113 research outputs found
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The telematic dress: Evolving garments and distributed proprioception in streaming media and fashion performance
Centered around several short films from streaming performances created in 2005, this paper
explores new ideas for movement technologies and garment design in an arts and digital research
context. The "telematic dress" project, developed at the DAP Lab in Nottingham, involves
transdisciplinary intersections between fashion and live performance, interactive system architecture,
electronic textiles, wearable technologies, choreography, and anthropology.
The concept on an evolving garment design that is materialized (moved) in live performance
originates from DAP Lab's experimentation with telematics and distributed media (http://art.ntu.ac.
uk/performance_research/birringer/dap.htm] addressing "connective tissues" through a study of
perception/proprioception in the wearer (tactile sensory processing) and the dancer/designer/viewer
relationship. This study is conducted as cross-cultural communication with online performance
partners in Europe, the US, Brazil and Japan. The inter-active space is predicated on transcultural
questions: how does the movement with an evolving design and wearable interactive sensors travel,
how does movement - and capturing of movement - allow the design to emerge toward a garment
statement, and how are bodies-in-relation-to sensory fabrics affected by the multidimensional
kinesthetics of a media-rich, responsive environment
Responsive and Emotive Wearable Technology: physiological data, devices and communication
My research practice and thesis investigates how wearable technology can be used to create
new forms of nonverbal communication. Using devices developed through my practice,
I explore how physiological data can be drawn from the body, then visualised and broadcast.
I examine the opinions and requirements of potential users and observers of this
technology, through qualitative responses in interviews and surveys from focus groups
and field tests. I have analysed the resulting data to extract preferences and concerns,
plus the requirements for the functionality and aesthetics of these devices. I discuss the
social and cultural aspects of wearing such devices, as well as the issues, including how
privacy may be affected and the implications of recording personal data.
I examine my practice in the context of the work of the communities and practitioners in
the field, and introduce two new terms to label two sub-sections of wearable technology.
These are âresponsive wearablesâ and âemotive wearablesâ, and they form part of the
distinctive contribution that I make. Reflecting on the evolution of my practice has led to
other contributions regarding the development of wearable technology. Through this, I
identify and share the insights into the disciplines and processes required for the fusion of
technology and design successfully to evolve electronics, code and materials into research
prototypes.
I conclude by discussing findings from my practice, research and studies with potential
users of emotive wearables. I comment on the impact that physiologically sensing wearable
technology has on aspects of social interaction for the individual as well as for the
wider community. I open the discussion on future research by revealing two new examples
of emotive wearables â the AnemoneStarHeart and the ThinkerBelle EEG Amplifying
Dress â which have evolved from pinpointing specific areas of the focus group and field
test feedback that I undertook
'The emotional wardrobe': a fashion perspective on the integration of technology and clothing
Since the Industrial Revolution, fashion and technology have been linked through the textile and manufacturing industries, a relationship that has propelled technical innovation and aesthetic and social change. Today a new alliance is emerging through the integration of electronic technology and smart materials on the body. However, it is not fashion designers who are exploiting this emerging area but interaction design, performance art and electronic and computing technologists. 'The Emotional Wardrobe' is a practice-based research project that seeks to address this imbalance by integrating technology with clothing from a fashion perspective. It aims to enhance fashion's expressive and responsive potential by investigating clothing that can both represent and stimulate an emotional response through the interface of technology.
Precedents can be found in the work of other practitioners who merge clothing design with responsive material technology to explore social interaction, social commentary and body responsive technology. Influence is also sought from designers who investigate the notion of paradoxical emotions. A survey of emotion science, emotional design, and affective computing is mapped onto a fashion design structure to assess if this fusion can create new 'poetic' paradigms for the interaction of fashion and technology. These models are explored through the production of 'worn' and 'unworn' case studies which are visualised through responsive garment prototypes and multimedia representations.
The marriage of fashion and technology is tested through a series of material experiments that aim to create a new aesthetic vocabulary that is responsive and emotional. They integrate traditional fashion fabrics with material technology to enhance the definition of fashion. The study shows that the merger of fashion and technology can offer a more personal and provocative definition of self, one which actively involves the wearer in a mutable aesthetic identity, replacing the fixed physicality of fashion with a constant flux of self-expression and playful psychological
experience.
The contribution of the research consists of: the integration of technology to alter communication in fashion, a recontextualisation of fashion within a wider arena of emotion and technology, the use of technologies from other disciplines to materialize ideas and broaden the application of those technologies, and the articulation of a fashion design methodology
A practice-led inquiry into the nature of digital jewellery: craft explorations and dialogical engagement with people
In the widely explored area of wearable technology research, the theoretical work on digital jewellery has been largely done outside the art and craft context. Taking a jewellery perspective, this research focus on atypical personal interactions with digital technology in order to address questions associated with digital devices and potentially open up our expectations of the digital as a material within jewellery practice. Principally this thesis investigates he question âHow can we design digital jewellery that are highly experiential and personally meaningful to the wearer?â
This thesis addresses the need for jewellers to assert their relevance in the current debates around digital culture and the meaning associated with wearing digital devices. This practice-led research project investigates the role of digital jewellery to support self in transition in order to progress these debates. For this research, I created research methods to support participatory engagements. Following the values of experience-centred design, I designed exemplars of digital jewellery. Microcosmos, Topoi, Travelling with the Sea and Togetherness: Anthos and Chronos Brooches are examples of digital jewellery that have resulted from this research. These concepts were inspired by the lives of three participants and myself who frequently travel back to our native countries but who live permanently in the UK and who experience feelings of being in-between.
Within the participatory engagements, novel design methods have been created for this particular research context. The method of Staged Atmosphere introduces the performative aspects of design probes in the context of a plane and the method of Dialogical Sketching offers a sensitive way to explore aspects of self in non-descriptive and imaginative ways with participants. These methods practised in this research contribute to design by enriching the role of creative practice to offer highly dialogical and sensitive to the research methodologies. My approach to designing digital jewellery has resulted in the development of a framework for understanding and conceptualising digital jewellery. The framework discusses the poetic qualities of the jewellery pieces by unfolding the narratives associated with their form, function and interaction. The framework contributes to discussions around how jewellery practices and digital technologies can suggest experientially rich interactions for people
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