Archives for February 2024

Mask

Idea/ Concept

The mask gives observers a majestic sense by just observing whoever is wearing it. The observers might think the wearer is pretty and easy to mess up with. However, when the wearer opens her/ his mouth and starts to talk, the spikes on the top of her/ his head go up. The spikes consist of both 3D printed PLA units and needles, which eventually make the spike relatively dangerous. This piece helps the wearer to express herself/ himself through opening the mouth.

inspirations: @aerarius_metalworks | pearls/ chains | link 1 | link 2

Technical development 

• I learned how to solder when dealing with the wires. We couldn’t find the soldering wires, so using another type of wire was a bit hard (although since I haven’t tried with soldering wire, I couldn’t tell the differences :P). I need to melt some solder so that the two wires can be connected together. It is a bit hard to do when the touching surface is small, but once everything is in good position/ condition, the two wires can be connected easily. 
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• I got more familiar with the combination plier. Because the plier has a relatively big head, it was easier to use it to make the rings for the mask. 
• 3D printing. Although I downloaded the model online, I experimented a bit with the printing. The spaghetti failure appeared several times. Now that we don’t use glues on the plate, it’s important to create brims for the models before printing them out. 
• I failed to figure out how the spikes work, so after observing what Korrina made, I drew something down. We need to get the chain through the holes alternatively, so that the spike can be pulled up. 
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• When creating the wire frame, Korrina and I put down its outline on a piece of paper after adjusting it on my face. But I am guessing, next time when making a shape with the wire, we can draw the shapes on paper first, and make the shape according to what we’ve drawn (if we know the measures). It’s kind of similar to the idea that create a (paper) model first, then operate with the wires (so that we don’t operate in the air).

Future improvements

• The chains are a bit too hard, so the mechanics may not be working well. We should have used wool/ fabrics. (But the problem with these soft materials is that they don’t fit the theme/ color.)

Reading/ viewing Reflections 

“We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves. Our vision is continually active, continually moving, continually holding things in a circle around itself, constituting what is present to us as we are.”

• I found this quote while I was reading for another course, from Ways of Seeing.  I think it poetically portrays how our visual senses work. But in addition to only perceive the relations by “looking”, we also integrate other senses when we interact with the environment around us. 

💬 How fashion/ dress articulate group identities? 

Paris is Burning and the readings reminds me of a phenomenon in China called Shamate 杀马特. People in the Shamate community wear unique, eye-catchy hairstyles and clothes. Their showy hair, especially the long bangs covering their forehead is their signature. The similarities between them and those characters in Paris is Burning are: 1) people of both communities are in a marginalized position. In Shamate’s case, the community is usually composed of the second generation of migrant workers or migrant factory workers. They use this way to confront the hardships in their life. In Paris is Burning’s case, these black, queer people are trying to find their agency in the white dominated society, although some of them joined houses still run by the white. 2) Both communities use clothes, hairstyles, makeup and fashion elements to express themselves. However, while most people in Paris is Burning feel comfortable expressing themselves in that way, the Shamate group faced explicit criticism and mocking, and eventually, most of them yielded to reality and went back to the mundane factory work. I think both phenomena, along with our readings, point out how marginalized groups are seeking ways to be seen, seeking ways to find their space in society. They use appearance as the media to challenge and confront the long-established social structure because “we look to read the other through appearance and hope we can do so accurately” (142). Fashion is their way of gaining agency in this world. 

What is really valuable, and unique in these cases is that these fashions are created and demonstrated by the group. They are not wearing clothes, hairstyles, or makeup designed by others who don’t even belong to the group. There is criticism of the movie in that it was made by a white person. After gaining all the fames, reputations and rewards from the movie, little attention is paid to the status quo of the communities in the film. I do agree with this criticism. 

Another question that’s been hunting me: How do we perform a certain gender?  How do we perform our gender and sexuality? If I were biologically a man, but I recognized myself as a woman, is changing my appearance so that I can fit in the societal perception of woman appearance an effective way to express my sexuality? Doesn’t it reinforce certain gender stereotypes? 

In-Class exercise:

This week we learned how to use Arduino Lilypad USB, micro:bit, and Neopixels. I am still struggling with how to connect the circuits, so I made the following pictures.

 

I was also struggling with the LilyPad because I couldn’t understand the mechanism, so I referred to this and made some notes.

Coding the micro:bit wasn’t was difficult as I thought, maybe it was because we only did the simplest one. One thing to pay attention to is the “radio set group” must be the same for both of the mirco:bits.

here is the final result: IMG_8447

Reading reflections and thoughts: 

How animals & plants communicate: 

• • Three interesting facts I found online: 
    • Octopuses can change the color and texture of their skin to communicate.
    • Elephants can communicate through seismic vibrations in the ground.
    • Spiders use vibrations on their webs to communicate important messages.
• By using radio signals, the person who is wearing the clothes can choose to change its color,  based on his/ her mood and feelings, or to send out sounds or vibrations. 
• Speaking of vibrations, I think of receiving phone calls or messages. So if the person wants to make a connection with another person nearby, but he/ she is too shy to speak up, he/ she can use vibration to attract attention. 
• I learned that plants can emit scents to communicate with each other. However, so far, I still regard it difficult to control the scents a person sends out because scents do stay there for a long time. But fragrance can be a part of the design as scents can be related to memories and feelings. 

 

• I am also trying to think about how to manifest “ethical consumption” through interactive fashion. Based on my understanding of the Chinese fashion market, although there are conscious consumers who care about the environmental and ethical impact of fashion, most consumers still have little knowledge about the negative impact of clothings, especially those of fast fashion. From what I learned before, one of the driving reasons why consumers can’t stop consuming fast fashion is that the designs of those durable products can’t keep up with the changing styles. Would it be possible to integrate LED screen or other technologies that allow users to define their own patterns and designs into clothes? 

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🧑🏻‍🔬 In class exercise:

We tried the material called “Velostat” for our in class exercise. The material is pressure sensitive and can serve as flexible sensors. That is the reason why we need to leave enough space between velostat and another conductive fiber. It is a little bit frustrating that my computer didn’t work for the circuit, but luckily in the end we were able to test out our circuit on Korrina’s computer. 

(We also tried with LED and buzzer, but unfortunately, I can’t find any video/ photo for them)

🦋 Iteration 1: Butterfly

It is a shoulder/ knee decoration, but it is a half-finished piece. It was done by me because Korrina got sick after working for the Student Government Dumpling Festival (it was a really amazing event, ngl!!), so I decided to try out the mechanisms of our wings first. The idea is that when you feel someone invading your personal space (especially on the subway, when there are a LOT of people), you can open the wings and give others a warning sign. It changes how we sense the space surrounding us. I myself am very sensitive about physical boundaries. It wasn’t the original design, but since I used the box for subway Waimai, I realize that it can be used as a knee decoration as well. When the person sitting next to me is not in a good position, and I feel uncomfortable, I can open the wings to warn them. Another fun and unexpected discovery happened after showing this piece to Chanel. I intentionally picked these colors because I always find colorful butterflies terrifying (maybe because I watched too many documentaries and some said butterflies’ wings are poisonous). However, Chanel said this color and the butterfly shape is such a GENTLE reminder, instead of warning. I guess color, and semiotics/ shapes can change how we perceive the world as well (although this experience might be individualized). 

🕹️ Technical take-aways:

Maybe the biggest take-aways in this piece is that when using the strings, do make careful measurements. The history reoccurred that I made the strings too long (again:)).

🪽 Iteration 2: Wings

This is another piece about personal space. Korrina says when you feel small, you can open the wings by pulling the strings and remind others of your presence. The wings can make you feel bigger. It makes sense for me, but also, I can use them to warn others not to step into my personal space.

After finishing this piece, it is also amazing how, because of the self weight, the wings can go down themselves. The plastics and thermal materials work really well under the lights as well. The also produce sounds through scratching each other. These effects inspire me on how clothings and wearables can interact with our hearings and perception of the colors. 

🕹️ Technical take-aways:

I definitely became more familiar with the materials and tools we have in the lab after this project. It was a fun experience. We used recycled materials, which I am super proud of. I “learned” how to heat up the plastics, and we realized that it’s hard to control how plastics curve under heat, maybe you can control the thick ones a little bit. Based on my observations, in most cases, the plastics curve up against the hot airflow, although I expected them to go in the other direction. 

I think this whole experience with the materials and textures actually changes my relationship with the environment. Because I kept observing and experimenting, trying to understand the quality of each material. Although it was time consuming, but I had to admit, I learned a lot from this assignment. (and it was de-stressing :)))

🔖 Reading Reflection

Reading See Yourself Sensing- Redefining Human Perception reminds me of the research I did in my first semester here. It was about body misperception/ body dysmorphia among social media users, especially young girls. The misperception of one’s own body comes from the discrepancy of those ideal body images in online spaces, and one’s own body in real life. The internalization of those ideal visuals may lead to one’s dissatisfaction about their own body. In this case, the visual sense is largely controlled by the capitals: their narrations of the ideal body, ideal shape, ideal definition of beauty are perceived, consumed and internalized by users, and users lose control of their perception.  

Another notion, sensory substitution, caught my attention. I read about an artist, whose family members fled to South Asia during the Chinese diaspora, and were “invited” back to live in China afterwards. The family members said those spices commonly used in making Thai food, lemongrass, galangal, lime (rind and leaves), coriander leaves, sweet Thai basil, reminded them of the great memories back there, although they were not a local in Thailand. The artist took this as her inspiration and created an art installation that combines sight and smell together. (( For me, just reading the description, I can already smell those nice spices, and think of their taste, and imagine life in Thailand.) It is interesting how our senses are connected, not only to each other, but also to our cognitive system.