Join us on May 20-22, from 12-5pm, as we celebrate the community and work created by the Spring 2016 cohort of the Autodesk Artists in Residence Program at Pier 9. Featured projects include work created by fine artists, roboticists, inventors, designers, and a host of other creatives. More info here.
I’m posting a lot of my work-in-progress to Instagram. If you’d like to check it out follow me there!
This July I’ll be back in Copenhagen teaching a 1-week Social Wearables class at CIID. Here’s the info:
SOCIAL WEARABLES
Introduction to the intricate relationship between the human body and emerging technologies
Workshop Dates: July 25th – 29th, 2016
Keywords: wearables, wearable computing, wearable electronics, soft circuits, social, wireless
Description:
Wearables are suddenly everywhere. Designers, artists, and technologists need to consider what should live in bodyspace and why. An increasing number of technologies orbit the human form – new devices and computing capabilities that live in, on, and around the body. But many of these technologies focus primarily on the individual. How can wearable technology assist, affect, and subvert the ways in which we relate to each other and the world around us?The focus of this workshop is social wearables – wearables that are able to communicate with each other and with larger systems. Through the use of physical computing skills and wearable design techniques participants will create experiments and body-based projects that specifically engage in and address how we as humans relate and communicate.
This course aims will give participants the opportunity to develop basic skills in working with electronics is a wearable format. This will include engaging with the hardware, software, wireless communication, and construction and fabrication.
The primary tools will include Arduino, Processing, and standard and non-traditional conductive materials such as conductive fabric and thread.
Learning expectations:
This course uses a hands-on approach to create a studio environment of exploration, development, and testing of existing and emerging social wearable technologies. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Critically consider and engage with emerging wearable technologies and tools.
- Position their work contextually in relation to the past and contemporary wearable projects and products.
- Assess and implement technologies needed to take a wearable electronics project idea from concept to completion.
Prerequisites: Experience with basic electronics is helpful but not required.
Last year this workshop was amazingly fun. CIID is a fantastic environment with a great workshop and an amazingly diverse group of students from around the world. For more info on how to sign up, check it out here: http://ciid.dk/education/summer-school/ciid-summer-school-2016/workshops/social-wearables/
I’m really excited to make this announcement! We just clicked the “Launch” button on a shiny new Kickstarter campaign for the Vega Edge:
Angella Mackey and I have been scheming together about wearable electronics since we first started the Toronto Wearables Meetup together in February 2010. Since then Angella launched a fashion line (Vega) and I launched a lab (the Social Body Lab). In 2012 a research grant brought us back together (thanks Ontario!) and in the spring of 2013 we popped out a new prototype: the Vega Edge. Since then we’ve been dreaming, planning, and crunching numbers on how we could share the Edge with the world.
Enter Kickstarter! This campaign gives both you and us a chance to try this product on for size, to see how it behaves in real life, and to see whether and how we can make even more of them.
The Kickstarter page tells everything you need to know about the Edge and how it works. But beyond the details of the product itself, it’s worth knowing what it means to each of us personally. In our own ways we each believe that technology can be beautiful and that it’s important to achieve balance in the way that technology lives in our everyday lives. And the Edge is a little piece of that.
The campaign is now live and we’d love your help spreading the word. We’ve considered the numbers and have set the goal such that we will only produce 500 or more units. We know that’s a lot but we believe in it and want to run a considered, responsible campaign so we’re just going to try our darnedest and hope we hit the mark. Feel free to share the link below, tweet, Facebook, or shout it to the hills. Every little bit helps.
Here’s the link to the campaign:
http://edge.vegalite.com
Thanks in advance for your support!
Recently I co-founded the Toronto Wearables Meetup with fashion & technology expert Angella Mackey. Our mission statement is as follows:
The Toronto Wearables Meetup is a gathering of people interested in wearable technology, fashion, wearable electronics, soft circuits, electronic textiles, emerging materials, and other creative and innovative approaches to things that live on the body. This Meetup intended for artists, fashion designers, industrial designers, textile enthusiasts, engineers, researchers, students, and anyone interested in these emerging and intersecting fields.
We’ve had two meetings so far with a third happening on May 11th. More information including details about upcoming project talks and our mailing list can be found on our new website.
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to present my “Initial Investigatory Research for Glacier-Human Communication Techniques” at the third Ignite Toronto. There was an amazing array of presentations. Be sure to check out the videos of the talks as well as fantastic photos by James Kachan. Special thanks to Michele Perras and Peter Horvath for putting together an excellent event.
