And in anticipation...

I'm Kat O'Shaughnessy, a Material Art & Design student in my 5th, and final, year at OCAD.  I was invited in on this project by Dorie Millerson last year, and have been excited about the project since.  My thesis is loosely based on the concept of creating tangible artefacts to be the future remnants of cyberculture and virtual communities, and had already planned on involving a fair amount of wearable electronics/technology.  I am currently taking an intro to electronics course, and next semester will be in wearable tech... I feel this project will coordinate with what I'm doing very well.

I have been interested in the work produced by XSLabs since early 2002, when I was first introduced to the website... and I'm more blown away by Skorpions than any previous work!  Not only are they feats of technical achievement, they're also thoroughly developed conceptual pieces and GORGEOUS designs.  I am so excited to be working with you, Joey!  This is surely bound to impact and improve my body of thesis work.

I've also been considering my options for my future career... and honestly have felt a strong pull towards teaching.  I think that working with the highschool students on this will help me clarify whether I really want to teach, and if so, provide me with a bit more experience prior to applying for a teaching certificate.

Thanks to everyone involved in developing the Digital Threads Network- I'm very glad to be part of it!

Joey Berzowska: introduction

Hey guys! My name is Joey and I will be your Digital Threads electronic textile workshop leader. I plan to blog twice a week until the end of the year (on Tuesdays and Saturdays) and post lots of links, images, videos, and other stuff for you to look at. I will just start out with a few links and my official bio:

Joanna Berzowska is an Associate Professor of Design and Computation Arts and the Director of the Graduate Certificate in Digital Technologies in Design Art Practice at Concordia University. She is a member of the Hexagram Research Institute and the research director of XS Labs, where her team develops innovative methods and applications in electronic textiles and responsive garments. Her art and design work has been shown in the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum (NYC), V&A (London), Millennium Museum (Beijing), SIGGRAPH (Los Angeles and Boston), ISEA (Tallin), Art Directors Club (NYC), Australian Museum (Sydney), NTT ICC (Tokyo), and Ars Electronica (Linz) among others. She lectures internationally about the field of electronic textiles and related social, cultural, aesthetic, and environmental issues. She was selected for Maclean's 2006 Honour Roll as one of "39 Canadians who make the world a better place to live in". She holds a BA in Pure Math from McGill University and a BFA in Design Arts from Concordia University. She received her Masters of Science from MIT and subsequently worked with the Tangible Media Group of the MIT Media Lab.

My personal website: http://www.berzowska.com
XS Labs website: http://www.xslabs.net
Some photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xslabs
Some videos: http://www.youtube.com/xslabs
XS Labs blog: http://xslabs.blogspot.com