Make It Wearable | The Concepts: Creating Wearable Sound

This past winter, The Creators Project dove into the future of wearable technology in our five-part series Make It Wearable. Covering the topics Communication, Health, Expression, Becoming Superhuman, and Everyday Life, the documentaries explored the current landscape of tech-integrated clothing, including engaging one-on-ones with various experts about how wearables could extend human intelligence into the next frontier of new media and creativity.

Now, we're taking the next step by zoning in on various innovators and creators who are using specific wearables to evolve their artform to the next-level. From a device that could change the way we experience music, to concept designs for inventions that don't even exist yet, we're highlighting wearable ideas and dreams that will bring us into the future of technology.

Take SubPac, a pad and backpack that transfers low frequencies from 5hz to 130hz into physical vibrations, bringing a physical sensation listeners could previously only feel at a club or concert with an eardrum-decimating soundsystem into a private and personal experience. Made by music engineers and self-described "music people" (along with gleaming support from dance music legends like Richie Hawtin, Kode9, Daedelus, and more), this technology offers users to feel music. Imagine playing a racing game and feeling the engine rev, or even performing live on stage and actually being able to hear the sounds your instrument is making without the speaker delay or audience being a distraction. SubPac could point to a future where experiencing music through multiple senses is not just commonplace, but expected. (The mind reels at what a Joy Orbison or Lex Lugar track feels like with this bad boy on).

In our documentary above, we spoke to iconic producer Richie Hawtin about wearable technology's integration into live performance and production with SubPac, as well as other wearable ideas he'd like to see come to life.

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Similarly, we're looking at how wearables are improving individual's day-to-day life outside of entertainment. In our Make It Wearable series, we talked about how wearables could improve communication and day-to-day activities, such as exercise or recording our surroundings. Now we'll be looking at other specific creations, such bionic wearables that amputee victims are using to re-gain the ability to cook or play music, and clothing inserts that can charge your devices using solar energy.

Integrating technology into objects we wear could not only make our interactions with such innovations seamless, but they could make regular technological less invasive and more personal to our bodies. Imagine a future where the devices we use aren't held in front of our faces, but instead are immersed into and onto our limbs. They could be implemented for innumerable uses and simultaneously enhance our current practices, whether in art, science, or just life in general. Wearables may very well be the next major boundary that will be crossed in tech, and we're looking at those first steps that are bringing us into the future.

For more on SubPac see the team's website: http://www.thesubpac.com/

Related: 

Intel Announces 'Make It Wearable' Challenge

Think You Have The Next Big Idea In Wearables?

Tactile Audio Technology Is The Future of Music Listening