The Telematic Dress

conceptual prototype communication tool

model for team work

The Telematic Dress

a conceptual prototype developed through

performance and tested in the responsive multi-media environment of a

telematic studio in Nottingham linked to partner sites in other

countries

we explore the conceptual and aesthetic possibilities of an ‘open’, distributed dress that is evolving and shareable in the generation of its design by performers and users in different sites across time difference and cultural geographies

the notion of a shareable wearable

also implies considering future design to be both participatory and

bespoke

design and performance

DAP

design concept/process

the concept envisions a partial design that is to emerge and extend all static textile elements in performance between at least two users

whose movements, captured and transmitted by camera, combine to reveal a garment statement

methodologies

the open dress

four metres of cloth

sensual textures and colours are moved through

performance to explore the evolution of a garment, the transition from raw material

to constructed form

choreographed textile

the telematic dress begins with the motion of colour, with tangible rhythms that span more than one body

sense movement located to a specific site on the body

emergence

design development sketches

the becoming dress

the unworked cloth becomes adapted into a more revealed piece that momentarily embellishes, shrouds, releases, re-covers the

body in motion

• The becoming dress

choreography a fusion/blend of classical ballet, yoga and martial arts are used to explore/express design

the other body

two dancers become interwoven

the fabric a porous membrane

design affects the way in which the body moves and can be energised

impulses, perceptions of form and touch travel between the dancers in distant locations

the other body

Saeko in Japan

movement behaviours exist discretely and yet simultaneously, virtually together

The Arizona hoop dress is a static shell, an outer frame/image, with the American dancer distancing herself from it and receding behind it

Arizona State University Department of Dance

the Arizona dress becomes a surface of filmic projection;

leaves, figs, branches of a forest

flitter across it, its blue colour changes

slowly to green, brown, ochre

other prototypes

the tango interface

two bodies explore energy and rhythm

engaging across the internet in a dance duet

connecting through telematics and ‘fantasy

wearables’

the process of metamorphic design is driven by the dancers

co-presences

what have we achieved & where next?

we would like to propose, at this point, to create an installation in AZ that consists of an interactive dress that can be acted upon either via telematics or direct audience participation. this installation would partner with the performative elements in the UK to create a cohesive workArizona: 21/07/05

conclusion

the telematic dress brings together diverse elements and creates new ways of combining them, it also explores articulation and reshaping of existing systems

the telematic dress is ‘open’-

open ended and our strategy not too fixed, but with built-in flexibility to allow for revisions to occur, as new opportunities become apparent. Strategic planning is action-orientated and considers a range of possible futures

School of Art & DesignMichele Danjoux

Johannes Birringer Jo Cope

Gemma HarrisonMarie Denis

Natalie VerhaegenHelenna RenNatasha StottYoon Bo Shim

Cidinha Fursan BendxienHelen Knight

James PearsonSchool of the Built Environment

John RedgateAmin Al-habaibehStuart Kennedy

Industry PartnersCanesis Ltd

Eternal Spirits

http://art.ntu.ac.uk/performance_research/birringer/dap.htm