twenty1f: fashion for the 21st century

Starlights jewelry modules apply sustainable energy practices to jewelry design. Using small solar cells, custom-designed circuit boards, and surface mount electronics, we have created a variety of simple modules for jewelry designers to mix and match.

To function correctly, each finished piece must contain the following components:

• a solar module
• a capacitor module
• an LED module

On the solar module, tiny jewel-like solar cells capture radiant energy from the sun. While the jewelry continues to absorb energy, it stores it in the capacitor module — just like charging a battery. When light levels drop, Starlights trickle the stored energy to glimmering LEDs. These illuminated jewels transform daylight into starlight.

Our circuits are based on a ‘night light’ schematic. Two transistors in the capacitor module control the flow of energy. When the available light is above a certain threshold, energy flows in. Below that threshold, energy flows out to power the LEDs.

Our Inspiration
We were initially inspired by the jewel-like quality of the solar cells. Taking inspiration from their surface quality and material beauty, we wanted to play with the magic of energy transformation.

We wanted our pieces to highlight the elegant and ephemeral beauty of solar energy. When fully charged, the LED shines for only about ten minutes. This at once speaks to the ephemeral quality of passing daylight and also the elusive quest for energy harnessing.

We hope to create new possibilities for imagining solar energy as a material for jewelry design. We hope to inspire in jewelry designers and others the notion of energy as a precious material.

Tech Specs
We used 1/8″ square clear-epoxy encapsulated solar cells from Solarbotics. They are rated for 0.475 volts (open circuit) at 1.86mA (short circuit). We wired ten together in series on each solar module.

Each capacitor module includes one super capacitor, one surface-mount zener diode, one surface-mount 3904 transistor, and two surface-mount resistors (10K and 100K).

We used a variety of 3mm LEDs, including super bright and tricolor LEDs.

Frequently Asked Questions
While we would like to offer Starlights commercially in the future, this project is still in the prototype phase.

If you have any questions or would like to be updated on our progress, please contact us

A work by . Mangelsen, H. Lim, A. Tseng-Planas and M. Silverman.

TAGS: energy, jewelry, LEDs, light, modules, solar, sustainable

posted by : regine on 19 Aug 2007

A transistor made only of fibre is opening the way to intelligent fabrics - to make clothes that could monitor the vital signs of athletes or rescue workers, for example, or simply be a fashion statement.

Existing electronic clothing usually consists of switches or lights woven into fabric and controlled by plug-in silicon circuits. Now Olle Inganäs and colleagues at Linköping University in Sweden have produced fabric in which the fibres themselves act as the components of a transistor.

To make it, Inganäs coated fibres in the conductive polymer PEDOT, or poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene). He then took two of the resulting conducting fibres and stuck them together with an electrolyte. Applying a voltage to one fibre causes the electrolyte to react with the polymer coating the second fibre, switching it from a high to a low-conductivity state - making the fibres and electrolyte act as a simple transistor (Nature Materials, DOI: 10.1038/nmat1884). Using conducting and insulating adhesives, these transistors can be connected to form a variety of circuits.

The transistor operates on a relatively low voltage of 1.5 volts. Previous efforts to build organic electronics have been modelled on field effect transistors and so require much higher operating voltages. “I wouldn’t like to have 1 kilovolt wired into my clothing,” Inganäs says.

In terms of performance, the electronic fibres are not too impressive. In fact, Inganäs admits, “they are tremendously slow”. One advantage of using organic materials is that they could be made very cheaply using ink-jet printing.

TAGS: conductivity, fabric, fibres, monitoring, organic electronics, polymer, research, silicon, sweden, transistor

posted by : regine on 18 Aug 2007

Philips hopes that fitting-room fiascos will become a thing of the past if it ever forays into the world of fashion. The consumer electronics giant has come up with a way to change the size, shape and style of clothes by weaving “muscle wires” into the fabric. The wires are made of shape-memory alloys that change length according to the small current passed through them.

Here’s the idea: you try on a special pair of Philips’ trousers, and connect up to a power source that changes the length of the wires in the fabric until the trousers have the correct waist size, inside leg and width.

Then simply disconnect to try the trousers in exactly your size. Philips says the technique could also be used to correctly fit shirts, socks and bras, or indeed any other article of clothing.

Read the full auto-snug patent application

TAGS: fitting, fitting room, patent, phillips, trousers, wires

posted by : regine on 18 Aug 2007

Watashi-chan, by Tomoko Ueyama, is a garment that visualizes sounds in a space. The balloons attached to the clothing inflate when there is a sound in the space, even if the wearer does not consciously perceive that sound.

How it works: Watashi-chan divides the human audio range into six frequency bands and calculates the quantity and frequency of signals entering each frequency band. An electromagnetic valve is assigned to each frequency band. As a quantity of frequency signals is calculat-ed, a signal is sent to an electromagnetic valve to open it. As a result, air is sent to a balloon corresponding to the quantity of frequency signals. After a balloon has been inflated for one second, air is released again, so that the balloon does not inflate too much.

More images.
The work is part of Ima-karada - IAMAS in Tokyo, an exhibition which introduces activities of the IAMAS (Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences / International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences) media school.

Runs on August 24 August and 26, at the Spiral Garden (Spiral 1F) in Tokyo.

TAGS: balloons, iamas, inflatable, inflate, japan, sound, space

posted by : regine on 16 Aug 2007

SOCIAL FABRICS LEF Exhibition: Call for Proposals :: Submissions are invited for wearable technology proposals for an event-style exhibition of wearable technology art, to be held at the College Art Association 2008 Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas.

Social Fabrics will explore artists’ creative deployment of mobile, socially interconnective media as wearable attire or personal accoutrements. This event-style exhibition, curated by Patrick Lichty and Susan Ryan, will demonstrate convergences between fashion as expression / statement, and the phenomenology of “network culture.” Works presented will include technological attire and accessories, as well as works that engage the implications of our contemporary media and fashion driven lifestyles.

Submitted works should be functional (not concept projects) and able to be withstand some level of demonstration by the time of the show. Designers (or their representatives) are expected to appear in person to present their work.

Please submit:

-Title of work

-Names and email addresses of all designers

-Brief description of work including

(1) How it interacts with others and/or creates or comments on the digitally enhanced social sphere;

(2) What technologies are utilized; and

(3) How it can be displayed at a modified runway style presentation; and

(4) Whether or not the artist or an agent (named) can commit to participating in the event in Dallas, Texas, on February 22.

-Photos/sketches/video of project and its presentation (if available)

-Indicate whether or not you would be willing to have visuals from your project appear on the exhibition website

Please email your submission as a single PDF (photos embedded) to:

info[at]socialfabrics.org

Video can be sent separately or it can be viewed by us on a website, send URL.

Submission Deadline: October 15 midnight CST: The submissions will be committee reviewed and you will receive a notification on or before November 25.

The exhibition / event will take place on February 22. 2008 at the CAA 2008 Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas.

Via networked_performance.

TAGS: call, cfp, dallas, opportunity, texas

posted by : regine on 15 Aug 2007

The “Hackers and Haute Couture Heretics” exhibition investigates how fashion can be hacked, recircuited and transmutated. The participating artists and designers use hacking, shopdropping, and craftivism as tactics used in the outskirts of fashion and explore these methods further through a series of open workshops at the gallery. During the six-week relay the artists and designers taking part in the exhibition propose new ways of operating within the fashion system, reverse engineer the concept of fashion in order to find ways to practically hack it. These artists and designers are not subverting fashion as much as subconstructing it, tuning it, and making its subroutines run in new ways.

To avoid the exhibition to be an isolated art event at Garanti Gallery it was crucial to collaborate with an established and exclusive fashion brand to make a connection between hacking practices and the premier grade dream producers. Thus the exhibition was preceded by the project “Vakko Vamps”, where the participating artists and designers hacked products by the exclusive Turkish fashion brand Vakko. The glossy lifestyle objects of high fashion were reformed into objects representing other possible sides of fashion, products that are now injected back into the Vakko collections as new objects of desire.

The opening party is a Swap-O-Rama-Rama, a public clothes swap and hack. Bring a bag of your old clothes that are dying in the back of your wardrobe and reconstruct them into something new! The Swap will in the night turn into a Sahane fashion party together with Istanbul Street Style.

Featuring workshop leaders and exhibitors: Giana Gonzalez (PA), Stephanie Syjuco (US), Megan Nicolay (US), Cat Mazza (US), Junky Styling (UK):, Rüdiger Schlömer (DE), SHRWR (SE)

Workshops every evening 18.00-20.00 at Garanti Gallery!

Exhibition opens at 4th of september.

TAGS: craftivism, hacking, istanbul

posted by : regine on 14 Aug 2007

Scenario: Subject A and subject B are wearing t-shirts, the Goodbye t-shirt combo, to be precise. For some reason outside the scope of this weblog, subject A has to leave, leave for good, you know.

Okay, subject A and subject B are acquaintances of some kind, so, as humans often do, they decide to give each other a sappy, dramatic goodbye hug. Subject A gets on the steam train, or some other romantic-sounding means of transportation, leaving subject B lonely and real sad.

All of a sudden, subject B notices that the glowing image on subject A’s t-shirt appears to be glowing on his boring t-shirt now! (they both have been drinking, it’s late at night and it’s dark, mind you.) What could this possibly mean? Can it be a good omen? subject B wonders, while the copied image on his chest slowly fades until it becomes just a memory. Somehow, subject B’s sadness increases tenfold.

Well, it’s obvious that right from the start subject B knew what the Goodbye t-shirt combo does, so he can’t possibly be surprised, can he? Apparently, the t-shirts act as sadness amplifiers of some kind. Maybe subject B is into that sort of thing, we don’t know.

What about subject A? She is staring at her stupid battery-powered glowing t-shirt as the steam boat she’s in cruises along the river. Alas! the t-shirt doesn’t look one bit as fun as it did when she wore it for the first time. Freakin’ sadness amplifiers! they really work!

A Zazaziza idea and design!

TAGS: distance, glowing, t-shirt

posted by : regine on 14 Aug 2007

Pillowig is a hand-made wearable pillow that comforts people during the tired moments in daily life. User tests were conducted in public spaces – subways, airplanes, libraries, classrooms, laundromats and an ancient palace. I made 50 limited editions and sold 47 pieces at the exhibition of the work and gained Pillowig fans. Two months later, the fans did a group performance piece at the Old Palace, Seoul.

A work by Joo Youn Paek.

TAGS: fun, hair, hat, performance, pillow, rest, wig

posted by : regine on 14 Aug 2007

Siggraph Unravel fashion show took place earlier this week in San Diego where the curious gathered to admire fashion-forward, socially conscious couture. I think the fashion this year was a little tame, as opposed to previous years when we saw things you’d only see on the Sci-Fi channel. Anyway, here are some of the items that made it on the runway:Intimate Controllers: Imagine playing a game of hanky-panky DDR with your partner. Jennifer Chowdhury and Mehmet Sinan Ascioglu were inspired by stories of gamer widows who lost their husbands to video game addiction, so they created a game they hope would build intimacy between a couple. Instead of a dance pad, the couple wears undergarments outfitted with sensors they tap to the beat of the game. The man stand behind the woman, and both have to master each level together before getting to third base. Forget the Wii, this game sounds like a date night must have.

Jacket Antics: Matching colors or outfits with your partner is so last decade, the future of coupledom style lies in matching LED scrollers. This particular design features a jacket with LED scrollers on the back. Anytime the couple holds hands, one message begins to scroll from one jacket to another. When they release hands, the jackets go back to scrolling individual messages. I’d love to see the Beckhams wear these.

Invisibility Cloak (Negotiation): Ok, so it’s not as seamless as you might think, but since we all dream of being invisible it’s great to see someone actually decided to do something about it. Negotiation is a wearable interactive video system that uses the blue screen video technique to camouflage the wearer when the cloak reflects images of their surroundings. Designer Daniel Kostova doesn’t get into specifics, but you get the idea. If not check out the video to see how it works.

Self-Sustainable Chair: This outfit gets the strangest fashion award. Made out of polyethylene, this dress is connected to shoes that pump air into an inflatable bubble attached to the back of the dress. As the person walks, the dress transforms into a chair so the user alternates between walking and sitting. The weight of the person eventually deflates the chair, and its back to walking until it inflates again. You have to see the video to believe it.

Talk To Yourself Hat: This one is pretty wild. Kate Hartman knows we all talk to ourselves, right? So she created a hat that blocks ambient noise, and instead gives them a mouthpiece that channels their voice back to their ears so they can converse with themselves privately. The hat might look funny, but think what it can do. Instead of giving bums your spare change, you could hand them one of these hats so only they can hear their ramblings. Alright, that might not be the designer’s intention, but that’s what I would do with it.

Kameraflage and the Solar Bikini were also part of the show, as well as many other wacky concepts. To see the future of fashion, check out the rest of the collection at Unravel.

TAGS: chair, coat, fashion show, fun, games, hat, inflatable, intimate, invisible, jacket, play, report, shoes, solar, sound, sustainable, underwear, unravel, walk

posted by : regine on 14 Aug 2007

Danielle Wilde describes her latest project, the hipDisk, as being possibly the most undignified musical instrument ever. hipDisk exploits changing relationships between torso and hip to actuate sound. Video 1 and 2.

Simple horizontal disk-shaped extensions of the body exaggerate the interdependent relationship of the hip and torso. Soft switches, strategically placed around the perimeter of each disk, allow the wearer to play a chromatic scale, and thus simple melodies, restricted only by flexibility and speed of swing.

In creating hipDisk, the interest was to move beyond limb- and digit-triggered switches and explore full-body movement for actuation.

Ultimately, three iterations of hipDisk will be developed so that a small orchestra of hipDisked women can play chord structures together, or harmonize and so accompany voice or another solo performer/player. A version of the instrument may also be developed for men. Yes, please, please Danielle, do make a version for lads!

Danielle lists in her paper (PDF) the various projects that hipDisk builds upon and relates to. Here are just a few of them:

- the interface is related to Kei Kagami’s Head Holder (2006), a dress that explores dynamic structures by means of rods and strings that cause exaggerated movement of the garment by the motion of the model or wearer,
- the output of hipDisk is related to Danielle’s previous work Ange, which allows the player to trigger sound samples and control volume, so mix up to 24 samples in real-time, simply by manipulating their volume,
- the input/output relationship is also simple and direct, the tones triggered through core-body gesture, allowing us to make a correlation to physical interfaces like Dance Dance Revolution.

TAGS: disk, hip, instrument, musical, sound, torso

posted by : regine on 13 Aug 2007