The Future of Patterns

Does the future of patterns lie in animation? There is an abundance of surface pattern designers, that are doing exactly the same thing I am doing: creating prints and patterns for selling and licensing to third party companies who print them onto their product lines. However there's very few that would be able to transfer their designs from 2d to 3d or develop them into an animation and I'm currently not one of them. The best I can do is make an animated GIF, but I've become more and more interested in animation software and the idea of turning traditional patterns in to moving ones.

I thoroughly enjoy the process and results of creating 2d patterns, but I cannot help but wonder where the future of patterns and pattern designs lies. Will there one day be fabrics and other materials that are part of our consumer life that have the ability of displaying moving patterns? Will there be conductive textiles that are refined and profitable enough to be incorporated into our wardrobes, thus giving us the ability to modify our clothes at will? Dresses with an array of prints to choose from? Neckties available in a colour palette designed to fit every suit in your wardrobe? T-shirts with alternating texts? I'm not sure if this is a very sci-fi scenario or the inevitable future.

How ever much I would like to own a dress that could display a moving pattern or could be set to show one print today and another tomorrow, is there still space for artisanal printing techniques and textured weaves and knits in this scenario? Would people still see the value of designers or would the 'everyone is a designer' approach threaten it when prints can be uploaded or modified at will? What about the impact this could have on building a more sustainable wardrobe and combatting the trend of disposability of clothing and other consumer products? 

Also, in a more sinister Black Mirror-kind-of-scenario I see a whole new way of advertising where people would have the possibility to rent themselves out as human billboards and the exposure to advertising we'd have to endure would be unbearable. (If you are unfamiliar with Black Mirror, it's a televisions series about the dark side of life and technology - find it on Netflix and be prepared to be shocked, depressed but nevertheless intrigued. It's by far one of the most brilliant pieces of television I have witnessed in my 30 years of exposure to television.)

Doom scenario's set aside, I think the ultimate underlying question I'm asking myself is how can design and technology go hand in hand? How can we combine the two to evolve from the excessive consumerism of today to a more sustainable tomorrow? What is the next step? I have a deep love for craft but I also see a huge value in technology. Is there a possibility of a world where one doesn't exclude the other and better yet where these two come together in a mission to change the way we perceive, use and cherish the things we own?

Any thoughts on this highly speculative story are very welcome!