NEWS

July 2006 - The Soft Electric is now on display at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, located at 721 Broadway, 4th Floor. It will be there until the winter.

June 2006 - The Soft Electric is back from Pisa safe and sound! It was displayed at the Future Fashion Event, hosted by Cute Circuit and Codice-Idee at Viaggio Telecom 2006 in Pisa, Italy. For more information on the show, visit Cute Circuit's official site for the event.

May 2006 - The Soft Electric has been blogged by Popgadget! See the entry here.

DESCRIPTION

This thesis explores current aesthetics of wearable technology. A precept of design is that form follows function. The more emphasis placed on the technological functionality of a wearable, the more the form of the garment caters to that function. As an exploration, I've focused the function of my wearable solely on adornment.

The capelet was knitted and felted by hand. It is embroidered with conductive thread. The thread carries electric current to LEDs that are beaded into the embroidery, making the electronic current part of the garment's adornment. The LED beads flicker, acting like a sequin in the light.

SEE VIDEO OF THIS PROJECT

For front click here
For back click here

CONSTRUCTION

The capelet is powered by a 3V coin cell battery and 1" x 3" circuit board located on the back of the piece.

The LEDs PWM two at a time. Here is the code (thank you, Todd!

To find out more about how this project was constructed, visit the blog

ABOUT

Grace Kim is a recent graduate of NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program . She is originally from Seattle, Washington and likes knitting, embroidery, felting, light batteries, and candy. She can be reached at iamgracie@gmail.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Read my thesis paper!