-->*dendrite*==>

http://www.scrapyardchallenge.com/

ABOUT SCRAPYARD CHALLENGE WORKSHOPS
The Scrapyard Challenge Workshops are intensive workshops where participants build simple electronic projects (both digital and analog inputs) out of found or discarded "junk" (old electronics, clothing, furniture, outdated computer equipment, appliances, turntables, monitors, gadgets, etc..). So far the workshops have been held 14 times in 6 countries with 3 different themes including the MIDI Scrapyard Challenge where participants build simple musical controllers from discarded objects and "junk", DIY Wearable Challenge where they create wearable tech projects from used clothing, and the DIY Urban Challenge where they work on public space interventions and other projects. The MIDI Scrapyard version includes a mini workshop where participants build simple drawing robots or "DrawBots" with small, inexpensive motors, batteries, and drawing markers that can also be connected to Serial or MIDI interface. At the end of the day or evening, the workshop participants have a small performance, concert, or fashion show (depending on the workshop theme) where they demonstrate and preent their creations together as a group. No electronics skills or any experience with technology is necessary to participate in the workshops.

OPEN AND COLLABORATIVE SPACE
The Scrapyard Challenge Workshops are built on the premise of encouraging an open and collaborative space for creative ideas and hands-on prototyping. Workshop attendees learn how to build simple instruments from found and/or discarded objects. We encourage attendance from visitors from multiple backgrounds and all skill levels.

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 05:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://creativecommons.org/

Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators. We have built upon the "all rights reserved" concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary "some rights reserved" approach. We're a nonprofit organization. All of our tools are free.

About Us
"Some Rights Reserved": Building a Layer of Reasonable Copyright

Too often the debate over creative control tends to the extremes. At one pole is a vision of total control -- a world in which every last use of a work is regulated and in which "all rights reserved" (and then some) is the norm. At the other end is a vision of anarchy -- a world in which creators enjoy a wide range of freedom but are left vulnerable to exploitation. Balance, compromise, and moderation -- once the driving forces of a copyright system that valued innovation and protection equally -- have become endangered species.

Creative Commons is working to revive them. We use private rights to create public goods: creative works set free for certain uses. Like the free software and open-source movements, our ends are cooperative and community-minded, but our means are voluntary and libertarian. We work to offer creators a best-of-both-worlds way to protect their works while encouraging certain uses of them -- to declare "some rights reserved."

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 03:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yinka Shonibare


"DRESSING DOWN"
Wax Print Cotton Textile

From an early stage in his work, Shonibare has employed the ambiguous materials and motifs of West African textiles. These fabrics seem to symbolise the rich complexity of post-colonial cultures in that, while the patterns and colours are thought to be authentically African, they actually originate from Indonesian Batik work,a technique which was industrialised by Dutch traders. The British adopted these processes, setting up factories in the North of England where Asian workers printed English designs for the West African market. So as Kobena Mercer notes the fabric has a mixed identity In Africa it has the allure of imported goods, in Europe it evokes exotica. More recently these cloths have been styled and worn by Black British and African American people as a visual signifier for a connection with and pride in their African roots.

Shonibare`s work examines the contradictions of both contemporary and historical portrayals of Africans living in Britain, a country built on hierarchies of class and race. He has made a series of sculptural pieces, using his trademark African textiles, which take the form of Victorian crinolines and bodices, transforming these usually staid and confining structures into bright, flamboyant sculptures. Many of his pieces have a highly crafted and decorative appearance but at the same time through their translation of materials or juxtaposition of references, provide a critical commentary on the way the orthodox history of art has judged, categorised or completely overlooked other histories, artists and works.

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 03:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

African wax print fabric with pattern of electric shavers

How a Dutch company's batik textiles became the basis of "traditional" West African culture.
By Matt Steinglass, Metropolis Magazine

"Vlisco was founded in 1846 by a famous Dutch merchant family called the van Vlissingens," explains Joop van der Meij, the company's CEO. "One of the van Vlissingen sons had been in Indonesia, where he discovered the batik method of dying cloth. He had the idea that maybe this method could be industrialized in Europe." By the late 1800s Dutch factories were supplying the bulk of the Indonesian batik market, and as Dutch freighters stopped at various African ports on their way over, the fabrics began to gain an African clientele. At the beginning of the twentieth century, when measures were taken to protect domestic Indonesian batik production, the market for imports there slumped. Africa gradually became the exclusive market for Dutch batik, and by the 1960s Vlisco, having merged with all its rivals, had become the exclusive supplier.

In an industry where the reverse is more common, Vlisco is an anomaly: a European-based textile company whose market is in the third world. Almost none of Vlisco's product is bought in Europe or North America. ...

The patterns on the imitation fabrics, meanwhile, are often nearly identical to those on Real Dutch Wax, because the competitors steal them. Van der Meij claims that 80 percent of the designs one sees on wax-print fabrics in Africa started out on Vlisco drawing boards. The company has fought several successful legal actions, but the Asians are not to be deterred. Lately Nigerian textile makers have also been getting in on the act. "We can put the new fabrics out on the market as soon as the containers arrive from Holland," says Agbobli Médémé, service representative of Vlisco's Togolese partner company, V.A.C.-Togo. "The Nigerian copies start showing up eight days later."

So the authentic traditional West African fabrics are the ones produced in Holland, and the stuff made in West Africa is fake? Can this be right?

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 03:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.counterfeitchic.com/
by Susan Scaffidi

The history of fashion is a tale of innovation, but also of imitation. Trendsetters create and embrace new styles, but without copycats there would be no trends. This paradox lies at the heart of Counterfeit Chic.

Long before the digital revolution enabled the downloading of music and movies, the industrial revolution enabled the rapid copying of couture garments - and provoked similar public debates. U.S. intellectual property law, however, has traditionally been reluctant to engage the world of fashion. While large luxury retailers have begun to test the power of law enforcement personnel and the courts against blatant counterfeiters, these high profile handbag wars are only part of the story.

This site is about the culture of the copy within the multi-billion dollar global clothing and textile industry. It's about New York's Canal Street and Beijing's Silk Alley, but also about the cognitive and sociological reasons that make us want to buy or reject knock-offs in the first place. It's about political and legal developments, but also about why both technological efforts and the social norms of the fashion industry continue to be more effective than law in supporting creativity. It's about the centuries-long, arguably productive battle between designers and copyists, and also about why the modern world threatens to upset that balance. It's about the universal phenomenon of copying, and about the law's limited response.

Counterfeit Chic is a multivalent concept. Does it imply a false claim of elegance, assert a defiant redefinition of style, or make some other social/legal statement? Rather than begin with an answer, let's start a conversation.

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 06:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)