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In this post I am responding to the 2014 documentary work The Next Black by AEG. In this post I am purely responding to the content in the film. I may in future try to follow up and see which of the ideas have lasted now that we are five years on from it's release (spoiler alert -- ifixit survives). Approaching fashion from the outside it is somewhat clear to me that black has always been a quintessential color in fashion, and maintains a strong presence in all worn items. Any company that can find a product or a trend that will catch and stick in the same way that the color black has a foundational idea to be sure. The Next Black identifies a few ideas leading the fashion industry currently and weaves all of them into the technological renaissance that wearable items are approaching. Immediate response  The production and design incorporated in the video is tremendous. Having tried my hand at very simple design techniques is enough to recognize that the graphic and sound...

In this latest entry I am responding to an article "On Fashion" written by Georg Simmel about the nature of fashion and our relation too it. The pdf should be handily available if you are interested. Immediate Impression: Wow -- There is a lot going on here. An enormous breadth of topics ranging from the most abstract to the most concrete are brought in as demonstrative examples and analogies for fashion. The author attempts to impress upon the reader a sense of the forces of fashion, and the role that they plays in the context of society (he is in the field of sociology). While this was written in 1957 it seems to predict the monstrous fast fashion of the modern industry based on the motivating forces in human nature. The essential dichotomy that is presented deals with the unifying and segregating forces, through which Simmel presents a sense of the platonic form of fashion for the reader. The two opposing forces motivate the lower classes to imitate the higher a...

As a part of a recent exercise we dreamed up some future technologies that we would be excited to see move into our lives. Feel free to follow along and post things that you have come up with. Step 0.  Check out some places on the internet for inspiration https://www.makeitwearitbook.com/ http://www.thealternativelimbproject.com/ https://blog.adafruit.com/category/wearables/ https://mashable.com/category/wearables/ https://www.instagram.com/wareable/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/Electric_Runway/?hl=en https://storyofdigitalhealth.com/digital-health-update-paul-sonnier-dec-31-2016-254/  This is by no means a complete list. Go out and find some cool projects! Step 1.  List out five to ten wearable technologies that you think may exist in the future. Our team come up with some fun ideas including a helmet to augment vision to see 360 degrees, mechanics gloves with lights incorporated, and a supplemental prosthetic arm (not unlike zaphod beeblebrox). Ste...

Welcome! I am Jack Wampler (jmwample), and this is my shiny new blog! I'm making this post first, both for you (dear reader) and for me. This blog exists in a context and understanding that context will make our extended form of conversation easier for everyone. Let me answer a few questions here first (mostly to organize my own thoughts)! What is this?  This is a blog. My very own. I made it myself very recently for documenting some of my work in a public way. There are a LOT of things I do not know about running a blog, and a LOT of things that I do not know in general. First and foremost - I do not know who the audience for this blog is yet! However, if you are reading it hopefully it is you. I love science, technology, and creative projects and I spend a lot of time thinking about them. So I hope you found this blog because you love science and technology and creativity too. However if you didn't I hope that this blog is able to inspire you to love those things a li...