The final part of the Treacherous Trilogy was exhibited at Northligh Artspace to an overwhelming group of visitors. What a fantastic opening with so many visitors with so many questions. Cake, coffee wine and tea went down a storm along with the myriad of nipples and interactive dress sculptures. Thanks to everyone who came along and equally thanks to all those who helped me set up and cart everything back to my studio.
I am putting my blogs on hold as with working and teaching my workshops at the weekends I am a bit pushed for time!
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I have discovered a niftly little Mp3 player which enables up to five tracks to be played. Instead of using conductive thread or electronic hook up wire I have been testing this with conductive ink to see if I can utilise this bit of kit in my interactive sound canvases. So far so good…….
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I have been experimenting with a range of conductive threads to create a decorative touch button for Coco Morphosis which is an interactive sound dress sculpture. This thread will do perfectly….
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Treacherous Torso is my first exposition a. It is going to be held on Saturday 26th July 2014 between 11am and 4pm.
Please get in touch if you have any questions about the event. All women are welcome.
As previously mentioned, I have been residing in a temporary studio space, but have now been able to move into my permanent studio. Well when I say move, it really is that I have acquired the space after major roof works, and the space itself needs quite a bit of work.
The studio is an open area which I feel is not conducive to the kind of workspace I need, too many distractions, and I do require a degree of privacy whilst working…..despite all the lovely people there. So, I am building a wall out of panels and painting the whole area.
Here are a few pictures of the space…. it is a bit a grim but has great light and once I have finished it will look great. The grey floor has to go!!
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I attended the ISWC 2012 Doctoral Consortium yesterday where I met a diverse group of PhD researchers investigating a wide range of subjects within the wearable technology sector. The research ranged from weaving fabrics with conductive yarns with embedded electronic components, to measuring errors in sensors embedded on garments. My presentation “The Embodied Feminine and the Sensory Self” discussed integrating body issue theories such as Social Comparison Theory, Self Schema Theory and Body Image Schemata into interactive installations went well. It can be seen here I was the only PhD participant undertaking a full creative practice PhD and many of the other studies were predominately technical or scientific. I had anticipated at least several other similar creative practice PhD studies which led me to question why there were so few design led and examples of wearables in clothing. My interpretation of wearable, which is undeniably informed by my fashion design background is that technology is embedded within clothing and that technology is worn on the body. I found myself asking the same question several times throughout the conference as many papers and presentations focused on the smart phone as a wearable. Whilst I appreciate the value of the extensive data which can be extracted and used in some way from smart phones, to me the phone is an accessory or gadget… as to date it is not worn on the body unless you use the bluetooth earpiece, which is rarely the case with users.
I had the opportunity to display a poster at the main event so that was good exposure for my work here it is:
The demo and design exhibition was interesting and I will be submitting my design work to the next ISWC 2013.
Here are some pictures of other designers at the design exhibition: Flutter by Halley P. Profita, Nicholas Farrow, Nikolaus Correll. Solar Family by Silvia Guttmann, Sara Lopez, Dziyana Zhyhar. Context aware signal glove for bicycle and motorcycle riders by Tony Carton. Twinkle Tartiflette and Don’t Break My Heart by Rain Ashford.
So in conclusion, my experience of attending and participating in the conference highlighted that I would like to see more design presentations/papers which focus on integrating technology into wearables as clothing in a social and cultural context. In the panel presentation Lucy Dunne also highlighted clothing as a main area of development of wearable technology, and referred to body image schemata and social issues relating to fashion and clothing which my study directly relates to, so I am pleased that the next ISWC 2013 now includes in the category Applications of Wearables, music with wearable technology in a social and artistic context.