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Backgrounder: MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology (Jul 2002)

The MIT Media Lab Wearable Computing Group created MIThril: "A next-generation wearables research platform... the goal of the MIThril project is the development and prototyping of new techniques of human-computer interaction for body-worn applications… The MIThril hardware platform combines body-worn computation, sensing, and networking in a clothing-integrated design. The MIThril software platform is a combination of user interface elements and machine learning tools built on the Linux operating system" (http://www.media.mit.edu/
wearables/mithril/). [Mithril was the name given by J.R.R. Tolkien, in The Lord of the Rings, to a legendary Elvin and Dwarf armour.]

In August 2001, MIT won the United States Army competition to research and develop nanotechnologies for fibre production. The Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology (ISN) began as a $50 million proposal, with industry contributing an additional $40 million in funds and equipment. According to the official MIT press release, "These researchers will develop ideas such as a uniform that is nearly invisible, soft clothing that can become a rigid cast when a soldier breaks his or her leg, and paper-weight chain-mail made of molecular materials" (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2002/isn.html).

According to an extensive FAQ on the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology web site,

"The ISN's role is one of basic and applied research. The primary goal is to create an expansive array of innovations in nanoscience and nanotechnology in a variety of survivability-related areas that will be harvested by the industrial partners for future Army application. The research will integrate a wide range of functions, including multithreat protection against ballistics, sensory attack, chemical and biological agents; climate control (cooling, heating, and insulating), possible chameleon-like garments; biomedical monitoring; and load management. The objective is to enable a revolutionary advance in soldier survivability through the development of novel materials for integration into the future warrior-systems."

"The focus of the ISN is soldier survivability. The intent is to improve the ability of the soldier to perform their mission in the battlespace where somebody is actively trying to locate and kill them. The first of the research areas, listed above, looks at both ballistic and directed energy protection of the soldier. Mechanically Active Materials simultaneously looks at mechanical actuators for armour or exoskeletal support (either for load carrying systems or wound compresses and splints), and pressure/motion sensors to monitor the soldier. Signature and Detection Management looks at active camouflage and sensor systems to detect enemy rangefinding or target designation probes. The Soldier Medical Technology thrust focuses attention of soldier triage and automatic "first aid" for a wounded or disabled soldier. The final two areas are crosscutting areas intended to provide enabling technologies for the other thrust areas."

"From the results of current DoD sponsored nanoscience research a number of potential applications have been developed. One is a semi-permeable membrane with molecular scale pores that open to allow passage of water but remain closed to other molecules. This would have application to water filtration and purification systems or for chemical/biological protective clothing... Nanoparticles of gold in solution, linked together by strands of DNA that are specifically encoded to respond to the DNA of biological agents, [can] produce dramatic optical colour changes to allow reliable field detection of biological warfare agents at very low sample sizes, or rapid, reliable screening for such diseases as flu, strep etc." (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2002/isnqa.html).

In the tradition of now familiar computing technologies such as the Internet and virtual reality, 'cutting-edge' work in nanotechnology is currently emerging from the military-industrial complex, in cooperation with universities. The context of developing these technologies is very similar to that of Nexia, although distinct intimacies emerge.

To 'play' with the molecular structure of materials is to be simultaneously ultra-close, in the sense of innermost, and yet remote from lived experience since the 'materials' cannot be readily seen or touched. This type of play is similar to that of Maggie Orth's textiles: the computing element is rendered invisible and substituted with the 'reactive' qualities of the fabrics and our embodied experiences with them.

But as with Nexia's biotechnologies, the development of these intimate technologies involve games of competition and mimicry. Metonymic substitution requires a space of mobility and stability; play pushes familiar things in unfamiliar and unpredictable directions.