Technology Meets Textiles in ‘Social Fabrics’

Since the emergence of Jacquard’s loom in the 1800s, fashion and digital technology have been interdependent. But now digital code and dress codes have merged, allowing artists and their muses to express themselves in provocative new ways.

Exploring these new connections will be “Social Fabrics: Wearable + Media + Interconnectivity,” a show on Friday, Feb. 22, of wearable, mobile and socially engaged art.

The show, co-sponsored by UT Dallas, is part of the 2008 Annual Meeting of the College Art Association.  It starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Adams Mark Hotel in downtown Dallas and is free and open to the public.

Some designers take the traditional techniques of weaving, knitting, tailoring or quilting and combine them with previously unused materials, creating complex textiles and garments, some of them with electronic properties.

Items at the show will include the Postal Gown by Geraldine Juarez, who makes dresses out of the Tyvek envelopes you find for free at the post office; Heidi Kumao’s dress that has sound-activated lights; and the wearable computing project Taiknam hat from Ricardo Nascimento, Fabiana Shizue and Ebru Kurbak.

One of the most interesting exhibits is Skorpions, a set of kinetic electronic garmets that move on the body in slow motions. They breathe and pulse, controlled by their own internal programming. The Skorpions collection was designed by Joey Berzowska, an electronic textiles expert; and Di Mainstone, who has designed for Urban Outfitters and Jimmy Choo.

UT Dallas is sponsoring “Social Fabrics: Art + Media + Interconnectivity” with the Leonardo Education  Forum and the College of Art + Design, Louisiana State University, in association with the Laboratory for Creative Arts & Technologies and the Office of Sponsored Programs at LSU.

The show is curated by Susan E. Ryan, associate professor of art history in the School of Art in the  College of Arts and Design at Lousiana State University; and Patrick Lichty, editor in chief of IntelligentAgent, an electronic arts/culture journal based in Baton Rouge.