Contact
Computational Adornment
Bayes Centre
Design Informatics
47 Potterrow
Edinburgh
EH8 9BT
Recently published article, examining embodied intelligence across screen mediated cultures and emergent robotic body forms title: Open forum: dressing the technological body: fashioning robots, avatars, and hybrid selves towards a meta-future
I was recently invited to present my work and approach on soft-robotics through a fashion lens at ICRA, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, in Yokohama Pacifico, Japan. Joining a wonderful collection of soft-robotics pioneers as part of the workshop, Tree of Robotic Life, addressing the theme of the conference, Connect +.
The soft-robotics community is a super group of inventors, jewellers, materials experts, system designers, engineers and developers. As a design professional, it struck me how aligned our approach is from engineering to design in the context of robotics, and yet there remains a lot to be done to find and apply translatable knowledge across sectors for the benefit of all. Humanoids, sensors, wearable robotics and playful prompts for care, all have influence on the human, the social, the designed and anthropological world. Converging across disciplines and adopting the conference theme of, 'Connect+' let this be a call to action for design to listen, act and join the opportunities robotics presents to our made, and evolving social worlds.
With special thanks to the organisers of the workshop Maks Gepner Paul Baisamy Adam A. Stokes Bingchao Wang and others and for some fab conversations with fellow speakers including, Jeffrey Lipton Kai Junge hashtag#jonathanrossiter Kenjiro Tadakuma Josephine Galipon Jamie Paik hashtag#ankurmehta UCLA. Also with thanks to friends at The National Robotarium and specifically Edinburgh Futures Institute The University of Edinburgh for supporting the trip to uncover multidisciplinary thinking and opportunities for the sector at the meeting point of robotics, business, and design - more to follow on that! :) Design Informatics, University of Edinburgh hashtag#computationaladornment hashtag#designrobotics
Honoured to Chair a discussion for Edinburgh Futures Institute focusing on a multi-dimensional robotic practice. Featuring work from Alexandre Colle, Designer in Residence, Design Informatics, Camila Jimenez Pol, multidisciplinary designer and head of product at Konpanion. Joined by Ruby Marshall, Lecturer in Soft Robotics at ECA, as music and sound director. Articulating complex futures that move. (Discussion from 15mins).
Looking forward to joining a group of amazing co-mentors for Farfetch DreamAssembly Base Camp next week with Outlier Ventures in my official role as start-up mentor and champion of new businesses seeking advice on initial fundraising, business model testing, scaling up (operations and tech), tokenomics, or simply making industry connections that help take #fashion #tech #startups to the next #meta level… Outlier Ventures FARFETCH #Dreamassembly Alfredo Orobio Ramirez Carol Hilsum Blake Lezenski
See what VOGUE Business said of the web3 fashion accelerator here.
V&A hosts a remarkable deep dive into aligning fashion and code. Try fluid cloth dynamics as you have never seen before, and dance with real-time digital garment experiments.
Great to see Business of Fashion, Textiles & Technology developments progress with Prof. Jane Harris, University of the Arts London, and Holition take forwards projects I was able to frame from the start. Good job teams! :)
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Powering Creative Connections.
Thanks Creative Informatics for inviting my steer to chair some wonderful conversations. Exploring Digital Identities with artist Rachel Maclean and Martin Disley, and a radical panel to explore sustainability with Dr. Lynn Wilson, Mella Shaw and co-founders of Looper.
Creative Informatics link.
Q. Imagine there was a course connecting data-science and design. What would it be?
A. Data-science, fashion informatics, robotics, design, python, bitcoin, design ecologies, smart cities, histories, futures, imaginings around ethical AI, governance and health.
Currently leading new pedagogies of technology enabled design practice and teaching post-graduate MA and MSc students.
Full length film here for your viewing.
Join our programme here:
View Institute of Design Informatics here:
A storytelling range of selected press
New York Times - Technology could turn you into a Tiffany
Forbes- Predictions for a permacrisis, brand strategies and big ideas
Business of Fashion- Fashion needs a more robust approach to technology education.
Huffington Post- How is digital technology changing London Fashion Week.
Information Age- Augmented Reality Apps, start to reach the mainstream (2009)
Independent- Frock to the Future.
Forbes - Reforming Fashion Week: Essential lessons from LFW digital’s transformational learning curve
Dezeen - The £3.4b Crafts sector is bigger than we thought. Also in celebration of a wearable technology collaborative project with Lauren Bowker, designed for Innovate UK,
Telegraph - Holition brings reality to the virtual shop window.
Times of India- Impact of technology in fashion design courses.
Financial Times - Holition, the avant garde marketing pioneer.
Financial Times- Trying on the Future
Financial Times - Reality, made larger than life
In a single day of meeting firstly a large global space organisation, and secondly a large travel agent of the sky, it occurred to me that I have working knowledge across a strange range of technologies, seamlessly moving from design value propositions of experience, manufacture and design; from the domestic to intergalactic.
What role does a translator of this knowledge have in organisations and cultures of innovation, and how will our genuine deep knowledge of technologies and applications change over time?
A poetic summary of terms.
point cloud
6- axis arm
computer vision
depth capture
spherical capture
object orientation
porosity
cloth dynamics
3D print
parametric modelling
visualisation
data-vis
python
Data-science
holographic
sensors/ actuators
AI, chat GTP/ DALL-E
Unity
embedded sensors
woven actuators
high value manufacture
sintering
AR
GUI
auto-stereoscopic
body-tracking
processing
generative
UX/UI
craft.
Exploring poetics of gesture in Augmented Reality as an environment for human experience and interaction with AI. Keynote describing 'softness' in the way of augmented experiences, driven by AI. We are all Augmented now :)
How we see the world is changing. The layers of augmented environments currently overlaying our experience of being human bring us closer to the future, yet work with the limitations of the physical body. The 19th century Eskimo snow glasses crafted to suggest our ambition to see differently, or enable us to see more, remind us of the origins of making and craft to develop an 'innovation to wear.' Observing our material cultures of looking, and entwining this with the 'future' is an example of #digitalanthropology. It asks what do we want to see through these lenses, where are we when we view, who are we physically and virtually and does a plural sense of self matter? Shared environments to view bring a new collectivism to experience, digital or in person.
This is one of the projects I felt most proud of Holition participating in. Visiting the Edinburgh International Festival installation, the work represents a moment. We connect with ourselves, through art, technology, sound, and reflection. The 'research' here is the output of the experience, captured as a large scale data-set of visitor responses. Using, 'spectacle' as a vehicle for research questions...
Well done team Holition and all of the collaborators, UK Government Funding for Unboxed; Creativity in the UK 2022. 😎
Check out the project here.
'How to speak machine,' by John Maeda asks us to consider what design has to do with code, tech, data. In my role I am often asked about the, 'art' and the 'design' of data and technology, as though these are areas 'others' know about. If we are to make progress to democratise technology cultures, we need those who see themselves as not designer to embrace design not as other, but as implicit co-creator of our technology futures.
Including image reference to my, 'Manifesto for Machines' produced for invited Keynote at Birmingham City University symposium, 'Seized by the Means of Production.'
There is a book in there... I am working on it.
Fashion Business School, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, hosts a compelling and thought provoking 360 forum made up from a panel of eminent specialists, industry and academic professionals representing cosmetic science, the social sciences, digital anthropology, material cultures and technological innovation.
Panel Chair: Trevor Davies: FRSA Consumer Industry Future Panel: Dr Phil Sams: Physical Scientist and Honorary Doctorate UAL Lynne Murray DAL: Director, Digital Anthropology Lab, LCF Dr Paul Matts P&G: Principal Scientist P&G and Visiting Professor LCF Kae Katz, current student LCF, winner of P&G Better Lives Awards
Serving on industry advisory board for Goldsmiths Centre, 'Technology Advisory Strategy Committee,' TASC. Goldsmiths Centre is the leading UK charity for jewellers, silversmiths and people working in the precious metal industry dedicated to improving skills and building careers, founded by Goldsmiths Livery Company. Board includes industry representatives from retail, commodities, manufacture and education. Role seeks to advocate for innovation in context of jewellery trade, industry and education, including apprenticeships. Addition roles include serving on selection panels for funding, and navigating futures for the industry.
Navigating industry and academia and translating for emerging research investment.
I was invited to lead the curation, and demonstrate exemplary work in the field as a thought-leader and collaborator in featured projects to identify areas for future UKRI investment in fashion innovation, with The Unseen, LCF Digital Anthropology Lab, and Holition mentions.
Tracking the language and adoption of the future as a solution, a demonstrator of, 'other,' and a galvaniser of unwieldy living. Documented observations of, 'Future' as a word used from 2012. Currently Deputy Director, Innovation, for Edinburgh Futures Institute. It's an appealing word.