Rather than Hokusai’s The Great Wave–and more interesting–the dress conjures up Fukushima and the tsunami, 5 years ago last week. What’s the connection between advancing technology and rising waters?

@cutecircuit #wearabletech #global warming

The exhibition Coded Couture at Pratt Institute gallery in New York is a great exploration of what is becoming a bigger field–the thoughtful investigation and interrogation of what “wearable technology” is actually capable of. Melissa Coleman’s mind-blowing Holy Dress (with Joachim Rotteveel and Leoni Smelt) is a dress as a gilded cage that delivers a jolt–literally an electric shock–to its wearer based a process of creating narratives monitored by lie detector technology embedded in the piece. Wow. Pain and pleasure.

The electrical  charge of this “overdress” creates little light flashes across the dress that my iPhone camera can’t capture. On the mannequin, a programmed array of flashes runs. We have to imagine the shocks.

Video on fast fashion’s human and environmental costs.  If link fails, search            take part.com/true cost.

http://www.takepart.com/true-cost?cmpid=tpsales-eileenfisher&spMailingID=11930034&spUserID=ODI5NjIwOTQ3NTUS1&spJobID=503994677&spReportId=NTAzOTk0Njc3S0

Environmental concerns: if we add the toxic flows from fast fashion to the ones from all our tech fashion (thrown away devices etc), what does that add up to?

Diffus Design–Michel Guglielmi and Hanne-Louise Johannsen, is based in Copenhagen. It concerns itself with bringing together technology and traditional crafts.

Interview can be found here: https://www.academia.edu/10033103/Interview_with_Diffus_Design_Michel_Guglielmi_and_Hanne-Louise_Johannsen

Read about their Design Strategies here:

http://www.diffus.dk/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Diffus%20strategies%202013.pdf