Hellooo wearables fans—best make your move to Pratt Manhattan Gallery in NYC for this fab show Coded_Couture before it moves to another part of the world. It’s a mash-up of coded style with some surprise dashes from the past, as well as some exciting current work. They’ve got Cute Circuit’s well known Twitter Dress, as well as Cedric Flazinski’s curious Mydesigner shoes. Here’s more detail of the exhibition:
Coding infers methodologies usually associated with computer programming and social science research. CODED_COUTURE (coined by the curators) features the work of 10 international artist-designers whose approaches to personalization are sympathetic to the allure and history of haute couture, yet whose inventive methodologies are rooted in new technology. Simply stated, to code is to convert one piece of information into another form. These practitioners each use coding to convert a consumer’s personal information into a custom garment. They pioneer ways to communicate and connect with the wearer, gathering information that transforms the aesthetics of the work in substantial ways. The unique results, created in partnership with each individual wearer, go far beyond the mass market approach of companies like Nike and Levi’s who offer customers the option to select from a limited palette of colors or patterns from a drop-down menu.
Curators Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox of curatorsquared have practically invented the visual Wiki of coded wearables here, examining themes like personal history, stereotypes and data visualization. They’ve also given the artists freedom in combining mixed media like video, sketchbooks and interactive opportunities to make this a tactile experience. One project that excites me is Ying Gao’s (No)Where (Now)Here that includes two dresses made with photo-luminescent thread and servos. Embedded eye-tracking tech allows eye movements of spectators to trigger swirled movements in the dresses. What kind of gaze does what? You are just going to have to visit yourself and see! Hurry up, because the exhibit moves onto it’s next location after April 30th.
If you are a wearables wannabe, you may want to prep for this big show by reading up on fashion tech-niques. Check out our book Getting Started with Adafruit FLORA. FLORA is our stitchable/solderable microcontroller that allows you to create almost any tech wizardry in your fashion, from lighting up colorful NeoPixels, reacting to sounds, making motors move or even connecting to your phone. Find out about sensors, stitching with conductive thread and other pro-tips. This is the easy-peasy way to discover wearable tech and yes, there are plenty of photos. So, don’t be shy, be a maker!
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
