Brandon Marsh – NMP Jacket

This week I will be presenting my project to the class, so I am pretty excited about that. A lot of my classmates have been interested in what I am doing and are keen to see what I have come up with. I’m sure I will be getting a lot of good feedback as well.

I was talking to Jordy yesturday and she suggested I try contacting Toronto Craft Alert to see if I could find a fashion designer/textile artist on there. It’s worth a shot, I think I will also try Craigslist and a few other places while I am at it.

I sent Kent some more feedback from myself and my friends on his latest revisions. I think things are really coming together now. I really appreciate having him there to visualize the problems or ideas that I have when thinking about this project.

The rest of the week will be spent wrapping up my other class work and preparing for exams. Once that is over I can dedicate some serious time to getting my prototype done.

I got my Cool Neon in the mail on Thursday! It works great and looks cool! I can’t wait to start using it.

I presented my Project to the class on Friday and got some really positive feedback from the professors and my classmates. I have a lot to work with and a lot to think about with my prototype.

One suggestion was to incorporate a self-documenting system to gather part of my project documentation

Andre made a good point of dissolving the technology into the outfit, Jordy cautioned me against using a leather jacket for a base, since it will be difficult to work with.

Dave pointed out to me to think about the difference between a ‘Wearable Computer’ and just ‘Wearing a Computer’. He also wants the me to incorporate the Cool Neon into the system, not just for decoration.

Kathleen has suggested I steer away from the hardcore cyberpunk aesthetic since it represents a sort of anti-social disjunction, which is opposite to the type of atmosphere I want to create with my project.

Here are some of the Comments I recieved from Lila:

You know what you want to do. Think more about why you are doing it. What is your project about on a deeper level? What aspects of New Media, society, the human condition are you commenting on? Why are you a mobile phone booth? What will you (a walking phone booth) look like? Play more – expand!

While you said up front that you will be a walking phone booth, it seemed almost in passing. Try to highlight your central idea in a clear way so everyone understands what you are doing.

While we are confident this aspect will improve we still have concerns about keeping your project on the cutting edge. Granted, hard to do when you are already working at the cutting edge. However, you chose it so it is up to you to figure out how to be cutting edge of cutting edge!

Again, your concept needs work and once that happens the form will surely follow. Think about making yourself really a phone — take the phone off your arm and put the buttons on your chest (as someone suggested in class) — make people press your buttons to make a call. Perhaps use the green thing as a way of indicating that you are receiving an incoming call. Make it make sense.