato dall’istituto olandese per la moda e il design Premsela in collaborazione con il museo Zuiderzee, che ospita, in contemporanea, la mostra Industrious|Artifacts con lo scopo di esplorare e indagare il significato dell’artigianalità contemporanea. Henk prosegue l’intervento raccontando come negli ultimi anni il governo olandese abbia lanciato una campagna nazionale coinvolgendo celebrità, artisti,

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