Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Measuring Impacts

A new piece of pressure-sensitive clothing helpfully records instances of physical abuse:

"The clothing utilizes pressure sensitive fabric to measure impacts to the wearer’s body. The physical abuse data is transmitted to a remote server where it can be archived or distributed to a trusted community or proper authorities. The wearer can chat with their IPV clothing via an artificial intelligence agent that offers them feedback and suggestions based on the received data. This project explores the wearable as a self reflective safe space to assist the abused wearer in reconnecting with social networks."
For some reason, I'm imagining an abused woman in court, being told that she obviously struck the jacket herself (after all, women must habitually lie about being beaten up, because "men are socialized to protect women, not to harm them").

Note, please, the sheer awfulness of this sentence:
This project explores the wearable as a self reflective safe space to assist the abused wearer in reconnecting with social networks.
Perhaps, in so doing, the abused individual can leverage the mindspace of these critical networks to de-differentiate topographical morphologies, inhabit fully extensible mosaics, and strategize collaborative peripheries. Just think how empowering that would be!

What "wearable space" could be safer than one that measures impacts from fists or blunt objects? (I mean, besides one in which you're not routinely being abused.) All kidding aside, if passive, technophiliac navel-gazing won't mitigate the scourge of domestic violence, what will?

A new piece of clothing for men isn't quite as technologically sophisticated, but it's comparatively free of cant:
Male physical urges and pleasures are expressed and easily satisfied through the design of these sweatpants.

1 comment:

juniper pearl said...

a friend told me about a couple she knew in high school who had some similarly functioning sweatpants. they made them themselves with a pair of scissors, special for public outings.