Jim Henson’s Creature Shop

This video takes a deeper look into Jim Henson’s creature shop and the puppeteers behind Netflix’s new Dark Crystal prequel show. While I think there’s an exceptional number of aspects to be inspired by (the costume design, material usage, drapery, etc.), I’m interested in the use of both direct and indirect movements translated into the puppetry. While the mouth and facial movements are directly affected by their hand movements, the arms and gait are controlled by compellingly subtle shifts of the wrist.

Origami Revolution

Full Episode

This is a preview of a NOVA feature on the use of origami techniques in scientific exploration. This feature specifically focuses on techniques that allow fabrics to be minimized and expanded into intricate, voluminous forms, which I believe could lead to an exciting potential kinetic wearable.

Krio – Stop Motion Animation

This stop motion short gives an equal emphasis to the behind-the-scenes process as the final animation itself. I’m particularly interested in how Krio has adopted modern fabrication techniques (such as 3D printing and Arduino) to expand the opportunities of creating such haunting experiences. I also find it interesting to see the wire armatures used in the main figure to create seamlessly moving parts.

Concept 1: Defensive / Sensitive Touch

I’m interested in the movement of the mimosa plant and how it responds to touch by slowly closing its leaves in pairs of two. I think touch would be a very sensitive and “magical” way to spark a reaction in a wearable, since the response is induced from such a subtle and tactile action.

Concept 2: Heliotropic Movements

Similar to how sunflowers and certain plants bend towards the sun, I thought of a wearable with pivoting planes that would turn to face the strongest source of light. I think this could be fabricated with a grid of photoresistors, where planes attached to servo motors pivot to face the point where the brightest light is detected.

Concept 3: Spider Limb Extensions

For this concept, I was inspired by the array of bizarre, terrifying, and often evil fantasy creatures from some of my favorite movies and shows. I’m in awe of how characters like Pan’s Labyrinth’s Pale Man, Dark Crystal’s skeksis, and Spirited Away’s Kamaji move with skeletal, elongated motions in a hauntingly beautiful way. These characters also reminded me of the movements of the spiders in the game Limbo (seen above), which offer a distilled, 2D graphic interpretation of these skeletal movements. While I’d like to explore this world of movement further, my first idea was to create elongated spider limbs that accentuate human skeletal gestures.