Designing Garments with Evolving Aesthetics in Emergent Systems

This paper presents an emergent systemic context in a current research project in which the authors are engaged. The research investigates the design of service-systems that facilitate the evolution of garments through multiple-use lives made possible with the strategic integration of textile decoration, built up in complexity over time, such as digital printing, over-dyeing and embroidery. The projects asks: What if a shirt were designed from the beginning as an integral part of a fashion service system? What if the design of both the product and the system enabled the object's aesthetic to evolve over time? The authors propose a system for iterative surface decoration of garments over time, as an alternative to purchasing additional garments to satisfy desire. Design for partial disassembly is a key aspect of this service-system. The authors argue that a rethinking of the current economic and business systems is required for such a service-system to flourish. Findings from the project so far are pointing to further research questions: What ramifications does an evolving aesthetic have for the role of fashion and textile designers, particularly if multiple designers drive the evolution over a period of time? What are the implications for the relationship between the designer and user in such a service-system? The authors speculate on various business models that would support these design-led approaches, including a sold product-service system, a leased product-service system, lease-to-buy, sold for customization, and informal shared use. The project speculates on factors to make such a system commercially replicable within a post-growth economic system. New language is required in such a systems redesign and the paper makes some propositions in this respect

Conservation of core complex subunits shaped the structure and function of photosystem I in the secondary endosymbiont alga Nannochloropsis gaditana

Photosystem I (PSI) is a pigment protein complex catalyzing the light-driven electron transport from plastocyanin to ferredoxin in oxygenic photosynthetic organisms. Several PSI subunits are highly conserved in cyanobacteria, algae and plants, whereas others are distributed differentially in the various organisms. Here we characterized the structural and functional properties of PSI purified from the heterokont alga Nannochloropsis gaditana, showing that it is organized as a supercomplex including a core complex and an outer antenna, as in plants and other eukaryotic algae. Differently from all known organisms, the N. gaditana PSI supercomplex contains five peripheral antenna proteins, identified by proteome analysis as type-R light-harvesting complexes (LHCr4-8). Two antenna subunits are bound in a conserved position, as in PSI in plants, whereas three additional antennae are associated with the core on the other side. This peculiar antenna association correlates with the presence of PsaF/J and the absence of PsaH, G and K in the N. gaditana genome and proteome. Excitation energy transfer in the supercomplex is highly efficient, leading to a very high trapping efficiency as observed in all other PSI eukaryotes, showing that although the supramolecular organization of PSI changed during evolution, fundamental functional properties such as trapping efficiency were maintained