Clothes and computers now seem to live in symbiosis. Artists, designers and engineers are working together and through the usage of electronics are expanding our senses and enhancing our bodies. The idea of a computer embedded in our clothes brings interesting, new and fresh possibilities. Clothes have started to communicate with the surrounding environment and to feed related interactive processes. As personal electronic devices have become adapted to be worn as jewelry or accessories, the desire to integrate them into fabric and material seems natural. Many authors point that portable electronic devices are being fully integrated into items of clothing, creating a ‘body area network’ (BAN) that can interact with the wearer and the environment1. The recent miniaturization of electronics and the development of sensor technologies have allowed new forms of interaction such as those discussed above. It is increasingly the case that computers are more integrated in everyday objects such as furniture and clothes. They are improving the capability of communication with humans and the environment and imitating our senses and modes of perception. Within this emerging field, clothes are useful not only to protect us from the weather or as a cultural expression, they interact with the environment and to the user. Clothes are becoming a key interface for graphic and kinetic expression and conforming to our moods and feelings – they become intelligent. The selected works presented in this issue of Vague Terrain show how artists, designers and engineers are creating interactivity within clothes and expanded our conception of the body. The debate surrounding smart textiles have generated opinions, questions and more important for us here, wearable prototypes. Vague Terrain 18: (Re)purposed Clothes focuses on projects that aim to change the original purpose of a wearable piece, adding new functions or even augmenting the existing ones and demonstrate how technology can expand the definition of fashion as wearable art. These works deal with privacy, ecology, communication, emotion and health – reflecting a range of human interests through clothing. Each contribution is accompanied by several quotations culled from dialogue between the designers and myself where they explain their ideas and vision about the present and future of wearable computing. This issue includes work by: Adam Harvey Ricardo O’Nascimento, Rotterdam (1). Chen, M. : Body Area Networks: A Survey, ACM/Springer Mobile Networks and Applications (MONET), 2010, DOI: 10.1007/s11036-010-0260-8 . |
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