Brandon Marsh – NMP Jacket

Here is my 4th Year Production Blog

Now I’m going to bed.

The Plan:To make a wearable, mobile technology outfit. Or in short, to become a cyborg.

The Reason: From my observations mobile technology (like Ipods and Bluetooth Earpieces, etc.) has lead to people becoming more isolated in public situations.

Over the summer I went to a Daft Punk concert wearing my T-Qualizer t-shirt and people went crazy for it! One stranger bought be a beer, a young asian girl on ecstasy came up and started touching my shirt and smiling at me and lots and lots of people came up to ask me where I got the shirt, how much they loved it, etc.

So my plan is to make some wearable mobile technology that would encourage people to interact with me and vice versa.

Possible Components:

• Partial Face Mask with Voice Modulator
• Metallic Left Arm for Power Storage
• Vest or Webbing for LED or LCD displays
• Audio Input/Output
• Electroluminescent Fiber

My Inspirations:

Daft Punk
Steve Mann
The T-Qualizer
Neill Blomkamp
Ghost in the Shell
Cyberpunk

This week I met with Dave, Lila and Kathleen and everyone seems to be on board with my project.

• Dave suggested that I focus on aesthetics, depending on my budget I can use technologies to make everything look neat and presentable. I should learn how people interact with Steve Mann and think about what kind of experience I want to create.

• I am waiting from Lila to hear about a faculty member at Ryerson that works with wearable technologies.

• Kathleen suggested I investigate Joey Berzowska and the lecture she gave at Ryerson last year. She also suggested I get in contact with some students from the Fashion Faculty to collaborate on some of the clothing/wearable components.

My Draft Proposal is finished and now I have to move foward with my research and solidify my project.I came up with series of questions that I need to address with this project:What is the purpose and function of each component?

For the purposes of the show, should I have a documentation or resting station, or have the project entirely mobile?
Electronics
What kind of electronics to use?
How much will it cost?
How will I construct the systems, how long will it take?

Fashion
What does it look like?
How will it fit / integrate with the electronics
Will it fit / work with common clothing?

Lila said something interesting in class today, that ‘Technology changes our behavior.’ This is something I need to keep in mind while working on this project.

Read More

Good News! Today my Project got Green Lighted!

Last week I sent out a mass e-mail to the students in the Fashion school and I got a couple of replies. I’ve met with a couple of the student and discussed what I am looking for and what possible collaboration we could accomplish. I’m just waiting to hear back from them to see if this will be possible.

From my experience and research I belive we are really on the cusp of a huge explosion into wearable technology as both fashion and function. Some articles that come to mind are:
Interactive Billboard
The Invisibility Cloak
Photonic Textiles

I have been reading more about Wearable Computers and have found some interesting articles. I have also been making my way through Steve Mann’s book ‘Cyborg’ when I have time to get some ideas and inspirations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wearable_computing
http://about.eyetap.org/fundamentals/