ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING
a couple years ago i worked on two projects started in October 2002, Inside/Outside, and Urban Chameleon, both of which were presented in 2003 at different venues. (Inside/Outside at Ubicomp 2003, e-culture fair 2003, FEED 2004, and ISEA 2004 - Urban Chameleon at the Digital Hub 2003) The projects look at personally invested urban environmental monitoring.
Inside/Outside bags by Katherine Moriwaki - the bag on the left monitors air quality. the bag on the right monitors environmental noise.
With Inside/Outside i was interested in using a handbag as both a metaphoric and literal container for internal and external information. in addition to reflecting environmental data on the surface of the bag, like a mirror the bag stores a data diary of environmental exposure, creating a necessarily incomplete mapping of the city. each bag is equipped with ad-hoc peer-to-peer connectivity, allowing co-located individuals to swap data. there are currently two bags. one monitors ambient air quality, the other monitors environmental noise. the last bag of the set (which i never made) is supposed to monitor light levels, which are among the three environmental irritants identified by transportation researchers that contribute to the qualitative experience of commuting.
Urban Chameleon is a set of skirts which react to the environment along three themes of social and urban interconnection. Touch changes visual properties when touched. Speak, reacts to urban sound by activating motos which cause the skirt to tremble, and Breathe responds to urban air quality.
Both projects used the context of the city pedestrian and the daily commute as the backdrop for the work, as well as the daily stresses resulting from exposure to environmental irritants over the course of the day.
Urban Chameleon by Fionnuala Conway and Katherine Moriwaki
on a related note, there are a couple of recent projects which monitor and visualize the environment as a wearable fashion accessory:
hearwear by younghui kim & milena iossifova
reach in, by Play Research
Hearwear is a skirt that monitors “urban noise”, visualizing the data as light patterns with embedded LEDs and EL wire. Hearwear was just completed in time for exhibition at Siggraph 2004.
reach in is a handbag which serves as a prototype for a system which would allow people to monitor and visualize environmental data using different sensors. the current prototype monitors sound and illuminates EL paper sandwiched between textile layers. The “reach in” bag was just completed in time for exhibition at ISEA 2004