Sa 5.9. 14:00 – 18:00

Ars Electronica Center
SkyLoft (Level +3)

In conjunction with this year’s Pixelspaces, the Ars Electronica Futurelab and Fabrica, the Benetton Communication Research Centre are jointly offering a symposium and workshop series entitled “The Future of Fashion Retail.” This initiative addresses the fact that there’s been practically no change in the fashion retail sector for decades now – the sector has not used digital, interactive and networked technologies to enhance the customer experience. The Future of Fashion Retail brings together a number of speakers to consider how the fashion sector can respond to the challenge of eCommerce and take advantage of new developments in social networking, interactive tagging and personal communication technologies. It’s time to rethink not only the cultural rites of fashion but also clothing per se and the way we contextualise it — that is, everything from intelligent fabrics to the mise en scène of the shopping experience. The starting assumption of The Future of Fashion Retail is that solutions must be sought, first and foremost, at the interface of art and converging technologies.

14:00 – 14:15
Introduction (Andy Cameron, Executive Director Fabrica, IT)

14:15 – 14:40
Shops, Technology, Design – an historical overview (Tony Kent, Reader in Marketing, University of the Arts, London, UK)

14:40 – 15:05
Kram/Weisshaar – Shopping Prototypes & Case Studies (Reed Kram, designer)

15:05 – 15:30
Social Networking, Social Retail – linking physical, virtual and personal spaces (Roberto Saracco, Director Telecom Italia Future Centre, Venice, IT)

15:30 – 15:55
The Art of the Window – technology and creativity in window design (Sam Baron, Design Director, Fabrica, IT)

10 minute break

16:05 – 16:25
Opening Soon – new directions in retail design (Luis Miguel Pereira an Grzegorz Witold Woronowicz)

16:25 – 16:50
Augmenting the Porduct (Horst Hoertner, Director Ars Electronica Futurelab, AT)

16:50 – 17:15
Performativity and Shopping – the affective aspects of visiting a retail space (Chris Salter, University of Montreal, CA)

17:15 – 17:40
Fashionable Technology – the intersection of design, fashion, science and technology (Sabine Seymour)

17:40 – 17:50
Close and Summary (Andy Cameron, Executive Director Fabrica, IT)

Introduction
Andy Cameron will introduce the Future of Retail project, and give some examples of the experimental retail technology projects done in Fabrica for Benetton.

Shops, Technology, Design
Tony Kent co-edited ‘Flagship Marketing, Concepts and Places’, Routledge 2009, which deals with many of the issues that Future of Retail will address. He will give a historical overview of experiments in retail design.

Kram/Weisshaar – Shopping Prototypes & Case Studies
Reed Kram together with his partner Clemens Weisshaar designed the technological components of the Prada Epicenter store projects in 2001, with OMA/Rem Koolhaas & Markus Schaefer. The Prada Epicenter projects are still among the most advanced experimental store designs ever created, and were the subject of a famous essay by Lev Manovich – ‘Learning From Prada – the Poetics of Augmented Space. Kram and Weisshaar also designed the Western sections of The Double Club – Carsten Höller & Fondazione Prada’s pop-up art Bar, Restaurant and Disco in London and the Optimus flagship store and music space in the base of Casa Da Musica in Porto. Reed Kram will present these and other examples of his work and reflect on the significance of these landmark projects from today’s perspective.

Social Networking, Social Retail – linking physical, virtual and personal spaces
Roberto Saracco will look at how handheld technologies offer a seamless connection between real stores, the internet and personal and social networks. Robert will share some of the advanced experimental projects Telecom Italia has created in Venice and Torino.

The Art of the Window – technology and creativity in window design
Sam Baron designs amazing shop windows, often collaborating with technologists and interaction designers. Sam will showcase some outstanding recent projects.

Opening Soon – new directions in retail design
Luis Miguel Pereira will show Combispace – the winning entry in Benetton’s international competition for new approaches to retail design. Combispace emphasises fluidity, flexibility and transformation in the way space is conceived. Grzegorz Witold Woronowicz will show the winning entry from Designingintehran, a competition for young architects to create new store designs in the Iranian capital.

Augmenting the product
Horst Hoertner will look at the many opportunities there are for augmenting the way products communicate within the retail space using RFID, cameras, semacodes, barcodes &etc.

Performativity and Shopping – the affective aspects of visiting a retail space
Chris Salter has worked practically and theoretically in performance and responsive environments internationally. Chris will look at questions of movement and flow within the retail space derived from concepts of performativity.

Fashionable Technology – the intersection of design, fashion, science and technology
Sabine Seymour edited ‘Fashionable Technology, Springer, 2009, an overview of the latest work at the intersection of fashion design and technology. Sabine will talk about the way technology will continue to influence fashion retail and fashion design and give examples of recent projects.

Close and Summary
This ten minute talk focusses on the next 12 months, outlining the Future of Retail project process, milestones and how the website will provide ongoing discussion and information.