There are so many options already, and I’ve really only just begun!

I designed the five rings that fit together to form a miniature iceberg landscape in a three dimensional rendering program, and then had the rings 3D printed. The next step is to cast them, make molds, and experiement with materials. Icebergs are fragile and disappearing, so I was thinking of using a fragile material like porcelain. Or maybe, since one day they might be compeletly gone, perhaps I should immortalize them in something like gold or silver. The idea of bronzing something to freeze it in time, and remember it forever (like a baby’s shoes I guess) also seems interesting.  I’ll let you know how they turn out!

To operate the decorative light, one must gently move the ring (containing a magnet) towards the main jewelry piece. This project is interesting to me because it expands on what the idea of jewelry is as ornamentation, making it more than just a piece of something that you decorate your ear, neck or wrist with.

Time for everyone to choose a direction and go with it! Time for us to share our ideas! And time to get working!! I am collaborating with ECUAD Masters student Holly Schmidt for the interactive wearables project. The idea is to work with the human heart rate, and externalize the interior sound of the body and the heart beating.

I wanted to see what else was out there using heart rate, and I came across Diana Eng’s project, Heartbeat Hoodie.

The hoodie uses a heart rate sensor and a camera to take pictures whenever your heart rate increases. The photos automatically upload to a blog that you can refer to or share with your friends. According to Eng, it is intended as a form of involuntary blogging.

“The camera is wired discreetly through the seeming of the garment to a basic stamp that communicates with a wireless heart rate monitor. The basic stamp uses an algorithm to analyze the heart beat for increases that might signify a moment of excitement or interest as opposed to physical exercise.”

The conecpt behind this project is useful for Holly and I because it is taking data from the heartrate and turning it into something else, something external. It also creates visual data from ‘excitment’ from the monitor involunatarily, which could provide some evidence or something you were not aware you were ‘excited’ about. It’s an interesting way of externalizing something internal, and the involunatry aspect is especially appealing to me.

The tattoo-me boots have changeable linings each of the linings have a different pattern on, when worn they will eventually leave an imprint on the legs, thus creating a temporary tattoo. Fellow classmate and blogger Sheila was also looking at something similar.

I’m not saying that I find either of these examples practical in any way (in fact, the idea of sitting on beaded underwear all day just so I can have an embossed backside that no one might even see sounds painful and pointless). But I do find the idea of our garments making a mark upon us extremely interesting. In fact, I started to wonder who else was exploring the idea of designed objects making temporary marks on our bodies. I stumbled upon the Sun-Tattoo blanket by Yu-Chiao Wang which I think is both amazing and ridiculous at the same time:  amazing because of the concept, ridiculous due to the impracticality of it.

And in keeping with suntanning, for those of you who have left a poolside lounge chair with unsightly marks all over your body after a day of baking in the sun, Jenny Pokryvailo has designed a more aesthetically pleasing solution.  Her chaise lounge leaves a beautiful flower temporarily embossed in your skin, instead of the usual loung chair pattern. Again, I’m not as interested in the actual products as I am in the idea of leaving temporary marks on the body with objects or garmets that touch our skin for a period of time. I wonder if there is a way to apply this same idea to communicate a bigger idea, rather than solely for decoration.