I’ve been interested in functional wearables for about three years now, learning about the field and teaching myself how to make simple garments. As my knowledge base grows it’s commensurately challenging to grasp relationships between and across artifacts. I was curious to see if sorting a selection of garments and accessories visually and by time frame would result in connections among artifacts becoming more discernable.
The challenges involved in selecting artifacts to include: The artifacts this poster represents aren’t great in number, but I am hoping they begin to represent the range of possibilities. I can see how what goes in affects what comes out, so I’m looking forward to finding a visual/database medium to which I can keep adding information. With this relatively small grouping, the big challenge was being as unprejudiced as possible in my choices. I have my own preferences in terms of the artifacts I feel have the most “value,” versus the ones I find problematic in terms of users’ data privacy, impacts on health, quality of life, quality of work, ecological impacts, etc. I did deliberately leave out “biologic” apparel made of organic materials like bacteria, etc., if they did not specifically collect/transmit data.
What emerged as I built the infographic: Relationships between craft (see Orth, et al.) to potential mass-production (Levis, Google, Phillips). The impact and trajectory of work done at MIT and NYU’s ITP program. Leah Buechley’s Lilypad Arduino birthing soft circuitry (and how the discussion about tech expanded into discussion about craft). Who is served by what is enabled.
What I appreciated most in my secondary research: Sabine Seymour’s extensive knowledge of makers and innovators worldwide. Her two books, Functional Aesthetics and Fashionable Technology draw attention to an exceptional range of international work during a seminal developmental period. Susan Elizabeth Ryan’s Garments of Paradise proposes useful and provocative frameworks for understanding wearables. Her examples are well-chosen, featured in small black and white images that create and maintain a critical distance from the subject matter. It’s because of Ryan’s argument that I included the iPhone: it and other mobile devices have compelled us to hold them through virtually all our waking hours. These devices have radically changed how we move through space, conceptualize and maintain our relationships, and attain agency. I also appreciate the spirit of DIY body-hacking; capitalizing on one’s own body as an electrical system as a kind of next-frontier psychedelic experience.
A partial bibliography:
- Barnard, Malcolm, ed. Fashion Theory: A Reader. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. Print.
- Barthes, Roland. The Fashion System. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Ltd., 1983. Print.
- Barthes, Roland. The Language of Fashion. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. Print.
- Bartlett, Djurdja, Shaun Cole and Agnés Rocamora, eds. Fashion Media: Past and Present. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. Print.
- Bolton, Andrew. Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. Print.
- Dourish, Paul. Where the Action is: the Foundations of Embodied Interaction. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001. Print.
- Entwistle, Joanne. The Fashioned Body: Fashion Dress and Modern Social Theory. Maiden, MA: Polity, 2000. Print.
- Hartman, Kate. Make: Wearable Electronics. Sebastopol, CA: Maker Media, Inc., 2014. Print.
- Hethorn, Janet and Connie Ulasewicz. Sustainable Fashion: Why Now? New York, NY: Fairchild Books, 2008. Print.
- Köhrer, Ellen and Magdalena Schaffrin. Fashion Made Fair. New York, NY: Prestel, 2016. Print.
- Rothschild, Joan, ed. Design and Feminism: Re-visioning Spaces, Places, and Everyday Things. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999. Print.
- Ryan, Susan Elizabeth. Garments of Paradise: Wearable Discourse in the Digital Age. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2014. Print.
- Seymour, Sabine. Fashionable Technology. New York, NY: SpringerWien, 2008. Print.
- Seymour, Sabine. Functional Aesthetics. New York, NY: Springer Verlag/Wien, 2010. Print.
- Tortola, Phyllis G. Dress, Fashion and Technology: From Prehistory to the Present. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.
- Wilinson-Weber, Clare M., and Alicia Ory DeNicola, eds. Critical Craft: Technology, Globalization, and Capitalism. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic: 2016. Print.
Photo sources:
c. 1879
Gustave Trouvé, Bijoux Electriques, https://www.pierresmagiques.com/bijoux-pierres/les-bijoux-electriques-de-gustave-trouve.html
1956
Atsuko Tanaka, Electric Dress, https://www.guggenheim.org/audio/track/tanaka-atsuko-electric-dress-1956
1966
Diana Dew, Electroluminescent garments, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/342695852872746673/
1968
MIT, Sword of Damocles VR headset, https://vrroom.buzz/vr-news/guide-vr/sword-damocles-1st-head-mounted-display
1994 (there’s an on-going re-release!)
Vexed Generation, anti-air pollution/anti-surveillance apparel, https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/43189/1/christopher-wylie-vexed-generation-relaunch-fashion-surveillance
1995
Margaret Orth, Emily Cooper, Derek Lockwood, Firefly dress, http://www.maggieorth.com/art_Dress.html
1997
Margaret Orth, Rehmi Post, Joshua Smith, Joshua Stricken, Emily Cooper, Musical jacket, http://www.maggieorth.com/art_Jacket.html
MIT, Beauty and the Bits exhibit, https://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/lizzy/out-in-the-world/beauty/intro.html
1998
Phillips, New Nomads apparel concepts, https://www.vhmdesignfutures.com/project/79/
1999
Steve Mann, EyeTap System implant, https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/wearable-computing
1999-2001
Charmed Technologies, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWvyj2GgCZo
2000
Levis, Levis ICD+ jacket, https://www.vhmdesignfutures.com/image/1/1000/0/images/philips%20levis%202000/4.jpg, https://www.vhmdesignfutures.com/project/192/
2002
CuteCircuit, HugShirt, https://cutecircuit.com/the-hug-shirt/
Jenny Tillotson and Adeline Andre, Smart Second Skin dress, https://www.escent.ai/smartsecondskin
2003
Diana Eng, Inflatable Dress, http://www.electricfoxy.com/electricfoxy/2009/02/diana-engs-inflatable-dress
2005
Ayah Bdeir, Arabiia, https://ayahbdeir.com/art/arabiia/
Despina Papadopoulos, Day for Night dress, https://pixelpeppy.com/dayfornight/
2006
Kate Hartman, Talk to Yourself hat, https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/talktome/objects/146356/
Joanna Berzowski, Intimate Memory shirt and skirt, http://www.xslabs.net/media/enroute-photos/intimate-memory-breath.jpg
Hussain Chalayan, Airplane Dress, https://www.designboom.com/design/designboom-interview-hussein-chalayan/
2007
Leah Buechley, Lilypad Arduino, http://highlowtech.org/?cat=5&paged=3
Hannah Perner-Wilson and Mika Tatomi, Massage Me, https://www.kobakant.at/?category_name=work
Suomi Park, LED Eyelashes, https://soomipark.com/main/?portfolio=led-eyelash
Apple Computer, iPhone 2G, mobile multi-function device, https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQuR14qE6-bkEbSUtfPJQ-6iPB8vw57O7thhJo-2jueNUYfwDGN, https://www.google.com/search?q=first+gen+1phone+2g&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjV86bYzqnlAhVkQt8KHV4dD6wQ_AUIEigC&biw=872&bih=507
FitBit, fitness tracking wrist wear, https://www.google.com/search?q=fitbit&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbn7GezqnlAhUpmuAKHaXtA7QQ_AUIEygD&biw=872&bih=507
2007-08
Ebro Kurbak, Ricardo Nascimento, Fabiana Shizue, Taiknam Hat, http://ebrukurbak.net/taiknam_hat/
2008
Cati Vaucelle, Hiroshi Ishii, Joe Paradiso, EMF bracelet, http://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/emf-bracelet/
2009
Diffuse Design, Climate dress, http://diffus.dk/work/project-climate-dress/
Elena Cochera, LFLECT scarf, https://shop.lostvalues.com/collections/lflect/products/reflective-merino-lace-scarf
Phillips, DirectLife biometric monitoring, https://ifworlddesignguide.com/entry/69122-directlife-dl8710
Elise Co, Puddle Jumper coat, http://www.electricfoxy.com/electricfoxy/2009/01/luminescent-raincoat
2010
Ricardo Nacimento and Tiago Martins, Rambler shoes, http://www.onascimento.com/new-page-4
Tessa Kosmalski, Andante coat, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5668972acbced6666d070674/t/5bf1cfed6d2a7391b5aaae9b/1542574066956/Art_TesiaK.pdf
2013-2016
Rain Ashford, Anemone Star Heart pendant, https://rainycatz.wordpress.com/2016/10/04/anemonestarheart-at-iswc-design-exhibition-2016-heidelberg-germany/
2013
Google, Google Glass, https://alligatortek.com/blog/6-lessons-learned-google-glass-cautionary-tale-innovation/
2014
Biohax Interntational, fingertip microchip, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/opinion/chip-technology-implant.html
2015
Grindhouse Wetware, Northstar implant, https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/coolest-biohacking-implants/
2016-
Ling Tan/Umbrellium, Wear AQ, https://umbrellium.co.uk/case-studies/tower-hamlets-pet/
2017
Ying Gao, Possible Tomorrows dress, www.yellowtrace.com.au/possible-tomorrows-fashion-technology-ying-gao/
Cyborg Nest, Northsense implant, https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/cyborg-north-sense/
Levi’s Jacquard by Google, smart jean jacket, no link available
2019
Google, Google Glass Enterprise 2, https://www.blog.google/products/hardware/glass-enterprise-edition-2/
in development
Yves Behar, Super Flex AURA Powered Suit, https://fuseproject.com/work/superflex/aura-powered-suit/?focus=overview