Wearables

Wired Wear: Mediating “Everyday” Performance, 2005

“Wired Wear,” consists of a series of one-of-a-kind articles of clothing equipped with custom electronics. Each object is designed to fill a specific personal need and is fitted to my body’s measurements. This enables me to perform with them and demonstrate their use in the accompanying videos and in live tradeshow contexts. This combination of electronics, fashion design, and performance is what I call, “Performative Technologies.” “Performative Technologies” are devices developed specifically for me to perform in social interactions and public spaces, and most importantly, in the performance of my roles as woman, teacher, girlfriend, daughter. While most wearable or body specific technologies aim to upgrade human physical performance, make you more efficient or able to complete new tasks, WiredWear enhances and expands performance beyond the athletic, economic, or theater contexts and draws attention to technology’s mediation of our everyday “performances.”

Discourses about Cyborgs and wearable technology often revolve around the ramifications of enhancing human capabilities—memory, intelligence, vision, and the larger topic of genetically engineering specific traits. In contrast to both of these, WiredWear takes a playful and critical look at wearable technologies by providing humorous and poetic interventions.