Imogen Heap in her Twitter dress.Here’s a quick reference guide that will seek to explain the trends, terms, and movements of the brave new media world of art and technology. So you can skim, digest, and be a pseudo-expert next time you’re cornered at a Speed Show exhibition in your local cybercafe. Because, hey, life is short and art long. This week: Wearable Technology.So, what is wearable technology?
The answer to this one’s pretty much in its name. It’s fashion that incorporates electronics or computerized devices like Arduino, sensors, circuitry, and LEDs. So, think flashy LED garments, dynamic fabrics, bluetooth shirts and dresses, glowing jewelry, fiber-optic skirts, Twitter-feed dresses, interactive AV dress sculptures, digital wristwatches, transparent electronic materials, electro-chameleon bags, augmented reality t-shirts, and, hopefully one day, that all important clocking device.Where did it come from?
In 1268 medieval philosopher Roger Bacon was extolling the benefits of wearing convex glass to improve eyesight. By the 14th century, artist Tommaso da Modena featured eyeglasses in his fresco paintings and lo! some of the first images of wearable technology were born. Skip forward just a little bit, let’s say half a century, and you have Swiss watchmakers Jacquet-Droz and Leschet inventing the wristwatch in 1790. Fiction also kept it tech on the wearable front, with the gadgets of Batman and other comic book creations in the 1940s giving us utility belts and other fun gadgets. Not surprisingly, fiction’s always been a safe haven for wearable tech—think Star Trek, Bond, and William Gibson. But if you want to take it back to reality, academic Susan Elizabeth Ryan cites MIT’s Media Lab Masters student Elise Co as “among the first technicians to articulate and explore the ramifications of wearable technology for human expression in the context of garments and fashion” in her essay What is Wearable Technology Art?.Detail from portrait of Hugh de Provence, the Fergie of his day, by Tommaso da Modena
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Wei-Chieh Shih’s 200 laser diode jacket, creating a stage suit that makes the wearer look like a futuristic lazer porcupine.Nano talk
Celebrities have been quick to embrace the soft circuits and flashing fashion style in their stage shows, but when will the man and woman on the street be busting out a solar-powered jacket that can status update their Facebook while playing Angry Birds? And look as well-tailored and chic as Coco Chanel’s night cap? Soon. The cost of electronics will continue to drop, making it cost-effective to produce such garments, and allowing the proliferation of e-textile DIY creations: garments like interactive open source socks that glow when they need changing or flip-flops that can read your emails. Don’t just sew up that hole in your t-shirt, stick an iPad on it.Describe yourself as…
LEDs Saint Laurent.Wei-Chieh Shih’s lazer jacket.Keywords
Fashion, technology, smart, textile, garment, circuit, wearable, electronics, interactive.Difficulty level
Sartorial.Age range
From runway to high street.A Wearable Body Speaker that lets you remix sounds from your body. Just don’t eat any chillies.Tagline
The Emperor’s new Trojan clothes horse.To recap: Like KITT from Knight Rider, but as a jacket rather than a car.Next week: Participatory art
The answer to this one’s pretty much in its name. It’s fashion that incorporates electronics or computerized devices like Arduino, sensors, circuitry, and LEDs. So, think flashy LED garments, dynamic fabrics, bluetooth shirts and dresses, glowing jewelry, fiber-optic skirts, Twitter-feed dresses, interactive AV dress sculptures, digital wristwatches, transparent electronic materials, electro-chameleon bags, augmented reality t-shirts, and, hopefully one day, that all important clocking device.
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In 1268 medieval philosopher Roger Bacon was extolling the benefits of wearing convex glass to improve eyesight. By the 14th century, artist Tommaso da Modena featured eyeglasses in his fresco paintings and lo! some of the first images of wearable technology were born. Skip forward just a little bit, let’s say half a century, and you have Swiss watchmakers Jacquet-Droz and Leschet inventing the wristwatch in 1790. Fiction also kept it tech on the wearable front, with the gadgets of Batman and other comic book creations in the 1940s giving us utility belts and other fun gadgets. Not surprisingly, fiction’s always been a safe haven for wearable tech—think Star Trek, Bond, and William Gibson. But if you want to take it back to reality, academic Susan Elizabeth Ryan cites MIT’s Media Lab Masters student Elise Co as “among the first technicians to articulate and explore the ramifications of wearable technology for human expression in the context of garments and fashion” in her essay What is Wearable Technology Art?.Detail from portrait of Hugh de Provence, the Fergie of his day, by Tommaso da Modena
Wei-Chieh Shih’s 200 laser diode jacket, creating a stage suit that makes the wearer look like a futuristic lazer porcupine.Nano talk
Celebrities have been quick to embrace the soft circuits and flashing fashion style in their stage shows, but when will the man and woman on the street be busting out a solar-powered jacket that can status update their Facebook while playing Angry Birds? And look as well-tailored and chic as Coco Chanel’s night cap? Soon. The cost of electronics will continue to drop, making it cost-effective to produce such garments, and allowing the proliferation of e-textile DIY creations: garments like interactive open source socks that glow when they need changing or flip-flops that can read your emails. Don’t just sew up that hole in your t-shirt, stick an iPad on it.
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LEDs Saint Laurent.Wei-Chieh Shih’s lazer jacket.Keywords
Fashion, technology, smart, textile, garment, circuit, wearable, electronics, interactive.Difficulty level
Sartorial.Age range
From runway to high street.A Wearable Body Speaker that lets you remix sounds from your body. Just don’t eat any chillies.Tagline
The Emperor’s new Trojan clothes horse.To recap: Like KITT from Knight Rider, but as a jacket rather than a car.Next week: Participatory art