Electric Skin

Sensors that are usually used for medical purposes are now becoming a work of art. A silk garment printed with LEDs using Elumin8 technology that turns the intimate breath of the wearer into pulses of light was exhibited at the Back Gallery Project in Vancouver, Canada.

 

According to multimedia artist, Suzi Webster the inhalation and exhalation of the wearer activates a breath sensor that dims and brightens the printed LED of the garment. The wearer is engaged in an altered state of perception, bathed in the electric aqua light.

 

Electric Skin is a hybrid object/performance that questions divisions between 'subject/object' 'inner/outer' and 'mind/body' and creates an experience of that liminal space that is neither inside nor outside, but is a third space in-between.

 

The wearer is connected to the national grid by an umbilical cord/power cable, and while this creates a seductive light, it also creates a frisson of danger and unease.

 

Mostly this data is used for medical purposes, but as an artist Suzi Webster transforms this private bio information into a metaphoric, wearable display of color, light, sound or vibration.

 

Webster is interested in ways that technologies impact and shape our experiences of being human. Her wearables are hybrid works that are responsive and dynamic; that explore intersections between sculpture and performance, fashion and computing, the body and its context, public and private in a critical way.

 

For more attend Printed Electronics Europe 2008.