Last Tuesday evening we had a meeting about our concept and design with AnnaMariaCornelia. While we ate our pizzas and drank our (free) wine we discussed the current state of wearable design. AnnaMariaCornelia was very firm in her conviction that my project isn’t art. I was a little shocked at first because working on this project really makes me feel like an artist again after so many months of webdesigning…
But maybe this project is just really me. I work on it from an artists perspective and that gives me a great sense of freedom. But at the same time the project allows me to indulge in design, data visualization, programming, developing, science, ecology, writing, data, webdesign and fabrics to name but a few issues that this piece encompasses. I suppose that in that sense I’m a very modern artist (if any) because the borders between disciplines are blurring. Projects like AQAb give room to all my interests. Subjects that already play a part in my life can be presented in piece. So working on it makes me whole and I don’t care what people call it.
Edit 19/10/09
This discussion reminds me of a remark Laura Beloff made during her presentation at the I-machine exhibition in Oldenburg, Germany. She’s researching conceptual wearables. She said there weren’t many around. Most wearables are either functional or fashionable but hardly any of them work from a concept. She’s done a nice job with her project Empty space.
When we discussed my design, and I don’t remember how it came about, we started talking about a small vest for a child for example. Being a great dog lover I immediately said:”To have one for a dog, that would be fun.” Well, that idea has stuck and now I think I’ll make a cute little vest for a dog to wear. As it happens I bought another sensor which is a general gas sensor. Closer akin to a dogs nose, probably. So the dog will wear that sensor, close to the ground. It will be interesting to see what the differences are. I want the sensor to work only when the dog lifts it head (to smell) so I’ll use an accelerometer to see if the head is tilted. The visuals on it’s vest will show the boss the air quality at dog nose height.