Textile Futures: article for SURFACE ZINE

Super happy to contribute a short piece about 3D printing for textile futures in last months inaugural issue of Surface Zine.

With a love of all things fluffy / shiny / colourful, the collective's aesthetic focuses on a post-internet yet critically tangible mixture of sculptural art and fashion - which perfectly suited my interest in the contemporary use of 3D printing for textile development.

The girls have got an ever-growing intsagram following - so be sure to visit them at @surfacezine for some beautiful delights on your daily feed.

See the little article below (PDF). Unfortuntely, the team picked a slightly irrelevent image to support the work (that garment is NOT 3D printed!), but I'm still really happy to see my work printed in such an awesome indepenednt zine. Good luck to the team behind it, and I hope their work continues!

Pick up your copy via the link below:
http://www.surfacezine.bigcartel.com/

Expo 15: Careers in the Arts

 I was delighted yesterday to make my way up to Leeds to contribute to Expo 15: A careers event organised by the University of Leeeds across a number of different subjects and University schools.

After having immensely enjoyed my time in the city within the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, I was more than happy to take a day off work to give a presentation about my story to a group of really enthusiastic (and really cool) freshers - all of whom were desperate to start gaining experience now to make them as employable as possible in the future.

I was asked to discuss my role at 3D Printshow in sync with my degree (History of Art) and the work experience / internships that I engaged with during my time as an undergraduate at the uni - and it was a brilliant experience. Working in the 3D printing industry has given me the opportunity to travel the world and work with an extremely varied collection of individuals, and it was only when I began explaining what I do and how I got to doing it that I realised how lucky I have been.

I then took part in a really interactive panel discussion about what it means to be employable - including questions from the audience about how to tweak your CV, how to get that first internship, and where to look for opportunities and funding. I was seriously impressed not only by the outgoing way in which this group of 18 year olds were engaging with what I was saying, but it was also great to see so many young people taking the initiative to really work out how they were going to realise their project ideas. I would never have even attended such an event as a fresher - so its clear that the culture is really changing in terms of young people knowing how hard it will be for them to find work after graduation.

I left feeling inspired, and happy to have encouraged some younger students to continue pursuing their goals - and it was great being back in Leeds.

I stopped by two of my favourite museums spaces on my way back to the station: The Henry Moore Institute and Leeds Art Gallery. Catching up on the city's incredible scene is always a pleasure - and I was delighted in particular by touring exhibition British Art Show 8, which was presenting some very strange and interesting work. The highlight for me was a 1 hour video by Rachel Maclean - I had never seen anything like it (also, kudos to Leeds Art Museum for some excellent curation and some daring wall-painting in the galleries themselves). What a great city!
http://britishartshow8.com/artists

3D Printing + California: Highlights

Feeling immediately fabulous on my return - and dropping the "..just back from LA" card whenever and wherever possible - a trip to California to produce the seventh 3D Printshow event of the year provided me with an incredible opportunity to connect with some of America's leading 3D printing innovators. I put together three seperate conference tracks exploring Business, Contemporary Making, and Design, in addition to writing another feature piece for Disruptive Magazine and exhibiting a small collection of 3D printed fashion pieces.

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Julia Koerner
After a long online friendship (after writing about her work for a number of different publications), I finally got to meet Julia Koerner in LA, as she lead the keynote presentation within my Design program. Julia is not only a wonderful and fantastically accomplished young woman, but her stunning work is arguably leading the way in terms of 3D printed haute couture. She has produced 3D printed elements and designs for both Iris van Herpen and more recently, Chanel, and her experience and understanding of the material and it's design constraints are seriously impressive.

Anouk Wipprecht
Another incredible female innovator that I was so delighted to finally meet was Anouk Wipprecht - who is building the future of fashion through A.I, microcontrollers and 3D printing. Email comms between Anouk and myself have been going on for (literally) years, so it was amazing to hang out at long last. Anouk contributed to a seriously fantastic panel discussion which explored how 3D printing is implementing and changing not only designed products, but the design process itself - and her insights were invaluable. 

Behnaz Farahi
This young designer is fairly new to the 3D printing scene, but Behnaz Farahi's recent artist residency at Autodesk's Pier 9 program has driven some incredible work, which I was delighted to exhibit in California. The piece in question, named the "Caress of the Gaze", is literally reactionary, and the texture at play within the piece absolutely fascinated visitors to our event.

Nervous System
This is another design collective that I've not only been working with for sometime, but one that I've also really admired. Although Jessica Rozenkratz (from Nervous System) was not present at our event, I was really happy to show and interact with a print of the Kinematics Dress - the garment which was recenty acquired and exhibted by the MoMA. After initially meeting Nervous System in New York a few years ago when I was curating their work into the city's first 3D printed Fashion Show, it's been amaizng to see how far they've come.

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Working in this industry allows me to interact with some amazing individuals who aren't only interested in fashion and seasonal aesthetic, but who are driving the industry forward by innovating and suggesting some incredible fashion futures.  Personally, it is a privaledge to research, co-ordinate and write about their content, and I look forward to more and more people around the world appreciating the incredible work that they are all doing.

Next up, I'm in Paris and then Amsterdam later this month, followed by a trip to Dubai to produce my first UAE event. As always, I'll be documenting my experiences on the blog, so don't forget to check back in soon.

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Build day one at 3D Printshow California

 

"Caress of the Gaze" by Behnaz Farahi

 "Kinematics Dress" by Nervous Sytem