Upgrade! São Paulo: Wearable Computers: Spatiality, Sensory Experience, Mediation -Luisa Paraguai Donati :: April 26, 2008, 7:30 pm @ i-People: Av Vergueiro 727, next to the Vergueiro Subway Station.

Luisa’s present research reflects about mobile technologies and several objects / gadgets, particularly the wearable systems, that explore other orders / configurations of the body in the space, as they introduce a digital context that overlaps / creates the physical domain and that bring not only social consequences but also other spatial and temporal dynamics of perception and action. Continue reading

Wearables Master Class - Design the symbiosis of digital components and clothing :: April 15-18, 2008 :: Mediamatic, Oosterdokskade 5, Post CS building, 5th floor South, Amsterdam :: Participants should have experience in (fashion) design, physical computing or (basic) programming skills.

A world class team, consisting of Leah Buechley, the very creator of the Lilypad Arduino, and wearable computing experts Maurin Donneaud and Vincent Roudaut, guide workshop participants in the development of their own eFashion item or hybrid wearable. In four days participants conceptualize and materialize their project prototype, assisted by fashion designer Anouk Wipprecht as well as physical computing specialist and Fritzing developer Dirk van Oosterbosch.

Amagatana and Fula by Yuichiro Katsumoto [via]

Party Dress - by Dana Karwas and Karla Karwas - is a roving performance that is part living architecture: part monumental fashion. It functions as a pavilion worn exclusively by five women that seamlessly injects architecture into fashion by using the body as space. The dress begins as a shared, bustled garment that gradually unfolds to create a temporary, inhabitable structure. Each seam, each dress, and each body are interconnected by a single, amorphous surface of flowing material. Continue reading

Upgrade! Scotland: Cathie Boyd & Martin Naef :: January 30, 2008; 7.30 - 9.30 pm :: CCA, Sauchiehall St, Glasgow.

Cathie Boyd, Artistic Director of Theatre Cryptic and Martin Naef, Research Programmer will talk about their collaborative project Living Canvas, which uses real-time projection to enable a performer to “wear virtual costumes”. These can then adapt to the body, or even provide a different face. The system enables a dynamic or even improvised performance by detecting the posture and silhouette of the performer and projecting imagery precisely to the selected parts of the body. Continue reading

Continue reading

Gordan Savicic’s project Constraint City - The Pain of Everyday life, exploits in a brilliant way the electromagnetic waves generated by the wireless networks spread all over the urban territory, mapping them out on his own body thanks to a jacket equipped with servo motors. A work that embodies torture and a playful game of pain, where the digital signals reveal their strength by proportionally tightening in the chest of the jacket wearer. The access points are detected by a wi-fi enabled Nintendo DS Lite console, booted with a Gentoo Linux release, kinetically translating the radio waves. Continue reading

Look at this beat wartime empathy device by Dominic Muren. As he explained me in his email: Though it’s not the most traditional interface design, I feel more and more that really functional interfaces in our world of mediation, will need to be physical. And what more complicated topic to give physicality than war, and the civilian relationship to it. The Beat wartime empathy device is actually a pair of dogtag-like receiver and transmitter, one worn by a soldier, and the other anonymously “adopted” by a civilian. The soldier’s heartbeat is recorded, and transmitted, real time, to the civilian, where it is physically thumped against their chest, another heartbeat next to theirs. They feel the soldier’s fear, calm, or, god forbid, death. With such an intimate connection, it takes a hard heart indeed to ignore the true cost of war. [blogged by Nicolas on pasta and vinegar]

Urban Sensoria by Alejandro Jaimes-Larrate :: November 2, 2007; 8 pm :: until December 1 :: Workshop with Jürgen Scheible - December 1-3, 2007 :: @ Serial Artist, Barcelona.

Urban Sensoria is an experimental method of experiencing and exploring the city. It is also a theoretical inquiry into cities, culture, memory, experience, and how it relates to traditional media and new technologies. The exhibition includes photography, video made with a wearable system, sounds, and an interactive camera-projection piece. More information and photographs at: http://www.urbansensoria.com

Azra Akšamija was our guest at Upgrade! Boston last Thursday. She gave such a fascinating presentation that I began writing a summary of her talk. But Regine Debatty posted a comprehensive survey and interview with Azra on we - make - money - not - art today, so I’ve reblogged it instead. [Images: Azra demonstrating her Wearable Mosque at Upgrade! Boston in RL, above right, and in Second Life, below] Also see her Dictionary of War presentation here. Continue reading