The Final Max Patch

My Final Max Patch had a total of 5 videos and a grab component working through the web cam; I had a video for each of Love, Joy, Sadness, Fear and Anger leaving only Surprise.

For each of the movies I used Max MSP to start the appropriate movie and generate effects suitable for the emotion. I used the cross-fade function in most instances to show the to and fro effect emotions have on us, the cross-fade between the real video or the 'reality' and the applied effect symbolises the way we get caught up in emotions and lose sight of what the reality is.

The one emotion that I did a bit differently was Surprise, I saw surprise less as an emotion of its own than a flicker between emotions before settling on one. For this reason I didn't give it a video of it's own but instead cross-faded each emotion and combined this with feed from a live web cam so that the wearers face would be shown along with constant flash of emotions.

I like my finished product I think it symbolises each of the emotions well and makes use of a number of effects to good use. However I feel that there might have been some better techniques I could have used to tidy up my patch, when handling so many movies the patch got very large with many overlapping patch cords making it hard to visually see what has been connected to what, this could potentially cause some issues if something is not working as you think it should it would be hard to find where it went wrong.

The Demonstration

Just about the cheesiest video EVER! However I do think that this video gets the functionality of my garment across better than still images.

A Finished Garment

This shows the belt and the track being worn.



This is my finished design, the skirt is worn over a slip or another garment; instead of forming a full outfit it works as an accessory or embellishment to allow the wearable continued adaptability throughout the day letting them reveal or hide their feelings.

Coming Together

Below this is the belt I have fashioned so that the rail can be worn by the user while still allowing the panels to spin freely. I have made it in a corset style with lacing down both sides so it can be adapted to fit a multitude of people, it has 2 mounts on both front and back so that the rail can attach securely and sit around the wearers waist. The pocket on the inside houses the keyboard hack close to the body so it doesn't get damaged, the USB cable comes from this point to plug in to a computer to play the accompanying video footage. Wires for the switches feed through the mounts and run around the inside of the rail.



The below photo shows the belt when fitted to the track, the runners on the outside of the track allow the panels to attach and rotate. I've fitted a series of reed switches around the track; reed switches are operated when a magnet is passed over them drawing two pieces of metal together and closing the circuit. I have drilled holes in 6 equally spaced places around the track, the reed switches sit on the inside of these, on the outside a ribbon holds the panels at equal spacing and also carries a magnet that when the skirt is spun activates the correct switch for whichever emotion is displayed at the front.



This below photo is a reed switch fitted on the inside ridge of the track, before the drilling of the holes.

First Steps

After my research I wanted to build a garment that was changeable in appearance as well as having a screen output. My solution is a skirt that the design on the front can be changed dependent on mood. I will incorporate my keyboard hack into my garment so I can play a different movie depending on which panel is at the front at the time.

I have gone for a design that goes outside the realm of usual clothing materials. I have a series of rigid panels that symbolise the 6 major emotions surprise, sadness, love, fear, fear and joy (from left to right in the below photo.)



To allow the panels at the front to be changed at will I had to devise a way to rotate the panels at will. To do this I bent a flexible curtain rail into a circle, the runners on rail will attach the panels to the track while the wall mounts will join the track to a belt to allow it to be worn.

This is really cool! This car uses futuristic material and outside the box thinking to create a car that morphs. I really like the way that they have stepped away from all traditional thinking of what a cars shell should look like and instead looked at it in a 'what's possible' mindset.

With my garment I also want to address the issue of what is considered as fashion and explore unusual structures and materials for interesting adaptable garments.