personal space

 Urban Armor #2: The Personal Space Dress

A dress with two proximity sensors and a plastic armature that allows the dress to expand when a person comes too close to the wearer. The dress is the second in a series of wearable electronics for women, playful pieces that help women assert control over their personal/public space.

"Urban Armor is a series of playful electronic wearables for women. The series arose partly out of my concern over the persistence of ideologies asserted at women in public space through advertising, architecture and socially normative behavior. I began to look for ways women could take more ownership over their personal space in public.At the same time, I noticed trends in wearable technology seeming to target mostly wealthy, young, professionals, and focusing on functions such as data collection and social networking. I wanted to explore how wearable technology could impact a person's physical world, and help the wearers augment their personal expression and agency in public space." 

Kathleen McDermott, designer of Urban armor'The personal space dress'

Kathleen McDermott received her BFA in Sculpture from Cornell University in 2009. When not pursuing personal projects, Kathleen has worked as a freelance fabricator for various artists, galleries, and film productions. She recently relocated to Hong Kong where she is pursuing a Masters in Fine Art in Creative Media, at City University of Hong Kong.

source: http://www.kthartic.com/index.php?/class/urban-armor-2/

for video, visit:  http://vimeo.com/94218378

 

the owl

William Morris (24 March 1834 - 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement.

Morris was trained as an architect and wanted to be a painter. In April 1861 Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. was established at 8 Red Lion Square in London. It produced a range of original domestic furnishings including embroidery, tableware and furniture, stained glass and tiles. Wallpapers were soon added to the list because Morris was unable to find any he liked well enough to use in his own home.

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. profoundly influenced the decoration of churches and houses into the early 20th century. He was also a major contributor to reviving traditional textile arts and methods of production, and one of the founders of the SPAB, now a statutory element in the preservation of historic buildings in the UK.

Morris wrote and published poetry, fiction, and translations of ancient and medieval texts throughout his life. His best-known works include The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems (1858), The Earthly Paradise (1868–1870), A Dream of John Ball (1888) and the utopian News from Nowhere (1890).
He devoted much of the rest of his life to the Kelmscott Press, which he founded in 1891. The 1896 Kelmscott edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer is considered a masterpiece of book design.