Lighting up a rainy night

October 11, 2013  |  Out There

Lumi is a one-of-a-kind umbrella designed in collaboration with renowned dance company Pilobolus and inspired by their live show “UP: The Umbrella Project.” This limited edition umbrella was created following the original design used as part of that project, a participatory performance developed…
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Sound-activated garment creates its own aesthetic

October 8, 2013  |  Out There

A project named “Incertitudes” by Canadian designer Ying Gao features a dress made of PVDF (Polyvinylidene fluoride), dressmaker pins and electronics that cause the garment to respond to sound, specifically activated by a spectator’s voice. Says the designer, “Through the motion of the pins,…
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A mosque, solar powered

October 8, 2013  |  Out There

“A team of collaborating Italian architects, Paolo Venturella, Angelo Balducci, Luca Ponsi, and Paolo Gaeta, had an unusual approach for a mosque project. The solar panel-covered “Wall-Dome” concept was the group’s entry to the highly debated architecture competition to design th…
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Pleasant weather experiences forecast

September 23, 2013  |  Out There

Weather-sensitive fabric sculpture offers a multi-sensory experience for arts center visitors. It’s not a smart fabric, exactly, but it seems to behave like one. Artist John Grade has created a kinetic sculptural installation that moves in response to the weather—information collected on the roo…
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Designing for disease protection

September 10, 2013  |  Out There

By the age of four, Matilda Ceesay knew exactly what she wanted to wear—and she wasn’t shy about telling adults how she wanted it made, either. “My mom knew to be quiet when I started drawing on the tailor’s croquis,” says Ceesay, explaining the flat sketches of the human body used by the …
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Hearing enhancement in a hat

September 10, 2013  |  Out There

For people who have conductive hearing loss, a hearing aid may be the only solution. But high-tech company Max Virtual LLC, based in Greensboro, N.C. and Shenzhen, China, offers another option. The Cynaps Enhance hat is a self-contained hearing device that amplifies and directs sound to the inner ea…
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Company creates microbial “textile”

September 10, 2013  |  Out There

London-based BioCouture has chosen to develop a unique niche in the advanced textiles marketplace. The company grows sustainable materials from renewable or waste resources, transforming microbes into haute couture. Their unique, low-impact fermentation process creates a biodegradable material that …
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Kite™ Mosquito Patch offers 48-hour protection

August 11, 2013  |  Out There

A company in Riverside, Calif., is on a mission to save us from … mosquitos. Kite™ Mosquito Patch claims that it can offer 48-hour protection against the insects, which are, at the very least, pesky. Far worse, they spread diseases that too often prove fatal. The “breakthrough scientific disco…
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Solar airplane completes cross-country flight

August 8, 2013  |  Out There

The term “barnstorming” means traveling around the countryside giving speeches, lectures or performances. Solar Impulse, the first aircraft that runs completely on solar energy, barnstormed across America to make a point about dramatic progress in renewable solar power. The Swiss team that devel…
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High fashion and highly functional

August 5, 2013  |  Out There

The desire to realize a textile solar energy harvesting surface that offers maximum design freedom while still being highly efficient was the driving force behind The Solar Handbag, initiated by Swiss embroidery company Forster Rohner AG and conducted in a joint research project with Swiss partners,…
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