dust – Bananaleow

1 April, 2020

Week 11 Wearable Tech Updates

Last week, I was drawing this to collect my thoughts and it helped me figure out the logistics of my tech

Last week’s electronics setup:

Last week’s progress:

I managed to complete the jumpsuit with help from Galina for the zippers and connecting the 2 pieces together!

Galina also taught me how to sew button holes which was very fun!!

What’s left for the jump suit is for me to hand sew the buttons, to create button holes for the sleeves, to add front pockets, and belt holding thing. But that’s not my priority now.

This week, I’m working on the cape and armour pieces.

This Week’s Progress: (incomplete as theres more days this week to work on this!)

I was playing with the materials to create the look of desert beetles, but it failed so I will just stick to the pvc without material alterations.

putting pins before heating it to create round bumps but it ended up folding

only heating the PVC creates this effect

Cutting and putting things together: I was experimenting with the materials and turns out its more flimsy than I previously thought. It’s also much thinner than I thought so it doesn’t look as good if it’s single layered. Sewing 2 pieces together makes it look better, which means now I need 2x the amount of PVC ($$$$$$$!!!!!!) but at least I have 1m left of the pink piece which I’m not gonna use as pink contrasts too much with my garment. I’m switching to green instead.

What was previously the neck piece was tested on the shoulder to see how it looks like as a shoulder piece.

I was having a hard time trying to figure out which cloth to use. Using both cloth together with the armour will make the whole look very weird. Too much is going on. Using only 1 cloth and the armour works, but I need to decide which to remove. In the end, I removed the metallic mesh cloth.

The final decision (except the pink parts will now be green)\

I also started sewing the cape piece to make it more frilly / have pleats. So yeah. (no pics tho)

So in conclusion, this week was more of a start of the next phase, and I am more or less confirmed for the entire design and I’m happy with it. I’m gonna continue the cape till I’m happy with it then I’ll start with the armour which is gonna be a pain 🙁 and I need to go buy the PVC also. Hopefully finish this by week 12 end so I can finish the electronics and have time to finish up the small details. And also work with Shah with the fashion runway!!! AHHHH!!!

Oh and also Mayle was working on a PVC vest and I took a pic of the pattern so I can tweak it (thanks Mayle!!!)

it’s actually just a pants pattern but if you drape it over the shoulder it becomes some kind of vest which looks like my chest armour!

My sketch of how I think it will look like:

Ok out of topic but I think what helped me a lot was to imagine my concept as an Overwatch character. Anyway, here’s an updated concept:

Concept: nomad from a future dystopia city which is covered in dust from sandstorm due to desertification and global warming. Cyberpunk elements (iridescent armour + tech) to create a sense of urban-ness (because he’s still from a city) and sandy garment to blend with the desert city. A bit of inspiration from beetles also (in terms of their colour and appearance)

ALSO… I’m thinking what if the controller on my belt can control which city to look at. And because different cities have different temperatures and pollution levels, the values will cause the garment to react to it. Hmmm…

16 February, 2020

Material Research, Updates to concept & Moodboard

I’ve read up on materials to wear on hot and dry weather, which is like the desert. Cotton, Linen and Rayon works well for my concept. Polyester is also a possible choice (conceptually) as it is breathable, although not recommended for “summer weather”.

Looking into nomad dressing, I was also curious why they wear layers and layers of fabric. Turns out, they do this to prevent water-loss. They use light fabric like cotton, that are lighter in colour so as to reflect the sun rays. The layers help them to keep moisture to their body, slowing down the rate of evaporation. Also, covering the body as much as they can helps a lot in keeping cool.

For concept…

I need to type to think, so let me just write freely about my ideas.

New narrative to justify my new style:

In the future, with desertification, cities and citizens adapt. Citizens now dress to protect themselves from the elements while in the city. This makes it necessary for them to have lighting on themselves to self-express and to also allow themselves to be seen. Reflective and holographic clothings makes people stand out more. The need for sensors to help them sense their environment is important as they have to take shelter if it gets too hot or too dusty. There is a need to collect water from the dry air, so some have adaptations that collects moisture from the air as they move. ( https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/could-desert-beetle-help-humans-harvest-water-thin-air )

I need to start sketching now cos I keep changing my idea. But at least I’m happy that I’m moving away from the clunky sci-fi ripoff I’ve been doing. I’m so glad that we did the biomimicry exercise!

So here’s my moodboard, again. Updated. Finalised. I’m not gonna update anymore or else I’ll be super stuck.

Jumpsuit — The idea is to have a full-body cover that can protect one from the elements. It has to be light and airy. I’ll wire it up with conductive thread to connect the different pieces together. I’m also making it greyscale so I can focus on the material rather than the colours.

The reason why I want to create different pieces is because I always thought about the feasibility with wearable electronics. If I can’t wash my clothes, then what’s the point of wearing them? Also, I want to keep this jumpsuit after the mod so I can use it hehehehehe so yep.

The respirator will be an organic armour-like piece made with plastic-like material (probably). The reason for plastic is for it to be clean as it’s attached to a mask.

The envirosensor wasn’t much looked into previously as I thought it was going to be just an armguard thing. But I’m very inspired by the Warframe character armour on the left and thought about beetles (and also Golden Experience from JoJo :P). I kept looking and though that it will go well with the airbag looking thing, which I plan on using for the interface.

The illuminator will now be more organic and flowy. Kinda origami-like also. I want to make it blend well with the garment, not stand out too much. It should look like it’s part of the garment.

The armour is a last-minute add-on, which I think I won’t have time to do, but Ill still put it here. It’s basically a geometric, plated outer covering for the jumpsuit. Was thinking the tech for this will be for temperature : if it’s too warm, it will open up. But it’s too much to handle for me so I’ll probably not touch it.

I was previously confused with this. I wanted my garment to have holographic-like properties, but I don’t know how to apply them. After looking at beetles, I realised their wings look like this material. So I think I will have this material as a cape. I will also try to apply this biomimicry x tech idea where you can add bumps to the surface of a hydrophobic material, and then coat the tip with a hydrophilic material to make it able to collect dew from fog. This works for my desert concept as people need water.

OKAY. So for now, enough with research. I have enough materials to justify my project, and I need to spend more time moving forward. Tomorrow and the next few days, I’ll go out to look at materials and prototype. I’ll also sketch more throughout the days.

AH UPDATE: ACTUALLY MAY NEED TO THINK ABOUT HAT AND EYEWEAR BUT SEE HOW……… :’)

Sources:

Beetles:

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/apr/10/environmental-engineering-biomimicry-tapping-into-nature-business-water-soil-drought

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/could-desert-beetle-help-humans-harvest-water-thin-air

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160224150731.htm

https://www.desertmuseum.org/books/nhsd_beetles.php

https://permaculturenews.org/2017/02/28/harvesting-water-inspired-darkling-beetle/

Collecting fog:

https://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/18/africa/fog-catchers-morocco/index.html

https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/8/17441496/fog-harvesting-water-scarcity-environment-crisis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_collection