Interactive Fashion

“Trapped”

A mask is a reflection of one’s identity. I interpreted this assignment to be a representation of the true face of my identity which is bind by constraints and restrictions. There is a lack of openness to which I express myself to my surroundings as shown in the “trapped” design of this work. In addition, I also utilized wood and strings to block the vision I have to represent the introvert identity I have. In this sense, it represents a lack of seeing eye to eye that I have encountered in the past due to my nature. In this sense, I created and represented the design to be one that traps and is trapped by personal constraints.

The sharp and clean edge of the wooden structure encloses me. It is a kind of cage or box that imprison my interaction with strangers. Some of those wooden sticks which pointing at my face reflects of my frustration. Those threads tightened around the helmet is suggesting those annoying assumptions before I start talking. The vibrant red which pops up among the yellowish wood enlarge the emotional approach of my project.

Paris is Burning Reflection

I think that the relation between fashion and identity is that fashion is an expression of societal identity and personal confidence. It is something that can allow someone to incorporate their spiritual identity into physical perceived identity thus providing social identity and personal confidence of personal identity. In this sense, fashion and identity intersect in terms of providing a conscience and physicality of being and personality. As for gender and fashion, it is also intertwined with the social identity that gender revolves around. As gender is a social construct, fashion’s interconnection with social society and social identity are intertwined. It is fashion and the expression of fashion as social identity and reflection of gender as social construct that one engages with the world. Furthermore, other social constructs such as race and class are very much the same with fashion and identity where fashion is a representation of a social construct, and thus a social identity. This organic and malleability of social identity thus allows for clear representation of social construct. 

“US”

In our weekly assignment, we explore the relationship between people and their surrounding by altering their sensation. We chose mirror, a kind of material that can reflect light, as our genre in this project. By glueing those mirrors with shape edges pieces by pieces into organic shapes, we tend to express the ideation of brokenness, which means the lost of connection and intimacy among individuals. Because of the unique attribution of mirror, audiences that are not in the spaces that we create can not capture any information inside. Nevertheless, those two audiences that interact with our “wearable helmet” can see both each other and themselves, even if their are in a back-to-back dynamic. However, those little pieces of mirror which are positioned in random area can not let them visually perceive the image as we regularly do. There are multiple distinct information that they are receiving, no matter their eyes or others’ shoulders. Therefore, this kind of overloading information embodies our concept of recognizing what a person truly is; and also implying the fast pace of our daily life that mislead us understanding oneself only through visual perception. The bizarre and chaotic interior magnify and satirized our first impression of others merely by seeing their looks.

In-Class Exercise:

In the beginning, we tried using the combination of conductive thread and normal thread to create a resistive connection, however the resistance was to low to be felt. 

After we failed due to the low value of the thread’s resistor, we changed another kind of thread as our material which worked perfectly in the end. It is really important to choose the right material that fits with the circuit and our approaches. 

Part 1: Programming an ATTINY85

For programming the ATTiny, we followed the tutorial in class and uploaded the code to burn the code into the ATTiny85 for our soft circuit. We met the issue of not being able to burn the code due to the ATTiny itself not working properly, ending with us replacing it and burning to make it work. 

 

Part 2: Soft Circuit

For the soft circuit, there were difficulties sewing so we ended up just manually connecting the circuit to test the ATTiny85 and if it worked to replace the Arduino Uno. It worked as shown in the video. 

 

Reading Reflections

What is fashion for you? and why are you interested in fashion?

Fashion is culture, power, and a representation of self for me. First and foremost, it is a representation of culture and the history behind that culture. It represents the beauty standards of the time and the cultural beliefs. For example, binded feet were a sociocultural fashion trend that enforced the belief that small feet were more beautiful, but at the same time it also enforced a sort of power to the male counterpart. In this sense, fashion is not only something that represented culture, but also the power dynamics of the culture which was more patriarchal and male dominant in social standing. This was also the reflection of culture where females were to act feminine and the characteristics associated with femininity such as weakness and feebleness. In addition, I also consider fashion a representation and extension of self. It is something that characterizes the individual and their values. 

I’m personally interested in fashion due to my interest in abstract and conceptual expression. In particular, I’m very interested in photography and the expression of fashion photography which drew me to want to learn about fashion. I think that clothes create a character and a story and through fashion, I wish to pursue more meaning in photographic composition. 

What kinds of things do your clothing say about you and your values?

I personally think that most of my clothing is black or semi-formal which show myself as more hidden and introvert. I think that the semi-formal aspect would show some professionalism regarding my attitude and belief of responsibility. I think that my clothing also shows some of my personality in terms of openness where darker colors make me seem more closed off, especially when I wear a mask. 

What are your main learnings and take aways from the readings?

I think that the main learnings would be that fashion should breakaway from traditional trends and that it should expand upon new territories. This would allow for more dimensionality and complexity of fashion and expression of self to be more multilateral.