Last Wearables Round for Today

On to the next panel session now. Not sure I'll catch all the panellists' names... Barbara Layne of Hexagram is speaking at the moment. (Also, I have only one more hour of battery power on the laptop!) Barbara has done a project called Fault Lines which converted seismograph data into fabrics. Other work includes weaving LEDs into fabrics - this seems somewhat more pedestrian than the work shown in other presentations, but I suppose we're talking proof-of-concept here...

Also, this raises the question of whether sufficient quantities of materials (e.g. small-gauge wires etc.) are currently available at all. Another interesting point: Cirque du Soleil is a partner of Hexagram, which should open pathways to some imaginative applications. Finally also a live demonstration of a garment with text scrolling across it (as I waited for my connecting flight in Singapore, Inspector Gadget was showing on the TV screens, featuring a hat with scrolling messages - a strange synchronicity...

Back to Joanna Berzowska (of International Fashion Machines) now, speaking on non-emissive reactive textiles. More information on the e-ink technology as well as electric plaid which uses thermochromic materials. Thermochromics change colour very slowly, which is quite different from e-ink or the emissive materials. (OK, the low battery sign just popped up - I may have to post this soon now and probably won't be able to cover the other speakers...)

Up next is Ingrid Bachmann. She's coming from a multimedia installation works background, and presents a project called Digital Crustaceans which uses the analogy of a hermit crab (which has no shell of its own but uses discarded shells from other crabs) and involves a virtual hermit crab traversing the Internet (following the movement of a live crab). (By now it's probably obvious that the link to wearables is fairly vague here...)

Finally we're on to Margot Jacobs - but as my battery light is now flashing I better leave it here. Postscript: Margot's presentation of wearable tech accessories was very interesting - she's part of a research group called Reach, based in Göteborg. Some of the wearable gadgets and a lot of artworks were also presented in various galleries around Tallinn last night - plenty to see but somewhat overwhelming amidst the throng of ISEA visitors...