Technology Will Save Us

Technology Will Save Us is a haberdashery for technology and education. We design, manufacture and sell DIY technology Kits and run workshops to help people become makers and creators of technology, not just users. All of our kits are vehicles for education that teach a variety of skills around technology and making.

Our kits are designed around everyday life themes like gardening, music, gaming, play and energy and the technology helps people love these things more. Our kits are fun, easy to make and great for all ages to learn basic skills around technology while making fun and useful things in their everyday lives.

Our complete offer of kits and workshops are a journey for our participants that brings them closer to technology through making and doing. We feel understanding and inspiration comes from hands-on experiences where people can unlock the magic of technology for themselves.

Lucy McRae

Lucy McRae is a Body Architect, exploring the relationship between the body, technology and the grey areas of synthetic and organic materials. The human body is her canvas.

Trained as a classical ballerina and interior designer, Lucy staked her claim as the world’s premier Body Architect during her formative years at Philips Design, where she was brought in to creatively lead an EU project developing stretchable electronics, an electronic tattoo and a range of emotional sensing dresses, making Time’s Best Inventions 2007. After Philips she set up her own studio to focus on a specific topic – one suitable for her personal brand of body architecture. On a search for beauty in the biological, McRae created a Swallowable Parfum, a genetically unique fragrance emitted through the skins surface. Her exploration of the borders of the human body led to an invitation to speak at TED on ‘How Technology will Transform the Body’, and a color changing liquid textile for Swedish popstar ROBYN.

Each of her projects inhabits an artistic realm that draws heavily from readings and erudition in science, sculpture, digital technologies, architecture and fashion, informed by the fringes and extremes of our culture. Her curiosity for transforming materials and discovering the unexpected has led McRae on a search for beauty in the biological. The creative process leads to manipulations of the body that deliver new imaginings of how nature and our increasingly artificial environment relate.

Resisting overtures from established design and film production companies – intent not to compromise her creative vision, she sets her sights on pursuing her passions as a Body Architect. Using science as a way of understanding herself, taking on serious topics like genetic manipulation or human cloning to inform her artworks. Set on challenging the limits of the body, McRae manipulates the body’s natural structure to invent novel anatomical forms and adornments that are imbued with a haunting visceral realism that has become her creative insignia. As she frays the edges of science and technology, McRae receives art commissions from Nick Knight, Nowness, Vogue, Aésop, Hyper Island and Bernard Willhelm, seeing her exhibit at the Centre Pompidou and Palais de Tokyo. Clients call on the innate way she examines the future of technology working alongside Swarovski, Proctor & Gamble, Intel, Philips and Frank Gehry.

Invited to sit on the jury at the Venice Biennale amongst the biggest names in architecture and known for sharing the stage at leading digital media symposiums, ‘It’s Nice That’ (UK) with Paul Smith and Barbara Kruger, her work has appeared on the covers of Domus and Frame magazine and featured in The Guardian, Dazed and Confused, WIRED, The Creators project, Wallpaper and CNN. Vulnerability is everywhere on show – yet Lucy is in control. Perhaps partly because of the intriguing ambiguity of her job description or the unconventional duality of her artistic study of technology Lucy was listed by Fast Company in 2012 as one of fifty people shaping the future.

CLEAR VILLAGE

CLEAR VILLAGE is a London-based charity that helps communities build a better future through creative regeneration.

We work together with partners like social landlords, local councils and community groups to bring durable change to communities. We identify community challenges, build on existing community assets and involve community members through participatory design. Since no two communities are the same, no two CLEAR VILLAGE projects are the same either.

The variety of our work shows the breadth of creative regeneration in practice. Our projects range from setting up community centres fostering social entrepreneurship, to finding novel uses for empty or underused spaces, to carrying out communication campaigns to build new community brands. What unites all our work is that we co-create solutions together with communities and ignite resilience from within.

CLEAR VILLAGE was founded by Thomas Ermacora in 2009 and registered as a UK charity in 2011. Whilst most of our work is UK-based, we have carried out projects in 10 countries across Europe as well as in Ecuador and China. We are supported by a global network of experts in fields ranging from urbanism and sustainability to technology and anthropology to help us deliver innovative solutions.
www.clear-village.org

Product Health

Longer and healthier lives for powered products

Product Health helps make solar systems and other powered products work better and last longer by monitoring how well they are working and how they are being used. It helps lower the cost of off-grid energy for people in two ways: by remotely monitoring the health of solar systems and informing people how best to use them, reducing damage or failure. And by providing remote power control and connectivity to support pay-as-you-go and rental models and credit payment plans.

Sensors designed by us and our partners go into the battery box of solar systems to understand how the battery and system is doing. The data, which we analyse, is sent to a web service for people to access and to act on.
www.producthealth.com

EAST CREATIVE AGENCY

Born from the pioneering culture of East London, East Creative Agency represent exceptional, bespoke, innovative talent. Since working together in early 2013 as agent and artist, Jamie Tagg, Amy Redmond and Glyn Fussell joined together in 2014 to create an innovative talent agency in the heart of East London.

Tagg has represented some of the biggest radio DJs in the UK for live shows such as Nick Grimshaw and Greg James along with live artists such as Little Nikki, Clement Marfo and Sian Evans (Kosheen) and brings a wealth of knowledge from the nightclub and student sectors to the agency. Before and during her time setting up Sink The Pink with co-founder Fussell, Redmond had established herself as a highly respected member of the Radio 1 family and worked as a producer for ten years across the station, giving her a vast understanding of the broadcasting world as well as the festival markets. Founded in 2008, Redmond and Fussell continue to host their infamous monthly parties in East London that regularly attract the city’s most exciting party goers. Since branching out with the help of Tagg, they have taken their brand on the road to festivals including Bestival, Shambala and Glastonbury and further afield in cities such as Paris, Barcelona and Ibiza. Self proclaimed ‘Head Show-off’ Fussell a.k.a “Glynfamous” has established himself as a key force within London’s club and fashion scene. From being shot by David Bailey for GQ Magazine to hosting a series of “Sunday Times’ Style” debates at Soho House, he bridges the gap to the creative industries.

Drawing on all their backgrounds, East Creative specialise in delivering bespoke talent for bookers and promoters that go beyond the traditional agent/client booking relationship. Working closely with their clients, East Creative provide an entertainment experience to suit a new generation of consumers. www.eastcreativeagency.com