<wearables on Bboy dancers from Last For One, taken by HCI staff – I was in the back stage>

Body Graffiti is a wearable technology research project at WCU Digital Media Public Art Research Center at Hongik U. (in collaboration with Dan Mikesell, Hyuns Hong and Last For One, Jan 2010)

copyright 2010, Hongik U. Younghui Kim

For the second part of the event, as a researcher of the Hongik University WCU Digital Media Public Art Research Center, I’ve decided to combine HCI and WCU research together.  One of our visiting professors, Dan Mikesell will have a short talk and our on going research project, ‘Body Graffiti‘ with a world champion B-boy group, ‘Last4One‘ It was three years ago when I coincidently met a producer of a B-boy musical within a month I moved in Seoul.  When I explain to him that I make wearable art and explained it as a form of media art, he was interested in interactive performance.  So I’ve suggested the exact project as of the today’s ‘Body Graffiti’ to him but, I think it was too early for Korean contemporary art scene to *get* wearable technology stuff at that time or perhaps, I needed to talk directly to the director of the B-boy team.

Body Graffiti CPB v. 1.0, ©2010, Hongik U.

As parallel to developing wearable technology research with Dan, I’ve contacted that Producer guy and this time, explained my project with a sketch.  He got very interested and promised to introduce me to that B-boy team and he did.  ’Last for One’ crew are truly amazing and their manager and director guys are both very genuine and loves to experiment with technology.  Street art fits truly into public art.  We both felt that this is just the beginning of the collaboration.  We had our first testing session with two Bboy dancers few days ago at our lab and it was pretty interesting.

first testing with rough circuits pinned on their clothing, Jan 2010

Thanks to great help from our RA students(Kyungmi, Jungsu + Hyuns Hong(who is one of my former students) we’ve managed to make multiple prototypes working and Hyuns finished the CPB drawing v.1. based on trials of prototypes.  Software testing is done and we can easily process graphics we like to draw.  The major problem to solve now is the batteries b/c 9V battery is too bulky and smaller ones are very often too weak to turn on blinking 32 LEDs at once.  But, I think we found some possible solutions today.

It’s been many long days as I woke up and went straight to the research lab then came back home at midnight to sleep & repeat that.  We only got 10 days to produce all the final wearable devices of ‘Body Graffiti’ so, it looks like my life would be in that fashion for a while.  Non-stop activities of sewing, soldering and programming.

The most important thing is the fact that I’ve been dreaming of making this wearable + Bboy dance performance since 3 years ago and now, it’s becoming a reality and printed event that will take a place at HCI 2010, Korean ski resort, Phoenix Park.

Here is the link of the event (sorry the site is in Korean) >>

I plan to post more detail description of ‘Body Graffiti’ with the photo images after the performance.  Oh, did I mention that I will be MC – ing for the special event?  Not sure how it will go.

- Younghui

The article link is here  >>

Sorry, it’s in Korean and the title is a bit too aggressive in my taste.  Also, it has translated NYU wrongly – it probably doesn’t matter here in Korea but, most of the contents of articles – I remember saying that.

more information regarding this issue of Leonardo Journal  - http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/leon/42/2

Interactive fashion lets costumers wear devices on their sleeves

Does this computer come in a Size 6?

An article written by Mark Guarino has a couple of quotes from an interview with Younghui Kim, an wearable media artist who has been working on fashion technology projects since 2003.   She was staying in LES, New York working on her various projects when she was interviewed over the phone late January.

(…)

Having designers rethink sewing as coding takes extreme patience and a willingness to collaborate, says Younghui Kim, a self-described “interactive wearable media artist” in New York who teaches at Hongik University in Korea.

Ms. Kim is a rarity in the fashion world: She became interested in design only after working for years in telecommunications. Staring at computer screens all day created “a really strong need to design something [she] could feel or touch.”

“So I started picking up sewing machines and fabrics, and I designed like a software engineer,” she says. At the time, around 2002, it was frustrating for her to see designers make interactive clothing that was functional, rather than beautiful or comfortable.

She created “HearWear,” a series of couture skirts laden with sensors that trigger illuminating wires depending on how loud the area is. The skirt becomes “a city ear painting,” she says.

(…)

This is a good article about where fashion technology is now and where it is heading and Here is the link if you like to read the full article at The Christian Science Monitor >>>

and ABC News >>>

Stir It On! Prototype v.1.0 inactive on the floor, back

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HearWear is an electronic wearable, which is not only a fashion apparel but also reacts to environmental sound with moving light patterns.

It’s not OK to copy any images or text from this site for commercial press or article without written consent from the author.  However, you can link the site to non-commercial blog sites.