Watch to the following videos and post your reflection considering the following:
-What was the purpose of watching these?
-What did you learn from each talk?
-What is your take on each of the talk?
Lucy McRae//
The purpse was to challenge what wearable garments could look like and how they perform. We can get stuck with the notion that garments are simply clothes or fashion, but really if we use our imagination, we can extend the boundaries of what can be really pieces of art and science. McRae’s piped dress, skin morphing shapes, and light radiating pieces blew my mind away, and inspired me to look at the body in a whole another way. I learned that we don’t have to separate fashion and science, but we can blend the lines and play with form and materials to create totally new silouhettes. I had looked at her website and also loved her work in the music video with Robyn that was just so creative and fun, or her mattres that conformed to the body and took shape of a human. My takeaway was the realization that now that I have the chance to experiment and make things, I should take advantage of this opportunity.
Neil Harbisson//
Neal’s talk showed how wearable technology can serve as an extension of ourselves to change how one interacts with the world. The purpose was to open our eyes as to how other people did not let a limit such as color-blindness stop them, but they looked into new ways to see. It stood out to me how Harbisson’s passport photo included his “glasses” becasue he saw it as now a part of his own body. I learned how others can percieve the world in a drastic manner from the ordinary and it made me wonder, how did Harbisson relate to the “good” sounds or the “bad” sounds, when for us ordinary people, it all sounded like digital chimes? Harbisson had spent so much time learning each sound, correlating it to the word that we give for each color, and is now able to make “sound portraits” or bright, eye-catching paintings to reflect on famous speeches. It shows how we can’t let challenges limit ourselves, but to see them as an opportunities and reinvent.
Viktoria Modesta//
When the video started, I was immediately drawn in by the heelless shoe on one leg, and a great big black spike on the other- it was so dramatic! Like Harbisson, Modesta did not let her disability define her life but instead embraced her uniqueness. Yet she was still humble, did not stick to labels, and seemed true to herself. From watching the video, it inspires us to see weareable technology not as something of only the exterior, a cold accessory, but rather something that can be an important part of the individual. That way, it not only functions as an aid for movement, but also for expression. I learned how with careful, thoughtful design, something that has a connotation of “less” can become something very beautiful. It was inspiratinoal to see how she had come from a war torn country to a successful singer and fashion icon, while she still shows the realities of having a disability.
