All you need to know about Manhattan culture and so much more...
The Manhattan Solstice, or Manhattanhenge, occurs when the sunsets directly on the streets of the New York traffic grid. It happens twice a year, in late May and mid July.
Today’s Manhattan solstice was no exception. The sun playing along the NYC streets tantalized photographers who congregated at each intersection to capture the sun as it melted into the horizon in perfect view.
As a film student in college, I often viewed my production-oriented classmates as tech-heads and gadget hounds. Tied up by electrical wires, I came up with sportive nicknames for them: the camera buff, the visual FX junkie, the techno-fetishist. To them, content and story were means to an end; it was the rush of copulating with metal that really seemed to agitate their senses.
I preferred theory to being on set. I never managed to obtain that tactile high; the current of electricity that shot through their veins whenever they plugged in a wire or pulled a strip of celluloid through a Steenbeck. With no less fervor, I enjoyed discussing the social implications of the latest film with my friends in the cinema studies department, who eschewed “making stuff” for the loftiness of deconstruction. The general gist was that detachment from the creative process – not sticking your hands in the primordial goo – offered you true objectivity.
The 3D Printshow, an annual four-day consumer-friendly event at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Pavilion, aims to satisfy the urges and convictions of both doers and deconstructionists. Three floors exhibited the various uses of plastic printing machines that ranged from the ornamental (3D printed jewelry) to the potentially life changing (bionic ears), and showed the advantages of the theoretical and the hands-on, with varying degrees of success.
Three-dimensional printing stands in relation, in theory and in practice, to the Maker movement, which has now become a part of international lexicon. Maker Faire, Make Magazine‘s festival, secured a place in the DIY parthenon back in 2006 with the first event in San Francisco. This 3D Printshow in particular was created in the UK by an intrepid Brit. The event has toured Paris and London. Even my boss, a self-identifying Neo Luddite in his 70s, uses the term in casual conversation.
Looking at the event as a whole, there is a valid tendency among certain circles to praise the potential of the radical elements and dispense with the more fanciful as the whimsy of business-minded Silicon Valley types with a fetish for fun fur. A recent article in The New Yorker pointedly called out the money crowd for overshadowing the innovators and placed Maker culture in a refreshing economic and social context. The event I attended offered an Elite Business Conference to understand how 3D printing could help corporations, as well as an Investor Session with plenty of opportunities to flash witty business card designs. But it also offered a live runway show of fashion designs that highlighted the conceptual over the commercial, green thumb student thesis projects, and a Medical and Planet Earth section, which focused on teams that use the printing process for ecological and medical innovation.
Permeating the show is a palpable respect for play. One exhibitor, Extreme Flyers, created a tiny remote-controlled helicopter with a built-in HD camera. I watched it glide through the air and weightlessly alight in the palm of my hand. As it hovered above the crowd I wondered what it would be like to make a film shot exclusively by a toy helicopter. For a moment, I found myself joining the crowd, jointly craning my neck in thrall of the beautiful plastic poetically trapped in mid-air.
In this instance, the event successfully married the techie with the conceptual, the politically and socially minded with the thrill of the hands-on. Makers “make” just for the fun of it, but seem all the better for it. It’s in the exciting stages of experimentation, error, and play that their ideas seemed best suited for refinement and further developments in advocacy. Perhaps that’s something we can all stand to benefit from – Neo Luddites and gadget hounds alike.
From 2011-2013, the mobile BMW Guggenheim Lab studied life in modern cities, offered free programs and workshops, and implemented projects across New York City, Berlin, and Mumbai. 100 Urban Trends emerged from the Lab as a database for the most talked-about trends in city life. Participatory City, a recent exhibit at the Guggenheim, provided an overview for the major trends explored by the project.
The Lab teams were interdisciplinary, and included experts in the fields of urbanism, architecture, art, design, science, technology, education, and sustainability. What follows is a sample of standout trends from the Lab’s work in NYC.
Altruism may be a surprising trend for anyone who thinks of NYC as a hardened, “get yours” type of city. “Altruism” means showing concern for the wellbeing of others in a selfless way (even at cost to oneself). During Love Night, psychologists and neuroeconomics experts attempted to design environments that could inspire even the most wolfish of Wall Street to act decently. The idea is that design combined with citizen action can encourage friendly behavior in daily life.
Bike politics takes a critical look at the debate on bike infrastructure in cities—covering topics such as traffic laws, cyclist fatalities, and the need for more bike lanes. During the Mobility in Cities event, Benoit Jacob, head of BMW’s division on sustainable transportation, met with New York City Department of Transportation chief of staff Margarat Newman. The two brainstormed on the future of urban mobility, exploring new possibilities for public transportation, cars, and bikes.
Evolutionary infrastructure looks at modalities of architecture and city planning that allow for natural and artificial systems to work effectively together. Engineered and natural processes are viewed as reciprocal evolutionary forces. Michael Manfredi and Marion Weiss from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design led a workshop on evolutionary infrastructure, with the aim of discovering renewed potential for mega-utopias.
Hacking the city refers to the capacity of urban inhabitants to transform city systems through informal actions. Sociologist Saskia Sassen came up with the idea, in order to show how open-source, grassroots participation can help make cities more habitable and humane. The idea is to subvert the meaning of hacking from technological to humanist. Perhaps dog-walkers, old ladies on stoops, and other vigilant community members are preferable to the most advanced surveillance technologies.
Resilience is a city’s ability to cope with and recover from hardship. While it can mean different things, often a resilient city is able to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. It goes without saying that NYC’s response to Superstorm Sandy falls under this category. A panel discussion took place on different ways that New Yorkers can actively respond to environmental stress in the coming years.
Urban psychology studies the effects of city life on mental health and wellbeing, looking into areas such as stress, overstimulation, anxiety, relationship to space, and urban fatigue. Journalist and Lab member Charles Montgomery gave a talk (Comfort, Cities, and the Science of Happiness), arguing that similar components go into designing happy, sustainable, and resilient cities.
Some have criticized the BMW Guggenheim Lab for being overly conceptual and having little impact on actual urban existence. During its time in the East Village, some residents complained that the ideas being explored by the Lab where already in effect in the area (such as community gardens, locally owned art galleries, and small businesses). Critics said that the Lab might have done more good in a community lacking the resources of the LES.
While the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s work was highly academic, it’s relevancy can’t be blown off easily. During the Lab’s stint in NYC, it explored and engaged with critical issues for New Yorkers. However, the extent to which city-dwellers will be able to apply what was learned through the Lab in daily life remains to be seen.
Perfecting urban green roofs for their environmental and social benefits is a good example of where science and design meet.
The benefits of green roofs include insulation, reduced energy use, the removal of air pollutants and green house gases, increased roof lifespan, reduced heat stress, stormwater runoff management, beautification, and improved health.
There are two types of green roofs—extensive and intensive. Extensive green roofs have a soil depth of 1”- 5,” and are planted with sedums and short grasses. Intensive green roofs need at least one foot of soil and can be vegetated with trees, shrubs, and perennials.
Biology PhD candidate at York University in Toronto Scott McIvor has questioned the performance of sedum to absorb water and promote biodiversity, claiming that plants adapted to local conditions work better.
Sedum doesn’t absorb water as efficiently as some native species, while it is useful for lowering the building energy requirements of air-conditioning and heating.
Determining which green roofs plants best support biodiversity requires finding the right soil composition for microorganisms to live in. This is an ongoing question scientists are exploring.
Figuring out how to best integrate sedum with other plants, to maximize the potential benefits of a green roof, is where design comes in. Producing a green roof for rainwater run-off and climate management requires creative and efficient design.
Alive Structures is a company of landscape designers and environmentalists based out of Brooklyn. They do residential, community, and educational green roof and garden projects across the five boroughs. Their green roofs often integrate locally grown sedum mats with native plants.
Part of what makes a particular landscape architecture piece interact well with its environment is its artistic quality—a design for beauty as well as function.
I learned this from a friend and gardener, who taught me that working with plants is an art, as much as working with musical notes, letters, or pictures.
The shape and placement of plants produces a wide array of feelings in us, and can contribute dynamically to how we interpret the city’s architecture.
Of course, as a green roof is a part of a whole building, it must also function in support of the people that work or live within that building. One of the most present benefits of green roofs to urban dwellers is the chance to interact outdoors with plants.
Being outdoors and spending time around plants have both been shown to correlate with increased wellbeing, health, and social functioning. This makes sense, as the design function of humans is to actively interact with our environment.
Rooftops play an important role in New York City’s culture and architecture. The conscious Manhattanite is aware of the city on multiple levels—horizontal, vertical, urbane and environmental. Plants are the city’s symbiotic allies—an extra set of lungs to help us breath and continue growing.
Imagine if at the office you could take five minutes to walk outside onto a small field basking in the sun. A space to think and develop a relationship with some part of nature.
The good news is that Bloomberg’s PlaNYC initiative offers a tax abatement to green roof property owners for up to $150,000.
Green roofs can contribute to LEED certification as well—by protecting or restoring habitats, maximizing open space, storm-water quality control, reducing the heat island effect, and increasing water efficiency.
Green roofs support biodiversity by providing a habitat for native plants, invertebrates, birds and other animals.
Small-scale, local food production is also possible with green roofs—creating opportunities for urban communities to partake in healthy, in-season produce.
Green roofs do require maintenance, especially if you expect to grow food on them. But that’s sort of the point—taking time to slow down. If “getting lost” in nature sounds like a waste of time, you can look it as a chance to recharge your battery.
Much of the health benefits of green roofs are rooted in aesthetics. Green roofs give us something beautiful to look at and meditate on. They also reduce noise pollution, which is a major contributor of urban stress.
Evidence shows that simply being around plants leads to lower blood pressure, increased attentiveness, productivity and job satisfaction, lower anxiety, and improved wellbeing. Green roofs can serve as collective spaces for individuals to cooperate and work in, while enjoying the beauty of nature together.
The mental state induced by working with plants has deep evolutionary roots. Tending plants can help the mind form a conscious relationship of stewardship to the environment.
At some level, green roofs might be viewed as a built-in escape mechanism. For me, they are a welcome refuge from the stress, anxiety, and noise of the city.
There is no single or obvious solution to designing sustainable cities. Green roofs may work well in some places, but they are certainly not a fix-all for the environmental shift that we are now experiencing.
However, if designed well, green roofs can support biodiversity, reduce the energy use of buildings, and help mitigate the effects of climate change. Their design and implementation can positively influence how city dwellers interact with and are conscious of their environment.
It is a concept which easily escapes the minds and comprehension of most given the scope of its significance. The singularity is a theoretical and mathematically predicted event set to occur in the near future. What sort of event? Well to put it bluntly, an event which will alter our entire planet and the way we live our lives. The singularity is near. Whether or not you believe it will occur, on some level, it has already started.
In simpler terms, the singularity is a exponentially based hypothetical which says that the growth of technology, pertaining to the size and capabilities of individual computer processing units, is rising at such a rapid pace that it will surpass human intelligence within this century. Ray Kurzweil, an American author and futurist, is the foremost authority on the singularity, citing many strong evidential theories as to why this is indeed a real event. According to Kurzweil, given the current pace of technology growth (the current pace of technology growth rises more each single hour than it did in its first 90 years of existence combined – see chart), the singularity, which is a “zero point” where the intelligence of the technological world will surpass that of humanity, shall occur in or around the year 2045. Wrap your head around that. Most of you reading this will be alive in the year 2045.
The chart below gives a view of the rising of technological growth. The rise of growth is not a straight line, but indeed curves upward, and will eventually become a straight line. That is the singularity.
Need a little more breakdown and explanation? Watch This Video.
So what does this mean for us? Well, according to futurists, it means a complete change in the way we live our lives. Completely. In the coming years, great advances in science are expected, including graphic and virtual reality advances so pristine that the actual world and the virtual world will be indistinguishable. Kurzweil describes a future society where most of humanity lives in the virtual world most of the time, using it to live out fantasies and escape their lives. Nanorobotics is also expected to emerge, which is a science with endless possibilities. Imagine robots small enough to be injected into your bloodstream to prevent heart attacks, or prevent infections. Imagine robots small enough to eradicate cancer, or kill a cold virus before you even feel symptoms, or gather and burn fat within your body while you sit at your desk. As hard as it is to imagine, it’s being developed right now.
One can easily see how such advancements in technology would be astoundingly good for us as a species. But there are of course negative aspects to the singularity. To begin with, fully self-aware artificial intelligence. It doesn’t take a Terminator film to know that intelligent machines which are potentially billions of times smarter than us is not something that rests so easily in the back of your mind. The year 2045 is when the development of technology is expected to be “taken over” by technology itself, and is expected to thereafter grow at a pace faster than we as humans can even comprehend. In the interest of looking at technology as a series of individual and collaborative machines, we will have in essence created a new species and will have built them with the ability to advance themselves at their own free will.
Kurzweil wrote a fascinating book called “The Singularity is Near” in 2005 in which he actively predicts significant events and milestones in the growth of technology in the coming decades. While the events are certainly not exact (they are predictions based on exponential growth; Kurzweil cannot predict the future), they are in many cases feasible, and as a whole, incredibly overwhelming:
2010
- Supercomputers will have the same raw computing power as human brains, though the software to emulate human thinking on those computers does not yet exist. (IBM Sequoia)
- Computers will start to disappear as distinct physical objects, meaning many will have nontraditional shapes or will be embedded in clothing and everyday objects.
- Full-immersion audio-visual virtual reality will exist.
2010s
- The decade in which “Bridge Two”, the revolution in Genetics/Biotechnology, is to reach its peak. During the 2010s, humans will have the means of changing their genes; not just “designer babies” will be feasible, but designer baby boomers through the rejuvenation of all of one’s body’s tissues and organs by transforming one’s skin cells into youthful versions of every other cell type. People will be able to “reprogram” their own biochemistry away from disease and aging, radically extending life expectancy.
- Computers become smaller and increasingly integrated into everyday life.
- More and more computer devices will be used as miniature web servers, and more will have their resources pooled for computation.
- High-quality broadband Internet access will become available almost everywhere.
- Eyeglasses that beam images onto the users’ retinas to produce virtual reality will be developed. They will also come with speakers or headphone attachments that will complete the experience with sounds. These eyeglasses will become a new medium for advertising as advertising will be wirelessly transmitted to them as one walks by various business establishments. This was fictionalized in Dennō Coil.
- The VR glasses will also have built-in computers featuring “virtual assistant” programs that can help the user with various daily tasks.
- Virtual assistants would be capable of multiple functions. One useful function would be real-time language translation in which words spoken in a foreign language would be translated into text that would appear as subtitles to a user wearing the glasses.
- Cell phones will be built into clothing and will be able to project sounds directly into the ears of their users.
- Advertisements will utilize a new technology whereby two ultrasonic beams can be targeted to intersect at a specific point, delivering a localized sound message that only a single person can hear. This was fictionalized in the films Minority Report and Back to the Future Part II.
2015
- By now, it is likely that “clean a house” will be within the capabilities of a household robot.
2018
- 1013 bits (=10 TB) of computer memory—roughly the equivalent of the memory space in a single human brain—will cost $1000.
2020s
- The decade in which “Bridge Three”, the revolution in Nanotechnology, is to begin: allowing humans to vastly overcome the inherent limitations of biology, as no matter how much humanity fine-tunes their biology, they will never be as capable otherwise. This decade also marks the revolution in Robotics (Strong AI), as an AI is expected to pass the Turing test by the last year of the decade (2029), meaning it can pass for a human being (though the first A.I. is likely to be the equivalent of an average, educated human). What follows then will be an era of consolidation in which non-biological intelligence will undergo exponential growth (Runaway AI), eventually leading to the extraordinary expansion contemplated by the Singularity, in which human intelligence is multiplied by billions by the mid-2040s.
- Early in this decade, humanity will have the requisite hardware to emulate human intelligence within a $1000 personal computer, followed shortly by effective software models of human intelligence toward the middle of the decade: this will be enabled through the continuing exponential growth of brain-scanning technology, which is doubling in bandwidth, temporal and spatial resolution every year, and will be greatly amplified with nanotechnology, allowing us to have a detailed understanding of all the regions of the human brain and to aid in developing human-level machine intelligence by the end of this decade.
- Computers less than 100 nm in size will be possible.
- As one of their first practical applications, nanomachines are used for medical purposes.
- Highly advanced medical nanobots will perform detailed brainscans on live patients.
- Accurate computer simulations of the entire human brain will exist due to these hyper-accurate brain scans, and the workings of the brain will be understood.
- Nanobots capable of entering the bloodstream to “feed” cells and extract waste will exist (though not necessarily be in wide use) by the end of this decade. They will make the normal mode of human food consumption obsolete.
- By the late 2020s, nanotech-based manufacturing will be in widespread use, radically altering the economy as all sorts of products can suddenly be produced for a fraction of their traditional-manufacture costs. The true cost of any product is now the amount it takes to download the design schematics.
- By the later part of this decade, virtual reality will be so high-quality that it will be indistinguishable from real reality.
- The threat posed by genetically engineered pathogens permanently dissipates by the end of this decade as medical nanobots—infinitely more durable, intelligent and capable than any microorganism—become sufficiently advanced.
- The many variations of “Human Body 2.0” (as Kurzweil calls it) are incrementally accumulated into this and the following decade, with each organ and body system having its own course of refinement and development. It ultimately consists of a nano-technological system of nourishment and circulation, obsoleting many internal organs, brain-extension and an improved skeleton.
2023
- 1016 calculations per second—roughly the equivalent of one human brain—will cost $1,000.
2025
- The most likely year for the debut of advanced nanotechnology.
- Some military UAVs and land vehicles will be 100% computer-controlled.
2030s
- Mind uploading becomes successful and perfected by the end of this decade as humans become software-based: living out on the Web, projecting bodies whenever they want or need (whether in virtual or real reality), and living indefinitely so long as they maintain their “mind file”. Eventually, all human beings (including those with transbiological 2.0 or 3.0 bodies) will migrate to this postbiological state except for those who wish to remain unenhanced: the transbiological era giving way to the postbiological era.
- Nanomachines could be directly inserted into the brain and could interact with brain cells to totally control incoming and outgoing signals. As a result, truly full-immersion virtual reality could be generated without the need for any external equipment. Afferent nerve pathways could be blocked, totally canceling out the “real” world and leaving the user with only the desired virtual experience.
- Brain nanobots could also elicit emotional responses from users.
- Using brain nanobots, recorded or real-time brain transmissions of a person’s daily life known as “experience beamers” will be available for other people to remotely experience. This is very similar to how the characters in Being John Malkovich were able to enter the mind of Malkovich and see the world through his eyes.
- Recreational uses aside, nanomachines in people’s brains will allow them to greatly expand their cognitive, memory and sensory capabilities, to directly interface with computers, and to “telepathically” communicate with other, similarly augmented humans via wireless networks.
- The same nanotechnology should also allow people to alter the neural connections within their brains, changing the underlying basis for the person’s intelligence, memories and personality.
- The many variations of “Human Body 3.0” are gradually implemented during this and the following decade; It mostly likely lacks a fixed, corporeal form and can alter its shape and external appearance at will via foglet-like nanotechnology.
2040s
- People spend most of their time in full-immersion virtual reality (Kurzweil has cited The Matrix as a good example of what the advanced virtual worlds will be like, without the dystopian twist).
- Foglets are in use.
- Nonbiological intelligence will be billions of times more capable than biological intelligence.
2045: The Singularity
- $1000 buys a computer a billion times more intelligent than every human combined. This means that average and even low-end computers are vastly smarter than even highly intelligent, unenhanced humans.
- The technological singularity occurs as artificial intelligences surpass human beings as the smartest and most capable life forms on the Earth. Technological development is taken over by the machines, who can think, act and communicate so quickly that normal humans cannot even comprehend what is going on. The machines enter into a “runaway reaction” of self-improvement cycles, with each new generation of A.I.s appearing faster and faster. From this point onwards, technological advancement is explosive, under the control of the machines, and thus cannot be accurately predicted (hence the term “Singularity”).
- The Singularity is an extremely disruptive, world-altering event that forever changes the course of human history. The extermination of humanity by violent machines is unlikely (though not impossible) because sharp distinctions between man and machine will no longer exist thanks to the existence of cybernetically enhanced humans and uploaded humans.
Post-2045: “Waking up” the Universe
- The physical bottom limit to how small computer transistors (or other equivalent, albeit more effective components, such as memristors integrated into Crossbar latches) can be shrunk is reached. From this moment onwards, computers can only be made more powerful if they are made larger in size.
- Because of this, A.I.s convert more and more of the Earth’s matter into engineered, computational substrate capable of supporting more A.I.s. until the whole Earth is one, gigantic computer, except for a few nature reserves set aside on the planetary surface for those humans who decided to remain in their natural state. “MOSH’s” (Mostly Original Substrate Human) who choose to remain purely organic would still possess virtual assistants that will act as their transcendent servants, living in the blurred real world (“foglet-reality”) and being provided with environments and everything they could possibly need as they live out the rest of their normal lives unless they enhance themselves.
- At this point, the only possible way to increase the intelligence of the machines any farther is to begin converting all of the matter and energy in the universe into similar massive computers. A.I.s radiate outward from Earth, first into the Solar System and then out into interstellar space, then galaxies in all directions, utilizing starships that are Von Neumann probes with nanobot crews, breaking down whole planets, stars, moons, and meteoroids and reassembling them into computers. This, in effect, “wakes up” the universe as all the inanimate “dumb” matter (rocks, dust, gases, etc.) is converted into structured matter capable of supporting life (albeit synthetic life).
- Kurzweil predicts that machines might have the ability to make planet-sized computers by 2099, which underscores how enormously technology will advance after the Singularity.
- The process of “waking up” the universe could be completed well before the end of the 22nd century, provided humans are not limited by the speed of light.
- With the entire universe made into a giant, highly efficient supercomputer, AI and human hybrids (so integrated that, in truth it is a new category of “life”) would have both supreme intelligence and physical control over the universe. Humanity will still not possess infinite levels of any attributes, as the accelerating change of evolution never reaches an infinite measure (though it moves rapidly in that direction), becoming, as Kurzweil writes, “moving inexorably toward this monotheistic conception of God, though never reaching this ideal”; even with theories such as the holographic universe. The final chapter however notes that, if possible, the ability to create and colonize other universes (and if there is a way to do this, humanity’s vast intelligence is likely to harness it, as with surpassing/bypassing the speed of light) could allow the intelligence of the human/machine civilization to extend indefinitely, akin to a mathematical singularity. If not, then saturating humanity’s own universe will remain their ultimate fate.
– via Wikipedia.org
As members of the current race of humanity, it should be impossible for the occurrence of the singularity or anything like it not to affect and completely change the lives of every living person. As Kurzweil outlines in his writings, a post-singularity world would potentially be life on a completely different planet.
There is much debate as to whether or not this epoch of human life will even occur, or if so, to what extent. But it can be said that the evidence is certainly all around us. Each year cell phones and computers get smaller and thinner. Processing units grow in capacity and shrink in size. Medical breakthroughs are made every day. The theory that technology is certainly growing at a consistently faster pace is anything but a theory. Over 1.4 billion citizens of the planet earth have smartphones. Medicine utilizes more machinery as replacement body parts every year. The fact is, no matter which direction we move as a society, the singularity, or an event like it, is near. What is the best way to prepare? Stay informed, and know what to expect.
William Shakespeare once wrote, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances…” If the world is truly a stage then the people of New York City are at the very center of it. The human story that unfolds here daily is so rife with drama that it fairly swallows you up as soon as you leave your front door to wade into it. As shown here, just by going a few blocks in any direction you can encounter: creativity, romance, sadness, ingenuity, desperation, heroism, despair, and solemn determination. Each New Yorker contributing an equal amount to City’s story. Walt Whitman summed it up best by saying, “The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.”
Diana Eng is an American Fashion designer who gained popularity on the second season of the hit show Project Runway. Unfortunately, Diana was eliminated on the sixth episode, The “Nicky Hilton Party Dress” episode. Although she did not make it to the winner’s circle on Project Runway, her talent and ingenious designs have certainly won the attention of fashion lovers and nerds alike.
Diana Eng is best known for her innovative and technological designs, yes I said technological. Diana says she like to, “look at technology, math and science and how to integrate it into fashion designs.” Diana Eng has surely brought technology into the fashion world with her thermochromic scarves. Thermochromic you ask? Scarves that change color and design according to the weather! She has designed a scarf that when the temperature is below 64 degrees snowflakes begin to appear, and as the temperature decreases, say below 38 degrees, the size of the snowflakes increase and the pattern slowly engulfs the scarf. It is truly magical to watch and one of a kind. Below is a video from CNN’s The Next List and shows the science of the scarf.
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/tech/2013/02/19/exp-the-next-list-diana-eng-preview-1.cnn
I just checked out Diana Eng’s website and I am officially obsessed! She has some amazing items featured. You must check out her website!
Below are a few of the items that really sparked my interest.
The above Lady Bug pin is featured on CNN’s The Next List’s Blog.
The Fibonacci Scarf utilizes the famous math formula known as the “Fibonacci Sequence.” Basically the sequence involves adding the next number to the previous. For example, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21,… The Fibonacci sequence occurs in nature and Diana Eng used the sequence to knit this impeccable scarf.
Diana Eng is the definition of a unique designer. Her mix of fashion and science are remarkable. In a field where being inventive and forward are keys to being successful, Diana Eng undoubtedly brings something original to the fashion world. Personally, I look forward to watching her career develop and am fascinated to see what new technologically ground-breaking designs she will come up with next. CNN is going to be featuring Diana Eng on their show The Next List this Sunday at 2:30pm. I’ve caught this show a few times and admire the way CNN features a new innovator or idea each week. The subjects of the show are not always well known but definitely deserve to be. You can also check out their blog if you happen to miss an episode.
http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/19/high-tech-meets-high-fashion/
