Inspirational biomimetic artwork

I was so interested recently when I heard about Diana Eng, a fashion designer from New York City. She is a self proclaimed ‘fashion geek’ due to her love of fashion and textiles but also because she loves ‘geeky’ computer programming and technology. I love that she embraces the idea of being a geek and uses her interest in both fields to create some amazing and innovative things.

Diana Eng came to Auckland last month to be a part of AUT’s Colab Summer Workshop Series. The workshops allowed Diana to share her ideas with other creative people and inspire them to use new technology. It seems with her collections that she is interested in biomimicry, as I am with my own project. Biomimicry essentially means the imitation of life. For example, look at Eng’s collapsible structures which mimic the pleat pattern structure of a leaf when it blooms.

Watch this Campbell Live item which looks at Eng’s use of conductive thread in her clothing. The clothing also has sensing capabilities. For example, the electro luminescent wire used in a garment lights up and responds to the sound of talking. A skirt lights up when the wearer is walking.  It is amazing to see clothing that is sensing the environment around it and responding to it.  These garments are an example of smart clothing.  Another innovative item Diana Eng actually sells is a smart scarf, called the Jack Frost Scarf.  The images of snowflakes develop and become larger when the scarf is exposed to cold temperatures.  I remember hyper coloured t shirts from my childhood which seemed to work in reverse.  The fabric changed colour when exposed to heat.  I loved pressing my warm handprints to the fabric and making other patterns with hot breath or by standing in the sun.  They weren't so great though if you had hot underarms!

Eng comments that these items cannot be washed so they fail to meet some requirements we need in our everyday clothing. But that hardly matters. The items are wearable and function to cover the body in a fashionable and innovative way. Are they items of clothing or works of art?

It is inspiring to see another artist/designer collaborating with experts in fields different from their own. We can see what is possible when we come together from different fields and investigate how to combine them.

Right now, my project is really accelerating. I have successfully completed a large artwork (roughly 700 x 700mm). The artwork looks great and I am looking forward to actuating all the elements as soon as possible. I will post some video of the movements once they are working. For now, I have some photos of the static work. I hope you like it.

The artwork viewed from a short distance.  The display box is visible to see how the frames are put together.

Close up of the artwork. The artwork is jigsaw puzzle of different frames put together to create the image.

Smart Arts

Just a few weeks ago I found an old Canvas magazine from the New Zealand Herald and the cover story was called, ‘Where Science Meets Art’. Of course this grabbed my attention so I pored over the article. In Auckland a month or so ago, there was an exhibition showcasing artworks that were the result of a collaboration between artists and scientists. 15 artists were paired with 15 neuroscientists and were instructed to create artworks based on their interpretations of various kinds of brain research. The exhibition was called, ‘Do You Mind?’ and you can view the organiser’s blog here.

It is very exciting to me that while I continue with my interaction and collaboration, there are similar efforts out there in Auckland to bring together the two industries. The goals of our two projects are the same. Both efforts want to bring artwork to the public to raise the profile of the area of scientific research. We have been allowed into a world that the ordinary person has no access to and would most likely never gain access to. We can toil and struggle in the lab. We can discover these new things and report back to the public with our findings in a way that the scientific community doesn’t.

A major difference in our projects is that the artists from, ‘Do You Mind?’ only witnessed the research and interacted with the neuroscientists. In my project I am actively using the very same technology, materials and processes that the scientists use. The technology is my artwork. I am making the science a part of the final visual experience, rather than doing a drawing or a painting of my interpretation of the research. However, the end result is still the same. Our audience has become aware of another part of our world that we had not entered before.

The artists in the neuroscience project describe the separation of the art world and the science world. For most artists this is a fact. Art and science do not collide. Visual artists generally gravitate towards a way of expression like painting, sculpture, performance art or video art. These types of artistic expression are not experimented with in a lab. Scientists usually do not express their ideas in a visual interpretation. They may map out 2D and 3D imagery to see how something could work or take measurements of weight and force etc but their efforts are geared towards answers and fact based on experimentation, not subjective expression.

I am drawn to the obvious example of Leonardo da Vinci who had many skills and was talented in a number of fields. He was not only a master painter but an inventor, engineer, geologist and anatomist. Da Vinci is merely one man of many of his time who were more than capable of artistic pursuits as well as scientific ones. Not only was he a thinker in both fields, but he could combine his talents for one goal. For example, all of his knowledge of the anatomy, space and perspective combined to create perfect paintings.

Since Leonardo’s time until recently, the gap between art and science has widened. People have become masters of only one field, not many. With my project, and the recent project with the brain research, this gap is becoming smaller. It’s an exciting time.