On sunday evening we went to listen to Peter Sellars lecture at Teatro Palladium in Rome. The lecture was about art as a social action and Mozart! He talked about the new opera he is setting up in Wien for the Mozart celebrations in 2006 and gave a very inspired overview of what art can do for social inclusion. He is a great guy! Here is a short biography from Wikipedia. The recent opera Dr Atomic was staged in San Francisco last month.

Last week we went to see/hear the performance INSEN a great work from Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Japanese pianist and composer and Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai). The performance was excellent! Beautiful visuals such as gigantic stylized donuts were appearing, changing shape/color and vibrating from a huge LED screen during Sakamoto’s solos. The visuals were designed by Karl Kliem founder of the label Dienststelle. We spent some time trying to understand were the sensors where placed (yes, we are a little geeky when it comes to this).

To see some of the visuals you can visit Ryuichi Sakamoto blog, and to listen to the concert visit the Raster-Noton site.

Solve the Hug Shirt mystery on NTV Nippon Television Network program Masaka no Mystery!

The show is a Mystery Quizshow where contestants are invited to solve the whatever mystery is featured, in this case the Hug Shirt!

Watch the Masaka no Mystery video here! (20 Mb Quicktime)
Enjoy the segment, in Japanese without subtitles! Is really exciting and kawaii!

Thames and Hudson Publishers have just released a landmark new book “Fashioning The Future” by Suzanne Lee.

The book takes a close look at the massive changes that are beginning to take place in the clothing and fashion world due to emergent technologies and smart materials. It gives a thorough overview of the state-of-the-art and a look into the future of clothing and fashion, including wearable technology.

The book covers a number of CuteCircuit projects including the Kinetic Dress, and the Mystique Dress with descriptions and photos. The first edition sold out in the first weeks of publication, and is already in reprinting!

Order your copy directly form the publisher here.
Or you can also order a copy from Amazon UK here!

In addition to CuteCircuit projects, the book also covers projects from designers and companies like Sony, MIT, Phillips, Ideo, NASA, Hussein Chalayan, and Issey Miyake.