[-empyre-] Greetings from Michigan

[Heidi Kumao <hkumao@umich.edu>]

Hi all,
Sorry to be so delayed in starting this.  Greetings from lovely Ann 
Arbor, Michigan.  I'd like to see a dialog of people's ideas about 
wearables and their function, where people think they are going, and 
the fantasy wearables we might wish we had.

While I have been making technological art for awhile (low tech cinema 
machines, kinetic sculpture, animations), it is a completely new 
adventure for me to make wearables.  The pieces I have made so far 
(custom fit for my body and specifically for a female body) were all 
motivated by personal/emotional needs: audio activated bra and dress, 
disciplining corset (Posture Generator), and a very beta Purring Shawl 
to indicate pleasure.  While the objects (I call them "Performative 
Technologies") themselves are exhibit-friendly, it is the video 
performances that are the meat of the pieces, the images and the ideas 
behind them, be they comical or pointed in some way.  Certainly, I have 
been influenced by feminist discourse and critiques of women's fashion 
(at least in Western culture) and its constrictive nature, the video 
performances of Martha Rosler, William Wegman, feminist performance 
artists  such as Hannah Wilke or Ana Mendieta, and I am seeking to 
broaden the scope of both performative work and technological wearables 
into projects that might address people's emotional/psychological 
needs.
At this time, this might mean simply brainstorming about what 
psychological needs are most common, and try to address those.  I would 
be interested in hearing people's ideas about that.  (Could a wearable 
replace Prozac?)

Did anyone go to the International Wearable Computing conference in 
Washington DC last fall?
It's a fairly small conference (which is nice).  Lots of both 
commercial applications (defense/war, wrist computers for making 
workers more efficient), and pure research and artistic plays.  There 
was a whole team of students and professors sporting  wearable 
computers (with head mounted displays) from Georgia Tech and lots of 
student presentations. One presentation by a German student was quite 
memorable for me because of its oversight.  This student was in the 
process of inventing a wearable phone device that could detect what 
number you wanted to dial by the number of fingers you waved past your 
ear.  Forward and backward, the users hand would go with different 
fingered arrangements flying in the air next to their head.  The 
moderator asked the student if he was aware that those hand gestures 
might not be polite in certain cultures.  I thought it was hilarious, 
but it also opened up a whole field of discussion in terms of what body 
positions, gestures, postures, and behaviors we might find ourselves 
doing in order to use new wearables.  Can the wearable dictate a 
certain kind of behavior ?  What kinds of behavior do we want to 
create?  Can we create a wearable to do that?

Those are some questions I have for now.  There are more.  I am 
interested in the stories about wearables' use.  Since this type of 
work is inherently connected to the body and a sensory experience, it 
seems only natural that the "research" aspect of making these include 
stories and responses.


Heidi Kumao
heidikumao.net