Curious Yulia
  • About
  • Research
  • Jewelry
  • Events
  • Ventures
    • Chasing Lula
    • Enchanted Wearables
  • Hobbies
    • Creativity Boosters
  • Contact

International Symposium on Wearable Computers

14/9/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
The 19th International Symposium on Wearable Computers in Osaka, where I presented a paper about current developments in jewelry-like wearable devices, was a full on adventure! 
0 Comments

Japan: the land of the rising sun

13/9/2015

1 Comment

 
I was invited to present my research paper of jewelry at the conference in Osaka. It was my first time in Japan, and inevitably, I combined work with holidays, which guaranteed sensory overload. Met some remarkable people, presented my latest research, seen most beautiful gardens, played in the enchanted bamboo forest, discovered new style of botanical illustrations, got lost in the endless translations tunnels, and seen a future imagined for us in 1974.
1 Comment

MADE 2015

1/2/2015

0 Comments

 
A set of new enameled peaces by Chasing Lula to be displayed at 
2015: 3 - 26 February
Display Cases : MADE 2015 JEWELLERY 
61 Westminster Bridge Rd, London SE1 7HT
0 Comments

Women in Tech

3/10/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
There is much talk about absence of artist in the technology. There is even more talk about absence of women in the technology. But in fact London’s cultural and technological scene is going through a remarkable transformation. Women, and some arty women at that, are breaking old stereotypes and mixing toys, art, music and tech. There are wider background changes, of cause. Creative technological events like Kinteica Art Fair, V&A Digital Weekend and Mini Maker Fairs became must-see cultural events of the London’s art calendar and are far from being specialised for the narrow, dear I say geeky crowd. And the Arduino has been called an enabling device not for nothing, with Little Bits, Lilypad Arduino and Bare Conductive challenging and supplementing cables and seemingly intimidating circuits. Thanks to inspiring contributions of groups like MzTech, Codasign, South London Makerspace, London Hack Space and countless others, the technology in London is accessible to all and used by many. So it might be time to stop being surprised that creative women are being involved in exiting technological endeavours. Perhaps the next step is to make sure that seeing a man on a tube with knitting needles is also no longer an oddity.
0 Comments

V&A Digital Design Weekend

21/7/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
One of the my Modern Keepsakes, called The Distant Heart will be featured at the V&A's Digital Design Weekend as a part of the London Design Festival. 

The Distant Heart is a computational necklace, developed as a part of the research into rectifying the emotional void created when families, friends and loved ones move away from each other. By tapping into the emerging infrastructure of the Internet of Things, the necklace wirelessly receives real-time heartbeat data from a paired device, and interprets it into the affective expressions, embedded into the necklace.
1 Comment

A Duck

31/3/2014

0 Comments

 
If it flaps like a duck, quacks like a duck, eats like a duck, and excretes like a duck, is it a duck? This was one of the questions that philosophers asked themselves in 18th century when discussing peculiar new curiosity, made by ever-sensational French inventor from Grenoble: The Digesting Duck[1]. The duck by Jacques de Vaucanson was a sophisticated automata that not only imitated the stereotypical movements and sounds of the duck, but claimed to mimic its biological function of digestion. And although the claim was somewhat exaggerated, Vaucanson managed to give a convincing appearance of the process, believing that it is just a matter of time when he could be able to improve his creation. Whether many of his contemporaries were interested in reductionist debate or not, most spectators of the duck, were of the opinion that there is something deeply unsettling and yet appealing about realistic behavior of living creature, embodied by the mechanical object.
Picture
[1]  Canard Digérateur (The Digesting Duck) by Jacques de Vaucanson, destroyed in the fire (1739)
0 Comments

The Fruit of Passion

14/2/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
It turned out that one of the ways to make friends with the neighbors is to ask them for the cutting from the Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis) vine that they forgot about in their front yard. I first noticed the plant few months ago when I saw a local fox trying to bite one of the low hanging fruits of it. At the later inspection the fruit itself turned out not to be particularly tasty, even for the fox. But the vine had beautiful alien-looking flowers that just had to be painted.  
1 Comment

Emerging Artforms

12/2/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
As I contemplate the new direction that my creative processes is taking, I came across an inspiring and telling documentary from by Isaac Niemand, called "New Art and the Young Artists behind it". It is based on the 2010 Contemporary Culture Festival in São Paulo, Brazil. 
0 Comments

Urban Survivors

15/12/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
In the summer I was asked to select an interesting local habitat and to identify flowering plants within it. I was spoilt for choice with London'd numerous parks and loans and nearby bits of wilderness. But while watering my own plants, I had a conversation with a neighbour, who could not decide wither to pull her pretty blooming weeds out, or let them decorate her front yard. At the end, we decided that it weeds are weeds only if we do not like them, thus her Yellow Corydalis remained in place. But the conversation made me look closer at the plants that were persistently coming up and flourished in the most unlikely cracks in the asphalts and stone walls. I identified over 17 species on my street alone, and those were only the once that had pretty flowers in bloom! Here are some of these urban survivors that I chose to paint (bottom left, up and over to right):

1. Taraxacum seed, scale 1:5
2. Cirsium (Common Thistle)
3. Convolvulaceae (Morning glory)
4. Buddleja (Butterfly Bush)
5. Pseudofumaria lutea (Yellow Corydalis)
6. Taraxacum (Dandelion)
0 Comments

The Animated Anemone

13/12/2013

0 Comments

 
The Red Animated Anemone is approximately 1:2 scale animatronic model, anatomically based on the Strawberry anemone (Actinia fragacea), common to the British shores.  It is 27 cm high, 20 cm in diameter, with the Nuno Felt exterior, felted tentacles, Lego Technic parts and actuators, Arduino Nano, and varied other electronic components. 

The mechanism and software employ Open CV face tracking library that works in conjunction with Processing, Arduino, small webcam and two servo motors, to turn the head of the anemone and follow the observer. To mimic the closing motion of the anemone, a simple linear actuator driven buy DC motor and H-drive, pulls the umbrella-like closing mechanism down when the hidden sensor is activated.  

Here is a video of the animated anemone in action.
Inspired by the beauty and faithfulness of the scientific models created in late 1800ds by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, I was interested in attempting to make a scientifically accurate animated specimen that could interact with viewers and/ or its environment. And anemone with its slow tentalising movements, luxurious textures, akin to nuno-felt, and beautiful colors was perfectly suitable for this. 
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Author

    Yulia is a researcher, designer and maker of various beautiful things. 

    Archives

    September 2015
    February 2015
    October 2014
    July 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

    Categories

    All
    Botanicals
    Events
    Kinetics Art

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by @ChasingLuLa
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.