KATE HARTMAN

Worn as a backpack, the wearable wall is a portable structure that has the conceptual flexibility to be used in a variety of situations. In thinking about self-conscious or self-managed space, there are many times in our daily lives when it is advantageous to make ourselves smaller or bigger than our actually physical form. On a crowded subway car, one might make themself smaller so as to squeeze into a narrow seat. In dressing ourselves, we often don high heels or large, puffy jackets so as to create a larger physical impact. The Wearable Wall asks the question – what if we could be even bigger? Because of our relatively small size, we as people seldom have the physical vocabulary to have a conversation with the architectural forms that surround us. The Wearable Wall enables you to contribute to or critique the space around you. You can extend a preexisting wall or create one wherever you see fit. You are also empowered to alter or direct pedestrian traffic flow. The Wearable Wall also redefines the human-wall relationship. So often we lean against walls as we wait for things to happen. In this scenario, it is the human that provides support for the wall. Without us, this wall cannot stand.

This is a project I worked on with Kati London and Sai Sriskandarajah.

Inspired by the idea of observing personal space and stress in the urban environment, Urban Sonar is a wearable system that logs and visualizes proximity and heart rate over the course of a day.

Four Maxbotix Ultrasonic Range Finders are mounted in the front, back, and shoulders of a hooded sweatshirt, measuring the proximity of people and objects on all sides of the body.

Four conductive fabric leads, stemming from the Polar Heart Rate Monitor, are strapped around the fingers to measure pulse.

The rest of the electronic components are housed in a pocket inside the sweatshirt at the small of the back.

Sensor data is fed into the Arduino board which then interprets it and sends it serially to the BlueSMiRF device. The BlueSMiRF then sends the data via bluetooth to a Nokia N80 mobile phone where it is logged using Dan O’Sullivan’s Logger midlet.

Once the log is complete, it is uploaded to a server where it is interpreted in a time-based visualization made in Processing. (Hit the start button below to see visualization.)

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To view this content, you need to install Java from java.com

The Hand-Cranked Video Mirror is a device with which you have to operate a crank in order to generate the power necessary to see yourself. It is composed of a small LCD screen, a surveillance camera, and a power generating crank hacked out of a flashlight. Ideally I wanted to have the entire setup powered by the crank, but for now I am just able to power the video camera. The monitor is powered via wall power or battery, but it remains blank and the camera stays off until you operate the crank to generate the power for the camera. I removed the battery charging circuit from the crank so the voltage goes directly to the camera. As a result, your image disappears as soon as you stop cranking. Steady, rhythmic cranking provides the best image – frantic, fast cranking tends to get you nowhere. I like the idea that it takes energy, focus, and consistency to see your own image.

For our network assignment, Vincent Dean Boyce, Britta Reilly, and I decided to make a unidirectional network following the tin-can telephone model. Telephones were constructed with plastic cups and string. Each member of the class was given a transmitting end and receiving end of a different telephone. Three different networks emerged and messages were passed from one person to another through the network. Images of the network in use can be found at Vincent’s flickr account.