Soft Circuit
🏮Lantern! 🏮
(but ALL of my friends say it looks like McD’s fries 😛
Circuit in theory & practice:
- I intentionally stitched the LED in this way because I thought the stitchings could be part of the lantern pattern. But, BUT it turned out to be super ugly, so I glued some yellow strips (that made things worse ;; or… more like McDonald’s
Learning Process
- Some YouTube videos I referred to:
- Sewing a resistor onto the fabric | link
- Conductive Thread, Soft Circuits, and Wearables (E-Textiles) | link
- How to Setup Pressure Sensitive Fabric with Velostat and Conductive Fabric | link
- this one was really helpful. I misunderstood the function of the conductive fabric in the very beginning .(I didn’t understand that we need to connect two pieces of fabric, one to the positive end and another to the negative end of the battery). After watching the video, I understood that it should be a series circuit.
- One circuit from the YT video on course website:
- The circuit after asking Marcela during class
- We thought about having a background to hold the battery. This inspired me to first use a rectangular fabric to make the circuit, then tailor it into the shape I wanted ( because the rectangular shape can demonstrate the circuit clearer
Reading Reflections
Fashion, after taking the EAP class called Sustainable Fashion that completely changed my values in my freshman year, is always associated with self-expression, identity and environmental & societal/ moral issues. It never came to me that fashion is different from “the consensually established clothing code operative in a society at a particular time”. I sometimes equate fashion with this kind of clothing code. Fashion is highly relevant to one’s identity and is constantly changing. Fashion is one entry point to study a specific person/ a community or a society within a specific temporal-spatial framework.
As for me, after reading the articles, I find myself more prone to follow the clothing code accepted by society when pursuing what is “fashionable”. In recent years, I am trying to become a conscious consumer, and avoid chasing after fast fashion. I think the fabric, texture, weave and styling of the clothing I consume can well-reflect my values – I avoid getting undurable clothing.
One very contradictory thing about my clothing and my identity: I am trying to celebrate and promote body positivity and body inclusivity BUT I did (and I do) care a lot about my body image, so that I can fit the “trend”. This turbulence within my inner self is super interesting, and it is something I would like to explore in this class/ in other classes. [I had this conversation with my friend the day after I wrote these words. It’s like I am trying to address the problems from a broader, macro perspective, but I do encounter conflicts from the micro perspective, with my individual self… 🤔️
[putting down the quotes for future inspiration:] “Among the more prominent ambivalences underlying such fashion-susceptible instabilities are the subjective tensions of youth versus age, masculinity versus femininity, androgyny versus singularity, inclusiveness versus exclusiveness, work versus play, domesticity versus worldliness, revelation versus concealment, -il cense versus restraint, and conformity versus rebellion.” – the tensions within fashion are worthy of exploration.