groups involved in the project:

The smart textile arena is characterized by application referring to real smart textiles, high performance textiles and wearable technologies. The aim of this project is to investigate how this new smart textile arena can be the playground for developing a new set of wearables that address the question of integrity and to introduce a new level of integration of smart textile in R&D and education.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

SVALBARD & ICELAND

We finally got to a conclusion, deciding for Svalbard Islands and Iceland as our destination where to go, test our products, lead a workshop and have a field exhibition.

The Svalbard archipelago is the closest inhabited archipelago to the North Pole.
It hosts wild animals, huge glaciers, old mines, deep caves and mountains.
The climate is though and rigid, perfect requirements for the extreme weather conditions we are looking for.

photo credits: Joe Decker

On the other hand, Iceland, is the place where the four elements meet: Earth, Water, Air and Fire.
In fact it's a volcanic island surrounded by the North Arctic Ocean, where the earth is rich in lava flows, geyser and spectacular waterfalls.
We also picked Iceland according to the variety of this land and therefore the chance to test our products on different backgrounds and extreme weather.
Besides, Iceland has native people and traditional costumes, something that Svalbard misses as it used to be exploited for coal mines resources in the past and for scientific researches nowadays.

photo credits to Arnar Valdimarsson