Can Wearable Tech Make You Love Coral? #WearableWednesday #wearabletech #art #ocean
by Leslie Birch
Kasia Molga, the same artist that created Human Sensor, has just released Coral Love Story. This new work combines wearable tech, dance and video into speculative fiction looking at the plight of coral reefs. Her first video “Chapter #1: Getting Acquainted” sets up the story with a woman falling in love with coral as she feels its connections with her own body. The outfit was created using liquid latex (an environmental choice) with embedded vibration motors that trigger with coral bleaching alerts based on NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) data. The small bubbles on the wearable also change color, which may be accomplished through electrochromic paint. Although many people worked on this project, I’d like to mention Ricardo O’Nascimento and Erik Overmeire, who also collaborated with Kasia on the Human Sensor. That project garnered a lot of attention for air quality, and so it is hoped that this project does the same for coral reefs around the world. I especially like the coral-like fibers on the outfit that quiver on vibration and I feel this work really explores materials in an exciting way. It’s not easy to combine so many elements into a cohesive story, but Coral Love Story seems to create the perfect harmony with its minimal soundtrack, nude wearable, ocean close-ups and intriguing dance. It’s easy to be too busy here, but the almost black and white video helps to keep the focus on the details of the dance, as well as the detail on the wearable. This piece was commissioned by Invisible Dust, a UK nonprofit which brings together artists and scientists exploring environmental concerns. Be on the lookout for their Sounding the Sea Symposium 2017 in June. Are you ready to take on an environmental crisis through wearable art? Check out our book Make: Getting Started with Adafruit FLORA. You’ll learn about our easy-to-use FLORA microcontroller and tricks about embedding electronics into wearables. LEDs, sensors and a little bit of coding can create amazing art; you just have to figure out your message.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
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