Month: February 2024

After watching Paris is Burning and reading The Fashioned Body chapters listed below, post to the blog a reflection on the relationship between fashion and identity, but also gender, race, and class. You can also add your notes from the class discussion. Finally, write about the concept of your mask and how this relates to your understanding of identity and expression through fashion. Don’t forget to post photos or videos wearing it.

Reflection

Fashion is an expression of identity. “How we perform our identity has something to do with our location in the social world as members of particular groups, classes, cultural communities. The clothes we choose to wear represent a compromise between the demands of the social world, the milieu in which we belong, and our own individual desires”.

In the documentary Paris is Burning, the characters consider fashion as a tool for self-expression and identity formation. The ball culture in 1980s New York City provided a space for individuals to creatively construct and perform their identities through elaborate costumes, runway walks, and voguing. These performances were not merely about aesthetics but also served as acts of resistance against societal norms and discrimination. In the documentary, the character’s race and gender restrict them from ever achieving what they want, so they use fashion as fantasy. Their desire is clearly shown through what they wear. 

In our class discussion, we talked about whether fashion is performance. I would say that fashion is indeed a performance of our identity. What we wear shows other people the information we want to convey. In the documentary, participants will choose different attires for different personas in competition. They perform different characters through fashion, which also helps to build their confidence.  I also remember the concept of “real” in the documentary, which seems to be similar to “authenticity” mentioned in the reading, however, it is in fact opposite.  Their being “real” is their compromise to the real world. The participants in the ball pay attention also to artifice in their presentation of self to catch people’s eyes. What they wear also indicates fashion’s relationship with class and social status, as stated in the reading(143). Class is clearly visible through different styles of clothing. Although the boundaries are gradually blurring, clothing still serves as a powerful marker of social divisions.

In terms of gender, nowadays gender-neutral fashion challenges traditional norms and offers new possibilities for self-expression beyond binary constructs. I also have many gender-neutral clothing. As a girl hiphop dancer, which was traditionally dominated by men, women dress exactly the same as men to better fit into the culture. 

Mask

Concept

This mask empowers women to break free from the constraints. What we want to express through this mask is that we feel constantly strained by different types of responsibility and stereotypes in society, but we want wearers to be encouraged to break free of the chains and embrace new opportunities. 

We gained inspiration from the work above and wanted to explore the butterfly’s symbolization. At first, we wanted to create a pupa with woolen yarn to make a headset.

However, the experiment was not successful, so we moved to another type of mask.

The green wollen yarns represent the thistles and thorns, the struggle.

This was the first prototype, but it was more like an adornment instead of a mask.

We used hot glue to create butterflies and tangled them with chains, which represent the constraints. However, we placed it below to show these constraints can be overcome. 

The leaves around the butterflies indicate empowerment. They are symbols of self-discovery and growth.

Fashion serves as a powerful means of self-expression and identity. This mask not only acknowledges the weight of societal expectations but also encourages wearers to embrace their authenticity and pursue new opportunities.

Reference

Entwistle, Joanne (2000) ‘Fashion and Identity’ in: The Fashioned Body. Cambridge: Polity Press

Here is the video of the final output

EXERCISE 1: LILYPAD

CONNECT THE SENSOR TO THE LILYPAD

Problems that occurred in this exercise were the bad connection due to problems with the wires. One solution was to use as few wires as possible and wrap the resistor directly on Lilypad. 

Above is the video for connecting the neopixels to the lilypad and the functioning output.

Exercise 2

1. Setting up the sensor and the first micro:bit

Video:    

2. Programming the second micro:bit to receive values and use them to control the neopixels.

Code:

First is the link to the Original video, with the problem of blinking too fast.

Here is the link to the video of the final functioning output

Arduino Code:

#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>

#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>

// ixfashion week 3

#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>

// Which pin on the Arduino is connected to the NeoPixels?

#define PIN 3

// How many NeoPixels are attached to the Arduino?

#define NUMPIXELS 60

// When setting up the NeoPixel library, we tell it how many pixels,

// and which pin to use to send signals. Note that for older NeoPixel

// strips you might need to change the third parameter -- see the

// strandtest example for more information on possible values.

Adafruit_NeoPixel pixels(NUMPIXELS, PIN);

// analog sensor

int sensorPin = A3;

void setup() {

// initialize serial communication at 9600 bits per second:

Serial.begin(9600);

// INITIALIZE NeoPixel strip object (REQUIRED)

pixels.begin();

}

void loop() {

//read the sensor value

int sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin);

//map the values

int ledsOn = map(sensorValue, 0, 470, 1, NUMPIXELS);




pixels.clear(); // Set all pixel colors to 'off'

//turn on a number of LEDs on according to the values from the sensor

for(int i = 0; i < ledsOn; i++){

pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(255, 255, 255));

pixels.show(); // Send the updated pixel colors to the hardware.

}

Serial.println(sensorValue);

}





Question:

Investigate how animals/plants communicate with each other and write about an interesting form of communication that you could use in a wearable to communicate with others.


By reading the materials given, I learned that plants and animals could communicate in many ways that I wasn't aware of. Only visual signals already included many types of language including facial expressions, color-change, gaze-following, etc. I find many signals that can be explored and achieved through microcontrollers in wearables. 

Inspired by the way certain animals and plants change color or light through chemical reactions, the wearable could feature responsive fabrics or materials that change color or light in response to environmental factors or user input. 
For example, I can explore temperature-sensitive materials or sensors that can change color or the color of the LEDs based on the wearer's body temperature. The change of the LEDs or Neopixels can also result from the change in pressure, speed, etc.

Other interesting communication forms

Drawing from the concept of gaze-following behavior observed in animals, the wearable could feature embedded sensors or cameras that track the wearer's gaze direction. This information could be used to trigger interactive responses within the device or to communicate with external devices or systems. 

An example is Caress of the Gaze by Behnaz Farahi

Another interesting form is to explore bio-inspired sound communication. The wearable could contain small speakers, actuators, or motors that emit sounds mimicking those of animals or natural environments. Users could control these sounds through gestures or voice commands.

These communication forms inspired my idea of making wearables incorporating rubbing specialized body parts together and vibration to produce sounds like  arthropods. I often encounter situations when I don't want to open my mouth to speak a word but want to convey the message of rejection or happiness. Previously these were shown by my eyes, but I want to explore how they can be conveyed through the frictions of different fabrics and motors. For example, motors can be connected to fabric and when feel pressure detected by pressure sensor or heartrate sensor, the motor will lead the fabric to move and produce sound. Adding color and light signals to these is also preferrable. 



How do you imagine you could use what you learned today for a wearable?


To incorporate sensors into wearables, I learned today that controlling the sensors through radio communication using micro:bit can enable wireless connections when I have wearables that interact with each other. For example, if I want to integrate neopixel strips on the wearables and want them to change color based on temperature sensors, the neopixel strips won't have to be connected to the breadboard or lily pad. Each wearable could be equipped with temperature sensors to detect changes in the wearer's environment. With the micro:bit's radio communication capabilities, these wearables could exchange real-time temperature data.
Furthermore, by eliminating the need for physical connections between the wearables and the sensors, the design becomes more streamlined and user-friendly. The wireless connection can make the whole interactive mechanism more convenient for wearers.

In-class exercise

Velostat sensor  

Testing Lily Pad

Final output

Problem encountered: My partner and I had the circuits right but the buzzer didn’t make sound. We asked Marcela and then we found that since we created quite a long velostat sensor, the resistance becomes big. The original minimum resistance value set in the sample code was 50 but our maximum resistance value was 17. So we changed the minValue to 10 to enable the buzzer to make sound.

int minValue = 10; //start playing at this value

Another part of the wearable is an eye mask. The blue fabric is the reflective fabric. We wanted human motion to twist the fabric so the human image would be twisted. I experimented with sewing the cube into the fabric, and when I drag the cube, the fabric will twist. We hope to implement this in our wearable.

We covered it with a hole-like white cloth, which is very much like our brain.

When thinking about the concept of stress, we wanted to use the glow sticks (which we found plenty of on the tables in the studio after orientation) to represent it. When people squeeze the glow sticks, it sends out an information of feeling stressed. And the motion of squeezing will move the cube and therefore move the eye mask.