Remaining in the field of textiles, two further works provided diverse approaches that departed from the simple notion of tissue = skin, or skin =textile, to demonstrate not only the connections, but also the ethical issues that underpin the use of such logical analogy. For instance the work of Seçil Uğur ,“Social Skin: Between Textile and Technology” explored the clothes as second skin, and developed this concept to the limit with a project that uses technologies to shape garments after the body’s emotional inputs when immersed in a social context. the issues here are profoundly ethical, as clothes are often used to hide emotions, rather than to externalize them.
in a different way, Mili John Tharakan, from the Singaporean CUTE lab explores he economies that revolve around the world of textiles as tradition and search new ways to encourage the new generations to get involved with a textile community that has become stagnant. In India, craft comes form sanscritशिल्प, zilpa, standing for “any art that uses color.”
craft is rooted into the culture of India and was hereditary, regulated by the chaste system . it was not about the individual creativity, but about translating concepts into something material. While craft people never had a formal education, things have now changed. however, traditions have been strangely maintained.
generations upon generations craftsmen have been producing the same things. However, now they have realized that there are more options for crafts. following a wave of migration of younger generations into the big metropolis in search of more rewarding High tech jobs, and policies that regulate the production of textiles in a rather conservative fashion, craftsmanship seems to disappear and remain into the domain of tradition or, worse, mere tourism. Tharakan organizes workshops that introduce smart materials and new technologies into local textile communities. this, she believes, would inject some much needed innovation, and would turn this activity into a much more rewarding and appealing profession, especially for those younger generations interested in technological artifacts.