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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(Re)Searching for a sustainable fashion system – Interview

(segue in italiano) Thanx to the collaboration with Jen Ballie, who kindly accepted our invitation last year to our Openwear conference, I had the chance to get in touch with Kay Politowicz, professor of Textile Design, co-founder and Project Director for the Textiles Environment Design (TED) research group at Chelsea. For many years she was Director of Undergraduate Textile Design Course at Chelsea – and promoted a high-level of achievement of students working with specialist material processes in textiles: knit, weave, print, stitch – increasingly using digital processes and a wider variety of workshops – such as ceramics, wood, metal. In that role she became increasingly aware of the need to develop an environmental focus to curriculum developments within the subject and the opportunities that such a focus would reveal. In the last few years she moved to an entirely research-based and funded role and she believes it has been a great way to develop opportunities for externally funded practice-based

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Jam Session with Fold Slippers

Last weekend Openwear participated in collaboration with Vectorealism to the Physical Computing event organized by PhyCoLab of the “Politecnico di Milano” University and hosted by StreetStudio. While we were challenging our traditional notion of craft experimenting on lasercutting felt and vector illustration with our Fold Slippers pattern, a group of 40 people were participating to the 36-hours Jam Session to design and prototype interactive ideas. Eight groups of students, tinkerers, designers and makers put their hands on different tools and components with the aim of presenting their prototype projects at the end of the weekend after 36 hours of non-stop work. The project I’m featuring in the pictures of this post is the most voted one on sunday night. I’m not talking about it only because it won the prize but also because the creators inserted the Openwear Fold Slipper as a component of their game. Yes, it’s a game, a mix between Simon and Twister. It uses touch sensors

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You’re Doing What? Make A Living Inventing Your Job

Article originally published on Digicult – Articolo originariamente pubblicato su Digicult The (long) way heading (by subway) to the New York Science Hall, hosting the World Maker Faire in Queens, gives me time to read some free presses and resume an article of the sunday NYTimes I haven’t finished yet. It’s a long piece about the twilight of the US manufacturing sector, started from the 50’s to nowadays [1], and about the definite takeover of China. At the same time, other articles are dealing with the increasing unemployment rate, and with the even more worrying fact that one out of three US unemployed citizen has been jobless for more than a year. From long-term contracts to long-term unemployment. [2] But it’s a fact that the Americans keep themselves busy, they are pragmatic and not afraid to get their hands dirty: the month before they’re working in a Manhattan’s skyscraper, and the following one they’re working at an experimental project in a Queens’ lab. Yes, It’s possible!. And

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