steel is used in women’s bras.
I’m interested in extraction of metals. I would like to look into metal mining and extraction because it intersects lots of things i am drawn to – wearables (and potentially women’s health and breast politics?), extraction and therefore ecological degradation, resource politics – and creatively it allows me to work with metal, welding, lost wax technique, jewellery/bras/corsets (bodices and wearables made from fabric and metal structures, metallic textures and blender renders…
in what why could lab work come into this? how could metal extraction and context and mythology intersect with biological systems?
the fact silver is antimicrobial is interesting! thinking about where metal and microbe overlap intrigues me!
Stainless steel, originally used in surgical equipment is now prominent fashion product/accessory. The main advantages of it is the high resistance to discolouration, lack of elements that can cause skin allergies, and the durability of the material. Modern surgical stainless steel bracelets are very popular as fashion jewellery.
there is something intriguing about the way metal ores exist amongst geological layers and deep time
next steps:
- i must look into the temporal contexts of different ores, what is the history of when they were made in earths systems, are they thought to be from different planets and stars
- how do microorganisms interact with metal? what does a worm or a nematode do if it finds it in the soil?
- I want to re-read ‘a short history of nearly everything’ by bill bryson
- the historical context of mining steel (iron+coaking coal?) + the making of stainless steel, silver
- how do people in the uk’s heritage relate to these material’s extraction?
- steel is 100% recyclable. copper as well is highly recycled.
- history of alchemy – to use magic to turn lead into gold!
- carbon dating can date anything alive within 50,000 years ago
GEORGE MONBOIT – REGNESIS
- hot spots and hot moments – places and instances of intense biological activity
- hutchinsonian hyper volume, this describes the multidimentional opportunities that permit the survival of different creatures. the more complex a system is across space and time greater diversity it can support
- fractal scaling – how the soil structure is consistent regardless of the scale of magnitude you are observing it
- soil is self regulating and adaptive – explains it’s structural resistance against droughts etc
another book id like to re-read is ‘bitch’, the book about female gender in animals and ecology.
also I have the book ‘critical design in context’ on my phone – I would like to make time to read this as well. It would be good to ground an contextualise the sort of practice I would like going into 2nd year.
sequins are potentially a fun medium / format to make in. craft-able. I feel like I could turn to scar, ella and cordie for help and collaboration in making patterns and ways to attach and finish a wearble.
- The dress was made from approximately 6,000 ultra-thin steel sequins manufactured by Voestalpine Precision Strip AB in Sweden. Each of the 6,000 blade-thick steel sequins was hand-sewn. Ian Jones, the head of sales and deputy managing director at Voestalpine, emphasises “a complex series of high-precision cold rolling and annealing cycles to achieve these ultra-thin thicknesses.” As a result, the plates are thinner than mulberry silk.
- The couturier was so passionate about the material that he expanded the concept and decided to use several shades of blue. Through a series of oxidation experiments, the researchers were able to paint a 0.022 millimetre thick steel strip in different shades of blue. This unique dress became the centrepiece of Josefi’s collection at Stockholm Fashion Week.
- “I want to surprise, create something unexpected, and at the same time, environmental friendliness is also very important for me, and since steel is 100% recyclable, this dress has become exactly what I wanted to show the world,” says Naim Josefi. “All my collections are based on scientific research. Technology helps me implement complex ideas and thoughts,” he says.
Sarah Roseman, soft silica
- Soft Silica is a new expression for glass that lies on the boundary between textile and glasswork. The material is brought to life and appears to be frozen in time, capturing the way glass melts in a static object through with the tactility of a textile. The project currently consists of glass tapestries and sculptural vessels as well as an extensive and ever growing archive of samples. It is a continuing glass research that evolves and develops with each iteration, to find future possibilities and applications for this exciting new material.

- OCR-A = the font designed in the 60s to be understood by machines
- ‘its always about capitalism no technology’
- Machine Art 1934 at the MoMA
- the anatomy of an AI system – the planetary cost of an AI system
- https://anatomyof.ai/
- it has lots of interesting contextual points eg ‘Marx’s dialectic of subject and object in economy’ and ‘Fractal chains of production and exploitation’ and ‘ Submarine Cable Infrastructure’
- its also a really engaging diagraming example of a life cycle analysis


SOFIA CRESPO
- https://sofiacrespo.com
- interesting projects are ‘beneath the neural waves’ and ‘neural zoo’ and ‘critically extant’