Interactive, responsive garments have long been a pet fascination in the fashion industry (British designer Hussein Chalayan comes to mind). Yet I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this.
Created by architect and interaction designer Behnaz Farahi, this 3D-printed top detects someone looking at you and visibly responds. Titled “Caress of the Gaze,” the project was built as part of an artist-in-residence program.
Videos by VICE
A camera in the (shirt? cape? armor?) detects not only the viewer’s line of sight, but makes guesses at their age and gender as well. Quill-like structures on the garment flex and ripple in response. It’s like a new kind of mating ritual.
Farahi used a Stratasys Objet Connex500 printer to make the garment, because according to her it “allows the fabrication of composite materials with varying flexibilities [and] densities, and can combine materials in several ways with different material properties deposited in a single print run.” However, little other information is available on how the cape was made, though Farahi’s website says more details are forthcoming.
Now, if only we had wearables that could signal our disinterest.
(via prostheticknowledge on tumblr)