Wearables: ideas

I’ve ordered an Arduino Lilypad and have been looking at some applications of wearable technologies that might be useful in a dance setting.

TOUCH - Human conductor

I found conductive textile called EeonTex. It doesn’t seem to be widely available yet, but might be worth contacting the manufacturer if this might be an interesting thing to experiment with. An idea that sprung to mind is a body suit of the material to measure pressure on the body (amount of pressure exercised on the textile affects the resistance of the conductive/resistive material).

This is an application that uses Eeontex and explains some more about its workings, benefits and drawbacks: Time Sensing Bracelet. This is the Eeon website with all its products. Sold internationally by Aniomagic and Blockemf. Etsy sells bend and stretch sensors made of fabric. Here’s a touch-sensitive hoodie that generates sound when you touches, the pitch varies according to the amount of pressure applied to the patches of conductive fabric. Below is a glove that lights up when you give someone a handshake.

Conductive Ink for your Skin

‘Bare’ is non-toxic body paint that conducts electricity. Project was developed by Becky Pilditch, Matt Johnson, isabel Lizardi and Bibi Nelson (Royal College of Art).

AUGMENTED PERFORMANCE

LilyPad Wrist Band POV (Persistance of vision) [Instructables]

This one is a dance suit with a bunch of sensors that control music samples. Different movements trigger different samples, instruments (e.g. bassline, violin sample). This one, and the Wrist Band POV above are examples of ‘augmented expressive bodies’ (one of the initial research areas) that are immediately responsive to the movements of the body.

And here a similar project that works with fabric pressure/bend sensors: This bend sensor reacts (decreases in resistance) to pressure, not specifically to bend. But because it is sandwiched between two layers of neoprene (rather sturdy fabric), pressure is exerted while bending, thus allowing one to measure bend (angle) via pressure. There is a Bluetooth module on the dancer’s back that is transmitting all of the sensor information to a computer that is then triggering instruments (LEMUR’s musical robots) to play. For more info visit:
http://kobakant.at/index.php?menu=2&project=4

This is a Viennese Waltz with the same idea. The maker wanted to break up the rigid structuring of the dance by means of the music: the outfits are constructed for professional-level male and female Viennese waltzers and act as new media audio instruments that allow the dance and the two bodies to control music in an interactive manner, instead of the music controlling the dance in its static form. But whether this actually changed the dance or the experience of the dancers is questionnable.

The Perfect Human is an interactive performance/game based on Joergen Leth’s short film The Perfect Human (1967) and Lars von Trier’s reinterpretation of this from 2003, The Five Obstructions. A very interesting mix of wearables, dance, interactive performance and gaming.

http://www.kobakant.at/index.php?menu=2&work=5

Dance technology in a social context - Sustainable club dancefloor

Daan Roosegaarde used piezo transducers to make a sustainable club dancefloor: electricity is generated by dancers dancing on the dancefloor that powers the lighting and sound system in the club.