Mandy's ITP Blog

Our assignment this week was to explore either a gesture or an expression. I chose to explore the expression, "April Showers Bring May Flowers!" It is a very literal take on the saying, that utilizes the elements in combination with a raincoat and some soil and seeds.

I began with seedling packets.

And then attached plastic sandwich bags to a raincoat. I was originally going to glue the bags onto the coat, but decided to use Kyveli's brilliant idea and sew them onto the coat.

Finally, I dropped the soil packets and seeds into the plastic pouches on the coat.

And there you have it! Flowers which are grown by wearing a raincoat!

Posted by Mandy at 12:01 PM | Permalink

Reading this entry actually came at an interesting time. Last weekend, at ITP there was a visually impaired conference. I did not partake in it, but I was on the floor to view the various materials that were around, including materials written with braille. I had never felt braille before in a book form. It really is a beautiful language, both physically and visually.

After reading "Talking Knots," I began to reflect on the amount of precision and effort that must have been involved in spinning, knotting, etc. to symbolize information. Whether the information was used to convey numbers, mnemonic devices, narratives, etc. is unimportant to me. What is important is that a non-traditional form of media was used to convey information. The idea of symbolizing data both visually and hands-on, is a very appealing theory. I find myself wondering why this medium was discontinued from use throughout history.

I thought a lot about how else we explicitly state information, without saying it, or spelling it out. Wedding bands came to mind, crosses and Stars of David, etc. But I could not think of a symbol that is used to both visually and physically state information.

Posted by Mandy at 04:56 PM | Permalink

I received some great feedback today from the class. I have decided to rework the design of my skirt, based on the suggestions that I received. I found that talking through a process aloud, can often increase inspiration. Here is a list of the feedback/questions that I received. Thanks to everyone for their ideas!

-Instead of waiting for all of the jeans to arrive so that I can map out the design of the skirt, I could map it out the way I would ideally like it, and leave holes to serve as placeholders for the missing people/jeans. If I do not end up receiving the jeans, the holes will represent the ways in which a social network can be broken.

-I could make the skirt modular, so that it can continue to grow, just as a social network does.

-I could create a tiling effect, and have all of the patches be the same shape. (Which could coinside nicely with the skirt being modular)

-How will I know whose jeans are whose? I could use transfer paper on the back of each patch to denote the owner of the jeans. And I could design the skirt so that you can "open up" the patch by flipping it over, to read a story and/or description of the person.

-The placement of each patch could depend on the chronological order in which I met the person. (The people I have know the longest will be closest to me, and I can keep adding people on to the outer perimeter of the skirt as I meet them.)

Posted by Mandy at 01:09 PM | Permalink

During spring break I had three main objectives. One, to stop by Metalliferous, two, to round up as many jeans as I could and three, get conductive thread.

3/12/07 - Called Sheildex looking for thin, conductive thread that will hopefully work in my commercial sewing machine. I was sent a large sample of 235/34 4-Ply.

3/13/07 - Went to Metalliferous. I spent about an hour just taking a step back, and taking it all in. If you have never been there, there are rows and rows and columns and columns of bins that hold anything you can think of: clasps, charms, chains, etc. It can be a bit overwhelming at first. I started out by looking through the bins of clasps, and bought a few that I thought I could test out for my skirt. I am still not sure if I will be using surface mount LEDs to demonstrate the social network, but if I do, I will need some type if connector, like a clasp, to light up each network. Here are the clasps that I bought:

3/14/07 - Went home to NJ for about a day and a half. So many of my friends were happy to help out, and offered me their old jeans. I visited Kerry and Nicolas, Jill, and Susan. I spent so much time visiting everyone that I didn't make it to Patti's before she went to bed. I resorted to asking her to leave them outside her door. I took a picture of the exchange just for the hilarity of it all..

My Jean Collection as of March 22, 2007

While researching similar projects to mine, I began reading about patchwork quilting. There are two types of quilting that have similar themes of my project: medallion and friendship quilting.

Medallion Quilting - quilting based around a central piece of fabric. (My project will center around my jeans/personal social networks.)

Friendship Quilting - quilting made from the scraps of different people's fabric or clothing. Many times each person would sign their piece of fabric/clothing that was being incorporated into the quilt.

Here is the social network that I plan to portray:

Here is a sketch of what I would like the skirt to look like:

3/23/07 Presentation of Final Project to Class

I received some great feedback today from the class. I have decided to rework the design of my skirt, based on the suggestions that I received. I found that talking through a process aloud, can often increase inspiration. Here is a list of the feedback/questions that I received. Thanks to everyone for their ideas!

-Instead of waiting for all of the jeans to arrive so that I can map out the design of the skirt, I could map it out the way I would ideally like it, and leave holes to serve as placeholders for the missing people/jeans. If I do not end up receiving the jeans, the holes will represent the ways in which a social network can be broken.

-I could make the skirt modular, so that it can continue to grow, just as a social network does.

-I could create a tiling effect, and have all of the patches be the same shape. (Which could coinside nicely with the skirt being modular)

-How will I know whose jeans are whose? I could use transfer paper on the back of each patch to denote the owner of the jeans. And I could design the skirt so that you can "open up" the patch by flipping it over, to read a story and/or description of the person.

-The placement of each patch could depend on the chronological order in which I met the person. (The people I have know the longest will be closest to me, and I can keep adding people on to the outer perimeter of the skirt as I meet them.)

3/26/07 Tiling Ideas

I have been thinking about what type of standard shape I would like to use for my skirt, and I received a few ideas on my walk home from 59th Street.

My Jean Collection as of 4/4/07

4/10/07 My Final Jean Collection

This weekend I sat down to create a template for my jean patches:

4/16/07

I have decided to use a template with 4.5" sides. (Which will end up being 3.5" once you factor in the 0.5" seam allowance)

The Final Garment:

Posted by Mandy at 05:45 PM | Permalink

Prior to reading this passage, I was aware of the intrinsic value of someone's clothing, but I had never sat down and picked a part the ideas and notions that surround individuals and their garments. Hauser explains "...individual garments might be imprinted with the signature of the of the wearer's body, evoking or revealing the wearer's identity, character or physiognomy." Immediately after reading the passage I got up, walked into my closet and started to pull out a few pairs of jeans. But before I could even focus any personal imprints, or "barcodes" as Hauser refers to them, I had to step back for a moment and reflect on the alarming number of jeans that I own. I simply cannot bring myself to divulge the number, but I will say that you need quite a bit more than fingers and toes to count on.

My initial trip to the closet was to look for my own, personal "barcodes," but after being distracted I began to think about why females in general, have a lot of jeans. And more importantly, what do we do with the old ones? Then my final project began to start to make sense. If I could obtain an old pair of jeans from each of my friends, and cut them up into patches that form one skirt, I could physically demonstrate how all of us are socially connected. For instance, in my pattern the following patches will be next to each other: Wendy, Megan and Kim. And the reason for this is... I met Wendy on my recruiting trip senior year in high school and Wendy introduced me to her friend, Megan. Megan and I became roommates about two years later. Then I met Kim, who was an old high school friend of Megan's, and Kim moved in with us. And so on, and so on.

I have not quite figured out all of the details..which I will have to do in the upcoming week, but the reading passage definitely helped to put me in right direction for my final project.

Posted by Mandy at 12:12 PM | Permalink

While constructing my soft circuit, I came across some problems.

First Issue: The conductive thread kept coming undone, even after knotting it.
Solution: Use Fabric-Tac glue, on the ends of the seam.

Second Issue: How to hold the coin cell battery next to the circuit.
Solution: I sewed a pouch for the battery, with a swatch of conductive fabric on each side of the pouch, and metal snaps on each side of the pouch. The snaps clipped on to the positive and negative ends of the circuit.

Third Issue: The pouch only worked occasionally, and the circuit randomly lit up.
Solution: The first pouch I made was constructed with tweed, which did not cling against the battery as much as it needed to. Next time I will use a fabric that gives more.

Posted by Mandy at 06:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Our assignment was to think about the senses, or a sense, either in an abstract or literal manner. I thought a lot about how memories are associated with scents. The smell of a box of crayons takes me back to pre-school, the smell of Chanel No. 5 takes me back to grade school (Ms. Johnson's signature scent) and the smell of bounce dryer sheets takes me back to college.

My freshman year roommate, Sara, used dryer sheets for everything: her laundry, dirty cleats and basically anything else that you can think of. For my project I wanted to incorporate this scent, into the form of a wearable air freshener.

The materials: A motor and fan, dry sheets and a jacket.

I bought a handheld, electric bubble blower for my hack a toy assignment, but didn't end up using it. So I took apart the bubble blower gun, resoldered some connections hot glued the fan on top of the battery holder and had my own portable, pocket fan. Then I cut open the pocket of a jacket, incorporated the pocket's button into the motor switch, added a dryer sheet and then I was done.

Here is my wearable, dryer-sheet scented fan powered jacket.

Posted by Mandy at 09:29 PM | Permalink

The first time I ready "Some Simple Reflections on the Body" I honestly was not quite sure what I had read, or what it all meant. The reading carried a lot of depth and detail; especially for it being such a short passage. However, after going back, and dissecting the thoughts of Valery I felt enlightened.

On the first take of reading about the four bodies, I was not sure how this passage could relate to our wearable technology class. At a second glance, I became intrigued and thought a lot about movements and gestures, and how conscious we are each time our body makes a physical change.

How do we know things? And what is the process that leads us to education and enlightenment? Our "second body" is aware that we all have a brain, heart, liver, etc. but how? And on the flip side, what physical changes occur that we are not aware of. And could we be aware of them if we were under surveillance?

For my final project I would like to explore unconscious movements, and how they can invoke some type of reaction. For the next week or so I am going to observe: myself, friends, stranger, etc. and think about the relation between conscious and unconscious notions.

Posted by Mandy at 09:02 PM | Permalink

I completed reading the "The Design Process," and took away from it two important concepts. The first was that I already had the intuition to perform most of, if not all of, the design process steps described by Watkins. I am not sure that I knowingly go through each step when I am planning and creating a project, but my love for putting things on paper before I physically build anything, has definitely assisted me in this area. I spend most of my time in the Analysis phase. Picking things apart, whether they are situations, problems, devices, etc. has always been a fun exercise for me. I think that the more thorough you are in the initial stages, the more fluid your project will be. However, I know that spending so much time in this stage sometimes takes away from the final steps: evaluation and conclusion. I would like to plan for more time at the end of my next project, so that I can spend more time on thinking of improvements.

The second concept that I took away from the reading, was that there are so many different techniques to perform each step, that it almost seems wasteful to continue along the same route for every project. Watkins described many techniques that I would like to try out. These techniques include: lateral thinking (when you explore least likely paths in a project), synectics (joining together irrelevant elements as stimuli) and manipulative verbs (using verbs such as magnify, minify, rearrange, reverse, etc. to enhance a project).

Posted by Mandy at 09:53 PM | Permalink

This week I combined my assignments for two classes: Wearables and Assistive Tech. My assignment for Wearables was to hack into a toy, and make it of course, wearable. My assignment for Assitive Tech was to create a device that would allow someone who could not speak, the ability to communicate in a social setting.

For Assitive Tech., I worked with Rosie Daniel and Evrim. When we met to discuss our project, we tried to think of how we could communicate with each other in a bar setting without speaking. Our immediate response was to text message; which of course is awkward to do when you are standing next to the person you are trying to speak with. After thinking through the concept a little more, we came up with the idea to use a wearable, dry erase board, that could be worn easily on your arm.

I bought a couple of toys for my Wearables assignment and had begun to hack into them. One of the toys I bought was a globe that emitted light and changed colors. Once I cracked it open and realized how tiny the perf board and chip was, I immediately thought to combine this idea with my Assistive Tech assignment. How can someone write back and forth with someone at a bar, if the lighting is bad?

Here are some pictures of the process and the compeleted proejct:

Posted by Mandy at 07:41 PM | Permalink

I can appreciate Mann's standpoint on video surveillance, and I believe that there is a line between safety and invasion of privacy. However I am not sure that Mann's views on surveillance were accurately expressed in his performance pieces. Mann is expressing some very valid, and real points, but is doing so in such a way that his views may become lost in translation. While reading this excerpt, I am able to clearly identify what his main goals are and what the message is, but I am not sure that the viewers of his performace pieces necessarily receive the message. Some of his experiements are so in your face that I am not sure the audience ponders the issue that is at hand: questioning totalitarian video survelliance. Instead, my concern is that the audience is hung up on his appearance and is wondering what he may have in his bag, hat, glasses, etc.

Posted by Mandy at 12:32 PM | Permalink

This past week I have had an ongoing dilemma: Do I develope an existing idea or work on something entirely new, for my wearable technology final project? Two existing projects that I would like to continue working on are as follows:

-Friendship Bags ~ Which are handbags with embedded LEDs that light up when their "other half" is in close range. I used arduino microcontrollers and XBee radios to create this effect. They worked well when I initially developed them; the only issue being how many wires were used. If I continued to work on this project, I would want all curcuits to be soft. http://mandyphyscomp.blogspot.com

-Sneakers to Assist Those with Neuropathy ~ Neuropathy is a condition in which the nervous system is affected. It is a common side effect for chemotherapy patients, and can cause numbness and tingling in the toes and feet. With the help of these sneakers, the user will be able to see where their weight is shifting. LED strips will light up to designate where pressure is being applied on the sneaker, and their level of brightness will designate the amount of force that is being exerted. This will assist users when going up and down the stairs, and for walking in general. This sneaker could also be used for athletes that want to improve their footwork. It will ideally look like this:

My new idea incorporates the wireless technology from my friendship bags, but creates a much more interactive environment. I would like to create a Game of Tag for Athletes. The idea stemmed from thinking back to my days of playing lacrosse, and staring at the gym clock during our cardio workouts. Running was never one of my favorite parts of playing a sport, but it is absolutely a necessity. A popular cardio workout we had, was a "game," and I am using this term loosely, in which we gathered into groups of six. We would all "follow the leader" at the front of the line, and all run in a single file. The person at the end of the line would sprint forward, until they had run in front of the leader. This would continue on for about thirty minutes or so, and needless to say was very boring at times.

To reinvent this game, I would to create a game of tag using a flag to denote the person that is "it." All players will wear jerseys, that the flag can stick to. Once the flag has been attached to a jersey, the player's jersey will light up and a whistle will blow, to designate who the "it" person is, and that the "it" person has changed. Of course there would have to be a set of rules. A few that I have thought of are as follows:

-All players would need to run in a constrained area. (i.e. A gymnasium, so that people are around to tag.)
-All players need to constantly run, even if they are not "it" and are not being chased.
-You cannot tag the person that has just tagged you. (To prevent you from ripping the flag off quickly and putting it back on the person that just tagged you.)

There are some basics that I need to sort out:
-What kind of wireless device would be suitable. I currently know how to use an arduino that can be linked to an XBee radio, but I recently found out that arduino has come our with a model with bluetooth capabilities. http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardBluetooth
-What fabric will I use? If I use conductive velcro for the flag to be attached to the jersey, will the entire jersey have to be velcro or does velcro stick to other fabrics?
-How will I construct the jerseys so that they can be easily washed?
-How can I use this technology without hindering the activity of the athlete?

I found a project by Rob Seward, an ITP alumnus, that created a game of tag with an LED matrix. http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~rus200/blog/archives/2005/05/tag_documentati_1.html

Posted by Mandy at 07:47 PM | Permalink

I began the assignment, with the idea that I wanted to include some element of fun into a garment. The final idea was to create a handbag that moved. Here was my process:

I started with a plain, blue/green handbag.

I found a picture of hula dancers, printed them out on transfer paper and ironed the image onto the handbag.

Then I wired up my breadboard to a servo motor, and attached an Arduino for my microcontroller, and wrote code for the motor to move back and forth.

Then I cut a hole into the image on the bag, inserted the top of the servo motor, and screwned the bag and the servo together. Later, I glued fabric onto the top of the motor to form the image of a hula skirt.

I then made a switch for the motor, in the form of a handbag closure. I used metal snaps, with conductive fabric on the back of the snaps, and stitched the fabric to the inside of the bag.

Finally, the bag was finished!

Posted by Mandy at 03:45 PM | Permalink

Rubinstien explains that there are four main motives for personal dress: to validate personal identity, to protect the personal self, to portray a wished-for identity and to proclaim one's personal values. I thought a lot about validating one's personal identity from a corporate standpoint. I worked at Rosenbluth International, a travel agency, right out of college. The CEO/owner, would drive to work on his motorcycle and cowboy boots. The building had about 800 employees, and about 90% of those employees dressed very casual; it was our corporate culture. Jeans were appropriate - even sneakers. After about a year of working there, Rosenbluth was bought out by a large corporation. There were many layoffs, and slowly by slowly the eight hundred employees widdled down to about fifty. As the fifty or so employees began to work for this new corporation, we (myself included) began to adopt a new corportate culture. Jeans were not worn anymore, and collared shirts and dress pants became the norm. What I found so surprising about this transition, was that nothing physically changed, but our attitudes in regard to dress, did. Nobody new from the other corporation came into our building. We were a part of new company, but our day to day activities and interactions only changed in the virtual sense. (Via the phone or email.) I believe that the adoption of this new corporate culture was resulting from the need to validate corprate self importance. Over seven hundred employees had already been let go, and the few that were left still standing, felt the need to assume new physical identities even though nothing in their job description had changed.

Posted by Mandy at 11:38 AM | Permalink

Simmel made some interesting points that surprisingly still hold truth, after being written nearly fifty years ago. However, I do not agree with all of Simmel's assessments, as some are extremely antiquated.

One of the points that I found most interesting from the reading, relates to the fashions that can be found in Vogue magazine, and how these overly exaggerated fashions relate to us realistically. "Judging from the ugly and repugnant things that are sometimes in Vogue, it would seem as though fashion were desirous of exhibiting its power by getting us to adopt the most atrocious things for its sake alone." Reading this quote immediately reminded me of the film "Mean Girls." There is a clip where the "outcasts" of the school, try to embarass the "popular girl" by breaking into her gym locker, and cutting two holes into her shirt exactly where her breasts will be when she wears it. The "popular girl" returns to her locker after gym class, puts on her undershirt, and then puts on the shirt with the two holes in it, and walks confidently through school as though she just created a new fashion. The clip ends with all of the girls in school imitating her look, and wearing shirts with two holes cut out where their breasts are. A hilarious clip, but also in many ways very true. I think sometimes the most ridiculous fashions are adopted by the masses, because a company found an A list celebrity to endorse their product.

The above mentioned quote goes on to further explain that these exaggerated fashions are viewed as elegant, because they are generally displayed on people that are very elegant, and "pay the greatest attention to their physical appearance." I agree with this assessment, as it reminds me of Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City. The main fashion designer of the show, Patricia Field, dresses up Parker in the most outragous outfits and somehow it really works. Parker always looks fabulous. Of course Field's eye for fashion has a lot to do with it, but the main reason that these looks convey such beauty, is because of the canvas: Sarah Jessica Parker. It is not just the clothes that make her look fantastic, its the entire package. She is a trained dancer and radiates such elegance when she walks. Her hair and make-up and just her general style and personality, all make these outragous clothes seem extremely glamorous.

I disagree with one of Simmel's main points: that the upper class creates fashion, and when the lower classes imitate this fashion, it is time for a new fashion to be created. I do not know that it is the "upper class" that creates fashion. Nor do I believe that the "lower class" imitations of the fashion, warrent a fashion change. The industry, is what dictates when a new fashion should be born. Fashion magazines are published each month, spring, summer, fall and winter lines of clothing need to be released in stores, widely publicized hollywood events occur every couple of months, etc. All of these things contribute to the need for a new fashion. Money is generated from all of these entities; which is why new fashions are released so frequently.

I also disagree with Simmel's assessment that "In a certain sense fashion gives a woman a compensation for her lack of position in a class based on a calling or profession." Simmel goes on to explain that men are not as interested in fashion, because they are inherently given a social power with their class. This view is extremely antiquated for obvious reasons, but I would like to argue why this statement is wrong both in present day, as well as fifty years ago. In many ways it could be that professional men, are making a fashion statement, simply by their lack thereof. It is as if they are saying, "I am too important and too busy to bother myself with clothing choices. And I want people to know this about me."

I found the journal to be extremely interesting, and enjoyed agreeing with Simmel just as much as disagreeing.

Posted by Mandy at 03:35 PM | Permalink

Per wikipedia, a Venus of Willendorf is a high statuette of a female figure, discovered at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, Austria, in 1908 by archaeologist Josef Szombathy. It is carved from an oolitic limestone that is not local to the area, and tinted with red ochre. As of 1990, upon a revised analysis of the stratigraphy of its site, it was estimated to have been carved 22,000 to 24,000 years ago. Very little is known about its origin, method of creation, or cultural significance.

For my own Venus of Willendorf, I decided to take on a different approach. I wanted to create something that you could wear, and something that was both very explicit and also very vague at the same time. I thrive on contrast, and wanted to express this in my work. I began my undergraduate career as a fashion design major, and was a member of the Division I lacrosse team. I was the only athlete in my design classes, and would many times come to class with my cleats tied on my backpack, and my clothes covered in sweat and dirt. (Needless to say, this type of "style" was not typical of my fellow fashion design students.) Although I switched from a fashion design major to management information systems, I continued to design handbags and also create ceramics when I was not working on my PC.

To convey this notion of contrast, I began with the idea of using a T-shirt and somehow incorporating many, many small pictures. I copied and pasted approximately 200 small pictures onto a word document (some were very clear, and some were construed to others but clear to me) and and printed out this large rectangle of pictures onto transfer paper. I then cut out the shape of New Jersey (where I am oringinally from) to play with the idea of an explicit statement.

To take the idea of contrast further, on the back of the T-Shirt I formed the number 18. (My college lacrosse number) All images that created the number one, were of my handbag and ceramic designs, and all images used to create the number eight, were of my physical computing projects. I wanted to converge the ideas of design and technolgy into one, single element.

Here are the images of my finished T-Shirt:

Posted by Mandy at 10:58 AM | Permalink