Re: Wearable Technologies: Cross Disciplinary Ventures.
In response to some of the things that have been discussed to date, I think now, in the context of wearable technologies (where we are considering the internal and external architectures and augmentation of the body) that it is perhaps less interesting to talk about the notion of the spectacle where the main concern is to create memorable appearance (unless perhaps this is to convey message as discussed below in Wonderland example) and to turn our gaze more fully to Human-Garment Interactions (David Bryson) and the importance of both physical and digital materiality where we look to augment the senses through a better understanding of both the technological, material and inter/intra psychological dimensions. Textile and garment technologies now have the capabilities to augment the body both inside and out, textiles repair bulging arteries (stents) for instance to offer a patching and compression for damaged systems when the body can no longer effectively function or sustain itself. This type of compression can also be exerted externally for post-operative garments to encourage the flow of lymphatics and aid recovery. In a military context for the compression category, we have specially designed inflatable suits for fighter pilots to combat the effects of G-force. All this requires a superb knowledge of the human body, its biological, structural architectures, functioning systems, capabilities under duress etc. Fashion designers usually do not have this knowledge and I have often found in my many years of being a fashion designer / educator that fashioners designers and students will rarely pay detailed attention to the human body from a structural, movement and functioning point of view. Their questions always have focused on the design aesthetics generally, as suitable for a standard size 10-12 body and so we often find that a new design trend, silhouette etc., will in fact govern the movement of the body in the garment so as to train the body as opposed to allowing a two-way exchange. Through my own work, with dancers within digital performance contexts, I employ a more chorographic approach to design of wearable for performer, where co-creation and iterative design methods are key. My design approach combines the practical and physical with the theoretical and philosophical. But generally, I like to introduce the materials and technologies as initiators of design concepts and motivational tools for movement. Over the years, I have questioned the static and essentially anatomically uninformed fashion design process to employ more dynamic and scientific approaches to design. In a way, my design process has also become more closely aligned with that of the product designer with prototyping and refinement of Human-Garment Interactions, but primarily, I see myself as a choreographer re-writing body and garment in emergent design-in-motion contexts. David Bryson, University of Derby, UK, who lectures in forensic science and has a background in studies of anatomy, posits the need for closer Human-Garment Interaction in his essay on Designing Smart Clothing for the Body in the book Smart Clothes and Wearable Technology. He acknowledges that there is now wide understanding in the computer industry of what is termed Human-Computer Interactions (HCI), the design of interfaces looking at the way humans interact with technology This work now needs to move into the realm of garments to lead an appreciation of what I am terming Human-Garment Interactions (HGI). For me, the garments and their integrated technologies can be like extensions of the natural sensing body. We use instruments as an extension of our hands and they may serve also as an extension of our senses. We assimilate them to our body by pouring ourselves into them Michael Polanyi, The Study of Man (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), p. 25. Experiential wearing and its impact on the design process is also a growing area of interest in the realm of garment /fashion design and the notion of creating a better understanding of the emotional connections between wearer and garment. On Literature and communication: One of my MA Fashion Bodywear students, (I run a small MA practice-based design programme exploring the fusions between intimate apparel and outerwear design at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK) wrote in her final thesis (unpublished) on the subject of emotional wearing and commented on the traditions that have generally existed in the discipline giving reference to the spectacle, saying: Fashion theory has generally focused on the relationship between consumer and clothing in the sense of the seen garment. Writings are extensively concerned with the notions of identity and portrayal of oneself through the adornment of the body and of the self. Consumerism of clothing is inextricably linked with external communication of personality, being either real or false, to fit in with the surroundings and the social acceptances of the location of the wearer Subsequently, it could be suggested that the person who adorns their body with these garments would be aware of this fact and is therefore subject to the judgement inflicted upon them by the gaze of others Nicola Williamson, MA Fashion Bodywear graduate 2010. One can most definitely argue that Chalayans video dress is all about the seen garment and the notion of the spectacle with its opening and closing rose displayed via 15000 LEDs His laser dress and also his transformer dresses explore the creation of memorable appearance as they shapeshift through various fashion silhouettes of C20th fashion. But these dresses are not for the commercial world of fashion or for the everyday wear but explore new possibilities, blurring of boundaries and new ways of attracting attention as they are picked up by the trendhunters of this world. Prof. Helen Storeys Wonderland collaboration with chemist Tony Ryan also explores spectacle but of a slightly different nature in their dissolvable eco-fashion dresses. In fact, they are exploring spectacle and memorable but dissolving appearance within a performative context to convey to the world more serious messages about our world and the importance of closer fashion science connections. Interestingly, when I attended a joint presentation by Storey and Ryan, each was approaching the collaboration for very different reasons, Storey, to abandon the frivolous superficiality of fashion and become more serious, Ryan, to find a way to publicly display science and make visible what is not always apparent. These kind of public scientific displays are not new however but perhaps have not been explored so much recently. I recall my intrigue on hearing about the historic public display of experiment with electricity in the 1800s when a young boys body was negatively charged so as to attract thousands of positively charged feathers which would then cling to his suspended body Suzanne Lees biocouture introduced earlier in these discussions clearly falls into this fashion-science fusion and perhaps in a more wearable sense (although still dissolvable in water) allows the presence of the physical and material artefact/garment to convey and tackle the more serious issues of our world under threat. With regards, Michèle Danjoux DAP Lab http://www.danssansjoux.org
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