Towards a Postphenomenological Approach to Wearable Technology through Design Journeys

The field of wearable technology has extensively described the opportunities, challenges as well as the concerns around integrating digital technologies into fashion. However, it has so far not provided a sufficiently clear and embodied understanding of technology. Technology therefore is often still limited to something that adds functionality to textiles or clothing. Additionally, technology is seen as a way to enhance the visual expression and thereby the representational character of clothing. Both approaches seem to hinder the intersection of digital technologies and textiles on a material and embodied level. While the role of wearable technologies in the everyday could benefit from it. In this paper, we therefore argue for reframing the understanding of technology to better facilitate the integration of digital technologies (i.e. electronics and software) into everyday fashion. A reflective analysis of the process of designing wearable technologies, based on the design practice of the first author, reveals that technology is considered a material and that its material qualities are not thought of as either functional or aesthetic. These insights, arising from practice, have led us to turn to postphenomenology (a strand of philosophy of technology) to come to further conceptualization. Postphenomenology looks at the ways in which technologies mediate or “coshape” the relationship between human beings and the world. By seeing technologies as the media that connect humans to the world, they acquire a material and contextual dimension. The idea that artifacts mediate materially thus offers a very useful starting point for understanding and designing wearable technologies. The contribution of this article is twofold, namely, first, to provide a material understanding of the technology on the basis of design practice. And secondly, to bridge design practice with theory by suggesting to bring postphenomenology into fashion to better facilitate the design of wearable technologies for the everyday

Day-­to-­Day Speculation: Designing and Wearing Dynamic Fabric

<p>In this paper we describe <i>Greenscreen Dress</i>, a material speculation inquiry that investigates the wearing experience of dynamic fabric in everyday life. In this study the researcher has worn a "greenscreen garment" every day for seven months. Coupled with a chroma-key smartphone application, she has photographed the garment and digitally composited upon it multiple digital colours, patterns and videos. The fashion expressions were uploaded to Instagram and so situated within a digital social ecosystem. We argue that combining the wearing of dynamic fabric with design activities, the inquiry of what it might mean to wear dynamic fabric moves speculation into day-to day living by drawing from the interactions of the researcher’s everyday life. As innovations in smart textiles and wearable technologies become more accessible, knowledge gained from this research critically inquires into the everydayness of this breed of technological system. The research draws insights from design, fashion, and material performances in the daily life of the researcher. The project contributes critical insights into fashion and technology for clothing designers and in to new methodological terrains for research through design.    </p