Knitting Identities
In just a few days, designer Flora Miranda’s live performance—a fascinating collaboration between the digital realm and the worlds of design and music—will be shared at the Forecast Festival. Visitors may experience the entire process, and gain valuable insights into Miranda’s wholly innovative way of working, which will shape future concepts of creativity.
Miranda decided to tackle one of our era’s key questions: How does my online presence shape me? She wants to remind us of the many traces that we leave behind on the internet by presenting us with the direct physical result of our virtual decisions. Miranda’s mentor, the designer Max Wolf, explains how he is learning from her project: “I’m inspired by her boldness. Along with the team she has assembled, Flora has fearlessly engaged with very diverse disciplines, and she enters new fields of expertise all the time, from fashion production to big-data analytics, from artificial intelligence to mass customization on an industrial scale.”
The designer has created a design process that uses the visitor’s social media presence to determine the design of a knitted garment, which is then made as a real-life product. Wolf emphasizes the relevance of the project to our digital age, explaining that allowing virtual algorithms to shape creative decisions is a cutting-edge process. He adds that “neither we—nor anyone—can possibly grasp yet how this new collaboration will transform creativity in all its forms.” Where does he see the project going? For him, this is just the beginning. If Miranda and her team can expand and market the concept successfully, they could achieve long-term success: “I can see from what she’s already accomplished that she can make it.”
Photos: Domen:VanDeVelde, Flora Miranda