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How to Make Technology a Tool for Connection

Jake Barton, founder and principal of multidisciplinary design firm Local Projects, discussed his approach to technology as a means of driving interaction and engagement at VOICES 2020.
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Technology isn’t just replacing real-life experiences, it’s also enhancing them, said Jake Barton, the founder and principal of multidisciplinary design firm Local Projects at BoF VOICES. Barton creates digitally enabled spaces that invite visitors or customers to be creative and engage with art or storytelling for institutions like The New York Times and the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum.

For instance, Local Projects designed tech-enabled bracelets for Amsterdam-based Fashion for Good, a museum, store and think tank to educate on and combat climate change. The bracelets were made from plastic dredged from the city’s canals, and visitors could use them to make pledges about behavioural changes throughout the museum.

“It’s essentially a way to catalyse between consumers, industry insiders and designers ... all together gathering to make a transformation in our industry,” Barton said.

Watch and listen to more #BoFLIVE conversations here. To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions or speaker ideas please e-mail podcast@businessoffashion.com.

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