Category: Personal Expression & Wearable Technologies

[QUICKTIME http://www.katehartman.com/projects/reconnect/reconnect.mp4 320 257]
Demonstrated by Joo Youn Paek and Michael Horan.
Video by Gabe Barcia-Colombo.

I am creating a garment that allows the wearer to receive feedback from their own touch. Physical connections close electric circuits, causing mild vibrations in different regions of the upper body. Engaging in simple, instinctive poses provides the opportunity to close off the outside world and turn inward. It is about centering, grounding, or focusing in the midst of chaos. It gives the power to create one’s own physical and mental space in any sort of situation.

INTERIOR: immersive experience, feeling of an interior space
EXTERIOR: communicates a message, a physical transformation

A hacked calculator turned armband. Geek chic. Guts out. Bad-ass calculating on the fly.

Calculator is positioned upside-down. For the user/wearer, it is functional. For the non-wearer, it becomes an intimate, low-resolution communication device. Upside-down numbers are interpreted as letters – a message delivery system that was popular when I was in grade-school.

Continuing with the vibrating shirt, I ripped out the strips of conductive fabric, which has proved to be stiff, brittle, and unreliable, and did the “wiring” exclusively with conductive thread. [The contact patches on the arms and hands were left as conductive fabric.]

I tried to incorporate the stitching into the preexisting seams of the shirt so as to make it a truly soft circuit. In the cases where it was necessary for the stitching to leave the confines of the seams, there were some issues because the fabric of the shirt has a great amount of elasticity where the thread does not. My temporary solution for this was to leave a good amount of slack in the thread in these areas so that the shirt could sustain stretching, but a better solution needs to be worked out eventually.

I also reworked the snap system.

Wires/components are soldered to the top snap. The bottom snap is sewn to the shirt and connected to the circuit with conductive thread. This allows all electronic components (motors, batteries) to be easily removed so the shirt can be washed.

Garments that demand physical intimacy/touch.

*Note: Still trying to figure out the language of how to explain this. For now I’ve settled on you and yourself, but it could also be me and myself, one and oneself, them and themself. I think this is an important choice in terms of thinking about the project. This is just a disclaimer to state that I haven’t settled on a certain interpretation… yet.

Despite the fact that it is my first true project for the class, I think my vibrating shirt is actually a decent starting point for my final. [The beginning is simply the beginning of the end?] Because, as I see it now, what I’m primarily interested in is exploring relationships through the use of touch and/or gesture. Or more specifically, physical connections that illicit a reaction. But my main question is whether I should explore the relationship you have with another individual or the relationship you have with yourself.

THINKING ABOUT 2: A hat and a set of gloves configured in such a way that someone has to hold your head in a specific way in order for something to happen. Or a set of shirts where two people have to hold each others shoulders in a stiff middle school slow dance sort of way. Or shirts where the contact point is at the heart. My friend was telling me that it makes a difference on which side you hug someone- if you hug heart to heart it makes you stronger. Or a pair of jumpsuits for a couple where a circuit is only complete when bodies are locked together in a certain way. Or what if someone was your power source/batterypack? Isolating the roles of giver & taker.

THINKING ABOUT 1: I was thinking that it could be about the physical relationship that you have with yourself while still relating to the social relationship you have with others. If I were to use the vibrating shirt as an example, I could outfit it with a sensor that could tell whether or not someone else was in the room, or in close proximity. If it was meant to be a private thing, perhaps the shirt would only work if you were alone. If it were more along the lines of “no man is an island”, despite that fact that it seemed to be a very self-triggered system, the shirt would only have the ability to work if someone were nearby.

SENSORS FOR TOUCH: QProx, force sensors.
OTHER SENSORS: heat, ultrasonic.

But then again, I could see just moving forward with the choices that I made for the shirt. I like something that is very isolating, self contained. I also like the idea of working without a microcontroller – just using a series of extremely simple electronic circuits. So then it’s really just about contact, about closing a switch, about making a connection with yourself.

So what about a jumpsuit that is basically an extension of the shirt? Complete with feet, mittens, and hood, once you were zipped in, the experience would basically be about relating to yourself physically. Connections could be made through holding your head, hugging yourself, holding yourself in a fetal position. It would be soft and flexible, giving you the freedom to move or curl up as you wish. This could be the Comfort Suit. There could also be a different version that somehow encouraged your body to open up through the use of positive feedback.

BASIC DECISIONS TO MAKE:
-real world or not
-one person or two
-sensors or straight on/off circuits

When you hold yourself (hands resting on upper arms), your spine tingles. I like the idea that all the elements you need to evoke a response are located within your own physical form. It’s a way of turning inward – by connecting with yourself in a very natural gesture, you set something into motion.

The circuit is created on the surface of the shirt through the use of conductive fabric and thread. The circuit is closed by the connection made between the hands and shoulders, causing motors located along the spine to vibrate. The form of the shirt is intentionally confining – it is meant more for reflection than function. The hands are completely enclosed in thumbless mittens, making it very difficult to engage in any sort of activity while wearing the shirt.

This is a first prototype so it is rather awkward and delicate. In a second interation, I would work towards it being more durable and comfortable, with more reliable circuitry.

CONCEALS: NIGHTMARE MASK
wire mesh, thread

REVEALS : TRUTH MASK
tissue paper, acrylic medium, ink