The project that Zoe Papadopoulou presented at the RCA work in progress last week show ticks all the right boxes: there's the knitting, the sense of humour and the techno-induced diseases.

Knitted Shields is inspired by people suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

The solution imagined by the young designer is to cover all electronic devices in the house with a cozy. By weaving a thin thread of copper in the wool and grounding it, she ensures that the electromagnetic fields are blocked.

According to the designer, the shields work better on some objects than on others. The microwave and radio cozies for example block the waves very well. It seems to depend on the density of the knits and the thickness of the copper wire.

By bringing together ideas about knitting and domestic artifacts, this project challenges the assumption that technologies are taking over our lives, and that we can have no response. It is as much through the process of production, as the protective qualities of the "cosies" themselves, that the knitter feels empowerment and control.