In this action-packed three days, 19-20-21 febraury 2008, from 10am to 5pm, participants will look at clothes and jewelry and their potential as personal mobile platforms for social interaction. This is one of the first workshops in Europe around the beautiful and brand new Lilypad Arduino, designed especially for use in wearables.
With: Jean-Baptiste Labrune, Dana Gordon.
Workshop approach
Wearables are about merging what you wear with (communication) technology. They can be thought of as one epxonent of the increasingly intimate fusion of digital and physical space. More and more object are being connected to networks, and become carriers, collectors, and transmitters of various kinds of data. When looking at very personal objects like clothes and jewelry, this development gets particularly interesting.
We’re not just talking about pimping your outfit – we’re investigating the electronic extrapolation of the role of clothing and fashion. And we’re looking at transferring possibilities of other communication devices to clothing, where they may find a more natural home…
In the morning lectures, project presentations and instructions transfer basic knowledge and open new perspectives. Some of the topics that will be investigated in this workshop are: tangible interfaces, clothes as media, social possibilities of RFID technology, new conductive materials, and more.
In the afternoon the participants work on their own workshop projects, assisted by outstanding international lecturers and technical assistants. The workshop closes with a public presentation in which the issues are discussed and some results are shown.
Workshop tools
Specific attention will be paid to the LilyPad Arduino which is an e-textile construction kit designed by Leah Buechley. Besides this we also have Bluetooth- and regular Arduino’s available as workshop material, and a collection of sensors and actuators. As practical research tools the participants can furthermore use various RFID readers and tags and we have a sewing-machine with conductive threads.
The workshop will incorporate the FabLab machines.
Target group
The workshop is designed for a maximum of 16 computer scientists, fashion designers, hardware hackers, art students, fabric experts, product developers or media-makers.
Because of the technical level of this workshop and the limited amount of time (3 days) it is important that the participants have the right skill sets: a basic understanding of electronics and / or relevant experience with design processes. All participants are assisted personally in realizing their workshop projects. We would advice participants to work in teams of max. 3 people, so you can distribute soldering, coding and sewing tasks.
Trainers & lecturers
Jean-Baptiste Labrune’s is a third year Phd student in interaction design in INRIA and University Paris Sud in France. His research group named in|situ| creates new interfaces and interactions for the family.
Dana Gordon graduated from the masters program of Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in the summer of 2006. During the last two years, as part of her Interaction design studies, she focused on physical computing and particularly tangible interface design. She collaborated with companies such as Tecno and Droog Design. Currently based in Paris, she develops new tangible design projects and consults for artistic interactive installations.