While The Unseen dabbles in various things, I chose the key work based on what I believed 1) was related to fashion, and only fashion, design, 2) had the potential to be “normalised” as an integral part of design, and 3) had some form of official recognition.

Thus, the Eighthsense collection.

• Colour and pattern changing ceramic wearable sculpture
• Collaboration with Holition and Innovate UK
  • Holition is a company which collaborates with companies dabbling in upcoming technologies
  • Innovate UK is a government-associated board which supports innovation in technology
    • Interestingly, The Unseen is its only fashion technology awardee so far. “When I applied for the award, it was the first one I had seen for fashion technology.” (Bowker, 2015)
• Manifesting the wearer’s aura through colour changes and pattern shifts
  • Through recording the generated electromagnetic energy (human magnetism and “electroencephalogram”)
  • Which thus gives insight into the emotional state of the wearer
  • e.g. Turns red for anger, blue for serenity
• Supported by the British Fashion Council
  • Received an award from Innovation UK’s Technology Strategy Board

Personally, I feel that this has the potential to be “normalised”, where it seems fairly plausible to have fashion designs which deal with reflecting the wearer or the wearer’s surroundings. While technology and fashion have already converged, such as with UNIQLO’s advanced fibers to absorb moisture or retain heat, interactive technology is much newer, from the earliest renditions in the 1980s, to The Unseen, of the 2000s.

Now, to hypermedia.

The key words of hypermedia might be “non-linearity” and “multimedia”. In essence, this means:

1. Information is organised as per how the human brain does, as opposed to how a machine might organise information
   • Feelings are organised as anger {fury, rage, irritation} and sadness {melancholy, despair} rather than alphabetically
2. This information can take many forms, perhaps simultaneously as well
   • Rather than just audio or text, the use of both simultaneously. May also include movement and interactivity, where the dynamic, shifting form is considered as multimedia

The link is perhaps not as clear as for interactivity, but this work loosely relates to hypermedia, where the consequent colours and patterns are grouped by types than ordered lists (although this may be because the electromagnetic waves are also similar within each set of feelings). Of course, it falls under multimedia: while it relies on visual and ignores things like texture or sound, the interactivity makes it such that there is movement, and as such, it serves as an “animation” of sorts.

• Announcements on GOV.UK. (link).
• Arthur, R. (2015). Material Science Hits Selfridges With The Unseen’s Color – Change Accessories Line. For Forbes. (link).
• Chung, B. (2015). Now You Can Wear Your Aura on Your Sleeve. For VICE. (link).
• THEUNSEEN EighthSense. On Holition. (link).
• The Unseen Essence. (link).
• Same featured image again ha