Assignment 3: Research and Ideation by Kristie Lord

Part 1: Precedent Research

This example is a kinetic sculpture from the BMW Museum in Germany. It works by attaching 714 metal balls to strings and then using electronics and code. I thought this idea would be really interesting to incorporate into a dress as it has such versatile movement. I think using string to hold objects as well as coding them to form shapes would be great to incorporate into a dress and it can also be coded to form shapes based on a person’s emotions.

This example appears to be moving mechanically as all the wheels are attached to strings, which are moved by a motor powering a gear and belt mechanism. I chose this example because I was fascinated by the way this machine works and thought the entire sculpture looked beautiful. I think this technique could be used on wearable kinetic fabric by having it just continuously move while someone is walking. Thus, it makes the walking motion that’s in one plane in multiple planes. It would also work if it was used based on someone’s fear and expanding out sort of like a porcupine.

This example works by a series of pulleys, which are all linked together through string, which attaches back to a motor, which spins a series of gears to turn the strings. I think the mechanism powering this device is simple enough to transfer to a wearable kinetic fabric. I envision this working really well along someone’s spine to accentuate it.

This example used a moving wheel to create a continuously changing optical illusion. I thought this was really awesome, so even though i already had my 3 examples I wanted to include it. I think this can easily be added to a person’s clothes to make them more mysterious.

Part 2: Brainstorming

This idea draws inspiration from the BMW Museum sculpture. It works based on a series of two rows of six metal circles attached to strings on the dress. Based on a sensor which reads human emotion, the metal balls will form happy, sad, or angry faces all based on moving the strings.

Like a scaredy cat, this is the scaredy hat. This idea draws inspiration from my second research example and works in a similar way. There will be four discs coming out of the person’s hat that will expand when the person gets scared much like a porcupine and its spikes.

My final idea draws inspiration from peacocks and folding fans. It will be a piece of fabric similar in color and looks to a peacock (see above) that will be attached to a person’s back and will spread when a person dabs.