Month: February 2023

This week, we watched the film “Paris is burning”, which was a really thought-provoking film. “THE BALL” is a grand event that was “compatible to Oscar” to those people who have a relatively low stand in the society. It’s an event where they can escape their everyday normal life and to be “unnormal”, to stand out, to gain applause and respect, to actually be the glamorous, stunning person they want to be from the bottom of their hearts. 

I was in the group3 and our question was:                                                                      1, How is fashion connected to our perception of different social classes?
2, Do you think there is a connection in the film between luxury and high fashion with power?                                                                                                                                   We thought that one of the most explicitly shown aspects in the film about “fashion relates to social class” and “there is a connection between luxury and high fashion with power” is the use of luxurious fabric like fur, diamonds, and also accessories. People made up their own “fur”, accessories with cheap alternatives because in the reality, they can’t afford these ad they are not “high status” enough to own these, while at the same time they long for these, not only the fashion items but also the status and richness. There is a solid gap between the imagination and reality, and between them and the actual “high level social classes”. 

It’s also very thought-provoking to see the interlude of scenes in “The Ball” and out “The Ball”, and the dramatic conflicts the movie creates through the constant interluding and interviews. We can see clearly how this event is extracting people from a struggling life to a luxurious and glamour one. Their desire, their dreams and wishes were so obvious but they were so helpless at the same time for it was hard for them to change their current situation and really live the life that they’ve dreamt of.

For this week’s assignment, we were asked to make a mask that shows our identity explicitly. About the mask itself, when I think of mask, I think of the costume party where people would hold a mask to cover their face. So that’s why I designed a hand-hold mask.Then about “showing my identity”, I thought of many of my identities, and the one I think that impacts me the most as well as represents me the most is that I have a protecting mechanism, which is that I would treat others exactly the way they treat me, like a mirror. So I decided to make a mask full of mirrors that enable the person I face to see only himself/herself.

I bought some mirrors online and try to find some fitting materials to make the mask. I found the shinning, almost transparent material and that catches my eyes immediately. I think the way it shines but at the same time not so showing off can also say something about me, or at least the kind of personality that I want to have. 

I also got some wires and benched them into the shapes of eyes, nose and mouth and I sticked the mirror in the shapes. And I sticked those components onto the shiny material.

I tested this with a few friends and made sure that they could hardly see me but mostly themselves.

For future development, Professor Marcele suggests that I could use mirrors in different shapes to fit better, also to make the structure more stable. And I think that I can also think more about the shape of the mask, and the length of the nose can actually be altered to the minimum distance that I can accept for a stranger to approach me, so that the mask can show more of its “protecting” feature.

  

This week, we worked in group of 4 and made a software-hardware communicating device using the soft switch we made last week.

We was struggling a bit at the beginning with the correct code and correct circuit but no reception, and later we discovered that the problem was at the beginning stage in the XCTU, we didn’t switch the “MY”and”DL”. After we changed that, the system worked smoothly.

Below is our code:

XBee-A:

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
SoftwareSerial mySerial(10, 11); // RX, TX

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {
  // initialize serial communication at 9600 bits per second in your serial port:
  mySerial.begin(9600);
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
  // read the input on analog pin 0:
  int sensorValue = analogRead(A5);
  // print out the value you read in your serial port:
  mySerial.println(sensorValue);
  delay(100);        // delay in between reads for stability
}

XBee-B：

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
SoftwareSerial mySerial(10, 11); // RX, TX
#define NUM_OF_VALUES_FROM_XBEE 1    /** YOU MUST CHANGE THIS ACCORDING TO YOUR PROJECT **/

int led = 9;           // the PWM pin the LED is attached to
int brightness = 0;    // how bright the LED is
int fadeAmount = 5;    // how many points to fade the LED by

/** DO NOT REMOVE THESE **/
int tempValue = 0;
int valueIndex = 0;
int xbee_values[NUM_OF_VALUES_FROM_XBEE]; /** create an array to store the data from Processing**/
void setup() {
  // Open serial communications and wait for port to open:
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(9, OUTPUT);
  mySerial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
  getSerialData();
  xbee_values[0] = constrain(xbee_values[0], 0, 255);
//  xbee_values[0] = map(xbee_values[0], 0, 200, 0, 255);
  analogWrite(9, xbee_values[0]);
  if (xbee_values[0] > 100) {
   digitalWrite(led, HIGH); 
  }else{
    digitalWrite(led, LOW); 
    }
  Serial.println(xbee_values[0]);// print out the value you read:
  delay(1);  
  // set the brightness of pin 9:
//  analogWrite(led, brightness);
  // change the brightness for next time through the loop:
//  brightness = brightness + fadeAmount;
//
//  // reverse the direction of the fading at the ends of the fade:
//  if (brightness <= 0 || brightness >= 255) {
//    fadeAmount = -fadeAmount;
//  }
//  // wait for 30 milliseconds to see the dimming effect
//  delay(30);
}

//receive serial data from Processing
void getSerialData() {
  while (mySerial.available()) {
    char c = mySerial.read();
    //switch - case checks the value of the variable in the switch function
    //in this case, the char c, then runs one of the cases that fit the value of the variable
    //for more information, visit the reference page: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/SwitchCase
    switch (c) {
      //if the char c from Processing is a number between 0 and 9
      case '0'...'9':
        //save the value of char c to tempValue
        //but simultaneously rearrange the existing values saved in tempValue
        //for the digits received through char c to remain coherent
        //if this does not make sense and would like to know more, send an email to me!
        tempValue = tempValue * 10 + c - '0';
        break;
      //if the char c from Processing is a comma
      //indicating that the following values of char c is for the next element in the values array
      case ',':
        xbee_values[valueIndex] = tempValue;
        //reset tempValue value
        tempValue = 0;
        //increment valuesIndex by 1
        valueIndex++;
        break;
      //if the char c from Processing is character 'n'
      //which signals that it is the end of data
      case '\n':
        //save the tempValue
        //this will b the last element in the values array
        xbee_values[valueIndex] = tempValue;
        Serial.println(tempValue);
        //reset tempValue and valueIndex values
        //to clear out the values array for the next round of readings from Processing
        tempValue = 0;
        valueIndex = 0;
        break;
    }
  }
}

Processing:

import processing.serial.*;
int NUM_OF_VALUES_FROM_XBEE = 1;   /** YOU MUST CHANGE THIS ACCORDING TO YOUR PROJECT **/
int sensorValues[];      /** this array stores values from the Lilypad1 **/
String myString = null;
Serial myPort;
void setup() {
  size(500,500)
  setupSerial();
}
void setupSerial() {
  printArray(Serial.list());
  myPort = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[ 8 ], 9600);
  // WARNING!
  // You will definitely get an error here.
  // Change the PORT_INDEX to 0 and try running it again.
  // And then, check the list of the ports,
  // find the port "/dev/cu.usbmodem----" or "/dev/tty.usbmodem----" 
  // and replace PORT_INDEX above with the index number of the port.

  myPort.clear();
  // Throw out the first reading,
  // in case we started reading in the middle of a string from the sender.
  myString = myPort.readStringUntil( 10 );  // 10 = '\n'  Linefeed in ASCII
  myString = null;

  sensorValues = new int[NUM_OF_VALUES_FROM_XBEE];
}
void draw() {
  getSerialData();
  printArray(sensorValues);

  circle(width/2, height/2, sensorValues[0]);
}
void getSerialData() {
  while (myPort.available() > 0) {
    myString = myPort.readStringUntil( 10 ); // 10 = '\n'  Linefeed in ASCII
    if (myString != null) {
      String[] serialInArray = split(trim(myString), ",");
      if (serialInArray.length == NUM_OF_VALUES_FROM_XBEE) {
        for (int i=0; i<serialInArray.length; i++) {
          sensorValues[i] = int(serialInArray[i]);
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Below is the video:

This is the video with only the led and the soft switch:

This is the video with led/soft switch/Processing:

I think from what I learned today, I think of a wearable pieces as a screen on one’s face, which shows the graph drawn by another person’s movement or feeling. For example, assume that the person who wears the screen is A, and the another one without the screen is B. B will wear a device that can sense different touching texture, and the screen will show different graphs accordingly. It can have a meaning of teaching kids, like if the kid (as B) touches a flower, another kid (A) will see character “flower”. It encourages team work as well as helps the kids understanding the world. Or, it can have the meaning of a crazy couple, where A is out there exploring the world and testing what is dangerous and what is not. whatever that person touches, A will see and know. But since the screen is worn on B’s face, it means that A can and only can see and know what B has seen and touched, they are closely bonded and A is entirely relied on B, which is romantic but dangerous at the same time.

For our assignment1, we needed to make a wearable device that alters our perception and change our relationship to the environment. We brainstormed a few ideas and end up deciding making a wing as: 1, an extension of human body 2, a device that alters our perception of air and enhance our feeling (hearing and motion) with air 

We found many plastic bags, pads, polyfoams and so on to build the bone structure as well as the surface of the wing. We actually have small designs on the surface and the design of the bone structure to make it look more wing-like and more easy to perceive the blow of the wind, but unfortunately we didn’t get to take pictures and our project was anciently thrown away by Ayi😭😭 

We still have some videos survived, best news of the week😬

This week, we are making a soft switch. 

We first made the switch. It contains three layers: one conductive material,  one layer of velostat, and one thick layer of cloth in between.

This switch is very sensitive, which is a bit to our surprise. As you can see in the serial monitor, the contact of fabric is sensed very in-time and immediately.

We first connected it to the led to test:

Then we turned to the buzzer. We encountered some issues with the buzzer. The voice always came out on and off, it was very unsteady, but we examined the code including map function and constraint function, they all worked fine. We guessed maybe the buzzer is having a bad connection.

 

The recitation this week is to make a soft switch. Professor Marcele asked us to go wild with our imagination! Sooo… I thought of this year is the year of rabbit🐇… and rabbits love eating carrots, their eyes would “light up” for their satisfaction when eating carrots… So I decided to make a soft switch that is — the carrot touching the rabbit’s nose! (However I eventually changed the carrot idea into grass, because we only had green and grey cloth and I thought a green carrot, or a grey one, is so weird, so I decided to make a grass shape!)

So I decided to use 2 red leds (as the rabbit’s eyes) and drew this circuit:

I tested on the breadboard before I use the soft materials, and it worked well:

So I turned to sewing. I had experience sewing clothes in the past, however, the conductive thread is very thick and slippery, I encountered quite a few issues when trying to tie it (especially with my long nails..which I already cut and change😌)

Below is the pictures of my final result.

However, because I sewed those threads pretty randomly, maybe resulted by random threads contacting each other without being noticed, the leds didn’t light up as I wished. As Marcele and I tested various threads using the multimeter, we found two threads that’s piping out and causing the mistaken touch. However, after controlling those two threads, the leds still didn’t work. I think the main issue is definitely those messy threads, and I’ll definitely improve this aspect in future sewing.

Last but not least, to answer the questions:

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

To me, fashion is what gives people(who wear the clothes) confidence and impresses others(who see the clothes) with a clear idea of his/her identity. I’m interested in fashion because I feel like it’s a very personal thing but at the same time allows you to be known and know others, the special feeling of having echos with others who share the same interest in some fashion items always make me feel connected and I enjoy this feeling, also I’m very curious how many forms can fashion takes.

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

I love things that are a bit exaggerative and strange, but in terms of color I like to keep the whole outfit in the same tune. I guess this shows that I have some attitudes and stick to some certain things and that I’m open to new things and adventures, but deep inside I still hold some traditional values and have some reservations.

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

In the readings, Davis mentioned that fashion is not only a personal expression, but also a combined result of society and culture. Which explains part of the reasons why people have preferences and some groups of people share the same preference — they may share similar social/culture background.

Ying Gao’s art pieces remind me of the mocking jay outfit in the film “Hunger game” and inspired me to take fashion into considerations that are more out of the frame and to innovate.