This is one event I have been looking forward to all year! There is a range of entertainment, budding designers and illustrators holding stalls along the Southbank, music of all kinds, live theatre performances, fireworks and carnivals! Even a bridge closed and laid with tables and chairs to enjoy food and beverages!
When I was little, there used to be a pound store around the corner. Its a childs paradise!
Me and my friend would go in from time to time an blow our pocket money on the infamous 'Silly string'. A reel of wet thread blasting from a thin nozzle, aimed at your opponent.
It was always a short lived thrill as the can never held a sufficient amount. This is how I feel the 'Fabrican' might be.
There are many reasons as to why I love this link. For a start, it shows promise for finding alternative ways in which to feed our ever-growing demand for resources such as cotton.
They are creating "cellulose cotton" in the laboratory, fit for textile purposes. At the stage in which this film was created, the fabric, like any living organism, had to be nourished and kept hydrated. It demonstrated the possibility of the "commodification of the natural world".
For those who may not be familiar with the cotton industry crisis:
"Cellulose is the Earth's major biopolymer and is of tremendous economic importance globally. Cellulose is the major constituent of cotton (over 94%) and wood (over 50%). Together, cotton and wood are the major resources for all cellulose products such as paper, textiles, construction materials, cardboard, as well as cellulose derivatives such as cellophane, rayon, and cellulose acetate." ....this causes a great demand for cotton farming.There are many issues that have arisen from this demand, one most commonly known is that of pesticides, clear risks to the health of those who pick the crop and harvest it and all that relating to the direct negligence to workers including poor pay and exploiting children. Alongside this, there have even been issues of drought caused by governments in poor countries over-farming and abusing their land.
which brings us back to our video....Donna Franklin & Gary Cass
"Imagine a fabric that grows...a garment that forms itself without a single stitch!
The fashion that starts with a bottle of wine...
Micro'be' fermented fashion investigates the practical and cultural biosynthesis of clothing - to explore the possible forms and cultural implications of futuristic dress-making and textile technologies.
Instead of lifeless weaving machines producing the textile, living microbes will ferment a garment.
A fermented garment will not only rupture the meaning of traditional interactions with body and clothing; but also raise questions around the contentious nature of the living materials themselves.
This project redefines the production of woven materials.
By combining art and science knowledge and with a little inventiveness, the ultimate goal will be to produce a bacterial fermented seamless garment that forms without a single stitch."
....I came across this a few years ago on another blog. Since the blog post, there was even more information regarding progress. However, since I first discovered this video, there has been no further development, not even a mention in regards to "Global Cellulose" having taken on the project. I really hope this is something that gets put into effect in the next decade!
In passing, a friend of mine told me about this beautiful dress created using the most unlikely material...can you spot what that might be before looking at the next picture?? At first glance you see a fury material, thick and luxurious, then on closer inspection....
a bed of nails. "Combining material, form and context in deceptively simple ways to stimulate associations within the viewers' minds and to elicit nuanced meanings"
She also creates installations, this one in particular caught my eye for the scale and intricate nature just like her other work.
So last week I get an e-mail from the Trend Boutique saying that they are interested in putting my work up on their 'graduates to watch' section of the website.
As of 3 hours ago I'm live on the site!
Its a little profile about me and my work and then some quick fire questions.
Have a look!
So exciting!
