“The Culture” Series
"The Culture" series is a collaboration between media artist Afroditi Psarra and architect Dafni Papadopoulou that aims to combine electronic handicrafts with parametric design and digital fabrication to create hybrid wearable interfaces.
“The Culture” series is inspired by the Space Operas of British science fiction writer Iain M. Banks and his eclectic imagery of The Culture - a future civilization of humans that live dependent on sophisticated machines in a world where everything is sentient.
The garment can be perceived as a hybrid organism, responsive to the user's vital functions -heartbeat - through subtle movements on the sleeves that behave as an augmented animalistic skin that breaths in and out.
The sleeves of the garment are designed in Rhino and Grasshopper and have been laser-cut on leather and then assembled by hand in complex structures. The garment’s circuit has an embedded Arduino microcontroller and lightweight actuators created using muscle wire, kapton film, copper tape, and PVC strips (the updated dress version uses neoprene and copper conductive fabric as the base of the actuator incorporated in the interior of the leather structure), as well as a 3d printed earring with an embedded pulse sensor.
Handmade muscle wire actuator with Flexinol shaped memory alloy and kapton tape.
Two muscle wire actuators embedded into the leather sleeve and actuated by an Arduino micro controller.
“The Culture” Series was developed during the Maker-In-Residence program at WeMake Makerspace in Milan, Italy on February 2015 and was curated by Zoe Romano.
The shirt sleeves and the dress patterns have been created with the valuable help of fashion designer Sara Savian.
Sleeve's design process
Grasshopper definition
For a complete documentation of the project visit: https://github.com/afrdt/-The-Culture-Series
Exhibitions
2016-17
Alchemists of Art and Science, Ars Electronica Center Linz, Austria. Curated by Kristina Maurer.
2016
Human Factor - Endless Prototyping, organised by Ars Electronica at DRIVE - Volkswagen Group Forum in Berlin, Germany. Curated by Martin Honzik.
Citations
Stocker, Gerfried & Hirsch, Andreas. 2017. The Practice of Art & Science. The European Digital Art and Science Network. Ars Electronica Center Linz. ISBN 978-3-7757-4341-9
Press
“Afroditi Psarra - The Academic of Art with the Scientific Vision.” Ellines.com, ellines.com, 9 Aug. 2020, www.ellines.com/en/achievements/44402-the-academic-of-art-with-the-scientific-vision/
Prakash, Vikram. “23: Wearable Technology, Critical Thinking and Our Digital Future with Afroditi Psarra.” ARCHITECTURE TALK, ARCHITECTURE TALK, 21 June 2018, www.architecturetalk.org/home/23
Fontana, Federica. “Sensing the Invisible. Interview with Afroditi Psarra. Digicult: Digital Art, Design and Culture.” Digicult, Digicult, 7 Apr. 2018, digicult.it/design/sensing-invisible-interview-afroditi-psarra/