Joanna Berzowska's XS Labs is a design research studio with a focus on innovation in the fields of electronic textiles and reactive garments: “second skins” that can enable computationally-mediated interactions with the environment and the individual. We are equally inspired by the technical and cultural history of how textiles have been made for generations (weaving, stitching, embroidery, knitting, beading, quilting) and by new and emerging materials with different electro-mechanical properties. This enables us to construct complex textile-based surfaces, substrates, and structures with "transitive" properties.

Our latest project: Captain Electric and Battery Boy

We are showing SKORPIONS in "Le Tissu dans tous ses sens, 2e Biennale de créations textiles contemporaines" show at the Musée des Tissus de Lyon, 20 novembre 2009 au 21 février 2010.

We are showing work and giving talks... and have some images on Flickr as well as videos on YouTube.

We have great new websites for the Leeches and Constellation Dresses, the Kukkia&Vilkas Dresses and Accouphène.

Collaborations Include:

Karma Chameleon, with Maksim Skorobogatiy's Advanced Photonic Structures Group
Captain Electric and Battery Boy, with Vincent Leclerc of ESKI studio.
Transitive Materials, with Marcelo Coelho,Ivan Poupyrev, Sajid Sadi, Roel Vertegaal, Leah Buechley, Pattie Maes, and Neri Oxman.
The Skorpions with Di Mainstone
Excitable Sites with Barbara Layne, Chris Salter and Sha Xin Wei.
The Addressable Dress project with Barbara Layne's Studio subTela.
The Topological Media Lab at Hexagram
The Code Zebra project (website) with Sara Diamond

Our research is supported by:

Canada Council for the Arts
National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
The Faculty of Fine Arts and Concordia University
Hexagram Institute for Research/Creation in Media Arts and Technologies
Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
Canadian Heritage
Fonds québécois de recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC)
Centre interuniversitaire en arts médiatiques (CIAM)
The Banff New Media Institute and the Banff Center