The Social Body Lab offers a residency opportunity to select makers from diverse backgrounds. This gives residents access to the lab facilities and community while the residents bring new ideas and practices in the lab. 

 

 

RE:Familiar

Little Dada

2016-2017

Re:Familiar is an outfit that reimagines drones as witch’s familiars. Like familiars, drones are  servant, spy and companion all at once. The two drones follow the model, and surround her with billowing silk chiffon covered in generative glitch patterns. Re:Familiar is an outfit that creates wonder and delight by incorporating quadcopters that a cape-like train around and above the wearer. Two tethered drones follow the wearer, suspending the cape. She can control the drones, and when she reaches the end of the runway, they fly high in the air, unfurling the colourful silk far from her body. This outfit is being developed for Make Fashion 2017.
 

Bio: Little Dada is a group of creative technologists based in Toronto, made up of OCADu faculty Lindy Wilkins and Hillary Predko. Their work ranges from geometric installations to wearable technology, and infuses the spirit of dadaism with whimsical elements to create electronic and digital artwork. Their work has been featured in festivals, galleries, and publications around North America. 

3G Wireless Wearables

Erin Lewis

2012-2013

Can data feeds become stylish and wearable? Can (and how does) our clothing become enhanced through the inclusion of Internet capabilities?  In this residency, Erin Lewis explores the potential of wearing an online real-time data set through its complete integration into a garment.  Utilizing textile-based and soft circuit techniques as well as electronics design, Erin is creating a wearable artwork connected to the 3G network. This work will intersect areas of data visualization (or “data materialization”), wearable technology, and electronic textiles.  In this work, the use of a real-time or near-real-time data feed will both conceptually and functionally direct the behaviour of embedded electronics in the garment. 

Bio: Erin Lewis is an emerging Canadian artist working in creative electronics, wearable technology, and sculpture/installation.  She is a graduate of OCAD University with a BFA in Integrated Media and Wearable Technology. She is an instructor of Wearable Technology at OCAD University (Department of Continuing Studies) and teaches wearable technology, wireless communication, and soft electronics at various artist-run centres and hacklabs in Toronto.  Her work has been shown at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada; Maker Faire New York; Nuit Blanche Toronto; the Ontario Science Centre; Discovery Channel Canada; Discovery.com; and in various newspapers and physical computing websites.  She has a particular fondness for data feeds and kittens.  www.erinlewis.ca

Transformative Wearables

Oldouz Moslemian

2011-2012

The intelligence and sophistication of the woven fabrics within our everyday world and the ever growing field of micro-electronics has inspired me to delve deeper into the study of performance textiles and their capacity to transform the way we live. In this project I aim to collapse the boundaries of science, engineering, and craft to create an artwork that imbues meaning onto textiles while shedding light on their transformative value as artifacts that carry within them societal knowledge.

For the purpose of this project, I intend to move beyond the two-dimensional surface of textile and create a wearable that transforms on the body and changes the perception of viewer about their everyday apparel.

Developing this piece involves using traditional techniques of hand weaving while incorporating fibre-optics, sensors, and other electronic components into the structure of the garment. The fibre-optics are woven in different patterns into the fabric and then used as a textile to create a garment.

The interaction between this article of clothing and the environment, the wearer and the spectator will depend on the light sensors embedded in its structure. Depending on the data received from the light sensors the garment will then respond by projecting different light patterns.

As the wearer becomes invisible in darkness, the dress becomes alive and signifies the wearer’s presence. . This dress is to bring back the absent body from darkness and give life back to its wearer.

Bio:

Oldouz Moslemian is a textile artist and designer. She has a background in Industrial Design and has graduated with a Bachelor of Design from OCAD University in MAAD-Textile program. Oldouz uses textiles as her primary site of exploration, while incorporating other materials and technologies into their structure to create unique fabrics that respond to their surroundings.