Knitted electromagnetic shields

Craft & Design
Knitted electromagnetic shields

Knitted Kitchen
Becky @ CRAFT spotted a nice design noir project, she writes –

From the technophobic department, Zoe Papadopoulou at the Royal Academy of Art is making these shields for anything electric, knitting a copper filament in her cozies and electrically grounding it. This provides some shielding from the electromagnetic fields these devices emit. Truth is, however, that the waves running through the air (cell phone frequencies, mainly) are a lot farther reaching than those from your toaster. That’s why they invented shielding fabric and paint! They’re still nice as a social commentary art piece, though.

Craftzine.com blog: Knitted Electromagnetic Shields – Link.

Related:
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Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects – Link.

Dunne and Raby investigate the real physical and cultural effects of the digital domain, demonstrating that mobile phones, computers and other electronic objects such as televisions profoundly influence people’s experience of their environment. Their ideas have important implications for architecture and design. In this, their first major book, they introduce their extraordinary new way of thinking about objects, space and behaviour to a broad audience. The book is divided into three sections: 1. Manifesto, introducing the authors’ ideas about electromagnetic space. 2. Conversations, in which Dunne and Raby talk to a variety of designers, architects and artists about the impact electronic technology has on their practice. 3. Placebo, presenting the intriguing results of a project involving Dunne and Raby’s working furniture prototypes, including a chair that lets the sitter know when radiation is passing through his body.

Design Noir @ Amazon – Link.

14 thoughts on “Knitted electromagnetic shields

  1. crn says:

    Yep, my washing machine really needs some knitted copper fabric to shield me from the bad vibes. After all, it’s not like there’s already at least 1mm of solid steel between me and anything electrical inside the machine. When I am king, there will so be mandatory Basic Physics for all art students.

  2. pt says:

    @crn – read the design noir book i posted with this project, there are people who have disorders that involve “thinking” the em can get them.

  3. howajo says:

    yeah, and it’s not like all the wires powering all that stuff are completely unshielded and running throughout the house… oh wait.

  4. howajo says:

    yeah, and it’s not like all the wires powering all that stuff are completely unshielded and running throughout the house… oh wait.

  5. Rob says:

    Let’s hear more about shielding fabric and paint!

  6. crn says:

    @pt: Interesting stuff. Looking at the picture again, the cover over the radio antenna should probably have tipped me off that this is more an invitation to think about the consequences of surrounding ourselves with technology few if any of us understand than a practical suggestion ;-)

    @Rob: The book mentions that these people http://lessemf.com/emf-shie.html sell shielding fabrics and paints to keep the electric away, including ready made silver plated boxer shorts. Very comfy I’m sure.

  7. Liberal Arts Major Electrofear (LAME) says:

    You mean there are *wires* in the house? Full of *electricity*? Oh God! I’ll have to knit covers for all those…and…and…and my IPod has *electrons* in it? How will I uncover my espresso machine to get my latté in the morning? It’s all *so* complicated!!

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