Blog | Dana Ramler : Thoughtful Design » furniture http://www.danaramler.com/blog Mon, 07 Mar 2011 05:34:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v= en hourly 1 make an impression! http://www.danaramler.com/blog/2009/01/25/make-an-impression/ http://www.danaramler.com/blog/2009/01/25/make-an-impression/#comments Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:56:53 +0000 Dana Ramler http://designdana.wordpress.com/?p=110 ninnetteAfter thinking extensively about the history of a thing and how garments could tell a story by their wear and tear, I wondered how our skin might tell similar stories about the things we put on it. Our skin could tell a story about the objects or materials it enounters throughout the day. Perhaps it could change colour or be embossed. Granted, it may only be temporary, but that’s kind of the beauty of it. Ninette van Kamp has done some interesting work with the idea of embossing the body with garments. She explores the possibility for mark making with seams, beading and embroidery.  Emily Jane Atkinson has also explored this notion with her Tattoo-me boots.

The tattoo-me boots have changeable linings each of the linings have a different pattern on, when worn they will eventually leave an imprint on the legs, thus creating a temporary tattoo. Fellow classmate and blogger Sheila was also looking at something similar.

I’m not saying that I find either of these examples practical in any way (in fact, the idea of sitting on beaded underwear all day just so I can have an embossed backside that no one might even see sounds painful and pointless). But I do find the idea of our garments making a mark upon us extremely interesting. In fact, I started to wonder who else was exploring the idea of designed objects making temporary marks on our bodies. I stumbled upon the Sun-Tattoo blanket by Yu-Chiao Wang which I think is both amazing and ridiculous at the same time:  amazing because of the concept, ridiculous due to the impracticality of it.

And in keeping with suntanning, for those of you who have left a poolside lounge chair with unsightly marks all over your body after a day of baking in the sun, Jenny Pokryvailo has designed a more aesthetically pleasing solution.  Her chaise lounge leaves a beautiful flower temporarily embossed in your skin, instead of the usual loung chair pattern. Again, I’m not as interested in the actual products as I am in the idea of leaving temporary marks on the body with objects or garmets that touch our skin for a period of time. I wonder if there is a way to apply this same idea to communicate a bigger idea, rather than solely for decoration.

]]> http://www.danaramler.com/blog/2009/01/25/make-an-impression/feed/ 1 the history of a thing http://www.danaramler.com/blog/2009/01/19/the-history-of-a-thing/ http://www.danaramler.com/blog/2009/01/19/the-history-of-a-thing/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:42:57 +0000 Dana Ramler http://designdana.wordpress.com/?p=57 Rips, tears, stains, holes and patches…. these are some of the marks left behind that tell a story for an item of clothing. There is physical evidence, wear and tear, a history. I wonder how this idea can be incorporated into wearables using technology. The History Tablecloth was created as part of the Equator Project with the Royal College of Art’s Interaction Design Research Department. The table cloth draws attention to the flow of objects over a surface in the home by signalling how long things have been left upon it. If an object is left on the table for a while, a glowing halo forms beneath it that grows slowly over time, until the object is moved. It uses electroluminescent inks printed onto a flexible substrate.

The project has me wondering: “what happens if an article of clothing can tell a story like this?” Besides the blemishes in the fabric, how else can a wearable display its history? What else can clothing tell us? What interesting secrets can articles of clothing keep? And how can we allow the clothing to express itself?

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