About the Participating Artists
Paola A Zellner Bassett
United States
Paola Zellner obtained a Masters Degree from SCI-Arc, practiced in Los Angeles with Norman R. Millar Architects, and is partner of Zellner + Bassett, which received in 2010 the AIA Blue Ridge Award of Excellence. She taught at Woodbury University, the University of Michigan, and is currently an Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech. Her research interests on textile media and responsive environments explore form and space at the convergence of art, design and technology. Her collaborative works include installations: “The Book of Lies,” for artist Eugenia Butler at 18th Street Arts Center, CA (2007), “Between the Pyramid and the Labyrinth,” Moss Art Center, Blacksburg (2013), “Reclaiming Space,” University of Manitoba, Winnipeg (2014); responsive sets for the FMDS Annual Fashion Show (2010, 2011); and student projects developed for NASA on textile wearable technology. The concept for the responsive collaborative piece “Time Stands Still” received the 1st Prize for Virginia Tech’s Charles Steger Design Competition.
Chicks on Speed (Melissa Logan and Alex Murray-Leslie)
Germany; Australia
The Chicks on Speed (Melissa Logan and Alex Murray-Leslie) are avant-garde artists. Everything they do, what they make turns into avant-garde Art. Provocative, subversive and interactive -COS merge the boundaries of art, music, poetry, new media and politics. Chicks on Speed is a multimodal, multi-national collective founded in Munich in 1997 by the US-American Melissa Logan and Alex Murray-Leslie the Australian. International Chicks on Speed has become known by electronic pop music, which started as an art-performance project. In parallel, they develop Hitech / noTech “object Instruments” – from the simplest materials to pioneering leading edge technologies, created through residencies in media institutions such as the ZKM, Centre for Art and Media (Karlsruhe) and Hangar (Barcelona). The Chicks on Speed have worked with numerous artists and institutions from different areas such as Douglas Gordon, Francesca von Habsburg, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Peaches, Karl Lagerfeld and Peter Weibel of ZKM in Karlsruhe. In recent years, their live art performances were presented at the Venice Biennale and in renowned museums such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the MoMA in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.
Anja Hertenberger
The Netherlands
Anja Hertenberger is an artist who researches identity in relation to media, surveillance, power, control and man-machine interaction. This research she does is visible in interactive installations, performance art and e-textiles. Anja is involved in V2_’s E-Textile Workspaces, is teaching interactive design and interactive textile, curating for the Media Art Festival Friesland and recently she organized the SOFT symposium at The Royal Academy of The Hague in the Netherlands. At the Royal Academy of The Hague she is setting up an e-textile / wearable technology lab. Her artistic work has been exhibited in Germany, The Netherlands and other European countries.
Website:
http://www.anjahertenberger.net
http://www.meggrant.com
http://www.museumdekantfabriek.nl
Anke Loh
United States
Anke Loh is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Fashion at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she taught since 2005. Her current research entails finding ways to integrate stretchable circuitry into textiles, read-to-wear fashion and accessories. Anke has also collaborated with a range of interdisciplinary teams. Her work on incorporating fiber optics into interactive fabric included working with Luminex (Italy and Miami) and the computer science department at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She broke new ground by integrating Philips Lumative panels into dresses and skirts, featuring video imagery on soft embedded LED screens. She is presently collaborating with the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin to research and explore the possibilities of stretchable circuitry. Anke earned a Master’s Degree in Fashion Design from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 1999. She is impassioned by travel and observing compelling and dissonant cultural dynamics.
Website: http://ankeloh.net
Thomas L. Martin
United States
Tom Martin is a Professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, with courtesy appointments in Computer Science and the School of Architecture + Design. He is the co-director of the Virginia Tech E-textiles Lab and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. His research and teaching interests include wearable computing, electronic textiles, and interdisciplinary design teams for pervasive computing. In 2006 he was selected for the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for his research in e-textile-based wearable computing.
Website: http://www.ece.vt.edu/tlmartin
Barbro Scholz
Germany
Barbro Scholz is an artist and textile designer. She has a background in design with a focus on electronic textiles and interaction, her interest is in the impact of designed objects on society, especially textiles as user interfaces for technical devices or as the device itself. She thinks the change of possibilities in material choices and size for devices raise new questions to designers. She believes that the designer’s visionary role becomes even more important as well as the responsibility of designers to raise questions. From 2010 to 2012 she was involved in the Smart Textiles Design Lab at the Swedish School of Textiles, since 2012 she works together with Esther Stühmer in the Stühmer|Scholz Design Office in Hamburg, Germany.
Website:
http://www.barbroscholz.de
http://www.stuhmerscholz.de
//benitez_vogl
(Margarita Benitez and Markus Vogl)
United States
Margarita Benitez is the Fashion Technologist and an Assistant Professor at The Fashion School at Kent State University and Markus Vogl is an Assistant Professor at the University of Akron – Myers School of Art. They collaborate in their art practice under the name //benitez_vogl (www.benitezvogl.com). Their current research explores 3D printing and transformation of the human form through concepts of biomimicry, the concept of pret-a-faire (ready-to–make) thru generative fashion applications as well as open source tools for artists.
Their research was recently presented at the 2014 International Symposium on Wearable Computing’s Design Exhibition at Seattle’s EMP, where the project S.A.R.A. received the ‘aesthetic design’ jury award. They have also presented their work at the Shapeshifting conference in Auckland, New Zealand, the BIFT/ITAA Symposium in Beijing, the Digital Fashion conference in London, UK and at the New Media Art Caucus Artist showcases during the Annual College Art Association Conference. They received a 2012 NEA Media in Arts Grant for S.A.R.A.: Synesthetic Augmented Reality Application, an open source wearable synesthetic App (www.s-a-r-a.com).
Website: http://benitezvogl.com
Louis-Philippe Demers
Singapore
Louis-Philippe Demers makes large-scale installations and performances. His projects can be found in theatre, opera, subway stations, art museums, science museums, music events and trade shows. Over the past two decades, he participated in more than seventy artistic and stage productions and has built more than 325 machines.
Demers’ works have been featured at major venues such as Theatre de la Ville, Lille 2004, Expo 1992 and 2000, Sonambiente, ISEA, Siggraph and Sonar. He received five mentions and one distinction at Ars Electronica, the first prize of Vida 2.0, mentions at Vida 12.0 and 15.0, a recommendation at the Japan Media Arts Festival, the Interactive prize for Lightforms 98 and six prizes for Devolution including two Helpmann Awards.
Demers was Professor of Digital Media and Exhibit Design/Scenography at the Hochschule fuer Gestaltung Karlsruhe, affiliated to the world renowned Zentrum fuer Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM, Germany). Since he joined the Interaction and Entertainment Research Centre and the newly founded School of Art, Design and Media at the Nanyang Technological University.
Website: http://www.processing-plant.com
Carla Hertleer
Belgium
Carla Hertleer works as a postdoctoral researcher in smart textiles at the Department of Textiles of Ghent University, Belgium. The topic of her PhD research was the use of textile materials for the manufacturing of antennas to be integrated into wearable textile systems. This research is done in collaboration with the Electromagnetics Group of the Dept. of Information Technology of UGent.
Valérie Lamontagne
Canada
Valérie Lamontagne is a Montréal-based artist-designer and PhD scholar researching “Performative Wearables: Bodies, Fashion, Technologies and Laboratory Cultures” at Concordia University. She is Assistant Professor in Media Arts + Digital Technology at the Alberta College of Art + Design in Calgary, Canada. She has curated and collaborated on design and media arts exhibitions and events such as: “The Future of Fashion is Now” at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2014); “TechnoSensual” at MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Austria (2012); “Clothing Without Cloth” at V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2011); “Electromode” at Vancouver Winter Olympics, Canada (2010); “Sartorial Flux” at A+D Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago, USA (2006); “Ellipse” at Musée National des Beaux Arts du Québec, Canada (2002); and “Location / Dislocation” at New Museum, New York, USA (2001). Her artworks and designs have been featured internationally in festivals, galleries, museums, magazines and publications. She is the owner & designer at 3lectromode, a wearable electronics atelier dedicated to avant-garde crafting and consulting in fashionable technologies; and founder-director of Agence Simultané, a post-digital incubator and production company.
Website: http://3lectromode.com
Galina Mihaleva
Singapore
Since 1999, Galina Mihaleva have been working at Arizona State University (ASU) responsible for designing costumes for several choreographers, which includes Jo Kreiter, Yin Mei, Bill T. Jones, Thadius Davis, Tere O’Connor, Ron Brown, Fred Darsow and all faculty choreographers. Often think of herself as an interdisciplinary artist using fabric, form, function and interaction, her expertise lies in the seamless integration of electronics in clothing through fashion design methodologies. Currently working on her PhD in Wearable Technology, She have been a visiting Assistant Professor for the past two years at NTU School of Art, Design & Media (ADM).
Website: https://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/wearables
Vibeke Sorensen
Singapore
Vibeke Sorensen is Professor and Chair of the School of Art, Design and Media, at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Her work in experimental new media, computer animation, interactive architectural installation, and visual-music performance spans more than four decades and has been published and exhibited worldwide in books, galleries, museums, conferences, performances, film festivals, television, and the internet. From 1984-1994, she was Founding Director of the Computer Animation Laboratory in the School of Film/Video at CalArts, and from 1994-2005 she was Professor and Founding Chair of the Division of Animation and Digital Arts in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. Sorensen is a 2001 Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in Film/Video/Multimedia. Her research has been supported by the US National Science Foundation, Intel Corporation, the USC Annenberg Center for Communication and Zumberge Fund for Innovation in Research. She was Chair of the 2007 ACM SIGGRAPH Art Gallery: Global Eyes.
Website: http://vibeke.info
Ina Conradi Chavez
Singapore
Ina is an award-winning digital new media artist living and working in Singapore. Her works innovatively span several disciplines: digital painting, experimental stereoscopic animation, installation, architecture and new media. She has exhibited and screened her works internationally. Among others the list includes prestigious Ars Electronica Festival Deep Space Austria, 3D Festival Beyond, The Center for Art and Media (ZKM) Karlsruhe Germany, the 14th International Beverly Hills Film Festival Hollywood, SPARK [FWD] 3D, VFX & Advanced Imaging Conference Vancouver, the 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival, Brooklyn Film Festival New York, Anima Mundi Festival Brazil, 3D stereo Dimension 3 Festival Paris, Attakkalari India Biennial Bangalore India. Her works have been exhibited at the SIGGRAPH Asia 2013 Hong Kong Art Gallery and projected on a large scale at the 27th Southeast Asian Games (SEAG), Naypyidaw, Myanmar. The 2013 film ‘Elysian Fields’ was screened for the 86th Academy Awards Qualifying Screening Entry.
Website: http://inaconradi.com
Joanna Hoffmann-Dietrich
Poland
Joanna Hoffmann is an artist, researcher and educator who lives in Berlin, Germany. She is Professor (Dr. hab.) of the University of Arts in Poznan, Poland and the Chair of the Art & Science Node in Berlin. Joanna’s expertise is on media installations and experimental video and animation. Her works has been exhibited in several locations, which includes the Center for Contemporary Arts in Warsaw, Science Museum/DANA Centre in London, Transmediale Festival in Berlin, WRO Media Art Biennale in Wroclaw, MUSE Centre of Photography and the Moving Image in New York, and the European Patent Office Berlin, BioQuant Centre Heidelberg with art residencies at KFZ / Heidelberg University DE; Academy of Film and Television Potsdam-Babelsberg, DE; CEMA & NCBS, Bangalore, IN; KHOJ & ICGEB New Delhi, IN. She has also presented at International symposia, such as Beyond ZKM Karlsruhe, ISEA in Sydney/ Istambul/ Singapore, Mutamorphisis” CIANT in Prague, CZ, and Towards the Third Culture III” in Gdansk, PL. Throughout her career, Joanna was received sevearl awards and recognitions, which includes three times by the artistic stipend of the Polish Minister of Culture, and 1st prize “2007 – very spatial year”, Europlanet/Polish Academy of Sciences.
Website: http://www.johoffmann.com
Karen Hong
Singapore
Karen Hong is currently a PHD candidate with Graduate School of Media Design at Keio University. Before this, she is an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University’s School of Art, Design and Media (ADM). She has been with ADM for 7 years.
Karen has been awarded several research grants when she was with NTU. She has completed a Tier 1 research funding project to develop a series of SMART Textiles that can be used as tactile therapy for elderly care. This exhibition showcases some of the works done. Her current PHD research is on Tactile Therapy : The use of SMART Textiles in corporation with tactile textiles for therapeutic applications.
Website: http://www.tactiletextiles.com
Eef Lubbers
The Netherlands
Eef Lubers recently graduated as BSc at the faculty of Industrial Design at the Technical University in Eindhoven. As a person who has always been interested in design and art and studied at the Art academy for a year, she developed a creative and aesthetical talent, an intuition that guide her through the design process, resulting in designs that are refined and a visual representation of herself as a designer. She enjoyed working with textiles and have strong interest in fashion and textiles combined with technology, which led to the development of the concept, Unlace.
Website: http://www.eeflubbers.com
Alexandra Murray-Leslie
Australia
Alexandra Murray-Leslie is an artscientist and pop music-composer working in the medium of Fashion Acoustics (wearable musical instrument design) for ARTFORMANCES. She is a PhD candidate, Creativity and Cognition Studios, The University of Technology, Sydney, lecturer at Interface Cultures, University of Art and Design Linz, and co-founder and member of Chicks on Speed, an internationally renowned trans-disciplinary live-art collective.
Alex has published her research widely, including the journal for Critical Studies in Fashion and Beauty 2014 and presented at conferences; SECAC, 70th South Eastern College Art Conference, “Colour in Fashion” Costume Colloquium, NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression), Xcommunicate, Queensland University of Technology and JAMarrama, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2014; SEAM, Sydney, ISWC, International Symposium for Wearable Computers, 2013; Institute for Music and Acoustics Lab, Gigahertz Festival, ZKM Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, 2012.
In 2012–2013, Alex held the position of Entertainment Manager at the 34th America’s Cup World Series and was co-director of Diane Pernet´s “A Shaded View on Fashion Film”, CaixaForum Museum, Barcelona, 2013.
Alex’s current practice-based research focuses on the development of interactive footwear designs, theBipedShoes for dance practice and movement notation with possible health applications.
Website: http://www.alexmurrayleslie.com
About the Participating Students and Alumni
Aurelia Jessica
Born in Bandung, Indonesia, Aurelia is currently a student at the School of Art, Design & Media of Nanyang Technological University, majoring in Visual Communication. She believes in the boundless possibilities in the power of design to connect cultures, technology and people together, and that inspiration does come from all sorts of things. Aurelia enjoys experimenting in different ways of conveying ideas and narrative, and Project Helaku Jacket is her first venture into the wearable technology field.
Website: http://aureliajessica.wordpress.com
Katherine Foo
A graduate from ADM’s Product Design, Katharine believes that there is neither boundary nor limitation in the fields of design.
Kong Yi-Jun, Ian
Yi-Jun Ian is a final-year Digital Filmmaking student in the School of Art, Design & Media, NTU. His foray into film began with an interest in set design, prop and costume design, before progressing to being the Production Designer for student films. At the root of this interest was the idea of wearable Art’s potential in unique expressions, a Surrealist-Dada-ist hybrid of “wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve”, which led him to creating wearables from commonplace and discarded items in order to create new meaning and design.
Kalaimathi Mahendran
Kalaimathi has always shown interest in the knick knack of making and constructing, this translated onto wearables as well as she grew older and became more proficient with sewing. Because of the ethnic background she grew up with, she was exposed to fabrics with high textural qualities in embroidery, sequins, beading and weaving. This and the tangibility of a wearable when fully constructed to fit and suit a person excites as well as satisfies the maker in her.
Teong Shi Hong Derek
Derek is a 3rd year student majoring in Visual Communications in NTU School of Art, Design and Media. He possesses a strong inclination towards the arts and crafts, believing that a designer should not only be involved in the conception of an idea but also the execution as well; this allows him to better appreciate the entirety of a product from the beginning to the end. In his works, Derek is driven to present a poetic reality for any given subject matter, with the aim to move the audience in subtle ways, gently conversing with them through his works. He has had his work exhibited in the Sunday Showcase: Wearable Technology at the ArtScience Museum, 2014.
Ye Jiamin
Jiamin is a young designer with a background in Interior Architecture and Product Design with a keen interest in interdisciplinary explorations to create works which integrate technology and natural materials, creating interesting conversation between materials, spaces and the context of things.
She enjoys experimenting with conceptual ideas and finding ways to make them tangible through combining prototyping tools with traditional means. Also, she believes in crafting with one’s hands, that the physical act of making allows one to learn beyond theoretical methods. She has had her work exhibited in the ArtScience Museum for Wearable technology, 2013.
Cereph Chen Bing Quan
A dreamer of worlds, Cereph wanders through a fantastical labyrinth that is his reality. Intrigued by tiny details and subtle nuances, he seeks to bring to life the smallest things that are often neglected by others.
Website: http://cerephchen.tumblr.com
Kho Ruiwei
Ruiwei is a visual communications student who has a strong passion for fashion and accessory design. Aside from her interest and studies in visual communications, she immerse herself in the world of fashion by taking related courses in and out of school, and has been working in the field through internships and part-time jobs. Her works and designs are often conceptual in nature, dealing with the human physique and psyche. She enjoys experimenting with unconventional materials to produce unique works that are rich in tactility.
Website: http://khoruiwei.wix.com/r-vltno
Jin Su Huan
1991 born in Shanghai, China; a fine arts student taking her 4th year in Product Design at NTU; she loves and creates beautiful things, drawing and ideas; fascinated by nature and its magic on the unruly humans, she wants to make a difference through sustainable designs and exploration of new technologies inspired by nature; 2013 exhibited in ArtScience Museum for Wearable Technology; 2014 exhibited in ArtScience Museum for 3D Print Fashion Showcase
Website: http://www.jinsuhuan.wordpress.com
Allysa Sing
Allysa Sing is a graduate of Nanyang Technological University and has recently started working as a trailer producer. She is also both a filmmaker and an artist who recently just completed a short film and currently working on another short film and photography project.
Shienny Karwita Tailan
Shienny is a student majoring in Product Design at NTU School of Art, Design and Media. She took fundamental fashion drawing class during high school time and her interest grows through this experience. In 2013, she had a chance to take Fashion and Technology class, conducted by Prof. Galina Mihaleva. Through this class, she managed to create her first piece of garment titled Mimosa.
Ye Luwei
Luwei is simple, sensible and artistically inclined. She believes talent should be spent creating and designing products which enhance life in both its quality and quantity. Nurtured in a conservative Chinese environment, inspiration for Luwei comes in all forms; her creative intuition is much influenced by her oriental roots. A minimalist, simplicity being the basis of her design philosophy, Luwei strives for maximal impact with minimal substance.
Website: http://www.behance.net/luwei
Zachary Cheong Zhan Hong
Zachary Cheong Zhan Hong is currently majoring in Visual Communication in Nanyang Technological University. When Zachary is designing, he is inspired by the form, shape and structure of things around him, acquiring knowledge and translates them into design aesthetic and new creative ideas to portray his own perspective. He believes in this modern society, the ability to generate ideas and provide alternative perspective and solution is important in broadening and challenging the conventional ideas and thinking of people.
Simon Koh
Simon Koh is currently a Mechanical Aerospace Engineering (MAE) year 2 undergraduate of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He has a great passion in the field of engineering and is currently a scholar of BCA–Industry Built Environment Undergraduate Scholarship. His project is on wearable technology which uses renewable energy to power the garment. In September, Simon embarked on a trip together with 14 other students to Arizona, USA. He tested his project on the desert environment where sun is the abundant source of energy suitable for the Solar Jacket.
Daphne Lim Li Ting
I am an adventurous sports enthusiast. I trek and plan to explore other parts of the Everest region. I love water sports and compete for wakeboarding. I travel or backpack as and when possible as exploring the world is my way to live life, it is an avenue for me to connect and reconnect with myself and others on different levels. Besides sports, I am keen in music and its creation.
Apart from the adaptability skills gained from different sports, being in the engineering school sparked off various intuitions and inspiration in a way or another. As a nature lover and a musician, the diversification of interest will make a meaningful difference. I am definitely a risk taker who loves challenges.
Katie Soon
Katie Soon is a multidisciplinary artist from Singapore working mainly in photography and painting. She is inspired by the natural environment as well as folklore and mythology, and is interested in revealing the beauty inherent in even the most mundane of things. In her work, Katie seeks to bring attention to things that are overlooked and unobserved.
Tan Jia Yi Veronica
Veronica is a spontaneous designer constantly exploring conceptual ideas of sexuality with thoughts that are disjointedly connected. Attracted by connections and evolutions, she loves people so her works are mostly in relation to people or products which people use daily.
Also, she cannot live without her 5F’s: Fantasies, Fashion, Fetishes, Food and Freedom. These 5F’s commands her life and is her equivalent of the more commonly known 5C’s.
On a daily basis, she cannot function in mornings but is extremely happy. Her motivations are smiles on people’s faces and somehow she appalls her professor with bright smiles on mornings.