Part 1

Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion (https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/pierre_cardin)

This was a retrospective on the works of Pierre Cardin. I wanted to highlight this body of work because I notice themes of simplification and exaggeration, and taking things to the extreme. I think that the next step from the perspective of kinetics would be to apply these themes to human motion, by extending a common motion to an exaggerated and simplified form. I tried to consider this extension in my ideation.

Boeing Robotic Arm (https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/07/watch-robotic-appendage-give-humans-third-arm)

This is pretty straightforward: Boeing has funded a robotic arm to be mounted on the shoulder of a worker, that can be placed in some pose and then used practically but the worker. My three main takeaways were where they chose to place the arm, the semi flexible vest used to attach it to the worker (which they said helped the worker get tactile feedback), and the really simple idea they used for the gripper at the end: to fill it with sand or beans or similar, and vacuum out the air to stiffen it when you need to pick something up. That could easily be implemented as a practical gripping method in some garment, if needed.

Barnaby Dixon: Hand Puppets

This guy makes really expressive puppets for his hands, and they’re very delicate and interesting. I think puppeteering can teach us a lot about extending human motion in novel ways, especially subtle motion, and I think this guy in particular can inform kinetic fashion by highlighting the importance of expression. His tools are good but they’re not very high tech, yet he manages to create life from just a few hand motions. The expressiveness of the motion we create is crucial to consider.

Part 2

Looper Arm

My idea was to somehow record the motion of your arm (in this drawing, by using wires/cords whose length can be tracked somehow to record your shoulder joint and your elbow’s motion), and then loop that motion again and again on the robot arm. Just push the button, do a motion, and it will be looped forever on the arm. This contraption could be hidden by a shirt with two sleeves, to strengthen the idea of this arm as an extension of yourself. It reminds me of a Boomerang on Instagram.

Happy/Sad

This is a signpost to your current emotional status. It has two modes: Smile and Frown. You wear a headband which has a camera coming off pointing at your face that tracks if you’re smiling or not. This also gives me social media vibes.

Symbi-arm-sis (working title)

This is a physical connection between two people in which it’s unclear who’s exactly controlling what, and how. Some joints may be mechanically controlled and others perhaps electronically. I think it’s interesting that although these two people would be undeniably linked, it would also be awkward for them to get too close to each other.