Thesis Proposal: Fiona Johnston

Reading the January Domus magazine, I came across a small article about a design project by Philips called SKIN. This project is based on soft technologies, exploring the future integration of sensitive materials and the human body. Things such as conductive inks, small textile sensors, stretchable and flexible electronic substances that integrate energy, supply, sensors and displays have all been explored.

I have worked with fabric and fashion design for the past 3 years and this has made me interested in what the future of textiles and clothing might hold. Already to date we have gone from all natural fabrics like cotton, wool and linen in natural colours, to synthetic fabrics with stretch, heat resistance, anti static properties, waterproof, breathable and incredibly light-weight warm fabrics. A lot of these textiles seem to be trying to reproduce or out-do nature itself.

When I consider the idea of emotion-sensing clothing, which changes colour to suit your mood, I can’t help but compare the concept to the way the chameleon changes colour to blend in with it’s surroundings. Nature is full of lizards, frogs, birds, rodents, fish and plants, which are already doing what we are trying to do with soft technologies. Even the rat has beaten us to transmitting feelings long distance. They use sounds inaudible to the human ear to warn other rats of danger. This seems so similar to what the SKIN project is trying to do with collars that read biometric signals and exchange them with other individuals (emotion sensor). Even sea creatures have beaten us to changing skin colours while we’re still trying to develop tattoos that become coloured on contact between bodies.

This leads to technology becoming more than just a computer we need to turn on and press buttons for it to work. Already we are implanting microchips in our animals and the government knows what else. People are even living with machines asisting vital organs, like the pacemaker. This begs the question of how long it will be before we all have computing devices inside our bodies and what effect it will have on the evolution of our species. Is the future really going to be as it is depicted in a sci-fi film? And what freedom will we have as individuals is we all are implanted with some sort of technology, which lends itself to tracking, monitoring and being hacked. This gives rise to much debate regarding privacy. At the same time this sort of technology would be the ultimate form of cybernetics.

Through the development of soft technologies, we are in a way, trying to imitate nature, while at the same time creating our own cyber world, which we want to be completely connected to. As if machine is mans creation, in the same way as some believe nature to be God’s creation. We are still looking for ways to express ourselves, communicate and interact with our creation, the machine.

Things to look into more:
· History of textiles.
· History of soft technologies.
· History of cybernetics.
· Comparisons between animal behaviours and technological developments.
· Debate surrounding privacy and technological development.

Multimedia: from Wagner to virtual reality.
Randal Packer and Ken Jordan.
Publisher: New York: Norton, 2001. 1st ed.

5000 years of textiles.
Jennifer Harris.
Publisher: British Museum Press in association with The Whitworth Art Gallery and The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1993.

World textile: a concise history.
Mary Schoeser.
Publisher: London: Thames and Hudson, 2003.

Devices of the soul: battling for our selves in an age of machines.
Steve Talbot.
Publisher: Sebastopol, Calif: O’Reilly Media, 2007.

Privacy in peril.
James B. Rule.
Publisher: Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. 2007.

http://www.design.philips.com/probes/projects/index.page

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/746/49597.JPG

http://www.madangdiving.org.pg/picturesindex/cuttlefishsequence/cuttlefishsequence1.jpg

http://www.smh.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1044318671749_2003/02/05/nat_pacemaker07,0.jpg

Assigned Reading

Adolf Loos Ornament and Crime.


Background
Eldest child of 3 born in 1870 in Brno, Moravia.
Stonemason father died when he was 8, his mother carried on the family business.
Headstrong and rebellious at school though still got good grades.
Studied architecture on several occasions but failed to complete a degree.
Contracted syphilis from a brothel in Vienna and was sterile by 21.
At 23 his mother disowned him for refusing to support her in the family business.
1893 went to America for 3 years, did some odd jobs in NY.
Returned to Vienna in 1896 via London as a gentleman with refined tastes.
His friends included Ludwig Wittgenstein, Arnold Schrönberg and Karl Kraus.
Quickly established as preferred architect of Viennas cultured middle class.
Interested in decorative arts.
Collected sterling silver and high quality leather goods for their plain but luxurious appeal.
Love for custom-made clothing “What use is a brain if one doesn’t have the decent clothes to set it off?”
Surprisingly Loos architectural style is often elaborately decorated. In his essay ornament and crime, his argument is between “organic” and superfluous decoration.
1918 diagnosed with cancer, half his digestive system removed. Only able to eat ham and cream the rest of his life.
Several unhappy marriages.
By 50 he was almost completely deaf.
In 1928 was disgraced by a paedophilia scandal.
Died penniless in 1933 in Kalksburg, near Vienna.



Overview of Essay
Loos argues that the evolution of a culture can be measured by the degree to which it has rejected ornamentation.
Peoples need to decorate themselves is primitive and degenerate. Therefore anyone with tattoos is a criminal or will be one.
Ornament is not only produced by criminals, it commits a crime itself.
Ornamentation wastes time and manpower only to produce something which will become obsolete.
People who prefer ornament live in the past and it is a misfortune for any government if it’s people are dominated by the past.
Loos likens the evolution of a culture to the stages of a child growing up and that anyone who feels the need to decorate everything around them is amoral and have not reached the same level as modern man.
Loos looks down on anyone who uses ornament saying “I suffer the ornaments of these people because they have no other means of expressing their full potential” (referring to his cobbler putting ornamentation on his shoes.
He even goes on to say that modern man has become so refined and that his individuality is so strong that he now uses his clothes as a mask for this.

My Response
Adolf Loos makes valid points about how ornament wastes time and effort to produce something that is only going to go out of fashion. He says himself that it is better to buy a plain, well made product which will last a long time than to buy something which has had the quality compromised for decoration.
Personally I can appreciate a certain amount of ornamentation but I can understand how Loos perceives it as an immature need to decorate everything around us. There is something refined about being able to appreciate a piece of work for its simplicity and material qualities rather than being distracted by the decoration painted over the top.
To a point I agree with Loos ideas about people feeling the need to decorate themselves. But for the most part I don’t think this means a person has a criminal nature, it is more a desire to express themselves, remember a time in their life or even just a be that they like an image so much that they tattoo it on themselves.
It is fair enough to say that is bad to live in the past but I think that it is good to have reminders of the past around us so that we can learn and grow from it rather than dwell on it.

Reference list
“Adolf Loos works and projects.” Ralf Bock. Skir a Editore S.P.A. Italy 2007.

http://arqudec.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/l846666b.jpg

Monday 11th of March 2008 Lecture

Computing and media art. Anne Nimetz.
Computing
Human’s ability to count.
17th C. philosophers. Classification- logic rather than speech.
Universal language, scientific language.
Logical calculus. Science very new.
J. Wilkins- most influential thinker of the 17th century. Attempt at universal language. Should be possible. Invented short hand system. His ideas were all before his time. Language linking mind to reality. Work never complete.
G.W. Leibniz- mathematical model for language. Representing parts of language as number. Discovered binary system (in West) thought to have already been discovered in the east 2000 years before. 2 symbol system.
C. Babbage, 1834- Small calculator, 8 decimal. With government funding developed a 20 decimal machine. Analytical engine, prerequisite of computer. Probably hand cranked.
Ada Lovelace, 1815-1852- first programmer. 36 years old bled to death by physician.
A. Turing 1912-1952- founder of computer science. Turing machine- concept on paper. Simple computer. Thought experiment. WWII worked breaking ciphers. 1947 uni Manchester. 1952 convicted of homosexual relations.
K. Zuse. 23 comp. 1914 working in isolation. Continued developing. Founded 1st computer start-up company.
60’s idea of internet floating around
23-electro mech. Colossus T Flowers. For breaking code. Top-secret machine.
N. Wiener 1948 cybernetics. Science of transmitting messages from man to machine or machine to machine. Theory meant to increase the quality of our existence. Analysis of brainwaves, AKA father of cyborgs.
IBM 1952 1st commercial sci computer defence calculator. To government.
PDP-1 1960 famous for hacker culture. One operator. Graphic display. 1st computer game, space wars. 10 years later 1st coin operated arcade game came out but was hard to play.
I. Sutherland, 1963. Sketchpad. 1st CAD program. Human interface. Artistic and technical. X-y plotter and light pen. Limits of computer power.
NLS demo 1968 D. Engelbart. Online system. 1000 cap prof. Mouse. Hypertext. Shared screen multimedia demo. Completely new systems. Mouse pointer called “bug”. Email video messaging. Skype. “The mother of all demos”.
1980s mouse goes commercial.
Apple from Xerox parc.
S. Wozniak, 1976 Apple 1 $666.66
B. Gates 1978 microsoft. 197 Albakerky  Washington. Dos.
Atare commodore 79/82. Time magazine man of the year was a computer.
1990’s www, windows, silicon graphics, 3d graphics. 1994 Apples power mac.
Future of computing- quantum computer.


Media Art
Digital art, art and technology. Large variety. New media- computer graphics, animation etc.
19th century. Zoetrope. Illusion of action. W. Horner Dadadelium.
1839 Phenakisoscope- to cheat.
Edward Muybridge 1878. Details of motion. Multiple cameras.
Lanterna magica. Fantascope projection. Magic lantern. Oil lamp image on glass plate. Fantasmagoria show 1849 rear projectiony.
Modernism. Bauhaus. Creation of intermingling of technology and art.
Moholy Nagy. First electronic artist.
Kinetic art. T. Wilfred 1930’s Colour music. Clavilux.
1950’s-60’s kinetic art. Jean Tinguely. Homage to New York 1960. Drawing machine. Billy Clouver. One glorious act of mechanical suicide.
EAT experiments in art and technology. Pioneers in interactive media art. Early interactive performances and robotics.
Nan June Paik, 1958 first video artist. John Cage Charlotte Mormon. 1960 sony portapack closed circuit.
John Whitney 1917-1995 pioneer of animation. Built computer himself. Inspiring artists. Commercial potential. Arabesque visual music.
1968 cybernetic serendipity. Happy chance discoveries.

Tutorial Friday 7th March 2008

First thing on blog
- What I got out of the lecture
- Research
- Drafts
Research- live, interviewing- find out what people want, librabry.
Narrative. Discussion of others ideas to form your own opinion.
Particia’s office hours Wed 2-3pm tutors room 2.24 email Patricia.Z.Bruner@xtra.co.nz
Send blog link by next Friday.

William Morris was part of a group called the pre-raff elites, a group of gothic inspired designers and architects. Architects of the red house.

Assigned reading- read all assigned readings so you can discuss when the person does their reading. Learn to skim read, read first paragraph and pick out key words from the rest. 10 point summary.

Industrial revolution. Change. Invention of the seam engine. 7 lamps of architecture- Johns Ruskin “beauty is the joy of the workman coming through in the piece” Labour is beauty. Morris feels he/we have a moral obligation to persue change. Aesthetics is the value of the work.
The user is not consulted about goods. Capitalists making things purely for profit. Exactly the same as the chineese industrial market today. We have to buy their stuff because that’s all that there is available. Unless you choose to do without.
Design (eg. Hat, walkin stick, furniture). Lost the are of marketing (market shopping).

Reading for tutorial 7th March.

Christine Poulson (ED) William Morris on Art for Design. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996)
THE REVIVAL OF HANDICRAFT

In this reading, Morris mourns the loss of handicraft to the age of modernism and machine produced products. He also makes points about the loss of job satisfaction which comes with this industrialisation.
I think Morris is basically saying that we all become unhappy with things we first saw as development and we will wish for things to return to how they used to be. we always want what we haven’t got.

Tuesday 4th March 2008.

Research writing.
Essay- Thesis proposal 18th March.
Chosen subject, introductory research and position.
When researching don’t take sides before you know more about a topic. No person is likely to have arrived at any complete theory. We might not believe the Author’s perspective, we must try to understand how their perspective is true.
START EARLY
READ AND WRITE
POLISH
GET ADVICE
Preliminary research finds gaps in the literature.
Research is never perfect.
When you start writing, you make new insights.

Topic= subject
Thesis= your personal point of view.

Intro- Thesis
Body- Topic
-Support
- Conclusion
Conclusion.

Paragraphs to deal with one Idea and link to next one.
Do introduce terms, define terms.
à Oxford online dictionary.
Do build good sentences. Flush left. Good layout. Easy to read.
Referencing – common evidence. Democratic. Use referencing to advance argument.
Be precise in referencing don’t second hand reference. Make sure you use all information.
IN TEXT CITATION
Link from blog to writing architecture or design essays.
MLA referencing.
Put images in text.
1. proposal
2. draft
3. hand-in

Friday 29th February 2008.

Modernism. Designing a new world. Luke Feast.

end of first world war. Rejection of history. Abstraction. Experimental.
1925 emerged in real world. 1930's.
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Baroque- emotionally expressive. Dramatic. Faith, power, prestige. Hugely ornamental.
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Industrialisation- still using classical columns. Lots of coal burning. Urbanisation.
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Manchester- one of the first industrial cities.
Crystal Palace- trade fair for industrial sellers. Items sold still very decorative. but instead using industrial products.
The dilemma of style- designers start thinking about applying design and why.
William Morris- defended simplicity and utility verses mass produced styles of the day. Simple materials emphasising craftsmanship. Morris trying to change society. Influenced by Augustus Pugin, gothic designer.
also influenced by Shaker m. decorator. social function of design.
Louis Sullivan, first to build sky scrapers and use steel.
Frank Lloyd Wright, arts and crafts, England then moved to Vienna. stripping back to function and materiality of object. linear, standardisation. Machine being introduced to everyday life. geomentric shapes.
Henry van de Velde. Important, Bauhaus. Factory as new influence on design. site of production. honest, practical, opposite of art. Product of latest technology.
Peter Behrens, first industrial designer, producing everyday products. geometric forms, symmetry, efficient design.
28 July 1914 WWI begins. key point of the beginning of modernism.
Loss of rationality, idea of being more rational in design. Human condition. desire to connect art to life.
cubism and expressionism. reinvention of forms.
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Russian constructivism. Basic, pure geometry. Super rational aesthetics. "Suprematism" movement starts.
Beginning of Photomontage. Expressing structure and materials. Nothing hidden. Barest elements creating new understanding of beauty. Reduction to simple geometries. Drawings not static. Transparencies. Utopian aspirations. Avant-garde ideas. Expression of special relationship and mathematical measurements- sculptures of Katarzyna Kobro. Simple colours encourage spectator to move around sculpture. How it changes in time and space. Spatial composition big thing for future.
Idea of the body- health. Open response to sexuality. Hygiene. Health and exercise connected strongly in media.

Italian futurism. Based version of utopia on development of technology. Emotional and sensual rather than practical. Everything becomes mechanical.
Marinetti- poem even set out in mechanical way and delivered to sound like a machine.
Machine based manufacture for a better world. Dynamic, forward moving and looking. Looking outside of itself. Dynamism. Einstein’s theory of relativity. Body and space becomes one. Envisioning future of city. Neoplasticism. De stijl. Netherlands. Still heavily influenced by cubism. Moves into primary colours and extreme simple forms. Standardised parts.
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Need to rebuild world.
WWI
Industrialisation- new centres developing
Machine key concept/ symbol of new world.
Standardised parts- dynamic
Social concept- remake people’s values and how they live
1920’s designers had ‘official’ positions
to promote ‘the new’
Bauhaus- building Utopia.
1. Work
2. Creativity }3 main aspects of Bauhaus.
3. Value

1. Breakdown between art and craft
2. Attack difference between expression and design in art. Individual vs. group.
3. Breakdown between public and private. Unstratified society.
Total work of art- living space, product, design, city planning etc. Craftwork emphasised at Bauhaus.
àIDEA OF FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
New technologies- lighting. New qualities- transparencies. Reduction of elements.
Multi-function becomes important.
Film/theatre, experimentation. Creating new person- good exercise. Trying new materials. Exhibition in cafes and shops, not just restricted to theatres.
Nezval- symbolism of alphabet letters. Abeceda.
Moholy Nagy- first electronic artist. Fine artists made to create thigs like costumes.
àIDEA OF TOTAL WORK OF ART
1925 Bauhaus move to Dessau. Change in style move and buildings. away from craft towards mass production.
àSTANDARDISED PARTS
àGEOMETRIC FORMS
Chair became symbol of new design. Chair easier than building. Cantilever chair.
Marcel Breuer- first steel tube based chair- took inspiration from bicycle. 1926. Intersecting planes and spaces. Everything revealed. Only necessary elements. Combination of old and new materials. Commitment to social reform.
Affordable housing large concern. Modernist influential Holland and Germany in rehousing masses.
Ergonomics staring to become important. Attempt to make domestic workspace more professional. Practicality.
‘Frankfurt kitchen’- compact kitchen. Labour saving ideas.
Nazis purged modernist culture. Bauhaus moved to US.
Miles van der Rohe 1927/1928 Modernism outside Bauhaus. Mass market modernism. Streamlining to art deco.
Radio development towards end of modernism.

First Post

Just getting this up and running. Will post lecture notes when I have time to type them up.