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

Wearable performance

This is the post-print version of the article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2009 Taylor & FrancisWearable computing devices worn on the body provide the potential for digital interaction in the world. A new stage of computing technology at the beginning of the 21st Century links the personal and the pervasive through mobile wearables. The convergence between the miniaturisation of microchips (nanotechnology), intelligent textile or interfacial materials production, advances in biotechnology and the growth of wireless, ubiquitous computing emphasises not only mobility but integration into clothing or the human body. In artistic contexts one expects such integrated wearable devices to have the two-way function of interface instruments (e.g. sensor data acquisition and exchange) worn for particular purposes, either for communication with the environment or various aesthetic and compositional expressions. 'Wearable performance' briefly surveys the context for wearables in the performance arts and distinguishes display and performative/interfacial garments. It then focuses on the authors' experiments with 'design in motion' and digital performance, examining prototyping at the DAP-Lab which involves transdisciplinary convergences between fashion and dance, interactive system architecture, electronic textiles, wearable technologies and digital animation. The concept of an 'evolving' garment design that is materialised (mobilised) in live performance between partners originates from DAP Lab's work with telepresence and distributed media addressing the 'connective tissues' and 'wearabilities' of projected bodies through a study of shared embodiment and perception/proprioception in the wearer (tactile sensory processing). Such notions of wearability are applied both to the immediate sensory processing on the performer's body and to the processing of the responsive, animate environment. Wearable computing devices worn on the body provide the potential for digital interaction in the world. A new stage of computing technology at the beginning of the 21st Century links the personal and the pervasive through mobile wearables. The convergence between the miniaturisation of microchips (nanotechnology), intelligent textile or interfacial materials production, advances in biotechnology and the growth of wireless, ubiquitous computing emphasises not only mobility but integration into clothing or the human body. In artistic contexts one expects such integrated wearable devices to have the two-way function of interface instruments (e.g. sensor data acquisition and exchange) worn for particular purposes, either for communication with the environment or various aesthetic and compositional expressions. 'Wearable performance' briefly surveys the context for wearables in the performance arts and distinguishes display and performative/interfacial garments. It then focuses on the authors' experiments with 'design in motion' and digital performance, examining prototyping at the DAP-Lab which involves transdisciplinary convergences between fashion and dance, interactive system architecture, electronic textiles, wearable technologies and digital animation. The concept of an 'evolving' garment design that is materialised (mobilised) in live performance between partners originates from DAP Lab's work with telepresence and distributed media addressing the 'connective tissues' and 'wearabilities' of projected bodies through a study of shared embodiment and perception/proprioception in the wearer (tactile sensory processing). Such notions of wearability are applied both to the immediate sensory processing on the performer's body and to the processing of the responsive, animate environment

Atmospheres of choreographic design

The artistic and technical investigations of the Design and Performance Lab, based at Brunel University in London (UK) and co-directed by Johannes Birringer and Michèle Danjoux, have encompassed research into how costumes and specially designed body-worn technologies affect movement expression. They have also addressed the question of designing costumes for use in performative or proactive environments which themselves are conceived as formative, not built or constructed in a stable form.https://metabody.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/METABODY-JOURNAL-1.pd

Sound and Wearables

This chapter introduces crossovers between fashion, performance, music and sound art, investigating analog and digital techniques used for the construction of “sounding” costumes which play a significant part in the overall scenographic and choreographic organization of real-time interactive art and performance. Addressing the multifaceted, dynamic and relational aspects of garments/accessories, technologies and performing bodies, the authors refer to some historical examples of sound instruments, body instruments and physiological instrumentation (encompassing sculptural wearables, body-worn technologies with wired or wireless sensors and other capture modalities, as well as amplificatory wearables). Integrated methods are highlighted for creating such kinaesonic choreographies for the contemporary intermedial theater and the expanding sector of media arts and mobile arts

A Combination of Lipoic Acid Plus Coenzyme Q10 Induces PGC1α, a Master Switch of Energy Metabolism, Improves Stress Response, and Increases Cellular Glutathione Levels in Cultured C2C12 Skeletal Muscle Cells

Skeletal muscle function largely depend on intact energy metabolism, stress response, and antioxidant defense mechanisms. In this study, we tested the effect of a combined supplementation of α-lipoic acid (LA) plus coenzyme Q10 (Q10) on PPARγ-coactivator α (PGC1α) activity, expression of glutathione-related phase II enzymes and glutathione (GSH) levels in cultured C2C12 myotubes. Supplementation of myotubes with 250 μmol/L LA plus 100 μmol/L Q10 significantly increased nuclear levels of PGC1α, a master switch of energy metabolism and mitochondrial biogenesis. The increase of nuclear PGC1α was accompanied by an increase in PPARγ transactivation, a downstream target of PGC1α, and an increase in mitochondrial transcription factor A mRNA centrally involved in mitochondrial replication and transcription. Furthermore, supplementation of myotubes with LA plus Q10 resulted in an increase of genes encoding proteins involved in stress response, GSH synthesis, and its recycling. In LA-plus-Q10-treated myotubes a significant 4-fold increase in GSH was evident. This increase in GSH was accompanied by increased nuclear Nrf2 protein levels, partly regulating γGCS and GST gene expression. Present data suggest that the combined supplementation of skeletal muscle cells with LA plus Q10 may improve energy homeostasis, stress response, and antioxidant defense mechanisms

Cultural-based visual expression: Emotional analysis of human face via Peking Opera Painted Faces (POPF)

© 2015 The Author(s) Peking Opera as a branch of Chinese traditional cultures and arts has a very distinct colourful facial make-up for all actors in the stage performance. Such make-up is stylised in nonverbal symbolic semantics which all combined together to form the painted faces to describe and symbolise the background, the characteristic and the emotional status of specific roles. A study of Peking Opera Painted Faces (POPF) was taken as an example to see how information and meanings can be effectively expressed through the change of facial expressions based on the facial motion within natural and emotional aspects. The study found that POPF provides exaggerated features of facial motion through images, and the symbolic semantics of POPF provides a high-level expression of human facial information. The study has presented and proved a creative structure of information analysis and expression based on POPF to improve the understanding of human facial motion and emotion

The uptake of tocopherols by RAW 264.7 macrophages

BACKGROUND: Alpha-Tocopherol and gamma-tocopherol are the two major forms of vitamin E in human plasma and the primary lipid soluble antioxidants. The dietary intake of gamma-tocopherol is generally higher than that of alpha-tocopherol. However, alpha-tocopherol plasma levels are about four fold higher than those of gamma-tocopherol. Among other factors, a preferential cellular uptake of gamma-tocopherol over alpha-tocopherol could contribute to the observed higher plasma alpha-tocopherol levels. In this investigation, we studied the uptake and depletion of both alpha-tocopherol and gamma-tocopherol (separately and together) in cultured RAW 264.7 macrophages. Similar studies were performed with alpha-tocopheryl quinone and gamma-tocopheryl quinone, which are oxidation products of tocopherols. RESULTS: RAW 264.7 macrophages showed a greater uptake of gamma-tocopherol compared to alpha-tocopherol (with uptake being defined as the net difference between tocopherol transported into the cells and loss due to catabolism and/or in vitro oxidation). Surprisingly, we also found that the presence of gamma-tocopherol promoted the cellular uptake of alpha-tocopherol. Mass balance considerations suggest that products other than quinone were formed during the incubation of tocopherols with macrophages. CONCLUSION: Our data suggests that gamma-tocopherol could play a significant role in modulating intracellular antioxidant defence mechanisms. Moreover, we found the presence of gamma-tocopherol dramatically influenced the cellular accumulation of alpha-tocopherol, i.e., gamma-tocopherol promoted the accumulation of alpha-tocopherol. If these results could be extrapolated to in vivo conditions they suggest that gamma-tocopherol is selectively taken up by cells and removed from plasma more rapidly than alpha-tocopherol. This could, in part, contribute to the selective maintenance of alpha-tocopherol in plasma compared to gamma-tocopherol