In your blog, post about the species in nature that inspired you, along with any additional sources of inspiration. Explain the two stages of the physical transformation you chose and how this reflected in your project. Include a short video performing with your wearable, where we clearly see how it transforms from one stage to another. Finally, discuss the concept of your wearable and how it relates to your understanding of identity and self-expression through clothing. Reflect on how your idea connects with themes from the documentary Paris is Burning or the insights you gained from last week’s assigned readings.
🐟 Pufferfish 🐟
Inspired by pufferfish’s inflation mechanism - they can rapidly inflate their bodies by swallowing water (or air) into a specialized elastic stomach when danger appears (e.g., they meet their predators). By quickly opening their mouths to inflate their bodies, they make themselves too big to swallow. After danger passes, the pufferfish slowly releases the water or air through its mouth and gill openings and returns to normal.
My project mainly adapts this feature of inflation and deflation of pufferfish. When I run away, the “artificial stomach” on my back will inflate, and I can also use this half-transparent material to cover my face and hide myself from the outside. When I want to come out, I can release the air kept in this “artificial stomach” and it will become flat again.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1diiJsMVXHs0yItxrhPPSCYaX94pJcA9T/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1diiJsMVXHs0yItxrhPPSCYaX94pJcA9T/view?usp=sharing
This piece of wearable is inspired by the pufferfish’s survival skill. But when it applies to human body, my design purpose is that, when people don’t feel so good, and they don’t want others to see their expressions, they can walk away a few steps and use the wearable full of air to cover themselves. This conveys the message that they need their own spaces for a moment. Other people can’t see you clearly, and you can’t see the outside either, in this wearable. It creates an isolation manually by using a very light piece of material (plastic bags + air), and a safe space for people to escape from the real world for a moment.
In Wearable Technologies: Between Fashion, Art, Performance, and Science, a lot of the example garments listed are about how to utilize technology and certain mechanisms to help people “say” something without speaking it out in social occasions. And my project I is also about making a piece to help us convey the message that we sometimes don’t want to say it out, but hope that people can understand before we have to explain. When I don’t feel so comfortable and don’t want people to see my expressions on my face, I always hope that I could do teleportation to go to another space and calm down for some time. By having this piece of wearable, I could hide my weakness and negative emotions that I don’t want to convey to my loved ones inside the semi-transparent bag.