![]() A New World Where Clothing is Smart Samantha Louth 23Feb2018 In an age of information, intelligence and technology - has our clothing developed with the times ? Not our skinny jeans, perms, crocs or Louis V bags. The thing we connect with the most everyday. The thing we bring with us everywhere we go in life. The thing we don't break up with , thats always there, clothing. Why has there been no significant developments in the clothing sector in the last hundred years until now? Corruption of capitalism you say? Maybe. Although a longer more sustainable ecological system will keep corrupt capitalist happier in the long run. A blue water has been found. Smart clothing and e-textiles. Something which is still in initial stages of research. The large area has opened the gates to many design possibilities, an aray of purposeful functionalities in clothing and certainly a different prospect of what we wear, how we wear and why we wear clothing. Our clothing may have the potential to be as intelligent as us. Not so difficult for some you say? This transformative industry heavily relies on scientists, engineers and designers, this is where they meet in the middle. Wearable technology has the ability to monitor us. Physiological monitoring of our body's performance in recognition with the amazing advances in extracting the data has lead to a disruption in the market. Bodies can work harder and with ease in regard to the sporting industry. Bodies and health can also be monitored closely with this amazing technology. The pharmaceutical industry and growth of a type of D.I.Y health industry is a catalyst for this performance monitoring technology. ‘Body Area Networks’ are expected to become huge in the next several years. It will play a major role in the patient health monitoring and seek to be analysed by medical practitioners at each check up. When this BANs becomes mainstream it will be hugely beneficial, clearing out overcrowded hospitals, making the most of the squeamish time frame doctors have for patients. The main goal with BANs is to strategically change the ‘disease treatment’ to ‘healthy life’, by monitoring what is going on, taking control of ones own health before it declines. Smart clothing and wearable technology/e-textiles have an aray of functions, sectors of specification. All of which are most exciting. An area to be found highly facisnating is the merging of biology, design and careful engineering. In short terms, Biodesign. Biodesign is where organic processes and material become functionable in a way that it would create a product for us, i.e clothing made out of fungus. The DNA of a bacterial, fungal strain can be altered into creating a durable organism. Biological design and research can take the DNA from the composition of skin, human, animal and otherwise, and create its own version of this skin. Dont let this scare or even remind you Patrick Süskind’s novel Perfume. It is purely to create sustainablilty within the largest polluting industries in the world. Scientists have the power to take a certain characteristic of a skin and influence it DNA so as to emphasis a certain property , i.e the elasticity and softness of skin can be altered by changing the collagens DNA within its blueprint. This emerging technology is extremely exciting. Its possibilities are endless. To generalise, us humans generally don't give our nearest care giver much credit, our clothing. Subtly, this new technology will creep its way into our lives, if it hasn't already? Scary to some, but the light that guides for others. Can one of the most polluting industries redeem itself by saving us and our planet? Can we in fact change or consumption trends to culture are appreciate the art and precious care givers that fit us so well? References: Meg Miller, A guide to the $13.4 Billion Biodesign Industry, 02/03/2017, Accessed on https://www.fastcodesign.com/3067449/a-guide-to-the-134-billion-biodesign-industry David Dworsky, Victor Köhler, The Next Black, Film, Oct2014, Accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCsGLWrfE4Y on 15Feb2018 Naohisa Ohta, Atsushi Takahara, Andrzej Jajszczyk, and Roberto Saracco, Emerging Technologies in Communications, VOL. 31, NO. 9, Sep2013 Minyoung Suh, Kate Carroll, and Nancy Cassill, Critical Review on Smart Clothing Product Development, College of Textiles, North Carolina State University. Image: Image 1, History of Wearable Technology, https://seminarlinks.blogspot.ie/2014/07/history-of-wearable-technology.html [accessed on17Feb2018] Image 2, JASMIN MALIK CHUA, Grow Your Own Microbial “Leather” in Your Kitchen (DIY Tutorial), [online] Available at https://inhabitat.com/ecouterre/grow-your-own-microbial-leather-in-your-kitchen-diy-tutorial/ [accessed on 17Feb2018]
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