Week 5 Research and Progress
Posted by BMadmin on Monday Oct 1, 2007 Under UncategorizedLast week I finished Steve Mann’s ‘Cyborg’ and was really interested by some of his ideas and his experiences in being a cyborg. I find that Mann is definitely anti-surveillance and very skeptical of corporate and government controls. Definitely the views held by any good cyberpunk!
Anyway, I watched through the Kodak Lecture by Joanna Berzowska and got some good ideas about what is going on in the wearables field right now and some good theory related to fashion and technology.
- Clothing and Language were developed as we developed into humans
- Clothing is a historic signifier of wealth, status, profession, identity, etc. It is our most common personal expression
Most wearable technology in the area of media seems to be steered towards interconnecting consumer electronics and is not really doing much to counteract the erosion of physical and social contact.
I’ve been sending out e-mails to Steve Mann, Deb Fels, Joey Berzowska, etc. to get in contact with them and get some help and feedback on my project. I want to be sure I’m not doing something already done and something that is way above my time and skills.
Here are some examples of wearable consumer products and companies I found online:
Eleksen – ElekTex Touchpad
Cutecircut – The Hug shirt, etc.
Orang-Otang – Wrist Strap Wearable Technology
Burton & Apple – Ipod Snowboarding Jacket
Phillips & Swarovski Crystal – Headphones
The Egokast – Belt Video Display
Kenpo Jacket – Ipod Integrated
Think Geek – Animated Pong shirt
Here are a few blogs and stuff I found on Wearable Electronics and such
Gizmag – Wearable Electronics Articles
And a few Cyborg and Cyberpunks I came across
