[-empyre-] Week 4 of empyre: Wearable Technologies

[Johannes Birringer]

yes, it's been interesting to see that the subject of wearable technologies
has not caught the imagination of many of the folks on our list
(not sure what grades have to do with it, as many here are artists, and not
grading, I trust), so maybe it was the nature of the conversation, did it not flow?
or maybe the subject was not investigated and reflected on in ways that attracted 
more attention, or is "fashion" a soft subject to some out there? just wondering,
as I have heard comments to this effect this before and was always puzzled about the
(low) status of fashion in the arenas of art theory / and / media criticism or activism.
i guess there's a prejudice against textiles and clothes, and if this is so, where
does it come from and what does it indicate?


with regards

Johannes Birringer
dap/dans sans joux
http://www.danssansjoux.org


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It has been quiet this week on empyre and I'm hoping that most of you have turned in your grades and finished your semester on this half of the hemisphere at last.  I've been traveling the past few days so I'm a day later in making introductions. I'm hoping that we can end this week and this month's discussion assimilating some of month's threads and introducing new ones.  In my travels I was thinking about the past few week's discussions and my own physicality in relationship to technology and personal/public space. I wear my DROID.  It is in my pocket or my hand or my satchel at all times "attached." In fact this morning as I went to take my walk I slipped my DROID in the front zippered pocket of a rain jacket and then when it got warm just took the jacket off and wrapped the arms around my shoulders.   My smart phone is a toggle to the networked world. Like Freud's nephew Hans and the management of his mother's absence or presence,  I manage my networks of friends and family, a virtual toggle.  For me wearable can be associative. Does technology have to be actually embedded into a garment or can it just be associatively connected.  Any thoughts about this?  Perhaps to extend this conversation and others from last week I'll introduce our last set of guests.  Welcome Daniel, Sarah, and Lucy. See their biographies below.
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