My idea is to allow you to be a passive activist by the clothes you wear. The Top will be able to display user defined slogans which stand out. This could be seen as a scary prospect as people may not want to stand out. Football supporters proudly wear their team’s shirts but run the risk of receiving abuse from other members of the public who do not share their enthusiasm. However many individuals and groups are brave enough to stand up for what they believe in, and my t-shirt allows them to do this while going about their everyday lives in a passive manner. Since the slogans are user defined, it is down to the user to be responsible and cautious about the messages they portray. "Save the dolphins" for instance is a nice example of a message you could promote with this wearable method of public persuasion.

The publics conscience is affected daily by messages we receive in the media or subliminally through alternative vehicles (like my clothes line). My product aims to promote positive change, by giving people the power of a voice. Clothing are personal possessions so it is only right that they should be used as a means of expression.



This is partly a backlash against corporate media, which has so much influence in the public’s domain. Through the press and advertising we are continually bombarded with ideologies, crafted for commercial and political purposes. Money talks and large corporations have the funding to sell their ideas and values to us. Important issues such as climate change and deforestation have been ignored in the past by the media, which has diverted the public’s attention to more important issues like celebrities cellulite until the situation has become critical. Protestors were once stereotyped as tree hugging, do-gooders who hadn't quite gotten over the 60's but i think the public is and needs to become more conscious of issues beyond a local level. I think new devices to get important messages across to the public passively, are important in raising awareness of key environmental issues. Other areas like public health could adopt similar strategies. "Stop Smoking", and "Wear a Condom" are just examples of positive slogans which could be used.

I guess that since interaction design is all to do with how we interact with our environment, it is suits that my product has the wider environment in mind.

It is time the masses spoke rather than the minority and that’s real democracy. There are injustices which we all feel we should do something about but don't find the time or will power to get up and do something about it. This technology allows people to express themselves more freely to positive means as they go about their everyday lives.




The activists top.

A shirt/ jacket which you can input text which will be displayed by embedded LEDs in the clothing via a microprocessor. This will be designed with political and social persuasion in mind. Light or infrared sensors will detect people approaching and display a silhouette of them as background to the text. I have decided the silhouette should be green being the most restful and natural of all colours conveying a positive aura at one with the environment. The idea of reducing your carbon foot print and being visually registered in this manner is also something I find quite suiting to this idea. Text will be displayed using greens complimentary colour red, which also connotes awareness. My prototype will be looking at the interactive background specifically since my idea is to incorporate my project with existing technology created by another artist, Barbara Layne. Her video is included in my DVD or it can be seen at the following URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9obd_JRgek. This allows me to concentrate on interactive background alone, which I believe is enough of a challenge for a project with this narrow a time frame. I aim to design wear for different occasions. T-shirts and jumpers for both females and males will be designed. The Cloth or material should be black as this will make the LEDs stand out more.



I was also inspired by a speech at www.ted.com/talks/sendhil_mullainathan.html. This deals with "the last mile problem", which is referring to awareness and how it can be brought about. The BMW advertisement is used as an example in the talk, promoting the idea that you are safe in the BMW because you can avoid collisions rather than you are safe because it is a solid car. It puts in question the best approaches to selling an idea and what is the most effective method of delivery?

For example slogans could read," we are heading towards a greener world. www.greenpeace.org.uk". This is much needed positivity in an age of pessimism.

In the Adam Curtis documentary "The century of the self", he interviews Edward Bernays, a leading psychologist who was brought in to change the public’s perception on woman and cigarettes, as smoking was originally seen as a man’s habit. They employed female models walk around on a national event day smoking so to catch the media’s attention. It worked! , with a massive uptake in female smokers from that day forth!

The ethnography interviews and influences are available on the provided DVD. My research goes beyond what I would call an ethnographic study because of the wide audience I will be trying to capture with my product. What I have deduced while observing the public as a whole is that younger people are more likely to brandish logos and slogan on their clothes that older people; particularly those under 30. This may be because people become more conservative and aware of the attention drawn by large logos or slogans. I also found that males were significantly more likely to wear garments displaying large logos and slogans than females; although males were by no means alone and this may simply have been down to current clothes trends. This could also be because males are keener to stand out or less inhibited about attracting attention than ladies while in public; at least unwanted attention.


I looked at peoples usage of ubiquitous computer products which they carry with them, and how this related to their opinion of my product; secondly their attitudes towards freedom of speech. My interviews unveiled some common thoughts among my interviewees including a generally positive response to my product which I was very pleased about. Not everyone felt that they would wear the product but there was a general consensus that it was a good idea and that they could perceive people wearing it. I found those of a more extrovert personality and those with more mobile digital devices were more enthusiastic and more likely to wear the clothing. Making the products slogan user defined was a popular idea because it allows personalisation. More interviewees saw the advantage of the brighter display since the whole idea is to raise awareness; the fact that not everyone is so brave and there may be a market for a more subtle message was brought up.

The most given opinion given for the general public’s lack of interest in demonstrations was laziness, which could be easily bypassed by wearing this type of clothing which requires little effort.



I aim to use bright LEDs as Outputs with the possibility of using super bright ones (www.superbrightleds.com), although their energy consumption may make them impractical. The brighter they are the more visible they will be during daylight. The product can only work where there is a high contrast situation between light and dark so if I choose to use light dependent input sensors.



Choosing the input transducer type is probably the most difficult part. The basic idea is to have an equal amount of input sensors and output LEDs, then map the input data to the outputs. An alternative to this approach would be to capture a simple image outline using a low resolution infra red camera, and then reduce the resolution to a value where that it could then be mapped to an array of LEDs creating a representation of the image. A closer look at different sensors capabilities has been organized into the table below.

To create an array of sensors and output transducers for my project using a minimal amount of pins, my research has led me to the following schematics which represent a structure known as Row column scanning. Other methods such as shift registers, latches, or multiplexers may be used in combination, and will be investigated during the prototyping stage of my product development.


Certain problems remain with implementing the design onto a wearable top. Clothing deforms usually when worn which could interfere with capturing and displaying the desired the silhouette accurately. To get around this, I would make the area on the front and back of the jacket used for capturing and displaying data reasonably inflexible, and made of a material which bounces back to its original shape if deformed. The front off a jacket will zip up one side on the front as illustrated below, rather than through the traditional centre position. In artificial light situations there may be multiple light sources leading to ineffective shadows being produced by people trying to interact with the display. This is an argument for using an infra red camera which could detect heat rather than light also avoiding the problem of displaying inanimate objects (unless they emit heat). I currently don't have the technical knowledge to propose the use of an infra red camera, but it will be a route I look at in more detail during prototyping. Originally I thought that my product text display should be completely open to the user, but I then thought about its misused. You do not want people going around with swear words lit up in neon, or, as suggested by my interviewees, with campaigns which may be highly offensive to some groups. This could undermine the product and lead to the opposite effect to that which the product i designed to achieve. To combat this problem I could have a wide selection of effective slogans which the user could choose from. Pr oxemics is an issue as others have to be close enough to the wearer to cast a shadow. You are in fact invited people into your personal space by wearing the technology which is projecting the unknown participants (because of the polar positioning of input and output transducers) outline.