Art Birds

I picked up the book 'Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science and Evolution' by David Rothenberg today at the lovely Ben McNally bookshop on Bay in Toronto.  In reading it on the long train ride back, I have learned that there is a little bird called the Bowerbird, that makes assemblage art in order to attract a mate.  What the best part is, each type of bowerbird makes a unique shape, and prefers different colours and materials for decoration.  What a wonderful thing to learn on a rainy Monday.

biopolymers out of everything?

I try to stay attuned to what's going on with biopolymers and a few things have popped out recently in regards to new functional options. In the past week I got some information about biopolymers made out of chicken feathers (though I thought I might have seen this one before). And a new funding for 'spider silk' biopolymer implementation. If only I could get my designer hands on some of those materials - AMAZING - absolutely AMAZING!

All of the news including Pepsi's 100% biopolymer bottle have given me great hope for the industry - I'm certainly hoping its not a passing trend, but creates sustainable options for the future of materials.

The photo above is some of my preliminary bioplastic research back in 2007 - I can't believe its been that long!

Book Report: something on Nanotech

This is going to be a rather lack luster book report, but I felt I should write it anyhow. I read a book recently on the ethics and pitfalls of Nanotechnology - I think it was an Earthscan book if that helps at all. It was a great series of chapters from many different sources all about the future developments of nanotechnology looking at the ethical development of the industry, and many of the up and coming developments - soooo exciting (I love science) . I found the book - its called Nanotechnology: Risk, Ethics and Law, and overall it was great for an overview of the future of this field.
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Anyhow, the only thing that I can actually remember from the book - is that we should approach the developments in nanotechnology with caution, as the full ramifications of each of the new technologies are unknown, and when we are looking at particles at that scale, it could have dramatic effects on life from the cellular level. That, and that the name for the thing we should be concerned about is AWESOME - 'Free Radicals', I want to be a 'Free Radical' - if I was cool/geeky enough to have a band I would name it 'Free Radicals', I can picture the punk inspired font right now...

Green Products Innovation Institute

I wish the Green Products Innovation Institute was a real place where I could go and study... but I guess it is in its own way... Basically, its seemingly the next step in Cradle-to-Cradle in the creation of a more holistic design economy. It is seemingly being implemented in California in order to create a 'sustainable economy' (sorry for the quotation marks, but I had to - I believe everything to do with sustainability needs to come with quotation marks). Pretty awesome, and I can't wait until the toxicity database is ready to be perused....

Recycling is BullSh*t

I couldn't agree more (see this treehugger article for the real deal) - but you want to know what's even more of a load of bull - 'recyclable'. My question always comes to where - and what will it become, and what will the rate of recycling actually be (I believe that its under 9% of plastic is recycled in the UK). There are tons of designers who work with discarded goods - but they certainly have not been recycled in the truest sense, and more importantly are only a small amount of what is actually disposed of. Lets stop fooling ourselves, our green bins are just another version of a garbage can. We need to move past all of this rhetoric in order to actually make a dent on the future solid waste, material sustainability etc.

Textiles CAN save the world

Often when talking about sustainability and textiles, I often get the feeling that others believe the impact of textiles isn't big enough in order to require more thought past organic/fairtrade/reused/recycled or shared. Of course I beg to differ, and often cite the many sins of textile industries, and the impact of production, transport, use and disposal, and that the textile industry is not just big - but GIANT, and has the power and capabilities of contributing solutions for not just fashion, but many other industries, including architecture, agriculture, transportation, and many more I can't recall at the moment. I came across an article today in Azure of something I've heard of before, but had forgotten about, and I'm glad to have found it again. It is the solar harvesting textiles created by Sheila Kenndey and Frano Violich. They have been working on the creation of viable energy harvesting solutions using window blinds, and other surfaces, and worked on Portable Light Project, and are now working on a larger scale, looking at powering entire structures using their technology. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to get her hands on a bit to play with... This is such a lovely and feasible and implementable technology - if only we could get more ideas and technology!

How to make bioplastic...

Here's a video on how they do it... fun, but I found it embedded in an article about PLA - that's not PLA - thats Starch based bioplastic! Two completely different things. Oh I'm annoyed! I wonder if I can make a PR campaign for bioplastic. I think it needs one - people are still incredibly confused and seemingly writing articles about something they have no idea about and then publishing them. I expect more of treehugger generally, I really do. It also makes me wonder about the accuracy of all of their other reports. I guess like anything, one should take it with a GIANT grain of salt.

I do hate how I've been working with the material for a long time, exploring the small details of a complicated issue, and then the press paints with a giant brush to the very audience who would normally be receptive to the use of bioplastics as an alternative to petrochemical plastics... Sustainability is a complicated issue, and we are going to have to look at it like that, nothing in isolation is good or bad, but part of a bigger more intricate chain of events. Until then, I guess I'll toll away in my own little corner, and hopefully make a tiny difference.

Material Database!

I love materials... Rematerialise is all about Eco Smart Materials from Kingston University (UK Kingston, not Canada Kingston). Thanks Sarah for the link!

Bioplastic Info

And I was going to make a website about bioplastics. Thank goodness I didn't. It already exists - now all they have to do is make it a bit more user friendly... and dare I say... more beautiful...

PLA Info

Here is some info on PLA - I <3 bioplastics! Looks like a good overarching article!

Materials

I found a new Blog!!! Material Stories. Oh how I love materials. They also have a new online newsletter available as a pdf. Check it out here!

Woo hoo! Thanks Core77!

This Crochet is cool

Just cool. With instructions and everything. Via miss Em at Cochonet Rouge. Now I just need to try it!!!

New Discovery!

Thanks so much to my lovely friend Jen for the introduction to a new materials database - Inventables! They even have an affordable student subscription - of course to which I have signed up for! Oh the knowledge at my fingertips! I think they may need me on their team, I'll let them know certainly :P....