FINALIST 
Category : GENERAL
By Behnaz Farahi (United States)
What if our garments could recognize and respond to the gaze of others? What if you can “feel” even the most subtle aspect of our social interaction such as someone’s gaze on your body? Caress of the Gaze is an interactive 3D-printed wearable, which can detect other people’s gaze and respond accordingly with life-like behavior.
Our skin is constantly in motion. It expands, contracts and changes its shape based on various internal and external stimuli including not only temperature and moisture but also feelings such as fear, excitement and anger. Inspired by the involuntary action of biological skin, what if our clothing could behave as an artificial skin capable of changing its shape and operating as an interface with the world?
Therefore, by implementing 3D Printing, SMA actuators and gaze tracking technologies this project has served as a provocation on encouraging us to rethink both the production of the garment and also the way that we interact with the world around us. This project addresses the emerging field of shape-changing structures and interactive systems that bridge the worlds of design, art, technology and robotics.
http://www.behnazfarahi.com/caress-of-the-gaze/
The project offers a vision of the future by exploring the possibility of a second skin fabricated using multi-material 3D printing.
It engages with a series of issues. Firstly, it demonstrates how the very latest and most advanced 3D printing technologies might contribute to the realm of fashion, by exploring the tectonic properties of the materials used with Objet500 Connex 3D printers. This technology allows the fabrication of composite materials with varying flexibilities, densities, and can combine materials in several ways with different material properties deposited in a single print run.
Secondly, it explores the potential of an actuation system, which is assembled as a form of muscle system using Shape Memory Alloy actuators (SMA) that informs the motion of the skin.
Thirdly, it investigates how our clothing could interact with other people as a primary interface using vision- based eye-gaze tracking technologies.
Just as our skin can respond to various internal and external stimuli, so too our outfits can now do the same and also respond to various social issues such as intimacy, privacy, gender and identity.
Caress of the Gaze from Pier 9 on Vimeo.
Natalia Arguello
Natalia Arguello
A beautiful blend of Design, Art, and Tech! Responsive technologies and objects have never been explored in such a compelling and seductive way. Bravo!
