Sue Ngo: ITP Coursework

We laser-cut the organ pieces to sew onto the garments:

lasercut_lungs from Susan Ngo on Vimeo.

Nien modeling our look on the street:

warning signs from Susan Ngo on Vimeo.

Some still shots:

We’ve been experimenting with other heating elements to visualize patterns on thermochromic fabric. In our past tests we used conductive thread as the heating element, but find it does not carry enough current over longer distances to sufficiently heat the fabric.

Here are some tests we did with creating heating elements with normal resistors and muscle wire. Muscle wire so far seems like the best best to create the most dynamic wearable.

The fabric:
We are experimenting with NOVACHROMIC thermochromatic fabric. The color of the fabric will appear brown when cool but will change to yellow when touched or heated at the point of contact.

The form:
We are choosing to make a hoodie to afford us more room to work with and is a commonly worn daily outerwear. We integrating the thermachromatic fabric with regular fabric.

The desired visualization:
We want to create a visualization on the fabric using conductive yarn, fabric, and possibly different inks (as seen in the video below)

Sensing for Volatile Organic Compounds:
Carbon Monoxide Sensor – MQ-7

Methane CNG Gas Sensor – MQ-4

Gas Sensor Break-out board

Theragrip Thermal Tape

All week I’ve had a cold, but I still had a lot to work to do that forced me outside my apartment. I wanted to come up with a wearable that allows you to be out in public without spreading your germs, but still feeding your body with what it needed to get healthier.

In my research, I found inspiration for my project:

Bioaccessories. A wearable with living plant matter to stimulate the wearer and mask out unpleasant city smells.

Emergency Bra. A bra that doubles as a gas mask.

My concept is to create a mask filled with some common herbal remedies for cold/flu:
Asian Ginseng, oregano and echinacea to stimulate the immune system
Peppermint for nasal Stuffiness
Sage for sore throat relief

The wearer would be able to keep their germs to themselves while still healing.

Final Result:

I created a hoodie that records sound and plays it back. It also has an instrumental component and plays square wave pulses, so that you can record a song and play along to it.

Video

Recording from Susan Ngo on Vimeo.

Wearables Beatz from Susan Ngo on Vimeo.

As I get older, memories that were important to me are fading quickly or are completely forgotten. My dream piece of clothing would be something that could stimulate the senses in order to trigger feelings of nostalgia and remembrance by reproducing smell and sound. Research done by neurologist Daniel Wesson discovered that the crossing of sound with smell enhances one or the other.

Ideally the piece of clothing could work two ways. In one way capturing the moment, and then having the ability to re-create it.

Smell: There could be a trigger to release an important smell. You can purchase an eclectic mix of scents at I Hate Perfume

Sound: Embedded recorder and audio player.

Sight: A camera could be patched into different parts of the clothing to recreate different angles of an experience and then projected out at will.

A simultaneous trigger system for all.

…to be constructed

In this week’s reading, “Fashion” by G.Simmel the author claims that fashion feeds into the dualistic nature of humans, who need to feel apart of a group while at the same time need to feel unique.  Simmel states that fashion is created by the elite and adopted by the masses.   Much of what Simmel theorizes still holds true today.  There is still a social group identity tied to the way one dresses.  However, I would posit that in our increasingly globalized and connected world, fashion has become more democratized and is created within social groups at any level not just the elite above the masses.

I find Simmel’s generalization that social elite of a class sets the fashion and the masses follow to be dated.  In today’s age of democratized culture and instant information the high fashion elite either co-opts or completely appropriates the fashion of the so-called lower masses.   For example, modern graffiti culture originated as a form of sub-culture and rebellion.  However, last season Graffiti + Haute couture became vogue.  Super model Raquel Zimmermann sported high-end designers include Givenchy, Atelier Versace, Dior, and Valentino in front of graffiti backdrops.

People do use fashion to set themselves apart while at the same time assimilating themselves to others.  The fashion of punk and hardcore culture originated from a deeply rooted sense of anti-materialism and rebellion.  A veritable uniform existed in order to be identified and recognized within the  Hardcore and punk music scene. A new idea of “legitimacy” now applied to fashion.  The concept of “poseur” define those adopting the fashions of cultures they do not have a true stake in. Today, punk culture has been co-opted into mainstream and has lost its originality.

The second assignment for the first week was to create two masks, one that represents me and one that hides me. I played around with a few ideas.

Hiding in plain sight: I liked the concept of creating a mask of my facebook profile picture as a mask that hides me. In our digital age facebook has created a recluse’s utopia, millions of people sharing information digitally without ever having to communicate in real life. People create “profiles” for themselves with superficial facts and updates, but these profiles can never really convey true feeling.

Bound: In my final iteration I dug a bit deeper to convey my personal feelings. I was inspired by a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar (see below). The concept being that everyone to a certain extent creates a mask to disguise and protect themselves.  As for myself, I don’t reveal my true self due to a myriad of issues be they insecurity, social anxiety or self-doubt.  I created a mask covered in twine to represent the struggle of being bound by your insecurities.

Wishes: As for my reveal mask, I played upon the idea of wishes.  In Japanese legend,  if you fold a thousand of paper cranes, your wish comes true.   They are often given as gifts as a sign of promise.   This origami mask represents my personal wish to be unbound.

We Wear the Mask

WE wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!