Design Debate

Unusual but rather cool, fancy wearing a backpack that charges your phone? You could be galavanting about, immersed in nature, all the while your backpack - made from smart solar beads - is charging your devise.  Really clever, and interesting to look at too. The Radus backpack by Pauline van Dongen uses such innovative technology, or as she puts it "this magical material holds secret powers: each bead is a tiny spherical solar cell that is woven into the fabric, creating a unique energy harvesting textile." This relationship of technology and garment is one van Dongen has explored before. It makes sense really, with the sun beating on our back we may as well put it to good use! See more at Dezeen . 

  Artist Michelle Heron is a raising star in the art world, selected as one of the must see artists at The Other Art Fair London 2017. In particular her shop front paintings are what I love. The British high street is changing all the time, and shops I would probably walk by and think were tatty or an eye sore, Michelle gives new life. She captures these fading memories and gives them new purpose and a new audience, a way to live on. Her use of colour, and in particular, light is what I think brings these faded fronts alive. Michelle reveals the beauty in the every day. In zoning in on one shop at a time she makes what can often be an overwhelming urban landscape into something to be considered and admired, rather than over looked.