Project 4.1

And on to the final project - the Redo. I really, really would love to continue on with my wearable project, since I have so much more I can do with it. I still would like to make a second set of underwear, and I would also like to film a performance with the wearables in public. However, after looking at my upcoming schedule for the week, I don't think time/daylight will allow for either. I could possibly pull off the video, but I am not quite sure yet.

However, my cousin sent me all of the information he has gathered from one side of my family, dating all the way back to the 1700s, with locations extending into Europe. I thought I could extend my mapping project to reflect this. Further mapping would emphasize my point. Any suggestions?

Project 3.5

Nothing too much new here. Just continuing on sewing. I have most of the women's underwear finished, and I have the circuitry to the bra finished. Now it's just a lot of LED sewing. No one helped me over the break, so I am struggling to finish it on time. I am still debating on presentation. Originally I was just going to have my "models" wear them under their clothes for our class to see, then after they are finished, I was going to put them on my hanging mannequins while my critique is being given. This is so that everyone can see the circuitry and LEDs and would be able to touch them without molesting Wes and Rachael :-) Anyways, as much as I would like to bring my "models" somewhere to test out the crowds, I don't really know where to go so that our class will be discrete. Also, I would like to try it out beforehand, and my garments will not be ready in time for a troubleshooting session.

All in all, everything is going well, just EXTREMELY time consuming! This has definitely been one of the most time consuming projects I have ever done.

Pictures coming soon.

projection 3.44

my hand hurts a lot from sewing the conductive fabric onto the gloves. the fabric is so thick i pretty much had to stab myself every time i pushed the needle through. i cant figure out if it hurt purely for that reason, or because the fabric has metal in it. probably the metal. it's still itchy and i had to slather some vitamin e oil on it.

i sewed a better fitting glove from the blue fabric i bought, but unfortunately there is no sewing machine for me to use and so i feel it would take way too much time for me to make the gloves and sew everything into them. so i'm using the gloves i bought. also, this way i don't have to worry about them fitting multiple individuals.

i sewed the conductive fabric onto one set of gloves and it looks kind of interesting. like patches on clothing. im wondering if they're going to look super awkward with the pockets on the backs of them. but i guess not any more awkward than mittens with the tops that you can button back.

i was kind of thinking about my idea behind these gloves. and i guess its more of my personal emotive response to holding hands certain ways. sometimes when i walk by someone really tall i feel young and childlike and get this sudden urge to grab onto their hand like i'm a little kid crossing the street or trying not to get lost in a clothing store. but when i hold max's hand i think for the most part i hold it differently, with our fingers interlocked. and i don't feel young or feel like i need someone to be watching out for me. and that's kind of the way i wanted these gloves to function. i don't think i'm going to do the third pair - the high five pair- because they are kind of controversial in their similarity to prayer, and that's not what i intend them to say. i'd much rather feel confident about the two types of different emotive responses i get from the two styles of hand holding than mix in a third and not be as completely confident about the group.

Here are the Images...

Update:

Alright, so I'm not too happy about the fact that i won't be getting my LED beads until Tuesday probably. This is not good. I made a couple more prototypes, the second one i stopped on so far, i need to make a battery holder and see if i can get it to light up. It says LED in braille. I did a new sketch too, i realized that the first prototype i did had alternating negative and positive strands on both ends and this would ultimately not work because it would negate the lights from turning on, so i have been working with keeping negative strands off to the left and positive strands off to the right. I wanted to make the entire thing out of beads, but it's not going too well, so i bought some leather strips and started sewing he beads strands into it, trying to create a more decorative sort of look. I think i might go another route, and just sew in the leds, and not bead everything, because it's not working too great, and then i can also hide the stitches. We'll see I'm not sure how this is going to go.....I have a couple photos, the first one with the black leather is the one i negated because it was too complicated and alternated negative and positive strands, the second one with the yellow leather is the one i'm working on finishing, as of now. Ther larger LEDs are not that great for this, unles you just want to do a bracelet without beading it, that's why i ordered the smaller ones that are made to be beads, but now they aren't even in.

Update:

Alright, so I'm not too happy about the fact that i won't be getting my LED beads until Tuesday probably. This is not good. I made a couple more prototypes, the second one i stopped on so far, i need to make a battery holder and see if i can get it to light up. It says LED in braille. I did a new sketch too, i realized that the first prototype i did had alternating negative and positive strands on both ends and this would ultimately not work because it would negate the lights from turning on, so i have been working with keeping negative strands off to the left and positive strands off to the right. I wanted to make the entire thing out of beads, but it's not going too well, so i bought some leather strips and started sewing he beads strands into it, trying to create a more decorative sort of look. I think i might go another route, and just sew in the leds, and not bead everything, because it's not working too great, and then i can also hide the stitches. We'll see I'm not sure how this is going to go.....I have a couple photos, the first one with the black leather is the one i negated because it was too complicated and alternated negative and positive strands, the second one with the yellow leather is the one i'm working on finishing, as of now. Ther larger LEDs are not that great for this, unles you just want to do a bracelet without beading it, that's why i ordered the smaller ones that are made to be beads, but now they aren't even in.

projection 3.34

um. i sewed my glove. after i spent a while trying to use my moms sewing machine. and she finally declared it dead. (im trying to decide if i'm bad luck or not. i definitely didnt do anything to kill it.) this is a super crappy picture(the lighting in my room at home sucks). anyway. um. i've decided to keep with sewing my own gloves. it was a pretty good fit considering i had just sketched out a hand on the fabric. i need to work on equal proportions of finger width and length though. because i can't really feel the gloves at that skin between my fingers.

also, i need to find a sewing machine. or i will spend the rest of my life doing this.

More Schematics

photos

project 3.3

Things are still a little rocky...there must be a reason this board was so inexpensive because its made pretty poorly...
Some of the soldering joints are impossibly close together even for someone more experienced in soldering than I am, and has required a lot of time to fix.
High quality solder and equipment has turned out t be necessary to even have a chance...copper joints have been pulled up on 2 of my 3 boards (good thing I ordered extra) rendering them nothing more than fancy looking junk.

I have one board left that at least the soldering has succeeded on, I still have a little more to do but I have physically (and CAREFULLY) separated two annoying joints that fused even after 20 minutes of working on it with a solder wick, solder sucker, good soldering iron, and good solder...

Testing hasn't being going well but I'm optimistic that once its all soldered down properly things should pick up. The continuity on the multimeter is telling me everything is getting power.

Thanksgiving update: it won't work and I can' find anything with which to troubleshoot/replace it with...fantastic

notes from mini-crit

Things to research:
Knitting machine pattern making software (from an artist presentation).
Back to the Future 2 the doctor takes off an "age" mask but looks the same underneath?
Machine embroidery (It's very expensive?).
Orlan - artist who is always changing herself with ridiculous amounts of surgery.
nylon sleeves with fake tattoos on them, looks like skin (maybe screenprintable)
Building a kiosk in the mall to make these masks for people of themselves. Knitted or embroidered or something.
Nylon stocking over the face with the face printed on it.
Cultural image removal surgeries: the "Iranian" nose?, the eyelid "more open" eyes surgery?

Thoughts:
DIY might not make sense. Too crafty. Good for research, maybe not for concept. Commercial objects that are masks might be better: surgical and dust masks, welding masks, etc.

Oh hai, I can haz championship now, plzthnx?

my notes on "What Is Wearable Technology Art?"

These are just some notes for talking tomorrow about Susan Elizabeth Ryan's "What Is Wearable Technology Art?"

Variantology. I'm having difficulty understanding what they mean by this word. I'm going to break it down, since there isn't a dictionary entry for it anywhere that I can find. Mirriam-Webster and dictionary.com to the rescue!

variant
var·i·ant\, adj. obsolete; manifesting variety, deviation, or disagreement; varying usually slightly from the standard form

Ology
Ol"o*gy\, n. [See -logy.] A colloquial or humorous name for any science or branch of knowledge. "He had a smattering of mechanics, of physiology, geology, mineralogy, and all other ologies whatsoever." --De Quincey.

Logy
Lo"gy\, a. [From D. log.] Heavy or dull in respect to motion or thought; as, a logy horse. [U.S.] "Porcupines are . . . logy, sluggish creatures. --C. H. Merriam."
This last one doesn't seem to apply.



Here is a quote about Siegfried Zielinski's writings from the MIT review website (MIT published him it seems) http://lea.mit.edu/reviews/june2006/deep_punt.html
"Zielinski’s idea is that media technology today is best understood as an ecology in which no single strand, or individual feature can be fully comprehended independently of the rest. And, given that not all of the rest is knowable, then it is inevitable that our understanding will always be a provisional guess. This is not such a radical or innovative idea, but whereas most commentators who recognise the ecology of media then proceed with a microanalysis or a reductive teleology in which unreconstructed histories are conveniently matched with selective claims about the present, Zielinski tries to avoid this pitfall with his notion of archaeology of deep time...
The down-side of Zielinski’s tactic is that there are no glib answers to pass on; no explanation of how we got to where we are and where we might end up next, no reductive conceptualisation of human intelligence to conveniently ‘life sized’ memes. His vision of the human project takes the long view in which cognition is distributed in both space and time. By weaving with the intersecting biographies of inventors and scientists, he is only able to hint at an explanation of the present that itself is not really comprehensible."

At this point I started kind of just pulling out the quotes that I didn't want to forget mentioning when I'm sleepily discussing this in class in the morning. I'll try to keep it from getting too long though.

"anti-fashion, but certainly dress--was the model(!) for Le Corbusier's writings about modernism in architecture.[10]" interesting

"Even the rise of mass media in the post-World War II years could be connected to the notion of the demise of fashion as couture and its reemergence as commerce."
I just realized that I don't have a good idea of what the word 'couture' means.
couture
cou·ture\, n. French, from Old French cousture sewing, from Vulgar Latin *consutura, from Latin consutus, past participle of consuere to sew together, from com- + suere to sew — more at sew Date: 1908
1 : the business of designing, making, and selling fashionable custom-made women's clothing 2 : the designers and establishments engaged in couture 3 : the clothes created by couture
ok. I guess I kind of knew that.

"Wearable technology fills post-war spy and sci-fi literature, from Batman's military-derived utility belt full of gadgets and Dick Tracy's 2-Way Wrist Radio
in the 1940s, through James Bond's Seiko telex watch" awesome.

"there is an important distinction to be made: functional portable gadgets--
wearable computing--are not actually worn, they are carried or held, and ultimately have little to do with the conceptual and body-based nature of wearable technology,
though the two are often confused in accounts of wearable computing"

"a rise in interest in actual wearables that could perform computational tasks coincided with an increase in numbers of women in engineering programs
such as the Media Lab at MIT in the late 20th century." Oh, MIT. :O

"Devices in Neal Stephenson's widely read novel, Snow
Crash (1992)," THAT'S MY FAVORITE BOOK!

"(body art) and in timebased art forms, like performance and video. Artists
like Atsuko Tanaka (Electric Dress, 1959) created wearable works that could be worn or "hung." By the 1980s and early 1990s, with the development of the feminist art movement and its interest in fabric as art medium and art world critique as a practice, wearable art had become a more common theme, though not
always an accepted one. Its marginality is epitomized perhaps by Hunter Reynolds' Patina du Prey's Aids Memorial Dress (1994-present), a ball gown embroidered
with the names of thousands of AIDS victims." Body art and that AIDS dress interest me.

"As opposed to actual fashion, which is unabashedly commercial, art (its institutional articulation) has long maintained a fantastical existence behind a mask of disinterested aesthetics, while being madly and schizophrenically
market driven." So true.

"Fashion is everything contemporary art is not: it is concerned with beauty; it is well aware of its history over many centuries, rather than just recent
decades; it is more semiotically layered than the most complex Photoshop composite you ever worked on; and it has one ever present constraint (and only constraints can lead to great art)--the human figure. This constraint gives the art of fashion
its vitality, its optimism and its inventiveness."
And here I thought that fashion was just rich white people prancing around and wasting their money and time on pretty things--it turns out that it is art that is doing that too. I see where they are going with this though, and after they say that they point out that WTA gets ignored a lot in both of these contexts.

"Not that works by groups like KnoWear (Skinthetics) and the performative experiments of Orlan, Stelarc, and the like are not important and thought provoking, but they do not engage with quotidian reality and intersect both the "space of places" and the "space of flows" (real and virtual space/time experience) as often as creative experiments with wearable media do.[24]"
Please explain this to me. Space of places and space of flows. I want to know what that means to other people.

I had to look this up: Project Runway. Never heard of it. Doesn't sound very interesting though; I'm going to have to pass on watching it.

Looked this up too: Microsoft's Surface I knew about that but not by name.

Zulu Beads...

Africa is home to hundreds of tribes, all of which have a rich culture of traditional crafts and artifacts. In what is today South Africa, one of the largest tribal groupings is the Nguni, and amongst the best known of these is the Zulu nation. Although they produce many unique handcrafted items, the Zulu are best known for their intricate and often spectacular beadwork.
Zulu Beads have been worn by the Zulu from ancient times, with the oldest examples being made of materials ranging from the bones or the shell of an ostrich egg, to stones, seeds and metal. With the increasing level of urbanization amongst the Zulu, many beaded items for everyday use are today made from plastic beads. However, the best quality modern Zulu beadwork is made almost exclusively from glass beads (known as seed beads). Although these beads are not manufactured by the Zulu, their use has its roots not in the European colonization of Africa, but in trade between ancient African nations.Glass beads appear to have been a by-product of the discovery of glass, which is said to have occurred in Egypt during the rule of the pharaohs some 30 centuries ago. The Egyptians were favourably placed to trade with African peoples to the south, and were keen to acquire the ivory, gold and slaves that were available further south.
Glass beads from Egypt, as well from other countries with access to the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, were transported by Phoenicians, a seafaring nation known to have circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope long before the Portuguese led by Bartolomeo Dias and Vasco Da Gama. The Phoenician ships carried cargoes of glass beads and other merchandise, and shipped them to every port along the North African coast and the ancient kingdoms of West and Central Africa. The Arabs later emerged both as manufacturers of glass beads and as successors to the Phoenicians, continuing to supply beads to the east coast of Africa and India. To this day, red cornelian beads of Indian origin are washed out along the shores of the Transkei region in South Africa from ancient Arab vessels that fell victim to storms and sank. Camel caravans from North Africa also crossed the Saharan desert to trade with the African kingdoms south of the Sahara. The Arab traders were eventually ousted by the Portuguese in the 15th and 16th centuries, who were in turn succeeded by the Dutch and the British who colonized Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries.It can thus be seen that the Zulu tradition of fine glass beadwork is not a recent by-product of European colonization, as is commonly supposed, but part of a rich and ancient melting pot of African cultures. Glass beads were valued in sub-Saharan Africa because they were the products of an exotic technology, of which the equivalent was unknown in southern Africa at that time. Beads, therefore, became precious in their own right and were soon linked to whatever was valued in the cultures of the people who owned and crafted them into a variety of objects to be worn according to custom, as token of social status, political importance and for personal adornment.
Zulu Beads. What makes Zulu beadwork unique is the code by which particular colours are selected and combined in various ways to create messages that are woven into decorative geometrical designs and shapes. Both the colours and the shapes have particular meanings assigned to them, which makes it possible for a "love letter" (incwadi) made entirely from beads to be sent to a sweetheart to express a range of emotions. Thus Zulu beadwork forms an intricate system of communication which is devoted entirely to the expression of ideas, feelings and facts related to behaviour and relations between the sexes. Zulu beadwork is designed and manufactured exclusively by women, but is worn by both sexes - thus any beadwork worn by a man has been received from a woman. In this way, beaded items can be used to facilitate communication between unrelated males and females, which avoids the discomfort of initiating direct discussion on the sensitive subject of personal relations. Men usually wear beadwork to show involvement with women they may marry. This means that mothers, sisters and daughters do not give their sons, brothers or fathers beaded gifts, owing to the incestuous implications of such gifts.
The "language" of Zulu beads is deceptively simple. It traditionally utilizes one basic geometric figure, the triangle, and studies of the craft indicate that a maximum of seven colours is used. To interpret the love letter, one must know how to interpret both the geometric and colour symbolism. As far as the geometric symbolism is concerned, the three corners of the triangle represent the father, mother and child. As a basic unit of design it can:
• Be used inverted (apex pointing downward). This signifies the unfulfilled or unmarried man; or
• Be positioned with the apex pointing upwards, signifying the unfulfilled or unmarried woman; or
• Be joined with another triangle along the base to form a diamond (or stylised egg, a universal fertility symbol) to represent the complete or married woman; or
• Be joined to another triangle with apexes meeting in an hourglass shape, to symbolise the complete or married man.
Listed below are the broad meanings assigned to colours, although it must be realised that there are many subtle variations that often depend on the particular shade of a given colour, or its combination with other colours. It must also be remembered that each colour has both positive and negative connotations, depending on the context.
• Black denotes sadness, loneliness or disappointment; but in a certain context black can also symbolize marriage or convey reassurance.
• Blue, depending on the shade, can symbolise the sky or the sea; faithfulness; or a garrulous disposition. In a negative context, blue can symbolize hostility.
• Green symbolizes grass and cattle, or domestic contentment; but can also symbolize love-sickness and jealousy.
• Pink can denote a shy suggestion of poverty, especially of inability to provide cattle for the lobola (the bride-price paid to her parents by the prospective husband). It can also denote high birth or an oath/promise.
• Red symbolizes strong emotion and physical love, but can also denote blood, heartache, anger or impatience.
• White suggests purity, spiritual love and good luck. It has no negative connotations.
• Yellow symbolises wealth and fertility; but can also mean estrangement, hate or withering away.
With the increasing urbanization of the Zulu people, much of the tradition associated with the craft of beadwork has lost its significance. Modern beadwork is more often made for sale than for personal use and it is therefore difficult to assign meanings to much of the beadwork which is sold on this site and elsewhere. However, knowledge of the origins and symbolism of the craft can only add to the pleasure of selecting, purchasing and wearing a Mbhali piece. Furthermore, owing to an increased interest in the purchasing of fine Zulu beadwork, more and more Zulu women are encouraged to practise the beadcraft that they learned at their mother’s knee and to pass the skill on to their daughters, thus ensuring the survival of this unique and ancient craft into the twenty first century.
SOURCES
Stan Schoeman: "Eloquent beads, the semantics of a ZULU art form"
Regina Twala (1983) Africa Insight volume 13 no.2.
African Studies (1968) volume 27 No.2 and 3.

Zulu Beads. We encourage you to visit the Mbhali site and to purchase their products. Click on logo to left to go directly to their site.
Zulu Beadwork. Zulu Beads.
History of Zulu Beads
The string of beads, the blazon of beads, told a story in which the single bead was the necessary link to all the others. One and many. the meaning of the tribe, together there is strength and unity. The tribal man or woman was as strong as the tribe from which he or she came and the tribe naturally got its strength from the single bead, the pearl, the individual man or woman.
Tied into the hair, worn singly on strings dangling from a wrist, waist or lower limb, the bead made the wearer proud. It celebrated heraldic animals, it told stories and prophesied power. It carried for the wearer an order of symmetry suggesting family, tribe and culture.
Attractive and precious, sacred and ornamental, the bead was a wealth of things, all of them symbolising the power of good health and excellent living. Messages were in beads, were stored in memory, were passed, spoken, person to person or called, hilltop to hilltop, drifting on the wind and swifter than flight.
Zulu Beads were attributed to a mystic origin and arrived initially from Arab and European traders from Delagoa Bay (Maputo) in the early 19th century. They were the most valuable of commodities - four were worth a chicken and a few kilos were worth a bull. Red was considered the most valuable, followed by blue then white and black. Only the chiefs wore green and yellow. Before beads, bones, ivory, copper and wood were used for adornment.
Zulu Bead Messages
Zulu Beads.
During the 11th century it was believed that beads made of stone such as verdite, agate, soapstone, quartz crystal and other semi-precious stones had great magical powers for protection and healing.
Before the coming of trade most of the African people used hard seeds of various plants and trees. These included the hard grey bean-like seeds which are still used as teething beads for babies, and the Mkhokha, the bright red bean-like seeds with a small black spot on one side. These were worn as luck bringers by kings not only in Africa, but also by the native people of South America.
There were also ostrich-eggshell beads, which were made in large quantities by the Khoisan women - these beads were an important item of trade between the Khoisan and African people. Sea shells of all kinds were used as ornaments and as a material for making beads by all tribes in the land. To the Khoi Khoi Khoisan and African people, beads were not just decorative items of attire, far from it - they were believed to possess powers to strengthen bones and muscles in the human body, to promote good health and to prolong life.
The Zulu people call beadwork "umtlalu" which means "that which makes me stay/that which gives me life". So, the Zulus adorned themselves with beads in order to please the "Gods of life" so that the Goddess would grant longevity.

Beader of note

Claw Bracelet. Zulu Beads.
A bracelet consisting of 29 leopard claws, belonging to a Zulu King. The ritual hunting of such an animal was limited to two kills per year and was only conducted by a King. The leopard, ingwe, was believed to be both a physical and a spiritual entity. A claw from every leopard killed during a hunt had to be fitted into a bangle that belonged to a King.

Isongo Loxoco - Bracelet of Peace. Zulu Beads
A ridge inside the bangle reveals that it formed the centre of a battle-throwing spear, an assegai - inusha.
After two tribes which had been locked in strife made peace, a spear belonging to the leader of both opposing factions had their blades cut off and were hammered into a bangle such as this. At a peace ceremony the bangles were exchanged, but were handed to the wives of the leaders. As long as these spearheads were kept by the two women, the two tribes were assured of peace.

The armguard to Siphandla
This bangle, awarded to both males and females, represented the highest order of merit worn by warriors. Covered in studs it represented the skin of the dragon. When a warrior was awarded this bangle, he was known as umanqoba inkanyamba, "The Conqueror of the Dragon." When the bangle was fitted to the warriors it was first heated to prevent it from breaking. Human flesh was thus burned when it was hammered on either the left or right arm. This was an important part of the ritual in order to give life to the bangle.

Loveletters
Zulu Beads.

Love letters date from the introduction of glass beads (~1830) which were quickly given meanings dependent upon their colour. Prior to beads, Zulu girls would use seeds, ostrich eggshell and seashells for adornment.
The loveletters are small, postage stamp sized plaques of beads that convey an emotion to the recipient - usually a favourable or unfavourable inclination towards his advances. The colours are mixed to convey a range of meaning.

White is the colour of purity. Zulu Beads.
Black indicates the colours of the rafters of the hut, to which colour the maiden has turned in pining for her loved one.
Blue - if I were a dove, I would fly to your home and pick up food at your door.
Yellow - I shall never eat if we marry because you own no beast you can slaughter.
Pink - You should work harder to gain your lobola and not gamble your money away.
Green - I have become thin like the sweet cane in a damp field and green as the first shoots of a tree because of my love for you.
Red - My heart bleeds and is full of love.

Beads Beads Beads

Sikanye Crafts. Zulu Beads.
This project was started in January 2002.It was born out of a need to empower and uplift impoverished women in the rural areas surrounding Eshowe in KwaZulu Natal.Many of the woman are supporting an extended family of orphan children caused by the loss of parents through an aids pandemic that is devastating the South African nation, and with no other means of employment.
Revival of the dying traditional craft of beading and related crafts thereby passing on the cultural heritage to future generations.A training program to bring the ladies into the economic mainstream of all tourist related activities locally as well as overseas.
The main characteristic of "Sikanye Crafts" beading work is the uniqueness of a mixture in Zulu and Western culture and the specific designs that are worked..

http://www.eshowe.com/article/articlestatic/72/1/13/

project three schematics so far..one idea

OK so the top image is a schematic drawing of so far how i think i can get this bracelet to work, I'll have one started for tomorrow. Also, these are the beads i am hitnking about. they are similar in size to the large LEDS, so fae my things i ordered did not come in so i am having to use what i got so far..... more to come alter..

projection 3.30333356

as far as sounds and their glove sets(a set being 2 pair of gloves):
high-five gloves: celebratory exclamations!
laced finger gloves: happy sound bordering on sexual implication (?)
perpendicular gloves: comfort sound such as contented sigh or other comfort noise. (i have been told that i make such comfort sounds when i am asleep.)
it is strangely fun to record and playback the sounds on this little device.

projection 3.30333334

finally received my conductive thread in the mail. it came in a cute little red box that i am going to keep and store other things in. maybe all my speakers and stuff like that. anyway. i also have this recording module i got from radioshack and the 9V battery it needs to run.

Masks

Just realized I forgot to mention another method that I just thought of to try with masks, which is making a fabric mask. I'm going to get iron on transfer paper (hopefully tomorrow) and then the method would be pretty much the same as when I made a single-sheet paper mask.
It would be great if I made an ski mask that looked like what was my face underneath it. I could wear it around and then maybe it would be legal in places where masks aren't normally because it wouldn't count. Since it's my face, I mean.

projection 3.30333333

these are the gloves i bought. 6 pairs. one set is green one set is black one set is white. i also bought some cottony jerseylike fabric so that i could test out sewing the gloves together myself. i'm worried about sewing the knit gloves because they're knit. so the fibers arent as tightly woven and i'm not certain what that will do in terms of stability of the conductive threads and ensuring the positive and negative loops DO NOT TOUCH. also i'm using sound on the gloves. or trying to. i bought a little voice recorder from radioshack and it's kind of big but not too heavy so it might be ok. i want each set of gloves to emit sounds when the wearers use them correctly. appropriate sounds. like for the high five gloves i'm thinking "Huzzuh! Congratulations! Yay!" or just excited screaming (not orgasmic, but happy and celebratory).

Masks

I was researching masks on the internet on Friday night and I found out a few ways to make them. Masks can be made through lots of methods:

> carving them - from wood or other materials


> forming them - on the face with plaster cast strips, clay, epoxy, etc. This was uses material that starts soft and then dries hard. After that people normally build onto them.


> pressing them on - using tin foil or something flexible, and then adding tape or something to give it some permanence.


> casting them - with a mold, they can be bronze, clay, latex, etc.



I did most of this research yesterday.
Today (Saturday) I went to Michaels and bought two rolls of plaster cloth. Earlier today I went to CFOP, but they didn't have it. I also went to "the junk lady" which is a junk shop 18 miles south of campus on 13th Street (441) called Orange Lake Antiques. I heard about it from a few people (mostly in sculpture classes) but I had never been there so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was hoping to find things to use for this project, the final Hypermedia project, or the final Machines Sculpture project. I didn't. I saw a lot of interesting junk though that I will keep in mind for the future (I'm sure it isn't going anywhere). After that I went and looked around at Wal-Mart, The Simply Unforgettable Party (that place turned out to have boring things; don't go there), and Lowe's. I guess I was just sort of exploring to see what I could get access to in terms of materials, both junk and consumerist, to make art from. I came up with some really amazing but totally unfeasable ideas.

I realized an incredibly relevent pop culture reference that escaped me until just now. In Mission Impossible (both the TV series and the movie) there are these great scenes where they put on or take off masks which are SO realistic that when they have them on nobody can tell them apart from regular people. They do this by switching actors/actresses with clever cuts or digital edits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6qollhLE3c
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Impossible

Whereas they are switching into another persona, my idea from the start was to switch into myself. People do this; they hide behind the mask of their own face.
I wasn't sure how I would address this little part of the project assignment sheet: "The piece must also be digital in nature." until now. Now I think that the end result will have to be a video, and I'm thinking that I might shoot for a strange loop. We learned about those in Patrick Lemieux's class of course.

Rope

I needed to figure out how to create a rope for a logo I had been working on for my internship. I actually found this tutorial previously and used it to make the rope. It was difficult when I tried to manipulate it, and lost a little bit of its ropiness, but here is the logo with the rope.

As a side note, we did not choose this as our final logo, since the rope never seemed to quite work. But it was one of the options I created.

YEEE HAAW!!

projection 3.2533

some pictures of the sketches i did on monday to map the locations of switches on the gloves. tricky stuff. it's hard to wrap your mind around the semantics of where the battery and leds and thread needs to be in relation to the switches. so the pictures are in pairs of fronts and backs of hands. the pictures of my hands that precede the drawings are what the designs are planned for. The scribbly parts are where I'm putting switches.

m'rope

There's a snake in my rope!

ROPE

this is not possible